I am currently not in the nursing field, and have no experience in the medical field at all. However, I have been strongly recommended by a friend that nursing is a good career.
Here are my questions.
1. What are the best and worst things about the nursing career?
2. I have a bachelors degree and in my area I have a few options. Accelerated Bachelors of Nursing, Accelerated Masters of Nursing, or RN. Any recommendations? Is getting the masters a significant advantage?
I have to say, there are some very respectful answers here.
Since you already have a bachelors degree, I would implore you to look at what you can do with an advanced degree in your current field of study. It could take a decade or more for you to realize any potential monetary benefit with the nursing even with an advanced degree. Knowing this most people towards the end of their nursing career cannot with good conscience recommend nursing as a good option. Obviously there are niche positions within nursing that can be quite lucrative, and fun. But that's not so for the average nurse.
If you do for some reason choose nursing, get the degree that leads you the fastest possible way to the Masters degree in nursing. No matter what anyone says the MSN is going to give you more options than any other degree leading to an RN license. Experience doesn't mean **** to IOM, Baldridge, or magnet... They like paper.
Specializes in Schoolnurse,homehealth,specialneeds,IHS.
If you can handle working in a mostly female dominated field with the backstabbing that goes along with it then nursing is foyou. The only way around this is to work in home care or insurance companies and maybe schools.
Have you tried shadowing a nurse (or doing informational interviews) or volunteering at a local hospital? I did this when I first started considering a career change and I found it very helpful. I also started by taking one prerequisite course at my local community college. Doing all of these things helped me decide that nursing is right for me without investing a huge amount of resources. I will (hopefully) be starting nursing school this summer!
Secretperson
83 Posts
I have to say, there are some very respectful answers here.
Since you already have a bachelors degree, I would implore you to look at what you can do with an advanced degree in your current field of study. It could take a decade or more for you to realize any potential monetary benefit with the nursing even with an advanced degree. Knowing this most people towards the end of their nursing career cannot with good conscience recommend nursing as a good option. Obviously there are niche positions within nursing that can be quite lucrative, and fun. But that's not so for the average nurse.
If you do for some reason choose nursing, get the degree that leads you the fastest possible way to the Masters degree in nursing. No matter what anyone says the MSN is going to give you more options than any other degree leading to an RN license. Experience doesn't mean **** to IOM, Baldridge, or magnet... They like paper.