nrobins3

1. Get some help for your depression. Your school should have free counseling. 2. Don't quit the degree. I HATED clinical. It's very different when you're on your own. And if you get out there and still hate it, there are so many options. Work for an insurance company. Go to law school and concentrate on the medical field from a legal standpoint instead. Get your NP and work outpatient. Get into education or research instead of direct patient care. You've already come so far and it's a valuable degree, you don't have to use it to be a bedside nurse!

I was asked this questions during my NP interview, "how would you differentiate between an NP, PA, and MD?" My answer that she seemed to like was, PAs and MDs follow the medical model in their studies and practice, and NPs follow the nursing model. To put it very generally, PAs and MDs treat a problem or disease, and an NP treats a person with a problem or a disease. Continue your studies and see where your interests and inherit skills are, the roles are completely different and you should quickly figure out which is for you.

I'm from a state that doesn't allow students to do blood draws or IVs. I learned blood draws when I got a job as a tech in an ED at a hospital that had fired all its phlebotomist and trained their techs to save money. I've been an RN on a cardiac floor for three months and I've been learning on the job. Luckily most of the nurses are awesome and bring me and other new grads in to try whenever they have one. I've done a pretty lot of them for only three months but I'm also one of those people who loves doing the procedural stuff like that so I always offer to try. Just hide that your nervous and jump in like you've been doing it for years! If you miss, you'll get the next one :)