student seeking advice!

jalapenomom · Jan 10, 2010

My advise is to keep an open mind throughout school. You will see many things in many departments during your clinical rotations. You may decide you like a different department better, or you may still want to work with new mom's and their babies. Either way, good luck. You have a hard road ahead, but it is worth it. My only regret is that I didn't go to nursing school sooner!

bigbub3000 · Jan 10, 2010

What is it about Medicine and Nursing that you do and don't like? Talk with some real live doctors and nurses to get their take on things. Spend time with them seeing what they actually do, too.

Doctors make lots more money. They have a higher status and more power. They do NOT necessarily have more responsibilities than nurses. Nurses are held to a very high standard, also.

Doctors get a lot more respect than nurses do.

You might think status, respect, power, and money don't matter to you and perhaps they don't mean that much right now. But I think they will later on. It takes money to live, like it or not. And who wants to be less than a first class citizen?

Nurses are admired, trusted, and appreciated by a lot of people. But people don't seem to respect us much at all. Bosses exploit us a LOT.

I'm speaking in generalities, of course. I hope you will take the time to read a lot of the entries here. I wish you the best.

proudnurseRN · Jan 10, 2010

I have to agree, keep an open mind. I went into nursing school thinking I wanted to get into peds. I loved kids, was good with kids...it would be a great fit. It took seeing a child die in the ER to figure out that peds is not a good fit for me. In the process of exploring those feelings I realized ER, NICU, and L&D aren't for me either. Now I actaully think that getting into hospice and end of life care is where I'd like to see myself eventually, but in the meantime I feel much more comfortable working with older people.

TraumaRN2010 · Jan 11, 2010

I work in a trauma/surgical ICU, and we work very closely with our doctors. One of the main differences between the two professions is that doctors prescribe the treatment, the nurses carry out the treatment. Not to say that the doctors just sit there and write prescriptions, but our doctors are responsible for 20+ patients at a time. We are typically responsible for two. it would be impossible for the docs to do both jobs. We are the ones who notify the doctors of changes, give the medicines, take care of the patient, assess and continually reassess to keep up with changes. Our nurses work much more closely with the patients than the docs do. So depends on what you enjoy doing. If you want more patient interaction, nursing is probably a better fit. Doctors may get paid more, but they go through a lot more school than nurses, premed, med school, then residency. It also seems easier for a nurse to change their jobs than doctors. Many nurses will work with different populations before deciding where they belong, or decide they need a change after working a number of years. Both professions take a lot of dedication, so be sure this is what you want to do before putting in the time. Good luck!

bigbub3000 · Jan 11, 2010

it is not necessarily true that doctors have much more schooling than nurses. there is at least one medical school that is only 6 years long. it is at umkc. university of missouri at kansas city, i think it is. easy enough to find out - just google "medical school" or something like that, or talk with your guidance counselor/college advisor.

a nurse might decide to go to a community college for 2 years and earn an associate's degree in nursing. aa or asn this will be proceeded by earning your pre-requisite classes (anatomy, physiology, statistics, chemistry, math, physics, english, sociology, psychology, maybe others) before you are ever admitted to the nursing program.

some students don't like having to get on a waiting list for nursing at the cc, so they go to private schools that cost a whole lot more money than cc. yes, you get done quicker but you come out with a lot of debt, unless you happen to have a lot of funds put aside for school or get scholarships or help from parents. in other words, you will need to figure out how to finance your education. perhaps you already have been doing this - setting money aside for school.

then, she might decide to earn a bachelor's degree in nursing (bsn). that will probably take another 2 years.

she might then want to teach nursing, become a nurse administrator, become a nurse anesthetist or a nurse practitioner or a nurse midwife. this will require earning a msn (master of science degree in nursing) or even a ph.d. that's at least another 2 years.

also, some states require continuing education to renew the nurse's license every 2 years. personally, i am in favor of ce, but it does cost time and money. some employers might pay for this.

with all of this education, all of these degrees, she will likely be balancing work and family life (kids, spouse, homemaking) with going to school. forget about sleeping or having much of a social life or time for yourself. say hello to exhaustion, student loans, and dealing with jealous coworkers and unhelpful bosses (when it comes to helping you accommodate all of the foregoing things with your work schedule. ) that's not true of all bosses and coworkers, but the possibility does exist that they will be less than happy for you. worse still, while the doctor will start out earning $100,000 or close to it per year, the nurse will never earn this much, no matter how many degrees she earns or how long she is a nurse. never. through her whole professional life. yes, there are some exceptions but very few. google rn salaries to see what nurses make in different areas of nursing and in different parts of the country.

something else to consider about nursing - there is very little work for new rn's today. and i'm not sure lpn or lvn's fare much better when it comes to getting hired. what's happening is this: because of the slump in our american economy, employers of nurses (hospitals, home health agencies, and also the long term care, skilled nursing facilities, rehabilatation facilities, and nursing homes, maybe others) are not hiring. period. there are hiring freezes at hospitals and nursing homes. positions that come open, due to retirement or the nurse being fired or whatever, are left open.

there are also some companies who don't want to hire american graduates because they can import nurses from other countries and pay them less money. they cry about "the nursing shortage" while thousands of nurse job positions are open and thousands of new graduates cannot get work. they put out the solution as being to bring in nurses form, for example, the philippines. they pay them much less money than they would have to pay for american nurses. this is very prevalent in california and illinois, for example.

nurses are forced to take on too many patients. there is a limit to how many patients a nurse can care for safely and well. generally speaking, employers turn a deaf ear and a blind eye to this fact and force nurses to care for way too many patients at a time. the nurse can take the assignment under protest, but all that does is get her in trouble. she still has to take the assignment.

there is mandatory overtime. that is, when a nurse reports for duty, she does not know if she will be leaving work at the end of the shift or not. why? because she can't just leave. she must be properly relieved by another nurse who will take over responsibility for her patients. if that nurse doesn't come in and if there is no one else to assume responsibility, guess what - that nurse has to stay. she is mandated. forced to stay and face charges of patient abandonment if she leaves. never mind her own family or her own exhaustion or any appointments she might have or any other personal issues. she's trapped. this gets old very quickly, as you might imagine.

a lot of nurses don't have time for a meal break or even to run to the toilet during their shift, they have so many patients with so many pressing needs.

also, employers (hospital administrators), who are in a nice office somewhere and not face to face with patients and their family members, are forcing nurses to wait on visitors. that is, the nurse cannot concern herself only with her patients and doing things they need done (giving them their meds, changing their bandages, bathing them, getting them toileted, and all the necessary phone calls and paperwork associated with patient care). the nurse must fetch beverages and blankets and chairs and heaven knows what all else for the visitors or face allegations that she is unfriendly and cold. when the nurse needs to be focused on the patients, she is now saddled with baking cookies and serving them to the visitors. i kid you not, courtney. this is nursing in 2010. not all facilities are like this but a great many are. you can read about this here at allnurses.

positive things about nursing: there is joy in helping people; there is the chance to do lots of different types of nursing including travel nurse, correctional facility nurse, and working on a cruise ship or movie set or at a tv studio. the nurse can work any shift day, evening, or graveyard (overnight).

{but don't forget that you might be working on christmas, thanksgiving, 4th of july, and lots of other holidays when the rest of world and probably your own family are home celebrating. like police, fire fighters, some journalists, and tv and radio station workers, nurses are essential workers and must work holidays, weekends, and around the clock. this gets very old very fast.}

ah, i forgot to mention that you will have to find a way to get along with insubordinate subordinate team members. nurses are expected to be in charge. however, there is often a lot of static and back talk and insubordination from the nurse's aides, many of whom will be older and more experienced than you (at first anyway). they will resent you and try to make life very unpleasant for you. fortunately, this does not apply to all of them. but it really takes only 1 bad apple to make the whole scene rotten. you will need good leadership skills. hopefully, you will have a winning personality and/or will be taught how to be a good leader.

also, dealing with some doctors is very unpleasant. most of them are decent but some are very rude. it is miserable and scary dealing with them.

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courtney, i have tried to give you a balanced picture of what nursing is like. i don't mean to discourage or scare you. if nursing is what you want, hey, go for it. i just hope you will go into this with your eyes open if you do decide to become an rn. whatever you choose, i wish you happiness and success.

Chanel63, ASN, RN · Jan 11, 2010

I really appreciated bigbub3000's response, and thank you for not sugar coating it. The medical field is not for the faint at heart, I have been an EKG technician for 3+ years, and the majority of what she is saying is true. I am starting school the 25th of this month, even after knowing all of this.... Okay, Okay I maybe a little insane, lol. I really do appreciate this field, though. Kudos to Bigbub3000 for not letting people go into this field with their eyes wide shut!:stdnrsrck:

courtney123 · Jan 12, 2010

thank you so much for taking the time to answer my post, especially bigbub3000. i'd also like to ask another question, do any nurses pursue a doctorate in nursing? i know it's available, and i know there are different levels and degrees of nursing, but if so, does having a doctorate make a difference in the stability of your career?