Should I major in nursing?

Sour Lemon · Aug 21, 2016

How are your grades? How well controlled are your depression and anxiety? How good of a conversationalist you are is not much of an indicator...

cleback · Aug 21, 2016

While it's nice to have a social conversation with your patient to build rapport, honestly you won't have that much time to go beyond traditional questions of "how are you?" "Where are you from?". Then it will be time to get down to business.

I would try to shadow a nurse in a setting you think would be interesting, if your highschool arranges such experiences. Otherwise, become a certified nurse assistant. You will be able to see what nurses do firsthand to decide if it's for you.

TheCommuter, BSN, RN · Aug 21, 2016

Moved to the Pre-Nursing Student forum for more responses.

mmd1030 · Aug 21, 2016

I have about an A- average. It's quite controlled as I'm pretty heavily extroverted and I get energy around people and its only when I'm alone that everything really bothers me. I just thought that maybe I should be more talkative and that it might be a problem.

Oxygenforeverybody · Aug 21, 2016

I did poorly in highschool in some areas (Mainly because of bad habits / depression / violence) and I was never a 'socialable' person unless with people I was comfortable with. So I understand the anxiety and 'being shy' or 'socially awkward' I'm about to be 26 and Its still a battle, But you grow, mature and learn especially if you're like stated trying to better yourself. Public speaking is a skill that everyone needs to learn. Some grasp public speaking way easier than others while others do not. As long if you're self improving yourself and putting yourself in these social environments than thats good.

Like stated above, Maybe volunteer at a few hospitals, Shadow a nurse and see how you like it. You're going to have to interact with everyone including if you want to pursue a nursing career, but like stated you won't be chit chatting away with eevery patient other than getting information and maybe some small talk but as busy as nurses seem to be (Especially when I did a clinical as a ER tech) We didn't talk to our patiens to often' unless we where actually working on them / in that area but you'll grasp the idea and find it if you're serious.

I suggest maybe looking into some public speaking courses or anything online taht could help you better yourself as well. What helped me the most was taking the dive and joining hte military. That will definitely break you out of the 'shyness' lol. Good luck!

mmd1030 · Aug 21, 2016

I am lucky enough that my aunt is a nurse and is trying to bring me into her hospital for shadowing. I can do well with that type of small talk as I have worked for 3.5 as a cashier and have been working on making conversation.

mmd1030 · Aug 21, 2016

Thank you this was very helpful!!

emmy27 · Aug 23, 2016

The public perception of what nurses do- that is, stand by the bedside and talk to, medicate, and otherwise provide direct care to patients- is the tip of the iceberg in terms of what the role really is. Most of your job is actually in synthesizing the information you're gathering while you interact with the patient, the orders that you have, the history and test results that are being gathered, and interpreting changing conditions, deciding how to prioritize and delegate tasks, and teaching patients while you work. You're doing all of this across several patients at one time in an inpatient setting, with frequent interruptions. Yes, nurses provide a lot of direct care, but much of that can be delegated to non-licensed staff if needed. The thing they're paying you the big(ger) bucks for is actually the training and license that gives you an idea of what needs to be done and why.

Being good at chatting with people certainly makes one aspect of nursing easier (as it makes most jobs interacting with others easier) but it isn't much of an indicator of whether you'll like or thrive in nursing. How much you enjoy multitasking, critical thinking, and the concepts of anatomy and physiology and pharmacology are way more important.

I agree that shadowing a nurse is a good idea. Consider how you enjoy your science classes (there will be a lot of those) and how you react under pressure. Does the idea of being directly responsible for things that are potentially life and death sound appealing or panic-inducing? Does the idea of learning about diseases and teaching people about things that are vitally important to them (but that they may not be willing or able to easily understand) sound fun or awful?

These are more important questions, I think, than how good of a conversationalist you are. I'm very introverted, but the amount of "small talk" required/possible in most nursing situations is so small that even someone like myself who would rather not chat with strangers has no problem making it through those interactions with a standard set of questions and jokes.

Good luck! I hope your shadowing goes well.