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What is your "Why"? There I said it and please don't disregard this question it will always serve you in life. Let me explain. Nursing school sucks!! It's hard, the sacrifices are real and great. The price is paid not only by you but by your family also. I know, I know that I preaching to the choir. Yet,, Once you are a nurse your life WILL change. It is not by accident that you decided to be a nurse. Nursing is not a profession where all you do is give, it is also a profession where you get to receive. Not many fields offer that and "no" I am not using a cliche. I have been a nurse for over 24 years and almost all of it in critical care. Yes I give a lot but nursing has been so good to me not only emotionally, but also economically. I can work ANYWHERE because of my skill set and my experience. That job security is priceless especially because I am a husband father of four kids. My dream of providing for my family with better things than I had was my "WHY". Why I went to school, why I worked so hard, why studied so late while I had a full time job, why I put up with the stress-pressure and why I kept picking up my books even after throwing them against the wall in frustration. You see I was the first person ever in my family to go to college. That came with a cost and real barriers. But my "why" was so important, so strong that no matter how bad it got (and yes at times it got really bad and I know you are there right now) but I still showed up the next day. So what do you do? You keep showing up, you keep breathing and like "Dori" from finding Nemo said, "just keep swimming, just keep swimming, swimming, swimming". Why? because your graduation, your reward is just around the corner. These next couple of years or semester WILL PASS and you have a choice about what you will be when that happens. You will either be a nurse or something else because you dropped out. Be a Nurse. I have NEVER regretted the price I paid for going to nursing school. Be a Nurse :)

There are a lot of good options listed here so far. Working at a rural hospital to get your year is not a bad idea and you actually don't have to leave Cali to get it. Most parts of California are one to two hour drive from some rural areas and hospitals. It may be worth the sacrifice for a year and you still get to stay in Cali .

That is a loaded question. 23 years ago I went straight into ICU as a new grad. There was a nursing shortage so they fought to grab me. Was it the right decision. For me it definitely was. I love ICU, and within a year I was taken care of open heart patients. That hospital also did trauma so I got a well rounded education. I did have preceptor for about three months and then I was sort of on my own. I loved it and at the same time was terrified everyday I went to work. Since then I have trained many new ICU nurses and almost all of them had done at least two years on a tele floor. Yet they reminded me of "me". They were terrified also and were afraid of even turning the patients. The truth is that everything was new so I figured I would learn "new" whether it was on the floor or on the unit. It was still going to be new. The problem with that is that you don't know what you don't know. Here is and example: I saw that my patient was really diuresing and was filling up his foley bag. I didn't know what that meant or if I should even be concerned (I was that green). I saw the unit manager walking by and just sort of made a comment, "boy my patient is peeing, he has almost already filled his bag". The manager quickly told me to keep an eye on his potassium as it may need to be replaced. At that moment I took a mental note to say" aha, lots of pee could mean a depletion of potassium". That is how I learned. Another caution about going straight in was that I noticed myself focusing on tasks. I would right down my vitals, and hemodynamics. I would push the saline to get the C.O. and would wedge the swan. The staff was impressed that I felt so comfortable so quick. The problem was that i was good at the tasks but I did't always really know why my patient had those number or how to properly interpret them given my patient status as a whole. It took three years before I drove to work and realized that i had not been worried about what kind of patient I was getting. It took three years before I no longer had that pain in my gut as I showed up to work. Everyone is different and most people should not go straight into ICU. But if your passionate about it and the hospital has a good program, and you are willing to put in the extra time outside of work to learn then why not. You should have at least a good three months with a preceptor by your side and that should be plenty of time to decide if you are cut out for it or not.

Is nursing truly your passion? Because if it is, then that is who you need to be. And I am not talking about a little passion, I am not talking about liking nursing, I am talking about TRULY passionate. If this is really you then SO WHAT if its hard. I don't want it to be easy because I want capable nurses on my floor. But you see, capable nurses don't get that way overnight. They don't get that way from getting A's in nursing school either. I have met a lot of "book smart" nurses who are people who just passed the test but should never take care of patients. I should know, I have interviewed many of them in my career who wanted to work on my unit. Do the work, whatever that means to you. Get a tutor, read things twice, stay up even later, whatever that means. I was a "C" student who grew up in a bad neighborhood. I entered nursing school and HATED it. But by the time I finished, I had learned to be an "A" student who LOVED taking care of people. It was and still is a process. Home schooling is NOT a disadvantage. In home school you learned how to be self sufficient. Use those skills to find extra lessons and learn. Grab the info and absorb it your way. You are just not use to a class room setting. Adjust, you are more than able. If becoming a nurse is important enough to you then make it important enough that you WILL do what ever it takes to make it.

Hey Star Warrior, There are almost always steps that we can take to help avoid causing pain or making mistakes. Having said that, there are always ways where your precaution will not be enough. It just happens. I read your story and concern and I can calmly say "Don't worry about it too much". I have seen (and you will too) my fair share of patients who pull out their own foley with the balloon fully inflated. Yep you read that right. In the big scope of things this was a minor boo boo and even the patient told you not worry about so you are all good :)