To pursue Nursing or not?

[Guvner]

I feel as if I've reached a crossroads with regards to my planned career change and was looking to get some opinions. My situation is this, I'm a 29yr old male, married and for the past 18months I have been working on changing careers from something I absolutely hate to something that I could enjoy, after lots of research I found nursing (last June) and haven't turned back since. There is a lot about the profession that attracts me, the challenge, variety, the chance to help others and make a difference, great job security, etc etc, I certainly understood all the hardships involved in nursing from the the disgusting stuff you have to deal with to the backstabbing co-workers and none of that bothered me as I realized it was a small price to pay for a rewarding job.

So I have been working on getting my pre-req courses, I have almost 3 done, but plan to redo one to up my mark, I will admit working full time and having to deal with life in general has made it hard for me to focus 100% on my pre-reqs so it has taken over a year to get just these courses done. Everything was going as planned when just this month I was offered the opportunity to apply for a job that interested me a great deal, its an apprenticeship in a skilled trade and it was at this point that I realized I really enjoy that kind of work too.

This got me thinking about a lot of things, but primarily CAN I HANDLE 4 YEARS OF NURSING SCHOOL? do I really want to be in school for 4 hard years? at first I was crazy gunghoe on doing this, school was not a concern as I was passionate about it and nothing was going to stop me. As an academic I was never a strong student in HS, I would much rather do something with my hands or physical than sit in a classroom for a 2hr lecture or spend hours reading a book, by the way I have only ever read one book cover to cover in my life, The Great Gatsby, I just have such a short attention span when it comes to this kind of stuff. Reading stories of how hard nursing school is and how much reading your instructors make you read weekly, plus the high rate of people getting kicked out or failing freaks me out now. Then there is the concern that I need to work minimum 20hrs a week, plus my wife and I need a roomate in our house just so that we can make ends meet, living like that for 4 years is going to be mega stressfull as we will no doubt rack up $1000's in debt. And then on top of this all our friends are having kids now and finally I think I'm ready for kids, but we couldn't until I'm done school.

Now I know this job I applied for will very likely amount to nothing with the high amount of applicants (fingers still crossed), but putting that aside I now feel like going into nursing school will no doubt end in failure and that I should instead focus on skilled trades where I can get paid in an apprenticeship and continue on with my life.

I posted this here because I wanted to hear from those that are in school now and that perhaps someone else came into school with the same thinking as me.....I feel like I'm rambling on, any opinions would be great. Thanks

[rickelli]

I think that nursing is a wonderful career and ever since I started my pre-reqs. in 2004 I have a new appreciation for nurses because school is very hard and very demanding but I have managed to pull through it. I am starting the nursing program next month and I know that it will be hard and I am scared but at the same time I know I can do it and I will give it my all. It has taken a long time for me to get to this point and I am not going to stop now. I would suggest that you continue to take your pre- reqs and if you get the other job great and if one day you do want to be a nurse then some of your classes with be out of the way. It can't hurt to take just one class a semester. it took me so long because I didn't always go full time and had to take some semesters off in-between but here I am and hopefully in 16 months I will be an RN (my program is accelerated). Do what your heart says and what will be best for you in the long run. Good Luck with whatever you choose.