What are the most important things to consider before pursuing nursing?

Before considering a career in nursing, one should consider that the majority of nursing positions (and certainly the best paying ones) are in the hospital. Hospitals are open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week and 365 days a Year. Working weekends, nights and holidays is pretty much a given. You'll work Mother's Day, Father's Day and Easter weekend. Hopefully not all in the same year. You'll work Christmas, Thanksgiving and New Year's -- also hopefully not the same year. You'll work when the liquor is flowing at the neighborhood block party and you'll work when your friends are all celebrating Susie's engagement, attending the 4th of July fireworks or grilling out on Labor Day or Memorial day. Every other weekend and every other holiday is usual for bedside nurses, as is a day/night rotation.

You'll need to get to work when there's a blizzard, a hurricane or a volcano erupting. If you're afraid to drive in snow -- you still have to get to work. (Keep in mind that most of us are afraid to drive in a blizzard -- we get to work anyway.). You'll need to STAY at work if a blizzard prevents your relief from arriving at work on time (or at all).

Sick people aren't always pleasant people, nor are their families. You're going to feel stupid, anxious and afraid for your first year of nursing. It gets better after the first year. You WILL have to study during your time off when you start your first job -- or any new job, really. Lives are at stake.

Given all that, nursing is an interesting, challenging career that will keep you learning every day you go to work. Scheduling is flexible and the people you meet can become best friends for life. Teamwork is essential and camaraderie is wonderful. You get steady, middle class pay and benefits, and you get to make an enormous difference in peoples lives. If you choose to work in a teaching hospital, you'll shape the attitudes of brand new physicians toward nurses and show them that we're all part of the same team. After forty years, I wouldn't change a thing.