Unsure-ABSN, PA, Teaching?

[lynnhg]

Hi,

As my title suggests..I am trying to figure out my career path. I graduated in 2011 with a bachelors in biology. I was trying to find an entry level science technician job but they are hard to get. I have a huge interest in biology and the health field. I have done job shadowing of PTs, dentists, PAs, podiatrists, and I have a few family members in nursing and teaching. I really love talking about/explaining biology but I also am very compassionate and love to help others/make them feel better. I am worried though as I shadowed a PA and got a vasovagal reflex just from watching a knee joint being drained with a large needle! I tend to get dizzy when watching new procedures or things with blood. I am very motivated to get past this though (although it seems genetic)! I know PAs tend to go into surgery and I am more interested in primary care.

I know there are pros/cons to the careers-I guess the main issue is whether I want to go into teaching or health care and if I decided on health care whether it would make more sense for me to go to PA school or my ABSN and eventually my NP? Would it be easier to go into teaching and then nursing or nursing-->teaching and has anyone struggled with the same decisions as I am?

I am trying to substitute teach to see how I like that and I am trying to volunteer/follow an RN but the hospitals are not responding.

[ImThatGuy, BSN, RN]

Forget teaching. Been there. Done that. It's a terribly crappy job in which you're vested with no authority to effect the management of a classroom you're held responsible for. I taught biology, anatomy/physiology, chemistry, and earth science. For what it's worth, when you teach high school you are not "talking about/explaining biology."

If you can get into PA school without having to sidetrack and work some number of years in healthcare first then go for it.

If the doctoral schools are out, and you can't get into PA school without wasting life bumming around some random allied healthcare job to check a box on an application then go for the accelerated BSN program. My BSN program is really not that hard. It's not accelerated. It's 24 months with the summer in between off. I thought it was wasted time, but I used it to work a whole lot more and find miss right. (I work a lot anyway whether it's the school year or not.) One more semester to go, and I'm out and will quickly wipe undergrad. degree number two off my feet, lol.

After you finish your BSN program you can start working and begin a state university online NP program, if midlevel practice is a goal, and be done with it. I plan to start as soon as I graduate, i.e. summer 2012.

All in all, if you have the time, youth, and drive to go to medical school or something similar then do it. I would if weren't already vested in life.