What Is The Deal With All The Highly Educated & Professionals Becoming RNs?

[PMFB-RN]

So I pretty much always have nursing students with me. I have senior BSN students who are doing a critical care class (six 12 hours shifts), ADN students from 2 different programs doing their preceptorships (eight 12 hour shifts), ABSN students doing clinical (six 12 hour shifts), and direct entry MSN students who shadow me for a shift. In addition I come into contact with a variety of other students who are being taught by my RN co-workers. My hospital also has a "student nurse technician" program where they hire nursing students to do CNA type work. So I regularly talk to 5-10 nursing students a week and nearly always have a student with me each shift.

What I am so shocked about is the level of education of these students who are in nursing school. I can't even remember the last time I had a ADN student who didn't already have a bachelors degree with me. Of course the MSN and ABSN students already have bachelors degrees, but what is surprising to me is that so many are already professionals in others areas. I had a student who already has a bachelors and masters in architecture and worked for a well known local firm, I have had lawyers, police officers, scads of teachers, and a few engineers among others. Even a guy who is an MD in Russia.

Why do all of these people want to be nurses? Have any of you experienced this?

Back when I was in nursing school there were plenty of 2nd career types in my class but they tended to be factory workers, truck drivers, farmers, military vets who were moving up to become RNs. A few had bachelors degrees but not like now.

I actually find it frightening and a little sad. Frightening cause I suspect this is a symptom of a very bad economy and terrible job market. Sad cause I know so many of the will struggle to find work after making huge sacrifices to get through nursing school.

Some of them are SHOCKED when I tell them it's a tough job market out there for RNs and they will have to work hard and keep on their toes to find any job. Some simply refuse to believe me (nearly all the direct entry MSN students, ironic since they will struggle in our local market more than the others). Others already have this figured out and are already bitter about it.

Ok, I got it with the tech stuff. Sorry. I have a very honest, not trying to ruffle feathers, question. All the older, second career nursing students, if this was your dream job as a child, why did you not do nursing as a first career? To me, in my opinion (again my perception), I think it is a little beauty pagaentesque to say you wanted to be a nurse since you were a kid and you love helping people, etc. and this is a second career...I do not think there is anything wrong to say you got it wrong first career go around and then taking care of a sick relative or other situation made you realize you like nursing. But, to say it was a childhood dream is not believe able, to me. Again just my opinion.

I never dreamed of being a nurse. At various times, I dreamed of being a firefighter, a doctor, a fighter pilot, and a commercial pilot... never a nurse. When I found myself needing to 'reinvent' my career, nursing was the quickest, easiest, and surest path to a decent wage. I don't do it for passion or calling, I do it for compensation. What of it?

Also, I apologize for perpetuating the "older folks are technologically incompetent" stereotype.

Are you apologizing for ruffLing some feathers or because you recognize what an absurd position you've adopted (and hopefuLLy abandoned)?

[azhiker96, BSN, RN]

I was an engineer in Semiconductors when I decided to switch to nursing. In doing so I traded income for job security. Semis is very cyclical and I got tired of the frequent layoffs. Now I have much better job satisfaction and better hours.

There was a Russian cardiologist in my nursing class. She had met and married an American but her Russian college and medical education is not recognized by the medical societies/schools in the US. She chose nursing because it would get her back into medical care much faster than having to redo undergraduate, med school, and residency. She also had a great attitude and said "As long as we're helping people what does it matter if we are doctor or nurse? We are on the same team."

[Morainey, BSN, RN]

Are you apologizing for ruffLing some feathers or because you recognize what an absurd position you've adopted (and hopefuLLy abandoned)?

Realized it was an unfair, sweeping generalization and I don't like it when people make those. Also not a true one.

[redhead_NURSE98!, ADN, BSN]

Altra, that above comment was from your post. My answer to you is this--I was agreeing with you. I am saying that it is not anything bad to admit your first career choice in say law or business was not what you wanted. That your life changed and now, you want to be a nurse. Just do not say it was a "childhood dream" that you are now pursuing in your 40s. I don't buy the "childhood dream" or that someone "always wanted to be a nurse". Why the heck didn't you do it the first time around if it was a childhood dream or you always wanted to be a nurse? In saying "you", it is a general "you".

Sorry you don't buy that answer. Good thing I'm not trying to sell it to you or anybody.

Why didn't I do it the first time? Because there were other people to consider in the equation at the time. When I was 18 they didn't spew all of this "follow your dream! Do what makes you HAPPY!" crap that they say now. I had people in my life that I didn't trust to support me, and family that thought being a nurse would be so BENEATH me (and by extension, beneath them). So, sorry I didn't follow my dreeeeeeeam and pick right the first time. Fortunately it was all my money I used to do it, so, what someone else thinks I should have done with it doesn't much matter at this point.

[DoGoodThenGo]

Here's the thing.

Many predicting some sort of nursing shortage in future likely are making the assumption the same number of hospitals will be around in ten or twenty years. That is not a given and if anything seems far from certain.

The Untied States was one of the few countries where in many local areas you had hospitals literally on every other corner or area. As the pressure increases to reduce healthcare costs the once nuclear arms race many facilities once engaged in with duplication of services and equipment is seen for what it is; a very inefficient way of delivering healthcare.

Smaller and or financially unstable places are closing left and right, or are being purchased/merged with larger institutions. More and more when the last bit happens a full service hospital becomes an UCC.

[Megan5656]

I was an engineer in Semiconductors when I decided to switch to nursing. In doing so I traded income for job security. Semis is very cyclical and I got tired of the frequent layoffs. Now I have much better job satisfaction and better hours.

There was a Russian cardiologist in my nursing class. She had met and married an American but her Russian college and medical education is not recognized by the medical societies/schools in the US. She chose nursing because it would get her back into medical care much faster than having to redo undergraduate, med school, and residency. She also had a great attitude and said "As long as we're helping people what does it matter if we are doctor or nurse? We are on the same team."

Bravo!

[BrandonLPN, LPN]

Here's the thing.

Many predicting some sort of nursing shortage in future likely are making the assumption the same number of hospitals will be around in ten or twenty years. That is not a given and if anything seems far from certain.

The Untied States was one of the few countries where in many local areas you had hospitals literally on every other corner or area. As the pressure increases to reduce healthcare costs the once nuclear arms race many facilities once engaged in with duplication of services and equipment is seen for what it is; a very inefficient way of delivering healthcare.

Smaller and or financially unstable places are closing left and right, or are being purchased/merged with larger institutions. More and more when the last bit happens a full service hospital becomes an UCC.

And this is one of the reasons nursing's stubborn insistence on portraying hospital nursing as the only "real" nurse job seems so ill-advised to me. Every indicator points toward traditional acute care RN jobs declining or a least slowing way down. The future of nursing lies more in preventative care, home care and sub-acute/skilled nursing facilities.

[bendyprissy]

You hit the nail on the head when you said a symptom of a very bad economy and terrible job market. And like you said, the abundance of nursing jobs you think there are before you become a nurse is a complete misconception once you are a new grad. If you have experience in the right areas then there are many more open doors but it takes a lot to get to that point. It's a sad state when the country's highly educated and experienced citizens cannot get jobs! I will not go off on a rant here like I really want to.

[BrandonLPN, LPN]

You hit the nail on the head when you said a symptom of a very bad economy and terrible job market. And like you said, the abundance of nursing jobs you think there are before you become a nurse is a complete misconception once you are a new grad. If you have experience in the right areas then there are many more open doors but it takes a lot to get to that point. It's a sad state when the country's highly educated and experienced citizens cannot get jobs! I will not go off on a rant here like I really want to.

Higher education isn't changing as fast as the economy is, that's the problem.

[RNperdiem, RN]

I suspect that when a person leaves a good first career for nursing, a lot of them were a poor fit, and realize that they have choices. My college roommate studied to be a registered dietician. She worked a year, quit and did something else; she said her parents pushed her into a line of work she really didn't want.

Maybe some of these career changing people who switch to nursing who had parents who discouraged nursing as too pink collar, too blue collar, not prestigious enough and not high-paying. "Darling, why be a nurse when you can become a lawyer?"

There is also a cultural change where changing jobs and lines of work is not frowned upon. In the days of the "company man" a lot of job hopping, career changing etc, was frowned upon as the mark of an unreliable person.

Of course, there is the money. Loans are being given out like candy to almost anyone. You don't have to save up to finance an education in a new field. Loans make career changing possible for many. Loans have their down sides too.

[PMFB-RN, RN]

And this is one of the reasons nursing's stubborn insistence on portraying hospital nursing as the only "real" nurse job seems so ill-advised to me. Every indicator points toward traditional acute care RN jobs declining or a least slowing way down. The future of nursing lies more in preventative care, home care and sub-acute/skilled nursing facilities.

*** I agree with you but nursing education is failing. Nursing students are being training in nursing school for hospital jobs. What I mean is that they are NOT being prepared as independent practitioners. Rather they graduate from school with very few what used to be considered basic nursing skills. The school are depending on the new RN working in a hospital environment with plenty of experienced nurses around to learn from. In no way are they being prepared to be all alone doing home care without an experienced nurse around to teach them to do basic nursing skills and critical thinking.