michaelaellie

Thanks guys! I am excited for the 5 k although I guess I can't run in it now :/ I'm eager to find other places to volunteer! There's a music festival coming to my city (NYC) that will give free passes to volunteers I'd obv still do it just to be a good person too but I mean if they're offering...

At this time, I am a new RN on a step down unit in a hospital, fresh off orientation. A local 5k is being planned and the organizer mentioned to me that they are looking for volunteers for their first aid tent. I feel that given my experience, I wouldn't be too useful with the types of injuries people would come in with. I would probably just tell everyone to put ice on it 😬... Does anyone have any recommendations of classes I could take to be a certified *whatever* nurse? I don't even know what it would be called. Also, is there anything I would need to obtain legally to help out? Is it enough to just have my RN? I don't want to jeopardize myself or the organizers of the event. It's not until summer btw so I have time. Thanks!

I am so beyond stoked to see all positive comments on this thread. It's really touching and rare to be in an online community that has no negativity. All the suggestions are unique and amazing and make me feel excited to be a nurse. I'll post in a few weeks if anyone is curious what happens to my sister lol. I can tell you for certain I won't be going and I am def going to steer clear of things that will get me in trouble. Gotta keep that license!

Thanks everyone for your really thoughtful responses! I am very touched that every one of you responded positively and encouraged me. I'm overwhelmed by all of these suggestions and I'm feeling very excited about my future as a nurse. I knew I probably shouldn't get arrested, but I did really need to hearsomeone else telling me it. So thanks for that too.

Hi everyone! I'm currently a brand new nurse on a busy step down unit and I'm having some thoughts that this area of nursing is not the right fit for me. I would love input from similar people who have ever felt the same way, and have made a career in nursing doing something more unconventional. This might get political but please don't comment trying to start a fight with me over Donald Trump or something. That's not why we're here. About me- I became a nurse because I want to help people. I'm pretty socially liberal and feel passionate about the environment, the disenfranchised, and pretty much any other social injustice. I used to be a waitress which I looooved and feel very nostalgic for those days. It never gave me stress, even on the busiest Saturday night. I felt so free spirited. I feel like the culture in a hospital is so different, because I'm CONSTANTLY on edge and my life outside work feels very different. Here is what I mean: my sister is a waitress and very much like me. She is going to go out to Standing Rock to protest the pipeline for a week next month. Yes people there are getting arrested, and as a waitress, she is ok with that sacrifice for her. I want to go, but I definitely can't. As an RN, I cannot IMAGINE what would happen if I got arrested protesting something. Would I be fired? Would I ruin my chances of ever being hired again? Would I lose my license? It feels like these two worlds just don't mix. Also, I work on a unit with a lot of people who have different beliefs from me, especially my preceptor. I have a feeling many nurses tend to be conservative? (Anyone else get that feeling? Its something I've noticed back in nursing school) I can surely tolerate different points of view from my own and keep quiet about my beliefs in the workplace, but I was hoping to have more in common with my coworkers. I'm not starting this thread to discuss politics with anyone. I'm looking to see if any nurses out there were like me and made careers in nursing fit with a more liberal lifestyle. Are there any jobs out there where I can be a nurse AND an activist? Have any nurses gotten jobs with organizations that do humanitarian efforts? BTW I don't mind a decrease in pay. I also plan to stay in the hospital setting for at least 2 years to get my well-rounded med surge experience before focusing on any specialty. Also, I live in NYC if anyone thinks of specific jobs. ALSO (sorry for so many alsos), I do like working at the bedside and interacting with patients, so I'm not trying to be like some person at a desk or anything. Does anyone have a clue where I might fit in? Thanks!!!

I volunteered in a rehab hospital for recreation therapy which was transporting patients to the lobby for live entertainment on weekends and giving out snacks. I also volunteered on a med surge floor and SICU where I went and basically wiped everything down with antiseptic wipes twice and stared at the ceiling for 6 hours a week. I did both before starting nursing school and to be honest, both had nothing to do with healthcare and the latter seemed like i was doing nothing important at all. I agree with carolinapooh to find something you're enthusiastic about! If you're set on devoting x number of hours to something per week, make it enjoyable and something that makes a difference. The hospital volunteering was BS, I wish I tried an animal shelter or something. Also, try to find a place where you'll make good connections so you can use them as a reference. Don't be like me and spend 2 years volunteering in a place where people don't notice whether you're there or not.

Maybe I really lucked out here, but I am an RN with no debt. I obtained my RN at community college (about $1.5k per semester) while working as a PCA in a hospital. Thankfully, my experience as a PCA, waitress, and a fortuitous 'connection' at a magnet status hospital is allowing me to start work as an RN with my online RN to BSN tuition fully reimbursed. Yay for no debt!!! It can be done! Here's a larger issue I see with your predicament. Being a PCA, I bathed patients all day err day and let me tell you I know a thing or two about pee. Being a nurse, I'm still going to have to do bathes and change diapers if I'm doing my job right. If this is a deal breaker for you, becoming a nurse will be hard. If it makes you feel any better though, nobody actually likes working with pee. It's not like all nurses just have a calling that they love bathing people and changing diapers and you are the exception. It's just something that comes with the job. It'd be easy to overcome with the right attitude and then somewhere down the line, maybe you'll find a specialty where you don't deal with it as much. Like in the ER?

Thanks so much for the reassurance! I work in an acute care hospital in a suburb outside NYC. I haven't officially been offered a job, but my nursing supervisor says things like "you're going to apply here once you get your RN right? It's good that you're a float because you'll get your pick of any floor!" so I'd assume I can try to score a job on any of the med-surg floors or the telemetry floor. Some PCAs tell me to go to the city because those are better hospitals but I don't think the job market is that great.

I've just finished nursing school (worst 2 years of my life omg) and I'm taking the NCLEX in about a month. I'm looking to when I start working as a nurse and I'm worried. I've been working part time as a PCA at the hospital nearby for the past 8 months and I really hate it. I feel like a horrible person, but something inside me dies whenever I think about the fact I need to go to work. I feel lonely and stressed when I'm there. I'm hoping this is in part due to the fact that I float and I only work part time, so I have no real friends at work. When I clock in in the morning, I'm supposed to see what unit I'm assigned to, but it's usually not entered in the system, so I wait on hold at 6:30 to find out where I'm supposed to go. Once I show up to the unit, I'm lucky if anyone working remembers me and they tell me if I'm on the floor or a 1:1 and then I proceed to spend 8 hours by myself, not quite sure what I'm doing (every unit is different and my training was very general and abbreviated). All throughout college and most of high school, I worked full time in a busy restaurant that I loved. I was soooo good at what I did, and I was friends with my coworkers. Although I would've rather hung out with friends than go to work, it wasn't really a soul crushing experience going to work. It was exhausting but I kind of thrived on it. Now I just bumble around this huge hospital unsure of myself and alone. Thinking about working full time at the hospital I work at now seems like a good option because of the job market, but everything else makes me feel like maybe I'm not cut out to be a nurse. I would like to think that the hospital itself is the problem, because moral there is extremely low, however I need to be aware of the fact that the problem very well may just be me. Did anyone have a similar experience? Is hating being a PCA indicative that I will hate nursing? BTW there are definitely aspects of being a PCA that I do enjoy. On days I have good shifts, I feel more hopeful about nursing, but for the most part I feel awkward and unhelpful when I'm there.

Just wanted to thank everyone who commented on this thread with any feedback or with sharing that they too are pursuing a job in the military as a nurse. To update you all, I'm feeling very revitalized and have a lot of hope that I will someday achieve this goal of mine. For now I'm looking to pass the NCLEX in June, get my BSN, and continue getting hospital experience. So I guess that's enough for now. For anyone who is in a similar position as I am, I talked to a helpful health care recruiter who encouraged me and nicely told me to keep doing me and just get back in touch with him once I'm closer to my BSN. Specific requirements for Army nurse (I know at first I said navy or AF but I'm exploring all options and looking into everything) change from year to year. Sometimes, it's 6 months experience, a while back in was 2 years experience- experience being 30+ hours a week in a hospital. In 2 years, maybe no experience will be required, or maybe 5 years will be required, it's impossible for him to know. He also mentioned positions such as CRNA, NP, midwife, psychiatric nurse, etc. are always in high demand and can sometimes be payed for. I feel as a new nurse I should focus on getting that medsurg experience and learn basics before that, but it's an option for experienced nurses for sure. Good luck and thanks for all replies!

Thanks. I've sent an email to a recruiter with no reply so I guess it's time I call them up.

I'm 21 and graduating with my associates in nursing this May and I'm so committed to becoming a nurse in the military (of course after I get my BSN). I originally thought Air Force, however, through research I'm piecing together that it looks extremely competitive to become a nurse in any branch of the military. In fact, it looks near impossible to get any sort of job in nursing from some of the threads I've seen on AllNurses. I'm smart and reliable and have a really good head on my shoulders, but it sounds like its just a 1 in a million shot of me getting the required ICU experience and then actually getting accepted into the Air Force (or Navy or Army). I'm basing major life decisions on this dream (e.g. where I get my BSN, if I work part time or full time in the process, staying at a hospital I hate just for the experience, attempting to be a student athlete at the same time) and it's almost to the point where I'm considering giving it all up to spare myself the disappointment sacrificing so much and not getting it. Am I correct in thinking that it's like the hardest thing ever to get into the Air Force as a nurse? Is there anything I can do while I get my BSN to make my application look more attractive? I'm a pretty good runner. I ran in college for a year before transferring to my community college that doesn't have track or XC for the ADN program. I'm now talking to some schools with RN to BSN that would even offer me an athletic scholarship. Would the military be impressed by a nurse who is physically fit or would it hurt me more for limiting work experience I could be getting? I'm paying for school myself so it would help me a ton. I feel like ROTC scholarships are impossible to get and also not available for RN to BSN. Sorry if I didn't use the proper military lingo, I research this all the time and still have no idea.