Should I go to RN BSN Traditional Nursing school or Medical Laboratory Scientist prog

[tomasala]

Hi everyone. I have a serious issue that I really need help with and no one else in my life has been able to help me with. So here it is.

I am 26 years old (will turn 27 this July) and am currently a stay at home mommy to two little girls ages 4 and 5 who are not starting school until this coming August. I started school at the age of 20 after I became pregnant with my first daughter. Throughout the coming 3 years I went to school part time and earned an Associates of Science in Pre-Nursing degree with a 3.82 GPA. Back in 2012 I was accepted to my community college RN two year (four semester) program and was ecstatic as it is notorious for denying admission on first attempts for various reasons. During the summer before my first Fall semester I became pregnant and waited until I was 12 weeks to go to the doctor since my doctor of my two previous pregnancies did not even see his patients until they were at least 8 weeks along. It was his policy. In early August, I finally get to my first OBGYN apt and find out through an ultrasound that I have a blighted ovum and that my pregnancy has been all for nothing. I am told to wait because this condition usually miscarries and ends on it's own most of the time. I wait four weeks and nothing happens, except of course torture for me. First week of nursing school begins and I begin to faint, bleed out of control, pass blood clots the size of my head (ok maybe not quite, but close). I am told I will need a D&C, but the doc in only available when I have clinicals! So I try to manage my condition until a miracle happens and his and my schedule match. Anyways, I end up in the ER hemorrhaging and finally have my D&C and my life is saved! I go back to school as soon as I can only to find out that the teachers were ****** that I ruined one of their chairs ( it was stained from when I hemorrhaged) and that some of the students began to use my situation to their amusement. I heard a group of student around the corner from where I was sitting talking about me and laughing, etc.. There were a couple that would crack jokes in class behind me. I went to the teachers and was told that there is nothing they could do and if I did not like his response I could leave and showed me the door. I was so hurt and shocked at what was happening that I went to my academic counselor for suggestions on what my options were and she actually confessed that this would not be the first time a student came in complaining about student's behavior and a lack of caring from the instructors. This has NEVER happened to me before and I could not believe that healthcare professionals and professors would care this little about their own student. In fact the look on their faces when I spoke to them was that of you are in my way, I do not care, blah..blaah..blaah... So I left the program. I have since went to a 4 year university (traditional) but could not take their schedule which was a 9-5 since my husband worked 9-6 and I could not afford daycare for two out of pocket. I took what I could online and the one day a week classes but I ran out pretty fast. I stopped going there and have been home with my kids for the past year. Since my kids are heading off to school, I have been planning my return to college to finish a degree program. Last year I applied to a prestigious RN BSN program at a major university with a health sciences campus in my town. A month ago I received my letter of acceptance. I put down $250 deposit to reserve my spot for Fall. And I am having flashbacks of 2012. I cannot stand the thought of going through the expense of nursing school only to drop out again, or worse finishing the program and now being in debt 40,000 and not be able to either find employment or a place to work where I am not harassed by coworkers as I was at the community college. I am smart, kind, thoughtful ( maybe too much) caring, and hard working, but if horizontal violence is a persistent issue for most of the nursing field where abuse is accepted, I will not be able to allow people to treat me that way. I always do the right thing when it comes to others. I stand up for them to bullies, help the ones who need it, even if the don't ask me. I love the feeling I get after I help someone and put a smile on their face. I simply do not know if I am making the right decision to go back and try this nursing this again. The tests were never an issue, nor were the grades. It was the horrible treatment I experienced from a select few of other students. What made me angry the most, was not even the bullies, it was the fact that others stood by, watched, and did nothing to intervene. Not even people who I have helped and was "friends" with. NONE of them helped even once. They were so afraid of causing trouble for themselves that they chose to stand by and do absolutely nothing. I couldn't stand to be in the same room with people like that. It is funny though because I had no trouble standing up for myself to the bullies, and being in the same room with them, but the cowards who stood silent and watched, made me sick to my stomach. Everyone knew I was ill and they picked on me because the vultures knew my guard was down and that I would be easy prey. That semester I spent in nursing school in 2012 cost me out of pocket 2,500 dollars, all of my family's savings. This time the University will cost me 9,000 in loans per semester! I cannot make the wrong decision once again and do this to my family. I want to have a long career, and to work until I die! I want something that I can look forward to going to maybe not every day but close enough. I am very health conscious and feel like I am a nurse already! Many nurses at my kids doctor's office actually ask me if I am a doctor or a nurse or something because I tell them everything they need to know and leave nothing out. I need nurses to give me some advice in this matter because I hate to make the wrong move again and cost my little family money we do not even have! That would kill me inside. I want to work, and help my husband in this life financially. I want him to be proud of me for finishing college and for working hard. I have always thought nursing was something that came so naturally to me, I live and breath it every day when I take care of my family's health and even others around me. I always do great in class, on tests ( most of the time), I think the "work" part of nursing would come naturally to me (not everything, that I realize), I just would hate to end up not being able to work as a nurse because of the horrid treatment from co-workers. I feel like if I don't choose nursing, the world looses a good nurse, and if I do nursing I might have to sell my soul down the river in order to work with people who make me sick in how they either are cowards and ignore what goes on around them or are the instigators who make other people's lives hell. Again, I have never experienced this kind of treatment anywhere but nursing. Please help out with some helpful advice. I also have the option of going into a Medical laboratory technologist Bachelor's of science degree program that would cost less in tuition and still delves in healthcare and science, my favorite subjects. Not to mention the university RN program in 8-5am M-F which leaves my kids in afterschool care 5 days per week. and the Medical lab scientist/tech program is only a couple of hours per day the first two years (part time) to catch up on chemistry courses, and then full time one year as an intern in a hospital laboratory 6:3-3:00pm, giving me time to pick up my kids from school before 6pm. I prefer nursing even though it would cost me an arm and a leg and put my kids in daycare after school for two years, but I do not know if I am wasting my time thinking about this field if the experience I had in the previous nursing school is a glimpse of what it will be like.

[roser13, ASN, RN]

I think you will receive more readers/comments if you could edit your post to include some paragraph breaks.

[tomasala]

Than you for your reply! I will work on the paragraphs. :-)

[Peanut&Buttercup]

What do you want? What happened to you was horrible, but you have to get past it. No matter what field you enter, you will find people who don't treat others as well as they probably could or should.

[LadyFree28, BSN, LPN, RN]

What do you want? What happened to you was horrible, but you have to get past it. No matter what field you enter, you will find people who don't treat others as well as they probably could or should.

This...Such is life; how we handle the situations that happen make us better people. There are negative people everywhere; people who are lazy and have nasty dispositions; nursing is no different, though it doesn't have the corner of negative nasty people.

You are the only one that can make this decision; If you want to become a nurse, so be it; you have to make a plan and decide if you want to miss an opportunity and continue to end up where you still want and desire to be a nurse and not be a nurse OR put the past behind you and use your thick skin-sounds like you have enough of it in your posts-and focus on YOU to survive nursing school and became the nurse YOU want to be...again, that will be your decision.

Best Wishes.