Questioning my decision...

[CMerin]

I am so lost right now and am not sure if I made the right decision to pursue nursing. I decided that I wanted to be a nurse during my junior year of high school primarily for 4 reasons. 1) Job security and considerable pay 2) Nursing allows me to help others 3) Nursing allows me to help address my communities growing healthcare needs 4) I have always had an interest in the medical field but I couldn't think of any other profession at the time. Now, I am practically at the final stretch of my prenursing journey, with the only prerequisite left being anatomy and physiology 2. I am currently feeling incredibly lost and if I were to decide to pursue something else, that would be another 2 or so semesters taking the prerequisites for that major. I need advice... The truth is that I don't know what I am getting into and do not know whether or not I will actually like nursing. I'm not a medical assistant, CNA, EMT etc. so if I were to be accepted into a program, it would be a completely new experience for me. I've only ever volunteered at a hospital discharging patients and helping out at the front desk. Where am I going in my life???

[Etak, BSN, RN]

Hi there!

My school has a 1 unit course designed to introduce students to a variety of careers in healthcare. You take field trips to local hospitals and explore a lot of different careers for people in your exact spot, questioning what else there is besides nursing. Does your school have something like this?

There are also several careers that generally have the same prerequisites as nursing, so you can explore changing career paths without having to start over. In all of my nursing prereq classes there have been several people pursuing dental hygiene, sonography, surgical technician, physical therapy, and kinesiology careers and happen to need a lot of the same classes.

There’s also the chance you’re experiencing a bit of mid-semester fatigue. I usually hit a patch of this every semester where I’m not sure if I even want this anymore.

It’s ok to question your path and change your mind if nursing isn’t for you. But no one can really answer this for you. Talk to nurses, ask them what their jobs are like. What is the worst and best part? Can you deal with the lows of the job? Is the fulfillment of helping people going through the best or worst days of their lives a calling?

Good Luck to you! It’s not easy deviate from the path especially after coming so far. But it’s definately better to ask yourself these questions now vs later.

[rnhopeful82, ASN, RN]

Also, it may not be a bad idea to try and get a job as a cna/tech to learn patient care and see if that is something you really want to do. I will tell you this, my cohort is almost in our last semester and we still are sometimes going "why did we do this??"

[FullGlass, BSN, MSN, NP]

I advise you to complete CNA (tech) training. This will teach you valuable skills and if you really want to be involved in patient care as an RN. In addition, being CNA would be a good part-time/summer job for a nursing student. Good luck.