Next year I'll be starting my prereq classes to become a nurse... But this forum is scarring me!
Reading all the posts about the stress, the overwork, the nasty patients, and the difficulties of nursing school has got me thinking. Should I purse nursing? What if I regret my decision?
I have been accepted to a university where I could get a typical four year degree, for a typical office job. Or I could go to my local community college, finish my prereqs and start nursing school.
What questions should I be asking myself to make a decision? As individuals who went through nursing school and nursing, what advice can you give me?
I also recommend being an aide first. I worked as an aide for a couple years, then an LPN, and now I'm studying for my boards for my RN. I became an aide at 19 with no real interest in it. The nursing home I work for paid for my aide training and gave me thousands toward school over the years. I found I had a lot of talent for nursing type skills as an aide. Otherwise I would never had even thought of going to nursing school, especially since people put it down so much. If you hate it you can look at doing something different as a career.
Nursing school is hard and, as I have gathered, when I am an RN that would be hard. But I can tell you that coming from a boring job that I hated, I would rather be mentally stimulated everyday then to go back to my old, high paying career.
There will always be frustrations when dealing with the public. Fast food workers, waitresses, grocery store employees, nearly anyone. There are many rewards in nursing and sooo many ways you can be a nurse but in one area that may frustrate you. If what you think you want is to be a nurse, go for it. Your initial definition of "nurse" may change over time. Your initial degree will still be nurse.
Next year I'll be starting my prereq classes to become a nurse... But this forum is scarring me!
Reading all the posts about the stress, the overwork, the nasty patients, and the difficulties of nursing school has got me thinking. Should I purse nursing? What if I regret my decision?
I have been accepted to a university where I could get a typical four year degree, for a typical office job. Or I could go to my local community college, finish my prereqs and start nursing school.
What questions should I be asking myself to make a decision? As individuals who went through nursing school and nursing, what advice can you give me?
This forum has a tendency of magnifying the negatives of nursing. I think that's because people look for a place to vent and get things off their chest. Even in threads NOT set up explicitly for venting, I think people come here to work out a lot of negative energy. So far nursing has not been nearly as unpleasant as this forum makes it out to be, my coworkers aren't catty and backstabbing (any more than ANY other profession), the work is hard and challenging BUT rewarding, I'm a new grad and go home every day feeling like I've learned a lot and have done well keeping my head above water. In school, the material was challenging but I actually enjoyed what I was learning and clinicals while I was going through it.
Use AN cautiously and with a grain of salt. Worst case scenario, if you go and become a nurse and regret the decision....you can do something else. You wouldn't be the first person to change careers. But think about why you want to be a nurse, what you get out of it. Try to talk to some nurses in real life who are open to mentoring.
Specializes in Family Practice, Urgent Care, Cardiac Ca.
You have to want to be a nurse, you have to be made alive by the challenge, enlivened by the stick situations, and above all, I think you must have a willingness to walk towards those situations and learn from them. It's challenging, but I've learned more about my heart and mind in nursing than any desk job might have offered.
I have not read all the prior responses so please forgive if this repeats advice.
As a student I did not frequent the general nursing discussion forum. I was a student and concentrated on studies and hung around in the student forums. No need to stress yourself about before it's time.
Nursing is a profession that suits my skills, personality, and interests so I feel like I'm willing to put up with just about anything to be able to do it. It's my second career so I know what's out there and I know how dissatisfied I was with other career issues.
The vents seem to me to be representative of what I see out there, either stuff that I've been through or stuff that my co-workers and friends have been through.
Every profession has it's bad side. I remember many occasions of going out with co-workers after work (in my other life) and venting for hours about our jobs.
It bothers me though, that people on the one hand complain about how nurses are such martyrs and put up with so much crap, but then on the other hand, say that we are too negative and we need to quit complaining. Sometimes it does seem like a free-for-all, people come here and just dump on the job, and maybe the complaining process needs to be more structured, but the process has to start somewhere, and it starts with us saying that such and such is wrong and why, how, what, where, when do we fix it.
Though I agree that a good portion of the posts on this sight are just students and nurses venting, the frustration behind that which makes them want to complain is very real. You have to examine your reasoning for wanting to be a nurse, if you are looking for an exceptionally high paying profession that requires little education/effort and jobs are handed out like free candy at the bank, it ISN'T for you (school is tough, the education never stops, the pay isn't that great, and jobs are tough to come by even for experienced nurses harder for new grads). If you have some glamorous view of nursing and what we do, perhaps something you have seen on television shows, it is NOT for you (nursing is far from glamorous, in fact it is quite dirty: blood, vomit, poo, sputum, you name it, you'll deal with it!:chair:) It can be rewarding but if you don't treasure those few moments, the frustration from: long hours, uncertainty, crazy patients, disrespect/complaints from families/physicians, short staffing, and so on will comsume you:angthts: and make you wonder what you were thinking going into nursing. There is more out there than just boring office jobs and nursing... So my advice is exam you reasoning, take the time to find out what you are passionate about, do your research, and take the advice from those who actually know what they are talking about, those in the field...
Even though the job market is bad I still feel like my field is full of opportunities. You can always go advanced practice if you don't like other RN roles... or you can find a non-traditional job. There are more options in the nursing field than many many others.
Specializes in CCU, SICU, CVSICU, Precepting & Teaching.
next year i'll be starting my prereq classes to become a nurse... but this forum is scarring me!
reading all the posts about the stress, the overwork, the nasty patients, and the difficulties of nursing school has got me thinking. should i purse nursing? what if i regret my decision?
i have been accepted to a university where i could get a typical four year degree, for a typical office job. or i could go to my local community college, finish my prereqs and start nursing school.
what questions should i be asking myself to make a decision? as individuals who went through nursing school and nursing, what advice can you give me?
there are people in every profession who are dissatisfied with their jobs, their careers, their employers, whatever. and i'm sure if you looked for posts from cops, lawyers, accountants, etc. you'd find about the same ratio of positive to negative posts. people use this forum as a safe place to vent. everyone -- even the happiest employee -- has days they just have to vent about the clueless boss, the nasty, demanding customers (patients), the hours, the workload, whatever. that's just human nature. if this forum is scaring you, stop reading. really, we're not all here to blow sunshine at the students!
DizzyLizzyNurse
1,024 Posts
I also recommend being an aide first. I worked as an aide for a couple years, then an LPN, and now I'm studying for my boards for my RN. I became an aide at 19 with no real interest in it. The nursing home I work for paid for my aide training and gave me thousands toward school over the years. I found I had a lot of talent for nursing type skills as an aide. Otherwise I would never had even thought of going to nursing school, especially since people put it down so much. If you hate it you can look at doing something different as a career.