Was It Worth It?

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I want real, honest opinions.

Was nursing worth it for you? Would you recommend anyone do it, or tell them to run far, far away?

If you could go back, what would you have done with your life?

Specializes in Trauma, Teaching.

I would do it again. I mostly love what I do, although I rant and moan about working conditions (and they have become progressively worse over the years but with this economy I think that is true for many people in many jobs). I get a good deal of satisfaction from a job well done, and am frustrated when I feel I wasn't allowed to do better because of short staffing or whatever.

Went straight to prereqs out of high school for a BSN, was legally passing out narcotics before I was considered mature enough to buy alcohol. I did a masters in education, so as parttime adjunct I teach people to be nurses, guess that means yes I do encourage people to become nurses :roflmao: .

I've traveled (and plan to do more) the world with my degree. Met some very fascinating people. Made a difference here and there. And my mortgage will be paid off in just over 2 years! Had I followed a different path, I would not have met my late husband, nor had the marvelous children I have. So no, no regrets.

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JBudd - love your post.

I too have traveled as a nurse as part of a team that goes to Vietnam. The best part of being a nurse - mission nursing.

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Specializes in Med nurse in med-surg., float, HH, and PDN.

Yes, worth it, and yes, would do it all over again.

But I was lucky, of course, because I went to school back in the day when the tuition didn't cost the same as a brand new car.

And I wasn't married and I didn't have kids, or a house or car payment, nor did I have to commute, as we lived in a dorm attached to the hospital. Any affiliate where we did our clinical was a mere walk, bus-or-subway ride away. Our classrooms, a library, and practice lab were down on the second floor of our dorm.

Not to say it wasn't stressful, but all of the above did make it easier to focus on what I was there for.

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I agree. I too have "only" an associate degree x30+yrs---the idea of spending more money despite how little time I reasonably have left to work is a dilemma. Here with every new hire you must commit to having your BSN within 5 yrs- (with no increase in pay and only minimal financial assistance offered)-in 5 yrs I will be 65yrs old. Seems I have hit a ceiling and receive little respect for my experience---poor me-LOL!

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Yes and no. I did it because I didn't know what else to do, and thought with 60 women to 3 guys, I might finally get laid.

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Becoming a nurse was definitely worth it. My patients gave me so much more than I could ever give them. The aspect of my career I would change would be to get my RN earlier. I now have my MSN and 6 months from completing my DNP so if I were younger I would have had more time to make a bigger impact. I teach nursing as well as still work at the bedside so I get the best of both worlds.

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Specializes in Med nurse in med-surg., float, HH, and PDN.
Yes and no. I did it because I didn't know what else to do, and thought with 60 women to 3 guys, I might finally get laid.

....and did you? No, never mind. I don't actually want to know.

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Was It worth it? After working on the floor for 18 years and seeing new nurses come and go, the question was not should I make the move but more like when will I make my move. Working for a hospital meant long hours, rotating weekends, working on Holidays and zero autonomy. At the end of a busy shift, you still had to give report to an on coming nurse with an attitude. As a NP, I work from 9 to 430 in a nice quite office with a view. The NP program was intense but I would have paid double for this opportunity. So if you are on the fence about this decision, think of your future and go for it.

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Specializes in Dialysis.
Yes and no. I did it because I didn't know what else to do, and thought with 60 women to 3 guys, I might finally get laid.

You are a trip and so unreal!

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I have started to realize that a giant chunk of the population does not know what theywant to be when they grow up, I still don't. I think about nursing or paramedic a lot, whether or not I would be any good at it, what if I totally screw up andhurt someone, the list goes on and on. I think I'm a total chicken s**t most of the time.

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Hey thinwildmercury, I'm about to apply to nursing school and eventually become an OR nurse and then CRNA. I'm stationed in MD right now but I'm from california. I wanted to know, where did you graduate from and where was your first job? What was your position with your BSN?

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I am 22 years old and I plan on applying to an ADN program at my community college for the Fall of 2016. I have an associates degree in Criminal Justice but the field is extremely saturated everyone hates cops but everyone wants to be a cop, I just took the easy route to satisfy my parents wants me to be the first generation of going to college. I have worked in the construction business and that life was not fun at all worked it for 4 years the people were extremly cool but just not for me. I currently work at a bank as a teller so I am getting the taste of the business life and pretty much have came to the conclusion that it's all about sucking up to your superior and annoying the s*** out of every customer and other people to get them to open an account, talk to our financial adviser etc. I am constantly being pushed by upper management to "sell sell sell" I just don't like being forced to sell that isn't me, I do however like the customers that come in and get to chat to them for a few minutes theres always the annoying ones but whatever the nice ones certainly make it worth it. I just know that something for me is in Health Care, I took A&P 1 and 2 over this past summer and got a 4.0GPA I just loved the material now on to Microbiology and that is the last science pre requisuite that I need before I apply is it Nursing for sure? I'm not sure on that but it is something in Health Care and the fact that Nursing offers a wide variety of jobs I think ill stick to it (parents aren't to happy, but this is about me not them) There are a lot of older people in my classes I think more than half the class so for anyone saying they might be too old its not true at all, what is true though might be the girl to guy ratio :)

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