Second Thoughts

You "apparently failed" ? First off own your grades. If you fail you fail. You may be developing a pattern of quitting things when a challenge arises. First off you had the opportunity to get good grades and you "apparently" failed. Then instead of focusing and learning fom the mistakes you are looking for ways out. YES it is a sign you should not be a nurse. You will have hundreds of days that don't go perfect or you have difficult work and you can't just up and quit. You asked and I answered. If your "stress level got the best of you" in pre nursing courses then you should absolutely look for another career. There are many low stress fields in the service industry.

I have just completed my very first trimester at Baptist College of Health Sciences. I did fair, but not nearly as good as I wanted to. My stress level got the best of me and I apparently failed one of my courses.. I am now out of a three week break before my summer classes begin and I have begun to have some second thoughts. I am torn between transferring to a community college to finish my prerequisites, finishing at Baptist and becoming an OB nurse, or dropping out entirely and becoming a Medical Assistant and working in a physician's offices. I just want to know if it's normal to consider changing or if I should use that as a sign that nursing truly isn't for me? Any tips or advise would be very appreciated!

If nursing is really what you want to do, don't give up. You are a student at Baptist. Baptist is a Christian school which means you should pray through your tough times and fight to keep going. I'm also a student at Baptist and I've just been accepted to progress into clinical fall 2015. It has not always been easy, but I know this is truly what I am passionate about and what I want to do. You just have to believe in yourself and just know in your heart that this is what you want to do. Don't let hard work scare you off. Stay strong.

It isn't the hard work that is scaring me, I enjoy the challenge & the reason I said "apparently" is because I failed by one point, because my instructor took one of my extra credit points away for being a few minutes late to one class.. I could have and should have tried harder, but it was my weakest subject, algebra, and I was feeling very defeated by it.. Yes I failed, and yes I own up to that.. I am scared because if for some reason I slip up and fail another course I will be dismissed and cannot enroll in another nursing program for several years. I am passionate about helping others & I am passionate about saving and changing lives, but I am scared of failure..

I kind of had a similar experience. When I first went off to a four year university after high school I wanted to become a MD. As I started taking classes and saw that I was struggling I felt like all hope was lost. What I decided to do was finish out the semester the best that I could and then leave the university for Medical Assisting school. I decided to do this because I wanted to find out if working in the medical field was actually what I wanted to do. Turned out that I absolutely love the medical field so after medical assisting school, I got a job in a physician's office and then enrolled in pre-nursing courses at my community college. I only have one semester to finish before I apply for nursing school at the community college.

I can't really tell you exactly what to do because you never know what the future holds, but if you are struggling at your current school maybe you should consider community college. I enjoy community college opposed to a four year university mostly because of how laid back the atmosphere is, none of the pressures you have to go through at a university. But if you truly want to finish out at the university then you just have to work as hard as you possibly can and don't let little bumps in the road take such a toll on you plans. (I know, easier said then done)

Also , I saw that you may consider medical assisting school, so I will let you know it is hard finding medical assisting jobs but it really depends on where you live. I live in a smaller city and it took a lot of searching before I was able to find a job. And if you do go to medical assisting school, graduate, and then get job; don't stop there! You can always go to community college while you are working (it is what I have done now for 2 years)

I hope this helps make your decision a little easier, and don't worry it is perfectly normal to think about making changes.

Good Luck!

IH