Would you become an RN again if you had the choice?

Guttercat, ASN, RN · Oct 9, 2012

Nuh-uh.

No way.

If I'd have known then what I know now, I'd be a vet.

cardiacrocks, BSN, RN · Oct 9, 2012

Since this is a third career for me, I can relate to being a waitress and a customer service rep for an insurance company, and let me tell you something, I get far more respect being a nurse. This is a career that I knew I'd be using my brain on a daily basis. I don't feel like I'm a waitress, because I've been a waitress, I've had creamer thrown in my face. Don't get me wrong I loved waiting tables, however, my body took a beating and I just couldn't see myself waiting tables when I'm in my 60's. I have two bachelor's degrees and chose nursing as my career. I've worked with women all my life and let me tell you, they never change. It doesn't matter where you work there are catty women! You have to rise above the BS.

HAYNURSE · Oct 9, 2012

You bet I would I waited 57 years to be a nurse and I love my job and my co-workers. Made it through in three years going summers and did not have to retake a class. To all you who might think they are to old to go to nursing school I was 54 when I started. So if it is your desire to become aa nurse I say "GO FOR IT."

gabbiegirl · Oct 9, 2012

echoRNC711 ... thank you! YOu have saved my career! I have been an RN for almost 5 years and I'm currently working as weekend RN supervisor in a LTC facility. I hired on as supervisor for 8 hours, and charge for 8 (during 10 - 6 shift). This was GREAT! Also receive "Baylor Plan" 8 hours of pay for working the weekend with very little sleep in between shifts. Low census, cutbacks, yada, yada ... they have me charging for 16 hours each day and I am literally losing my mind from the stress and the fatigue!!

Being a nurse ... (lol = control freak) I took on ANOTHER job during the week, which I absolutely love, teaching a medication aide class, just 3.5 hrs/4nights/wk.

Your post helped me realize I am NOT mean, just completely worn out and TIRED! I am going to quit the LTC job and coast for a few weeks, and seek out the perfect hospice position I have been dreaming about. I can be the weekend, on-call girl who saves the day for everyone else!!! Right??? Thanks again, you really have no idea what you have done for me (and my dear husband!!, probably my kids, and grandkids ... elderly father ... etc.) :up:

joanna73, BSN, RN · Oct 9, 2012

I enjoy nursing, but I definitely need to change specialties, move to a city, and decrease my hours. Too costly to go back to school for an OT/PT Masters. I also want to work even less, so I'm thinking of getting my RMT license. I wouldn't mind working as a professional masseuse part time, and nursing part time.

Multicollinearity, BSN, RN · Oct 9, 2012

*** Even though I said "yes" I must say I often wish I had gone into law enforcment THEN nursing. LE would have been interesting and exciting but mainly I envy their abiliety to retire with a nice pension after only 20 years. As an RN I will be working until I am 65 or older.

If you go work for the US Bureau of Prisons as an RN you can retire after 20 years with a pension. And it has that law enforcement culture. If you go work at a particularly violent prison, it has an ED-type workload.

Nurse Ebere M. · Oct 9, 2012

I would do it a million times over if I had the opportunity!!

I wouldn’t let how others act affect what you want to do with your career. If they want to spend this precious time we have on earth acting like children and being mean that’s a shame for them, but you don’t have to be a follower.

Christina0tran · Oct 9, 2012

I've been a nurse for over 17 years now and I don't regret for a moment my choice to enter nursing. I understand and appreciate some of the comments regarding our profession such as the long hours, disrespect, and feeling that we don't make a difference. But we do make a difference. Just when I get discouraged I will meet a person I took care of in a store and they say thanks for all the hard work I had done for them. I don't remember their name but they remembered mine. Even though I was only involved in their lives for a short while I made enough of an impression that they wanted to thank me months after they left the hospital. There are many fields to encounter in nursing if you so desire but all of them require you have the desire to want to help people and if you have lost that desire than perhaps you should be out of nursing.

EXACTLY! Thank you for your comment, very touching and true.

Guest343211 · Oct 9, 2012

After two decades, I honestly struggle with answering this question. Right now, I will say this. I wish I had pursued certain other scholastic interests earlier.

I have liked so much of what I have done as a RN in critical care. I genuinely care for the patients.

For me, the overwhelming negativity is about how the administrative systems work and how nurses treat each other that is the deal breaker. I know this is a factor in all fields and types of work; but I find it is particularly intolerable b/c of all the other demands and serious stressors in the field.

So, I might well do it again, but I would have moved forward with academic growth sooner. That's no one's fault really. I had made a commitment to becoming a mom and caring for family members in crisis. So at the end of the day, it became what it became in terms of moving forward for me.

lee1 · Oct 9, 2012

No, not just a RN but I could have seen being a APN. Now retired RN for 2 months.

DSkelton711 · Oct 9, 2012

If I had to do it over again, I would probably choose nursing again, but I would have planned my future a little better to

include more education and finding my niche and sticking to it. I set aside a lot for family, which I don't regret, but I didn't take

my career seriously enough and I wish I had more education. Now I am just working to get myself (hopefully) to retirement someday.

I love my cat! · Oct 9, 2012

No no and no. Nursing has not turned out to be anything that I thought it would be. So disappointing. Thank goodness for part-time work!