Becoming a Nurse with Chronic Pain

Nursing Students ADN/BSN

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I am completing my prerequisites to apply for a BSN program at a California University. I have 3 classes left: Micro, Physiology, and Philosophy. Wayyyy back in Anatomy, a lady (classmate) was chatting with me about school and goals and all that good stuff that we chat about. I mentioned that I've had back surgery (20 years ago) and that I still live with pain from it. I take no pain meds, I deal with it through various methods. Hot showers, yoga, attempting to reduce stress...etc. She told me that they will not let me into the BSN program due to my chronic pain. I wrote it off as BS at the time, because I still had quite a few prereqs to go. But, now that I am closer, I'm getting a little nervous about it.

I want to be a nurse very badly. I have been worked on by excellent nurses, and by not-so-excellent nurses. I took care of my grandmother until she passed away, my uncle was a quadriplegic, and I assisted with his care. I excel in my sciences, am very competitive, and I love to help people and see results.

Should I be worried about this?

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Specializes in Critical Care, Education.

Do you have your physician's OK to pursue nursing? I'm sure that you already are very well informed about dealing with your own limitations, but you may not be aware of the very high rates of back injury associated with bedside nursing. It is so high that OSHA has implemented mandatory reporting to a publicly accessible website beginning this October. Organizations with excessive rates will be subject to penalties.

I doubt whether any nursing program would attempt to deny you admission based upon your current problems - this would be risky from an ADA standpoint, and they don't want to get sued. However, most health care employers would be very reluctant to hire anyone who could not meet the essential physical requirements of a job.... and most nursing jobs have specific physical requirements, including lifting and general mobility. So you may find yourself as a new grad, but unable to actually get a nursing job. That would be a horrible situation.

Of course, there are nursing jobs that are not so physically taxing, but these are not available for entry-level (new grad) nurses. The most important issue IMO? Making sure that you don't put yourself into a situation that would exacerbate your injury and lead to even more disability.

Best of luck on your career goals.

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Specializes in Postpartum/Lactation/Nursing Education.

Whether or not you pursue a career in nursing is ultimately up to you. However, remember that it is an extremely physical job. As a PP pointed out, while there are less physical nursing positions they are generally not available for new nurses.

I've been a nurse for almost 15 years and the job has greatly increased the damage I already had from a previous broken neck. I have days I can barely walk because I have back spasms that nothing can stop. I also went from only taking ibuprofen to having to take a daily muscle relaxer every night in order to keep the spasms from being unmanageable. I have a script for Norco but very rarely take it because I hate needing it. I only take it when the pain is unbearable (I've had the same bottle that's still half full for the last year).

Remember that with nursing you are both required and expected to meet the physical demands of your job. Neither your patients, coworkers, or managers will have any sympathy for you and they will continue to expect you to be able to complete the demands of the job. Ongoing stress to my back and neck from the bedside forced me to a second spinal fusion 10 years ago and I ended up transferring to postpartum which I love and I hoped would be less physically taxing. However, there are still patients on a daily basis who have had c-sections and are obese (300-500 pounds) who you need to help get in and out of bed or need help transferring to bed from the gurney on admit. Even leaning over to help with breastfeeding can greatly stress your back after a while.

About three years ago I decided I really needed to find a way out of bedside and finally realized that with a love for educating students I should go back to school and become an educator. I am five weeks from completing my MSN in Nursing Education and can't wait for the transition.

Just keep in mind that when it comes down to it nursing is a very physical job and even those without previous injuries are at risk for back problems. Those of us with preexisting issues are guaranteed much worse damage.

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I wonder, should I gear my education more toward research then? I mean, once I finish this next two semesters, I will have my AS in Biology. Maybe that is another avenue and still be able to stay in the Bio/Science/Healthcare field. I am used to adjusting goals to accommodate my injury and lifestyle that was thrust upon me. I know its not the end of the world. I knew it was a lofty goal that I was pursuing. Honestly, I never even thought I'd get this far...

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Specializes in ER.

It's very physical but more facilities are doing things to help with lifting. There is still and always will be some lifting. However, emphasis on team work and "no lift" methods are starting to take effect. In the ER, there is still lifting 99% of the time and we don't use all the fancy stuff that the floor uses which means we will pay for it later on.

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