Would you choose nursing again or another health profession?

[Abbr]

Would you choose nursing again or another health profession such as physical therapy, occupational therapy, speech therapy, pharmacy, radiology tech, etc.?

[Tina, RN]

Knowing what I know now, I would have done something else. OT or SLP. Maybe even PA. Or maybe a vet.

I am very happy with my nursing career now, but it took a long time to get to this point. I would never encourage my daughter to become a nurse. It just isn't what it used to be...

[CVICU-Nurse1.5]

If I was younger I'd go for cardio thoracic surgeon but it'd be way too hard at this point in life

[iShaybie, ADN]

I was in pharmacy school for couple years.. hated it. Nursing is my final choice!

[Farawyn]

Nurse.

My only regret is not plugging away at school the entire time. Would love to work in OB/GYN, Occ. Health or Psych as an NP.

Second choice would be PT.

[Libby1987]

I would choosing nursing again if I were to do it all over again back when I did it. It's been a good career that I'm still passionate about.

Now though, hands down PT. The other therapies are good as well but PT would be the closest fit for me.

We work very closely with all 3 therapies, we know what they make, their working conditions, their schedules. I work with very sharp PTs, their entry level is high and it shows in all ways. And they work hard. But compared to our nurses' responsibilities and schedules? And school preparedness? Apples and oranges.

I've encouraged my daughter to PT, my boss has encouraged her daughter to PT, a co workers daughter has graduated from OT, our PT's encourage PT as a career for our kids..

[irishgrl1]

Just wondering, has anyone wished they would of went with Respiratory Therapy instead of Nursing?

[Julius Seizure]

If I knew then what I know now, I would have become a pharmacist.

[Julius Seizure]

Just wondering, has anyone wished they would of went with Respiratory Therapy instead of Nursing?

Not me. While I feel that the RTs are listened to and respected by the team where we work, I think that their patient loads are nuts and I would hate having to run from patient to patient covering multiple floors as they sometimes do.

[Scarlettz, BSN, RN]

I wouldn't mind being an RT. I have heard a lot of nurses say they can do poop, pee, throw-up, but not mucous/snot. I actually don't mind the mucous/snot, lol. The respiratory system was a challenging one in nursing school but it was interesting to me. The RTs at my work make more than the nurses, too.

I was debating between nursing and OT. I felt like there is more creativity in OT. However, at my work, OT seems to do a lot of the things PT does, too. I am not big on the role of PT.I respect them very much but I could not do their job. If I were to go into OT, I'd want to work in a school.

But, overall I am satisfied with my nursing choice and enjoy it more than I imagined I would as a medical-surgical nurse. I like that there are many different areas to explore in nursing and you don't get much of that in other health-care professions. I went into nursing to be a psych nurse and I am finally going into that specialty next month!

I think they all have their pros and cons.

[Julius Seizure]

Oh! I might choose perfusionist school too!

[Farawyn]

I would choose to be a pimple popper on YouTube

[kbrn2002, ADN, RN]

I find enough satisfaction in my job to say I would still go with nursing. The cost of my schooling compared to wages is fair, but then I went to a community college years ago for a total cost of around 12,000 instead of a school that charges that a semester.

My Mom is a retired nurse and tried to talk me out of nursing school. That was a long time ago and she saw the writing on the wall even then with the shift toward the patients as customers model of healthcare. So if my daughter got a wild hair to try nursing I would probably do my darnedest to talk her out of it as well.

If I had to choose a different health career I would probably lean toward informatics. It would have been an interesting career in it's beginnings as the evolution to computerized charting began to really take hold. If software developers would utilize more nurses with actual nursing experience it would still be an interesting career choice.

My son is a PT and loves it. He also makes great money and is young enough to pay off the very high student loan cost in a reasonable amount of time. The field is not saturated and jobs are still plentiful. I have no problem encouraging others to go that route, but it is not a field that ever interested me.