Hi!
I'm a nursing student at a large public university, a tier 3 school (cal state). Prior to that, I was at a tier 1 school (a UC) studying science. Floor nursing is really leaving me disillusioned and and am thinking of jumping ship. I was wondering if anybody had some advice or opinions to offer me
which I would be very grateful for.
My dilemna now is that I do not know if i should go back and finish at my UC, in, say, economics, enviornemntal science, or continue my bachelor's in Nursing at my cal state university. Alot of it has to do with problems I have in learning and the way my brain (doesnt) work. I process slow (bad for economics and science majors) and have difficulties dealing with illogical/drama filled/ridiculous amounts of politics and OCD people (bad for nursing, it's full of it). I'm good at creative stuff and probably might succeed at industrial design if the salary prospects and outsourcing problems weren't as high. I also do not really want to be a floor nurse, and am hoping if I go back to my cal state school I could add a minor in technology, computer science, or economics and go work for a pharmaceutical firm or healthcare IT even though I do not think i could do straight IT. Although It is nursing school, i'd still be just a degree, better possibly than just pyschology or something.
The reason i left my good school for a so-so school to do nursing was becuase I realized that I process slow and my abilities max out at calculus, physics,and chemistry, and although I did recieve a average of high B's in that UC school with hardcore science classes, It was becuase I got double time on tests, studied 24/7, most than the majority of people, and went to several different office hours for TA's and professors. In class, I almost never understand the lectures becuase I process so slowly that while the professor is talking about line 4, I just finished understanding line 2. I also have average to slighly low working memory, and I'm always anxious doing homework becuase there's always a chance i will forget the question right after I read it and cannot hold on long enough (poor working memory). I also need 100% dead silence in order to take tests and do any kind of science/math homework becuase whatever info i'm holding in my brain is held loosely due to my poor memory and will fly out the window the moment i hear some noise and get distracted.
So, i figured that nursing was going to be less mentally demanding. And it is less demanding. instead of physics and calculus equations, it's basically figuring priorities and ridiculous amounts of memorization (mostly long term, which i can do). But, on the other hand, my school is ridiculously political and the people are majority OCD. One has to be an expert at interpersonal communication to navigate around the high levels of drama and politics and backstabbing prevalent in nursing. I'm not good at that, i am very logical.
One professor whose bad side I got on wanted to kick me out. Well, she did not succeed in that, but during the last quarter of nursing school is when we do clinical internships and many student get kicked out during that time, right before graduation.. She made up alot of bad things about me that are not ture and put them in my student file. I am pretty sure I am under a microscope at this nursing school and if i do anything wrong during that clinical internship i may be kicked out The option is to just not do a clinical internship, instead do my internship in Public Health, which is office work and during which nobody gets kicked out from. However, having my practicum (internship) in Public Health vs. a clinical hospital floor setting would render me useless in job hiring and hosptials will not hire me. The most i could do would be telephone triage nurse, office work, public health clinics, which pay half of what floor clinical nurses make. however, I would not risk gettingn kicked out and then no other nursing program will take kicked out students.
Switching nursing school is also not an option as many don't take credits from another program, etc, especially BSN programs. and the ones that have open spaces are becuase students got kicked out mid-program! My program kicks out 60% of the students, and they come in with a 3.8 science GPA average. Many students are kicked out for no good reason (writing style did not mesh with teacher, older female teacher jealous of a pretty minority student, etc)
On the other side, I am thinking about supplementing my nursing degree with some minors in computer science or web development, and then branching out into pharmaceutical company work, or with healthcare IT. Healthcare information Technology will be huge soon but I took an aptitude test for computer programming from the University of Kent online and got the lowest category score possible.
Or, i could go back to my UC school and major in something like Econ BA, as I cannot cut it in a heavy science/math field due to my slow processing and I'm not very fond of liberal arts. I am very good at theory but that's completely useless in terms of job searches.
What I am good at, is creative stuff. I'm a very good visual thinker and I've done great graphic designs for friends. I can come up with good, out of the box ideas that will save my butt. I am definitely a lateral thinker. I think I was intended for Industrial design, but people who i know majored in that work 12 hours a day for 30 k a year, in California. I'd rather make twice that amount in a job that is less taxing but with which im indifferent about (Nursing).
I do not believe that I would be a bad nurse, being logical as I am. Many touchy-feely nurses are very passive aggressive, and manipulative with their patients and coworkers. When they are in a good mood, they are florence nightengale. When they are in a bad mood, watch out! The best nurses I have seen are down to earth and slightly logical nurses, many of them straightforward women and also men. I've seen that female-dominated professions such as nursing tend to have vast amounts of backstabbing, rumors, cliques, lateral violence, and toxicity. I don't think like that at all! I have no intention to go into healthcare management either as I have seen how toxic many of these are in my clinical hosptials. They are all 50+ menopausal RN women backstabbing each other. It's ridiculous and very frightening.
so the question, is, go back to my UC school and finish up a degree in Economics, or Enviornemental science (with an emphasis on enviornmental chemistry as I cant cut it in straight enviormental chemistry), or finish up my nursing degree doing a public health intern to ensure I don't get kicked out and supplementing it with a minor such as Computer science minor, Finance Minor, enviornemental engineering minor. GIS minor, Economics Minor, etc...in order to move into the fields of Healthcare IT or healthcare equipement Design. The problem with this is that while I can do a STEM minor, i cannot cut it in the major itself. So, would i be too weak to be a candidate for healthcare IT or to work in pharmaceutical engineering and processes? i DO NOT WANT to be a floor nurse.
or, maybe go into GIS with a bachelor's in nursing as GIS master's will take any bachelors and a nursing degree is at least practical vs psychology?
here are the minors my school offers.....
--Computer science minor, 21 units
which includes (Intro to programming/prob solving, Discrete structures, database fund and structures, object oreinted programming, object oreinted app development, C++ for Java)
--Web +Tech literacy Certificate 24 units
web design intermediate, advcanced, and design of dynamic web sites, computers and networks, computer network architectures
--Web Tech minor 18 unit web design courses only
--Web comp sci Applications minor 18 units*
web design begg/intermediate, comp networking, intro to programming.
*The advisor says that it teaches student to write small programs and to maintain upgrade PC software and hardware set up a local area network, design and implement web applications.
--Finance minor
biz finance, accounting, investment principles
--Economics minor
24 units, micro/macro theory and calculus and electives
--Entrepreneurship minor
courses include venture creation and mangement/operations.
--enviornmental engineering minor
compliance, various electives, pollution courses, fundamental engineering courses
--enviornmental science and policy minor
law, policy, geology, political science, biology courses.
--GIS minor
--GIS certificate (map interpretation, cartography, geospatial techniques, remote sensing)
-Management information systems minor
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please find a different major before you kill a patient.
