Should I be a nurse? A few questions....

Rockit · Apr 17, 2007

Hello. In 2005 I made a decision to go back to school for nursing at the age of 47. Even though I felt a calling to it, it still wasn't easy to decide whether to go for it. The schooling is a years-long committment. In the end, it is kind of a leap of faith. Nursing is a job with great responsibility. That's one of the reasons nursing school is challenging. You can limit the stress in nursing school by keeping up with the work and really immersing yourself in the subject matter. It's not something you can easily do "on the side". Nursing is a professional job and there's no ceiling on the knowledge or growth.

classicdame, MSN, EdD · Apr 17, 2007

Nursing school is hard because there is a lot of new stuff to learn all at once. Towards the end it all starts to make sense so things do get better but the deadlines and hours needed for clinical rotations, etc. are stressful for families as well as students. Nursing itself is hard for a million reasons. It requires focus and time management. Some people just can't handle the regimen, much less the actual work. However, it is also very rewarding. There are so many ways to practice, not just in a hospital, so you really make your career more flexible. Nurses in a hospital generally work 3 twelve hour shifts per week but some work 8 hr shifts. The thing is, those shifts can be at night and weekends because the hospital never closes. So think about that.

gt4everpn, BSN, RN · Apr 17, 2007

Well You Like It Somewhat So Far So That Is A Promising Sign. Of Course, Everyone Has A Differnce Of Opinion On How U Know It's For You But Try It Out For A Little Longer, Go To Different Specialties In Nrsg If U Can And Try To Envision Yourself Working In A Nrsg Environment, Of Course No Career Runs As Perfect As We'd Like So Don't Get Nervous When People Talk About Their Own Nrsg Experiences. U May Be Able To Do Better At Nrsg Than Other People So Don't Really Pay Too Much Attention To Others Opinions. Good Luck!

RNperdiem, RN · Apr 17, 2007

Nursing does allow for time with your family. There are options like working on weekends only. I work per diem. This means I call the hospital with the days and hours I want to work. There are no benefits, but the pay rate is higher and there is maximum flexibility.

Do you want to be a nurse?

Well, I believe the only way to see what nurses really do "behind the scenes" is to become a nursing assistant and work with nurses. You don't have to work fulltime. It makes a great student job. And you will really know what you are getting into before you invest in a nursing education.

TrudyRN · Apr 18, 2007

Hi and welcome!

Nursing school is hard for the reasons mentioned. There is so much to learn - names of every muscle, every bone, every nerve, every blood vessel, every organ, tons of medications, a great many diseases and and surgical procedures. You must also adjust to the whole culture of Nursing and Medicine and to the whole culture of being a nurse. Some of the people you will encounter will not be very nice. You will have to learn to adjust to and deal with and get along with a lot of types of people - the nice and the not nice. Yet, it is doable because no one expects you to learn it all and do it all at once.

The information and experiences are given methodically, in manageable amounts.

The other reasons that Nursing school is tough are that:

1. you must submit to the leadership of your teachers and not everyone finds it easy to submit. And some teachers, while plenty knowledgeable, are not the easiest people to submit to. Yet, you must find a way to get along with them.

2. you must keep up with the work or you will fall behind, perhaps irreparably.

Plan to spend 3 hours outside of class for every hour you spend in class per week.

The rewards are decent - pay not too bad, lots of choice in what area to work, feeling good about helping people. I suggest, though, that you hang out here on the board and read lots of posts because, like any profession, you will find that it is imperfect. Are you prepared to work holidays, nights, evenings, weekends? Give enemas and other intimate care to people? Hold someone's life in your hands while giving meds? Inflict necessary pain on people doing dressing changes, moving them, giving injections and drawwing blood, be with them at their worst (dying, died, afraid and in pain, etc.?)

Not everyone can do these things but maybe you are cut out for this. I hope you are. We need good nurses. I wish you the best.

Nur_1996 · Apr 18, 2007

Nursing is not easy, by any means;however; as posted by the previous posters, it is a very good profession. As you said also, there are many types of places where nurse work. You can work in offices, schools, camps, prisions, hospitals, hospice, nursing homes etc. The schedules are various, and during different times of your life, you may change your specialty based on you and your family's needs. Even through the bad days, I am happy to be a nurse, a honest profession, pay is not too bad, and in high demand.

anne74 · Apr 18, 2007

I think nursing school is tough because it requires more than academic excellence , which is tough in itself. It also challenging physically and emotionally. Nursing school is a HUGE time committment. Nursing is my second degree, and I the time I put into nursing school is tenfold to what I did for my first degree - this is counting the lectures, clinicals, and studying outside of class.

Picture going to the hospital the night before your clinical, gathering information on your pt, going home and looking up all the drugs they're on (and many are on 20+), plus all the diseases they have (many have multiple); plus all their lab values and what they mean with respect to their multiple diseases and multiple drugs, etc. - spending all night doing this, typing it up, etc, then showing up at 7 a.m. the next morning, and being quizzed merciously on all the information you just saw for the first time the night before. Then taking a test with questions that make no sense (multiple choice tests where there is more than one correct answer, but you have to pick the MORE correct answer to get it right.) Also, toss in various nursing instructors who are bitter and mean, and look for ways to get you kicked out of your program. Granted, this sounds very pessimistic, and I never personally was victimized in nursing school, but that's the atmosphere and attitude at many nursing schools.

But, if you can make it out of nursing school, the actual job of nursing is much different. It's still very taxing academically, physically and emotionally - every day. You have to be able to critically think through a pt's symptoms, implement scientific principles, act like a quarterback and manage multiple task with multiple pts, and then the next minute, clean up poop and get puked on - and get yelled at by angry, demanding family members.

Plus, I used to think - wow - working only 3 days a week? That's a piece of cake compared to my old job of working 5 days, 60 hours a week. Well, a 12-hour shift of nursing leaves you totally exhausted - so much, that you need at least one day a week just to physcially recover. It's not uncommon to not eat lunch or go to the bathroom for hours during your shift.

Nice things about nursing - there's a wide variety of what you can do with a nursing degree. Hours are very flexible. You truly are helping people. It's very entertaining - you always have great stories. It's never boring. It's new every day. It can be financially rewarding - although, starting out, I'm completely broke because my student loans for nursing school are bleeding me dry. I have to live on $50 for the next two weeks after all my bills are paid. Also, I live in an area where the salaries do not match up with the cost of living. (I live in Denver, which doesn't have a nursing shortage, since so many people chose to move out here. Therefore, hospitals aren't forced to pay great salaries to attract people.)

That's good that you followed a nurse already. Keep researching, keep asking questions. In the end, if you do become a nurse and decide you hate it, there is always something else you can do with the degree, so it's not a loss. Good luck to you.

ronsprincess · Apr 18, 2007

Thanks so much for all of your advice. I have spent a lot of time talking to people who are either nurses or in nursing school to get an idea of if I would be able to handle nursing. As far as caring for people yes. I have experianced being both the patient and the family member of a patient. I have seen a lot of wonderful nurses, and I have seen them deal with a lot of rude patients, families, ect so I do know that I will encounter this.

When I job shadowed a neonatal nurse I really enjoyed that. I think if I did go into nursing I would like to be a nicu nurse. The nurse I shadowed love it because she knew she didn't want to do ault nursing and she only works two days a week and every third weekend. And yes I know if I work in a hospital I will have to work weekends and holidays. I don't mind, I think it would bother me to work christmas day but I know everyone will have to do it during a career as a nurse. I guess you just do christmas on a different day.

Can you tell me more about clinicals in detail? Also about how many classes do you take at a time in nursing school? And what have you had to disect in A & P? A lot of people have told me they have had to disect a cat with hair on it?! I'm a cat person............. How do I get past that? I know it sounds silly but I would have a hard time doing that. But I know if I want to be a nurse I will have to get over it.

Thanks again for all of yor advice. Any reccommendations on some other boards I should visit on this site?

ronsprincess · Apr 18, 2007

Anne74-Thanks for your honesty, it scared the crap out of me, but I appreciate it, and I am still thinking about nursing! :)

tessa2888 · Apr 18, 2007

Hi I'm new here so I don't know where tp post so I'm sorry but I would like to know where I could find study materials for Fundamentals of Nursing.

Thnakyou

anne74 · Apr 18, 2007

Sorry Ronsprincess - I don't mean to scare you. But, I went into nursing school focusing on the "I'm going to help people and make a difference in people's lives!" attitude - which is only part of the story. And then reality smacked me in the face. Nursing does involve that, but you have those moments in between all the hard work and multiple challenges. I've never done NICU nursing, but that sounds less hectic and harsh then other nursing areas (like med/surg). (Although, working with little people always scared me because they're so small, it's very easy to overdose them. I always had a fear of that. And, the parents can be tough to deal with. You can become the punching bag for their problems, even though you're helping them. You feel like a social worker a lot - But, that's just my impression. Perhaps real NICU nurses can give more accurate insight.)

Anyway, if your expectations are managed and you go into it knowing that it will be hard, you probably won't get the shock that I did. I just wish I had gotten the whole story before I started. It seems like a lot of people sugar coat nursing, and put the focus on the Florence Nightengale thing, and you think that everyone will thank you and be gracious for the care you're giving them. Many do, but many don't also. I think everyone deserves honesty - otherwise, how do you make an informed decision?

As for dissecting animals in A & P - it depends on the class. I dissected a cat in my high school A & P class, but not college. But, you have to be in the mindset that it's for learning, and you start to see that the body is a machine with innerworkings that we must understand to treat it. You need to have compassion, but also be able to separate emotion from doing your job. Otherwise, you can't be effective. And, honestly, in nursing you'll see grosser things than a dead cat. But you learn to cope. Everyone has a hurdle to get over. Mine was poop.