scared of nursing

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So, I got into nursing school..a private bsn program and I left it last year because I failed pathophysiology and I was so scared of making a medication error and reading all of these posts I was soo soo scared of messing up. I don't exactly know how it works in a hospital but I'm told by many people there are like new technologies to make sure you don't make a mistake and etc. I worked in a hospital as a patient sitter and let me tell you I hated it. The nurses never gave me a break and all I did was sit there. I have to say I've never met people like this before...those nurses were the most rude and depressed people in the world. I never met a nice nurse and I was working for a year. Many of the nurses kept telling me I should be a teacher or something and if they could redo it they would. Now, I'm just getting a bachelors degree and I'll graduate in a year but I'm still thinking about attending an accelerated bsn program when I'm done because not a day goes by where I don't think about becomming a nurse. I just really don't know what I'm getting myself into. A friend of mine became a nurse and quit because she said she never thought she was getting into that kind of an occupation and she felt like she was in a different world because she worked nights, weekends, and holidays and never saw her family. I don't really want that particular lifestyle of course..I'm really confused and upset:(:crying2:

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Nursing can be very rewarding, but it does involved weekends, holidays and different shifts. It does required contact with bodily fluids. It is still possible and likely, even with new technology, to make a med error. But you can do a lot of good also.

Try shadowing at different facilities. During my clinical rotatation I have seen some hospitals where everyone seemed miserable, but others where everyone seemed happy.

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I went into nursing school knowing full-well that I could end up working nights/weekends/holidays, which I knew was perfectly fine for me. I was (and still am!) afraid of messing up at clinical but that is what motivates me to always be thinking, double-checking, and on my toes. So far I haven't made any real mistakes, just freshman fumbles. I've never worked as a sitter but trust me, when you're at clinical you are never just sitting around, you are on your feet the whole time, doing real work and running around looking for people/supplies/whatever. It is far from boring - which is one of the reasons I love it.

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thanks for replying:) My heart is not really in teaching, but I will graduate with a degree in teaching in about a year. I figured I can try teaching or try the accelerated bsn program and the school I was doing nursing in, that way I already have credits completed because its the same program. I'm not sure I'd mind holidays, nights and such..I'm only 21, but I know I may mind more when I have children or a husband and want to spend the nights with them or holidays with them. I guess I wouldn't ALWAYS want to work christmas morning or ALWAYS work Thanksgiving and so forth. I can't say I'm meant to be a nurse..I'm not exactly sure, I love the medical field, I love pregnancy, babies, and studying about diseases. I'm interested in health and I'd love to care for other people. Are you a nursing student or new nurse, experienced nurse? How do you like it so far? If you work already, what unit are you in?

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Did you start pursuing a teaching degree after dropping out of nursing? If so, was it partly because of some of the nurses telling you that you should become a teacher?

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I dropped out of NS because 1. I failed patho and 2. The school was super expensive I thought I was wasting my parents money especially since I failed. I transferred to a cheaper university and pursued teaching. Not because the other nurses told me to do teaching because a lot of them actually told me to do like ultrasound and such, I just felt that was a tad limited. I would say the reasoning for me leaving nursing would be 1. my bad experience in a hospital. The nurses were HORRIBLE. I know their are great nurses out there but after seeing numerous floors and units of this hospital..there are no nice nurses there I can tell you that. 2. I was scared by what everyone on here is saying how nurses are treated and a lot of people here tell other students to look for other professions. I know I shouldn't always listen to other people and do what I want, but these are experienced nurses advising me to steer away from nursing because of the conditions and such. I have bad anxiety and even thinking about it makes me like clam up. I guess thats why I take everybodys words into consideration, because of my anxiety :(

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Specializes in Nursing Professional Development.

You don't seem to have a clear idea what it is like to be a nurse. You say you really want to be a nurse ... but you seem to hate so much about it. Is it just the vision of helping people in a heroic sort of way that interests you? Do you have idealized visions of saving people or making them feel better -- and those images are fueling your thougths about nursing?

Or do you really want the day-to-day normal work of nursing ... the work that is often unglamorous and hard?

Unfortunately, a lot of people have "pie-in-the-sky" fantasies about being a nurse ... about saving people ... of being the bright spot in their lives ... and of feeling fulfilled and valued by others when they nurse people back to comfort and health. Those fantasies rarely include the real-life facts of daily life taking care of sick people in a health care system that has more than its share of problems. When people make decision based on unrealistics fantasies of a career, they get very disappointed and sometimes bitter about the reality they face. They may feel betrayed by the profession and by the world.

Whatever you decide for your career ... just be sure it is based on the real (and usually unglamorous) world of nursing ... a world where lots of people are stressed and overworked ... a world in which you will have to do your share of dirty work and work your share of the unpopular shifts ... a world where some people are grouchy and where some people smell bad. Think about what you saw in the hospital and what else you have seen about the REAL world of nursing. And if that's what you want, go for it. But if you are imagining a fantasy world in which everything is nice and wonderful, then be prepared for a big disappointment.

A lot of people say they are prepared to handle the negative aspects of nursing -- but deep down inside they are not. They think that they can avoid the negative things -- but they can't -- and they run away from the profession early in their careers. They are in denial -- "It won't happen to ME." They get a rude awakening when they realize that they can't avoid all of the negative aspects of health care.

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no I don't have a "unrealistic vision or fantasy of nursing." Honestly, I'd love to work with pregnant woman or babies. Just something I've always been very interested in actually, I always thought..peds, labor and delivery, or postpartum..

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Re: scared of nursing

"You don't seem to have a clear idea what it is like to be a nurse. You say you really want to be a nurse ... but you seem to hate so much about it. Is it just the vision of helping people in a heroic sort of way that interests you? Do you have idealized visions of saving people or making them feel better -- and those images are fueling your thougths about nursing?"

In response to the last post:

I'm just curious as to what made you decide to stick with nursing with all the negative aspects of it. There must be a mixture of both, right? Helping people and feeling valued has to be there along with the stress, holidays, and grouchy people, I would think. I doubt many people say they go into nursing because they love grouchy people and stress. There must be positive aspects of it and maybe beyond just helping people, but the challenge, the ability to critically think, to work with new technology, to work with different people?

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To be honest, I'm not looking to get into a glamorous profession, if I was I wouldn't go into nursing. I would love to work with pregnant woman and or babies, I would love a job that is secure and I make a decent pay check. I would love to help people and go home with a sense of satisfaction of what I did at the end of the day.

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no I don't have a "unrealistic vision or fantasy of nursing." Honestly, I'd love to work with pregnant woman or babies. Just something I've always been very interested in actually, I always thought..peds, labor and delivery, or postpartum..

I think that's awesome! And though I may be a naive nursing student myself, I believe that every successful career started with an interest. I may not know you very well, but I think that if you could work through your anxiety and biases from your past experiences, you can become a great nurse in those areas of specialty and really enjoy what you do. I would consider making a post in the Peds and OBGYN specialty nursing forums and talking to some nurses who work in the fields of your interest.

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Hello you could always work for a Dr's office and never work holidays

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