Stay with nursing or move on to another career?

labrador4122, RN · Oct 19, 2008

Honestly,

I do not like working with adults (sorry).....however, time does go by, and school eventually finishes and you can find a job that you love.

I work at an all peds hospital 100% with tons and tons of specialties- I love kids and babies & whenever I float to another unit, it's all children.

I felt out of place when in clinicals except for peds----adults it's not my thing.

I love it there.

iteachob, MSN, RN · Oct 19, 2008

You know.....I don't know what they mean by a "calling" either! I asked myself a lot of questions when I was in nursing school too; like, was I really cut out for this?

25 years later, I can say:

Nursing school and nursing practice are indeed different.

Some parts of nursing you will never like or feel comfortable with.

Some parts of nursing you will love.

Sometimes you'll love your job, sometimes you'll wonder "what was I thinking when I got into this?"

You will get out of nursing what you put into it.

If you decide that your pros outweigh your cons (and you stay in nursing), you'll find a place you can flourish; be aware that it might not be in your first position (as a nurse), or in the type of nursing that you think you like (I never set out to be a nursing educator!).

Finally: Not to be cliche, but it's not for everybody.....and that's okay.

Good luck in your decision.

GilaRRT · Oct 19, 2008

i'm considering leaving my nursing program and going into a different career (business?). i discussed this with my instructor and her advice was "think about it." not much help so i'll be talking to other instructors. i was hoping people on here could make some suggestions. i made a list of pros & cons to working as a nurse. i'm starting junior year and i know that nursing school is supposed to be totally different than working as a nurse. we are doing med/surg right now. i know that nursing school is difficult and challenging. i'm afraid if i quit i'll regret it. but, what if i continue and fall in love with peds for example? or what if i continue and burn out? people talk about nursing being a calling but i don't really understand what that means.
pro:
helping others and making a difference in their lives
new challenges and opportunity to learn each day
plenty of job openings with good pay
requires critical thinking, compassion, respect
meet all sorts of interesting people
variety of options & directions to go in nursing
can wear scrubs to work :)
flexible work schedule
cons:
long work hours many jobs including most areas of business.
need strong time management nearly every job.
short staffing many areas of work will be short staffed.
exposure to infectious diseases ever shop at wal mart, use the shopping cart?
bad smells and nasty wounds got me there.
cannot afford to make mistakes (person's life at stake) other jobs have similar responsibilities.
potential for dangers (exposure to radiation, needlesticks, etc) true; however, commuting to work exposes you to a horrible death from a traffic accident.
these are just some ideas. any advice better than my instructors? :)

every job is going to have pros and cons. while a few may be specific to medicine, you will find similar situations in every walk of life and work. your instructor was correct in advising you to think about things. take some time to figure out if nursing is what you want to do. take concepts such as long hours and time management out of the equation, as these are required for many jobs. (especially if you are considering business) good luck.

glb1960 · Oct 20, 2008

I feel you are selling the profession very short. From Associates degree to Doctorate, there are hundreds of subspecialities with a nursing degree. You mentioned business as an option. There are countless business opportunities for RN's. Pre-qualifing, post care follow-up, insurance review, collections, ect... If dealing with those icky humans is the problem, try circulating O.R. nursing, you only need to deal with an awake pt for a few minutes. From Radiology nursing to cath lab nursing to home care to a dozen different types ICU/CCU of nursing, the nursing world is your oyster, if you so choose.

You have done a lot of heavy lifting to get to this point, don't boot it all now, before you understand where your place is in all this. You never HAVE to be caught somewhere you don't want to be. Your R.N. liscense opens SOOOOO many doors, try something new!

Good luck, Gary

woknblues · Oct 20, 2008

I feel you are selling the profession very short. From Associates degree to Doctorate, there are hundreds of subspecialities with a nursing degree. You mentioned business as an option. There are countless business opportunities for RN's. Pre-qualifing, post care follow-up, insurance review, collections, ect... If dealing with those icky humans is the problem, try circulating O.R. nursing, you only need to deal with an awake pt for a few minutes. From Radiology nursing to cath lab nursing to home care to a dozen different types ICU/CCU of nursing, the nursing world is your oyster, if you so choose.
You have done a lot of heavy lifting to get to this point, don't boot it all now, before you understand where your place is in all this. You never HAVE to be caught somewhere you don't want to be. Your R.N. liscense opens SOOOOO many doors, try something new!
Good luck, Gary

Agreed with above..

Your time in is already a commitment. There are no guarantees that your new career choice will not have most of the "cons" on your list. Most of mine have, and I have been in several industries prior to this one.

nurseby07 · Oct 20, 2008

I think you would get better advice if you listed what you were interested in and then see if you can apply nursing to it.

I know people on this site don't like when people say nursing is a calling, so I won't say that, but for me it was (and still is) absolutely what I wanted to do. All of those awful nursing school hoops that I had to jump through were made easier when I would think "If I want to be a nurse I have to do this", especially when it came to getting up at 3 a.m. every single day to study, or sitting through another two hour lecture with the same group of people who raise their hand to say that they too knew someone who had this or that.

And I am not trying to be hard on you, but it always frustrated the beejezus out of me when people were in the program who weren't sure they wanted to be there, when there was a waiting list full of hundreds of qualified applicants who really were sure and would do anything to get in.

Farmer Jane · Oct 20, 2008

Instructors probably aren't much help because they don't know much about other careers. I don't either. My question is, what do YOU like or dislike about nursing? If you really can't see yourself being a nurse, go to another major now before you've invested a ton of time in nursing. Otherwise, explore the career options within nursing and see if something appeals to you.

spinetilt · Oct 20, 2008

Just thought I'd throw in my two cents, here.....

I have been in finance, sales management, asset management and wholeasale lending operations, all of which carried great potential for income as well as the satisfaction of helping people reach whatever goals they had. I've had the 6-figure income, title, car, blah blah blah. There were days that I was on top of the world, and days when I felt the world was on top of me. I can tell you that the grass is NOT greener on this side of the fence, especially considering the level of economic instability/lack of liquidity most companies are faced w/right now. Corporate america is more like a ghetto right now. One of the main reasons for my transition (in school right now) into nursing is the many options that are open to me once I "get in the door." There are not many business careers (I can't think of any) that offer the relative-stability, earnings potential, and variety of specialties that nursing offers. Sometimes we need to come to our own conclusions in life, I know I did. However, get your license and try nursing first. If you don't like it, get into administration or even try your hand in sales. You will have no problem finding a good job in business as an RN. Have you forgotten how tough it was to get into school? It might take a lot of time and effort to get back in to a program if you decide to bail right now. Stick w/ it!! You can't go wrong with an RN license! Plus your employer might help you finish your BSN (if you don't have it already.) There are 1 out of 1000 companies other than hospitals that offer tuition assistance right now.

I'm done. Feel free to contact me if you have any questions.

:)

Faeriewand, ASN, RN · Oct 20, 2008

I would stick with nursing if I were you because there is such a bright future in nursing. Also, not all nursing jobs are 12 hour shifts; you can get a job that is 8 hour shifts. With the economy as it is I would think getting into Business a bad idea. Nursing provides stability no matter what the economy is like. :)

grandkids4 · Oct 20, 2008

I agree as the others, nursings school is not like working as nurse. There are so many fields of nursing, more than any other profession. Look into everything. You have just a short time left. Hang in there. I don't think nursing is a calling for all people. I have done so many things in nursing. I also stopped for a year and became a Deputy sheriff in san Diego, years ago. I came back to nursing and have been doing it a total of 33 yrs. I have done some many different things. Nursing has so many opportunities, so don't give up.