To overcome nursing heebie-jeebies?

[angel5000]

Hi all,

I'm new to writing in this forum so I'm just going to jump right in. I know it's silly to say but I feel like the clock is ticking for me as I am almost 30 and not in my full career as of yet. I've always had an interest in nursing, mostly when it comes to helping and advocating for women and children. If I continue on my path, my ultimate goal is to be a nurse-midwife. I have my bachelor's degree in public health and I'd like to take the next steps but the only thing that is making me hesitant is the gross things that many speak about in nursing, especially in nursing school. I'm not sure if I'll get used to what goes on but my biggest fear is to see things that may trigger my trypophobia (do not look it up or post it please) or just things that are unpleasant. But it's so weird that I wouldn't really care if it involves women or babies. To be completely transparent anything other than that I fear. I wish there was a way to jump right in and only learn what I'm interested in but it doesn't work that way. I thought about just being a regular midwife but it's more lucrative to be a certified nurse-midwife. If there was a career that affords me the ability to help women and children directly without the gross beginning I would jump at it. However, I haven't come across anything like that yet. For example, with all the talk regarding policing women's bodies, I would love to help and be a part of that any way I can but I feel like being a nurse would be a huge bulk of that. I aspire to be a women's health advocate. I don't know, I'm a bit lost. I want to make sure I am doing the right thing before I spend money on courses soon. Any advice would be helpful.

Thank you 

[NICU Guy, BSN, RN]

On 5/28/2022 at 12:49 PM, angel5000 said:

with all the talk regarding policing women's bodies, I would love to help and be a part of that any way I can but I feel like being a nurse would be a huge bulk of that. I aspire to be a women's health advocate.

I am assuming when you say "policing women's bodies", you are referring to abortions. As a Nurse Midwife you have two patients. You want to be a women's health advocate, but can you also be a prenatal baby health advocate? Once you start delivering extremely preterm babies, it will be difficult to see them as anything other than human babies.

[kbrn2002, ADN, RN]

There is no path to becoming a nurse that skips the general nursing education/degree.  You can't just jump right into becoming a nurse midwife without first becoming a nurse. 

[compressionsock, BSN, RN]

I would say get some hands-on clinical experience before you even apply to nursing school (CNA/LNA, med tech, EMT, MA, etc). If you are already averse to the idea of bodily function or perhaps wound care I would suggest seeing what the life of a labor nurse or nurse mid-wife is first.