would you recommend nursing as a career

Nurses Career Support

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Nursing is a noble profession.I believe you should not enter into this profession unless you are called.It is demanding, time consuming, can and does interfere with your social life, the financial gains are low,however, the measure of satisfaction one derives from caring for an acutely ill person and seeing them recover after being close to death is invaluable.No other profession gives you the opportuunity to impact on someone's life the way nursing does.Yes I would recommend nursing as a career if you are looking for oppotunities to give of your very self and experience the joy and satisfaction that comes from caring

Nursing is a great career for those that have the intelligence and strength to make it so!

Nursing can pay *very well* for the amount of time that one puts into education. Frankly, I do not see the financial incentive to pursue a BSN over an ADN -- but if one wants the greater independence and control of a Nurse Practitioner then go for the Masters, by all means!

Nurses do not have to work in hospitals, and they do not have to work double shifts or mandatory overtime. They choose to do so, by staying in jobs where this is customary and by being afraid to look at other options outside of their "comfort zone" of institutional nursing. Nurses are the only so-called "professionals" that I am aware of that overwhelmingly believe that they must do shift work for an employer and have benefits hand-fed to them.

There are thousands of unemployed people in the USA right now, many of which used to have lucrative careers in technology, that would be thrilled to death to have been educated in a field that needs the numbers of graduates that nursing needs and in which they can travel to virtually any state in the USA and *easily* find a job.

I love nursing. I love it for the value it gives to humanity, and for the financial freedom it gives to *me*. But then again, I worked as a social services worker, a utilities worker, an insurance agent, and a waitress before getting my nursing degree. I have urged all 4 of my children to consider nursing, as I have watched them struggle to stay employed in other fields and struggle to pay their bills making much less than they could be making.

I know that some areas of the US pay much better than others, and my advice to those of you who are burnt out to the point that you can no longer see what a great career you have is to consider moving to a place where you will make what you are worth, *or* consider moving to a specialty (Home Health, Clinic, HD, etc.) where you will have more autonomy.

Wonderful patient care and self-sacrifice are not the same. You are a *nurse*, not a martyr or Mother Teresa. Hospitals make money. Healthcare is very big business in the USA. As long as nurses act as if they don't have choices (when they do) and they don't have power (when they do) the business-heads will surely take advantage of them.

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no way!! not anymore!! unsafe staffing, greater acuity and low pay! not to mention the legal ramifications from a sue happy society! I'm just biding my time until the kids are out of school. Find a calling elsewhere, I'm sorry to feel this way but changes in the healthcare system are needed.

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Before I even graduated in 1993 I could see the changes in nursing starting. I was a CNA for years prior to becoming a nurse. At that time a patient was a person. Now they are a number. There is very little time if any to spend with a patient now. All management thinks about is filling in the holes in the schedules. I worked short for so long I went through burn out for a year before I could work again. I still to this day can not go back to hospital nursing and I loved doing cardiac nursing. I now work in a nursing home and life hasn't changed much. They still higher incompitant staff and we still work short. I have just learned to say no more often even if my fellow coworkers have to work short. Would I recommend nurssing, NO. Maanagement doesn't caree about you. The money you make is not worth putting your licence on the line. For the kids comming out of college, nursing is more then pushing pills, doing your paper work .and trying to catch a doctor. It is about caring. It is about saving lives and giving a bath when needed. It is about emptying a bed pan now and then instead of hunting down a CNA to do it when you are already in the room. It is about changing incontient patients when you find one when giving a suppository. From what I see coming into the system now, they are lucky if they are taught these things. In this state if you have a BSN it means nothing and the ones who have can do all the paper work well but forget the rest. If that is the case why should I bother to get my BSN. I have said my peace. I am sorry if some do not agree

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I am very concerned that we will not have enough nurses to take care of ME when I might need it 20 years from now. After the article in the Sept. Readers Digest about the average age of nurses, I was FLOORED by that revelation. Until then it did NOT DAWN on me, how the MAJORITY of nurses on the floor where I work all ALL in their 50's!! New nurses that ARE in school are NOT planning on being MED SURG nurses, which is going to be the GREATEST need in the future!!!! We NEED NURSES NOW!!!! BUT YES, we need people who have a real LOVE for this profession!

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Well, I found some of your posts very interesting. Would I chose nursing as a career again? YES. I wish my son had gone to nursing school.

Now I DO NOT believe in this calling business. There was NO calling for me. In my era there were very few career options open to women. I definetely did NOT want to be a secretary. I wanted to do the other "woman's" profession and teach. Alas, I could not get into teachers college but I could get into nursing school.

Now I had worked as an aide in high school, and the nurses had sparked my interest even though I protested. So nursing was not that big a stretch for me.

Now over the years I have had my ups and downs with nursing, and even left it for awhile thinking the grass was greener. During my hiatus, I found that I missed nursing so I came back and went back to school.

Do I regret it today. Sure when I am having a bad day BUT by and large nursing has been good to me. Do I make a fortune no but I make a decent living.

I always made more than most of my friends, I could work even when my kids were little and as they got older I worked more.

I have had many different experiences. How many other fields can say that they have so much to chose from and can travel all over the country if they so desire. We are always in demand and have job security that many people these days would kill for.

So all in all is nursing a bad thing nope. If we as a group bad mouth nursing all the time, then why should anyone else respect us and pay us well. We do ourselves a great diservice by being so fragmented. I am glad to see that nurses are finally saying NO and fighting back with strikes, job actions and so on. We are one million strong with a lot of voting power if only we got together.

So my answer if you are inclined to nursing go for it. Just be prepared to eat, sleep, and breathe nursing while you are in school.

Ellen

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I can still remember my college career counselor saying:

"You know, Randy, these computers are just a passing fad. You need a field where you can make a living."

One day, that S.O.B. will show up in my ER.

I have SO MANY plans for him when he does.....:D https://allnurses.com/forums/#

https://allnurses.com/forums/#

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