Prospective Second Career in Nursing Advice Sought.

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Hi all,

I'm a 40 yr-old stay-at-home military spouse/ mom w/elem. school age children. I have a BS in Health Ed & an M.Ed. in Counseling. I was a newbie working in human services when I met & married my military officer spouse & gave up a career for family. So now that my children are in school full-time & my husband is retiring I'm strongly considering fulfilling my dream of becoming some sort of licensed healthcare/medical professional, but have grave concerns & reservations & am seeking advice from seasoned nursing professionals. I actually, initially was a nursing major in undergrad & knocked out a fair amount prereqs. (prob that need to be re-taken) when I decided I'd finish faster if I switched majors. Hindsight is 20/20 right?

Naturally, I'm considering nursing. I take mock pre-nursing entrance exams, as well, as mock sample NCLEX boards & surprisingly, do well on the NCLEX samples (medicine has been a life-long love & a hobby) in my free-time. I've also sought advice from fellow friends/acquaintances in nursing & other healthcare disciplines. I'd have to say the vast majority, w/the exception of one or two people have dissuaded me from nursing if not all, but one emphatically said "NO!" Nearly ALL have said, "oh don't be a nurse become a PA, that's what I wish I'd done!" One gal I spoke to, that sought a second degree in nursing, said she was bullied by instructors while in school & said "you're attractive & slender...you will be torn apart in a field largely dominated by insecure & embittered females." Wow! (None of my nurse friends appear embittered or insecure?) Furthermore, she explained she wouldn't recommend going into nursing past age 30 & once again, it was recommended I look into physician assistant school. Which from my research, is appealing & (more treatment orientated than having to clean up bodily fluids), but much more competitive/rigorous & taking all the would-be med school applicants.

So I decided to defer to the trusty wealth of posts on AllNurses to which I've basically deduced that nursing seems like a fairly impossible field for the average bear to succeed in. I've also concluded that the reason there are so many openings is bc it appears to be a fairly easy job to get fired from (rightfully so when people lives are at stake), if one doesn't decide to resign due to a hostile work environment. Particularly, as a new grad. Which leads me to the old adage "nurses eat their young" that I keep encountering through all the articles & posts. Yikes! Well, what happens to a species that eats their young? What career advice can you give me especially at my age? What units would an older new grad be most likely to succeed in? I've also learned that 20% of new grads are terminated from from their probationary periods (as recent hires) due to being ill-prepared or a poor fit & that this is more common w/ older grads. I've always been interested in peri-operative nursing, wound care, postpartum care, & behavioral health, but I've heard the majority I've listed are very competitive areas for a new grad to get jobs in. Our flagship university's nursing school is ridiculously competitive & our local comm college's program is wait-list central. We have a slew of those diploma mill outfits, but I'm not spending a 100K on a bachelor's degree. Thank you!

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Specializes in Psychiatry, Community, Nurse Manager, hospice.

I'm not a seasoned nurse. I am a 39 year old mom of four who just started nursing school, accelerated BSN program. So, I'm in the position you are considering.

I also considered PA school. I decided to become a nurse practitioner instead because I want to eventually have independence. PAs are not independent. I also like the nursing model better. I think it works way better for psych, which is an interest of mine. I think you should stay away from PA school if you are interested in psych, because there are not a lot of PAs in psych.

My experience so far in nursing school: The professors are great, kind, helpful. Great clinical instructors. The work is not excessively difficult, but there is a lot of it. There is a lot to do and know in a short amount of time.

So far I don't see anyone eating their young. Figuratively.

The specialties you mentioned are not the ones that seem to be the most highly sought after. I don't know anyone in my program at all who wants to do wound care, and I'm the only one I know who is interested in behavioral health.

Lots of students are interested in trauma and icu. I glean interest in peds and NICU a lot too. If I had to bet what the most desired position was, I'd bet ICU.

So, what do you really want to do?

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Which from my research, is appealing & (more treatment orientated than having to clean up bodily fluids), would like to point out that I realize nurses have greater responsibilities than just that & are highly capable individuals, if not more in some instances than some docs.

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Hi Invitale,

Thank you for sharing your experience. I think w/my personality I'd prefer the nursing model over the medical model, but I admit as an NP not necessarily as just an RN. I realize that you need at least two years of experience as an RN w/stellar reviews before an NP school will even look at you. My dream would be to work as either PMHCNP or WHCNP. But need the RN & experience first.

I'm glad your experience in school has been positive!

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Specializes in ICU, LTACH, Internal Medicine.

Just to let you know, one does not need "at least two years of experience with stellar reviews" in order to get into a decent NP program in a State school for reasonable money, providing your GPA is around 3.25 or above it. There are plenty of people who go to MSN directly from BSN and ABSN, and some programs encourage this through "direct placement" perks. It is probably not a most effective way money-wise but definitely good one in terms of time spent on education. ABSN and accelerated MSN FNP or Mental Health NP can be done in less than four years if you study hard and plan good.

For wound care, you have your ADN and your license already. If I am not mistaken, you need to work for two years in any place which does any type of wound care more or less regularly (home care, LTC, etc) and then take an online course and pass exam. It costs a few thousand $ total but employer may cover the cost for you. Only one problem is that advanced wound care is quite often about things which are WHOLE WAY worse than any natural body fluids one can think of.

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Hi Katie,

Thank you for the info, & I had wondered, b/c a person can go to medical or pa school w/minimal to no experience & I've even seen some direct entry or entry level nursing master's degree programs popping up here & there.

In terms of wound care nursing, & things that are "WAY WORSE" than any natural body fluid. Do you mean dangerous & abx resistant microbial invasions that lead to chronic infection & sometimes amputations?

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Specializes in ICU, LTACH, Internal Medicine.
Hi Katie,

Thank you for the info, & I had wondered, b/c a person can go to medical or pa school w/minimal to no experience & I've even seen some direct entry or entry level nursing master's degree programs popping up here & there.

In terms of wound care nursing, & things that are "WAY WORSE" than any natural body fluid. Do you mean dangerous & abx resistant microbial invasions that lead to chronic infection & sometimes amputations?

Direct entry MSN program for people without experience are popping up everywhere because there are people willing to pay $$$$$ for that. I heard that employment prospectives such programs' grads are not that good. It is cannot be compared with medical or PA school, though. All three are completely different species.

Reg. your second question, no... just rotting human flesh, like Fournier's gangrene or really bad chronic pelvic osteomyelitis. I'll spare you the further details:***:

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Direct entry MSN program for people without experience are popping up everywhere because there are people willing to pay $$$$$ for that. I heard that employment prospectives such programs' grads are not that good. It is cannot be compared with medical or PA school, though. All three are completely different species.

I don't know much about the direct entry master's other than they're, yes, very expensive...one & two, I know some have been started at some schools & then done away with for whatever reason. Med & pa schools, also very expensive & to my knowledge follow a medical model.

I don't mind the sight of rotting flesh, but the smell:yuck:. More than anything, I feel extremely bad for the patient. No, I can't imagine it's any more fun for the providers either.

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Specializes in Psychiatry, Community, Nurse Manager, hospice.

People bash the entry level master's programs here on allnurses a lot. I looked hard into this option and decided against it because it's too long to go without a paycheck. There are a few very respectable schools in my area who offer entry level master's, including one ivy league school. The grads from these programs are getting jobs. The problem with some entry level master's programs is that they make you find your own clinicals, which is outrageous and not acceptable to me. The idea used to be that experience as an rn was essential to becoming a competent np, (and you will see that most rns agree with this) but that idea is falling away because there isn't any evidence to back it up. Time will tell if experience as an rn makes one a better np.

Anyway, If you know you want to be an np, abd you have someone to support you for the next 3-4 years then I recommend looking into an entry level master's that sets up your clinicals for you.

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Thanks Invitale! There isn't anything like this where I live, but if we were to move, which maybe a possibility, & we move some place that has such a program, I may consider it!

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Specializes in ICU, LTACH, Internal Medicine.

Here in Michigan there was a long story with direct-entry MSN. After the Great Recession started in 2008, our The Big Three automotives laid off a lot of employees, many with big fat severance packages. Many of those people were not quite ready for retirement, had previous Bachelor's and Master's and wanted "stable" career not starting from zero yet again... so, advanced practice nursing was an option. Some did the right thing and went ABSN to MSN track but the rest trooped into every direct entry MSN in state and around, and came back as fresh-minted NPs in about 2011-2012. The programs were so eager to get the big buck that they counted in every credit they could, letting some to get it all done in three years with almost no experience.

Right at that time, my kiddo run into big health mess and we had to spend a lot of time in doctor's offices. I encountered some of those new NPs, and it was downright terryfying. They knew nothing, period. One gave me lunch so that I could teach her about living with condition "x". Another brought paper leaflet for a med and started to read it, aloud, in front of us, as a form of "education". Yet another one was scared silly to see changes of CBC made by steroids and was hesitant to order vaccination.

I knew that, eventually, for many of these people it kind of leveled out. Most myst find some sort of job, and I personally know folks who did ABSN or BSN and immediately moved into the sphere they were before, like IT to nursing informatics or labor safety engineer to OHSA RN. These folks are happy and successful and I am glad for them. But even if the NPs like above eventually learned everything they must know by trial of fire, it would take years, and every day of these years their licenses (and someone's life) would be on the line. I wouldn't like to do that, and that was only one time I requested "only MD, please".

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I, too, tend to think it would be wiser to start out as an ABSN than go straight in as an ELMSN. Your examples are probably why some of the ELMSN programs have been done away with.

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