Gogol

There is definitely a familiarity/family tradition element to it. I can't lie about that. There is also security. Achievement etc. What's driving me besides those is that I think I would be good because I would be able to focus on the patients. It's a personality thing. I'm kind of hyper aware. Which can be good and bad at this sort of job. I'm not the best at dealing with ********. The hard part is getting an idea of how it would be like. I've shadowed in a hospital/helped feed patient/ refilled water/ice. It was ****** but it was rewarding. This woman was 92 and lost use of her arms and I spoon fed her. She was nasty as all hell, cursing at the other patients relatives in the room. She was in pain and was then got psychotic medication. It was rewarding but wore me out. But I felt like maybe I would be good at this provided I can handle all the other ****, which is a lot (and I've already listed it). Since my experience so far has been in IT and I like technical things, I figured there would be somewhere to go if I don't. Ideally I would like to have a mix of both which is why I thought research would be good to have some patient contact and be able to gather data and be part of a trial. My real question after all of this is. Is there a way to get the feel for the job. Because I know shadowing and volunteering is not it. As you already said, it would be stupid to invest so much in a career and find out you cannot do it.

Thank you! That was a lot of useful information :) I sort of liked working with people at my last job and not be chained to a desk. Also my family has been in medicine so it's kind of the first place I look. My personality assessment says that I would be good at it. but I'm not sure I can handle 8 patients, multitudes of tasks, needy family members, lack of status, bullying, ****** hospital setting, and 12 hour shifts. Perhaps I'm being overly negative, but these are my concerns.

Research or Informatics is what I had as my end goal when I first started looking into nursing. Is there a way to do this without bedside experience? I'm actually interested in Informatics and have worked in IT.

You made it past the title! Congrats. That was a bit too direct. So I want to go into nursing or medicine. I have no idea how it will be like but I've already completed pre-med pre reqs and spent some years after college working office jobs and It. My core motivations are wanting to interact with people and apply my technical skills/make a difference, and not be chained to a desk, also pay and the fact that nursing field is broad and I would be able to change specialties. Cons are that I don't like the hospital environment and I get stressed out easily, which leads me to hate people. (I've only shadowed someone several times and was not in the best place at the time) I admire that they make a difference but they look hella stressed out the whole time and I don't know if I can take it or if it worth it. Any advice for someone in my position? Are there any jobs that would be suitable that would be in a relatively decent environment and have a combination of office and patient interaction time? Thanks!

The stigma is largely associated with up until recently nursing being traditionally a women's profession. Also, familial expectation of being a dr. have something to do with it.

Thanks for the input, I'll try to broaden my scope on the options nurses have. So far I've been contained to volunteering at one hospital and have seen ICU, PCU, Geriatrics and ER.

Background: I'm 30 years old, have a large portion of pre-nursing requirements completed, about 100 hours of volunteering in a hospital setting, and can't seem to take the plunge. Studied Sociology in undergrad, then ended up getting post-bac in pre-med but burned out (even though did well) before going to medschool. Worked for 5 years in various administrative/IT roles but wasn't able to find something secure and rewarding. Nursing seems like a secure job with lots of opportunity for growth and variety in the field. Pretty clear path to move up and would be in demand. I enjoy learning new things and using them to help people - not necessarily directly. What concerns me is that i haven't worked directly with people and when I did I found myself worn out and not having achieved much - the only experience I have is a highly technical retail position that was well paid and was in my area of interest - i found myself burnt out from standing on my feet for 10 hours a day, no privacy, and boring after learning all i had to learn. i enjoyed/found it easy to assist people with their purchases; but all of the above was stressful and lead me to hate my job. Worried about suffering the same fate as a nurse. Also the whole mild social stigma of being a male nurse. Care to give any advice that you think may be helpful ?