Second Thoughts on Becoming a Nurse

[ThePrudentStudent]

I am here looking for opinions and guidance from those in the field. I will be entering a nursing program in Spring and am having second thoughts. I am an older student (late 40s) and put my desire of entering the nursing field on hold for many years. During the early stages of the pandemic, I felt a call to fulfill this more than any other time in my life. Subsequently, I turned my Covid layoff into an opportunity, went back to school, completed all pre-reqs and was accepted. However, I did not anticipate the amount of vaccine hesitancy among healthcare workers and the fact that I live in a state with no vaccine requirements for schools and healthcare workers as well as a leading transmission rate of the Delta variant. ( I am fully vaccinated). This is coupled with fluctuating opinions of many nurses I know personally advising that the industry has changed and they have been treated as expendable and to run hard and fast to something else in the medical field. This has me doubting my decision and questioning if I am unnecessarily putting my family at risk in pursuit of something that, according to others, may not be what I had built it up to be. (I should mention I am being offered a place in a Microbiology bachelor's program so I do have options but it is a long, competitive road to a master's and I need to provide for my family now.) If you had to do it all over again, would you become a nurse? Would you go into another field? Do you think an older individual would have a rougher time at present? I get that this may sound whiney but I have met some tired, angry nurses lately who are ready to chuck it all if they have not done so already. Thanks all. 

[RN1987]

I have been a RN since 87.  I wouldn't encourage anyone to be a nurse. The compensation is terrible, lousy hours, on call, poor benefits, managers who think work before family, unsafe patient ratios, wear and tear on the body, to name a few. I would find another career choice, there are definitely better ones out there.

[BurnRN21]

If I could turn back time I won’t take nursing 

[amoLucia]

6 minutes ago, BurnRN21 said:

If I could turn back time I won’t take nursing 

Quite succinct! And honest. I agree!

[boneless_RN.exe, BSN, RN]

Hi there. I’m a newer nurse- I graduated from a BSN program in Winter of 2018- and so far, I would probably say I do not regret going to nursing school. However, if I am being honest, I do not like being a nurse at all, and dread going to work for at least two days beforehand. There are many things that factor into this...

First and foremost, I’ll say that I don’t regret going to nursing school because I still can’t think of a better option with better prospects at the time. I absolutely LOATHE working, no matter what it is. Once it becomes “work”, even if it’s something I like, I end up not liking it... that’s just the kind of person I am. However, there are a lot of bad and good things about nursing. The primary reason I chose it is because I hate to work. You can make a good living with nursing working not many hours a week. I currently only do 2 8hr nights a week and that is enough for me to easily survive on with some spending money (however, I only have myself to support). So the money is pretty good... which is the major draw. Nursing can potentially give you a very flexible schedule as well, but you’ll likely end up doing nights, at least at first. It also depends on the hospitals in your area. I got lucky and went to what I think is the best hospital system in my state. As employees, we are treated quite well, though we do have some staffing issues, but that’s not really anybody’s fault. In general, it seems you will run into bad patient ratios and questionable management at most hospitals. Sadly, this is a bit of a crapshoot because it’s hard to know what management is like without knowing someone who works there or end up working there yourself. But it’s something to consider that you will likely be mistreated by the healthcare system itself. What else? You will be treated coldly and meanly by doctors, especially if you work nights (it’s not my fault you’re on call!), and there’s nothing you can do about it. They will yell and snap, call you stupid. That being said, I have also met some truly kind and gracious doctors that treat nurses genuinely well. However, it says a lot that these doctors are considered special for treating nurses with kindness and respect. So how much verbal abuse you can take should also factor into your decision. I am very sensitive to being yelled at for a lot of reasons so it can be very scary to talk to doctors sometimes. You may also be treated badly by patients. Many of these patients are treating you badly because they are sick, out of control of their situation and are looking to exercise some control in some way... the only thing they can influence at this point is their treatment of you. There’s no excuse for treating your nurse badly though- that’s just why I think they do it. They’ll be capricious, demanding, needy, ungrateful, and downright cruel. As with doctors though, you will also probably meet some absolutely wonderful and kind people that with make you feel glad to be there. But many nurse leave the bedside because they can no longer tolerate the treatment they receive from patients, providers AND management, so the thickness of your skin is a consideration.

Infection risk- I live in the southeast US, so the vaccination rate here is not great (at least, not in my opinion), and there are many employees who are not vaccinated either because of whatever reason, as well as patients. It’s likely that at this point masks will still be required for employees but not for patients at all times, so you’ll be working with unmasked people regardless of their vaccination and infection status. You’ll also get blood and other body fluids on you. Just last night at work I looked down at my ID badge to find it covered in dried blood. I don’t even know how it got on there! So yeah, it’s quite hazardous at times. If you have family it’s probably a good idea to take off your scrubs as soon as you get in the door, or if you have a garage, in there. Almost everybody I know on my unit started doing this during the pandemic (I do not work on a COVID unit). There are precautions you can take, but there will always be risk. There are also mental hazards. A lot of nurses have PTSD, especially since the pandemic, but also from being constantly mistreated by others on the job, and being attacked by belligerent patients. I work with women and children, so it’s less of an issues for me, but still a possibility anywhere. I actually was attacked in nursing school. I don’t have PTSD from that but it was a pretty shocking experience.

Nursing is good money. But you will work for that money!! I almost never get to eat lunch and I’m not on a busy unit (but that may be my time management skills and my inability to say no to patients). You will spend a lot of time bending, standing, and possible lifting and moving objects. There are a lot of tiny things to fumble with, like meds, syringes, needles and the like, which may be difficult for someone with a condition like arthritis. 

To me, all these things point to the negative. Even though I don’t regret becoming a nurse, I do not like being a nurse and cannot in good conscious recommend it to someone else. Especially with the hell you will go through in nursing school, which is a whole other post.

However! If you have an actual “calling” to be a nurse, than it may be the right career for you. There is good to every bad, and you may like it better than me if you are a people person. If your primary concern is providing for your family, can’t really go wrong there as long as you are willing to do some hard work. It can also be good knowing that you helped someone at the end of the day. I’m not a person who has a huge drive to help others, but it is definitely a positive of the job that you are doing something that will make a positive impact on someone else’s life. There are a lot of people who are quite happy with being a nurse, and you could certainly be one of them. I hope I helped you in some way with this post. I feel like it’s a mess! Nursing is not all good and there is a lot of bad stuff you will deal with. If you read all this and still want to be a nurse I think that maybe you are suited towards it. I wish you well!

[K. Everly, BSN, RN]

This comment section is depressing. 

[amoLucia]

But honest.

[turtlesRcool]

I'm going to go against the grain, and say that I'm glad I went into nursing, and I'd do it again.  I am mid-40s, and went back to school in my late 30s to become a nurse.  I work bedside in a hospital.  To be honest, some days are really stressful, mostly when we're short staffed.  I've only been at this for 6-7 years, and I've seen my hospital go though swings of being over and understaffed. Right now, we're understaffed, and it's tough. But I know we have a new crop of grads orienting, and I'm hoping when they get off orientation, the pendulum will swing back towards getting the occasional call to be down staffed.  

Despite the stress, the hospital environment suits me. I love being busy.  I love working with patients. I love problem solving. Unlike so many jobs out there, nursing is hands-on and REAL. I don't think I could work at a desk day after day; I need something more tangible.

The other thing about nursing is that there are relatively low barriers to entry, which makes it especially attractive to career changers. Yes, there are prerequisites, and, yes, admissions are competitive. But it's not competitive the way, say, medical school is, nor does it require a huge investment of time or money (assuming you attend a state school). I personally spent about a year and a half on prerequisites and a year on a public university ABSN program. Not bad for a transition to a completely new career. In your late 40s, I don't know if doing a BS and then MS in Microbiology will have a reasonable return on investment - that's a lot of time and tuition for a relatively short career before you hit retirement age. 

 Will I still be working bedside med-surg in my 60s? Probably not. There's just too much physical strain, even with good body mechanics and smart use of lifts.  But the good news is that with my experience, I can transition pretty easily into a non-bedside role, such as case management, community health, school nursing, etc.  Being a nurse gives me options that many other careers don't.

[BurnRN21]

Well good for you

[CommunityRNBSN, BSN, RN]

3 hours ago, BurnRN21 said:

Well good for you

What?

[kbrn2002, ADN, RN]

On 7/25/2021 at 1:29 PM, Hannahbanana said:

FWIW, dental hygienists have high rates of painful arm and shoulder injury from leaning over and contorting. And dentists can be jerks too, just like anyone else, and you might not have other coworkers.  PTA is being like a CNA with better hours and less pay in many cases. But generally good hours and clean work, esp outpatient. 

No joke there. A PTA I worked with left the field and took a job at a local supermarket because it paid better. This was WAY before the COVID pandemic so that had no bearing on the pay scale at that time.

[mimibrown, ADN, BSN]

Yikes! So many people have negative responses. I have enjoyed my nursing career, but I get what others are saying. It’s a tough job and Covid has been really hard on health care. I would do it all over again and I’ll probably be here until retirement. I enjoy my patients, and I feel fulfilled most days. 
 

I would recommend getting a job as a tech/CNA in an area you are interested in. You will get an unbiased view of what nursing is like. Only you know if it will work for you!

[subee, MSN, CRNA]

11 hours ago, amoLucia said:

But honest.

And people who are happy with their nursing careers probably don't go the AN to vent.