Thinking about nursing... can you help me please??

[Epona]

Hi all. I am new here. I am thinking about nursing and I have some questions. I really love to help people and think I would be a great nurse. I already have a degree in Communications and Biology with a concentration in pre-med. Here is my dilmma... I am afraid of getting an infectious disease as a nurse. I worked as a medical writer for a hospital a few years back and never thought anything about working with doctors or patients. Well, I came down with a very rare disease (I am better now, but took 4 YEARS to get over), that my doctor thinks I contracted while working in the hospital. I was around docs and patients all the time just doing my job and BOOM... I got some weird and very sickening illness. One day I was fine, the next... on LIFE SUPPORT. It took me YEARS to recover and thank God I lived at home or I would have lost everything!! Anyway, I have always loved medicine and love to make a difference in people's lives...but how risky is it to get a deadly disease?? Stuck with a dirty needle??

Also... can nurses were whites (like a while lab coat) or is that primarily for just the doctors?

And... do nurses get any breaks when on duty??

Thanks and I really appreciate the advice here!!! Epona

[Daytonite, BSN, RN]

What disease did you get? It seems pretty rare for a person who basically has an office/desk job in a hospital to come down with a disease transmitted to them from a patient since you would have practically no patient contact. Rare diseases are rare in hospitals too. How is it that they determined that you got this disease in the hospital? The medical supply manufacturers have, for some years, been developing needleless systems as one way to reduce the number of needlestick injuries. Not all needles can be replaced with needleless systems, however.

Nurses today wear scrubs. Some facilities may still want their nurses to wear white uniforms, but not many. The only people who wear white lab coats are those who want to cover their street clothes while working with patients in the clinical areas. Breaks while on duty are mandatory. I always found time to go to the bathroom and take a coffee break. They might not necessarily be at a scheduled time due to sudden emergencies that come up on the hospital unit, but that's the way hospital nursing is.

[NaomieRN]

I would like to know what kind of disease and if anyone else was sick beside you.

If I were you, I would not go for nursing simply because of your fear of getting a disease. In my opinion, you do not have to work at a hospital to come in contact with a virus or a bacteria. I got sick from working at a school few years ago. I cannot tell you that I am afraid to work with children. I am still working with children everyday. I just use more precautions, like washing my hands, using sanitizing lotion after kids sneeze, getting enough sleep, eat healthy, take vitamins, eat a good sources of proteins, since then, I have been fine.

Good luck to you