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OP, I've read all 120 postings here including all of yours. I would just say... if you are interested in nursing, just be sure that you are going into it with your eyes open. Shadow a couple of nurses, in different clinical situations, and learn something about the profession.
Someone upthread said, watch TV shows about nurses. I nearly choked! Nothing you see on TV/movies is close to accurate. Oh, they get the scrubs right... most of the time... but otherwise, it's fantasyland.
Hospitals are horrible places, Grey's Anatomy notwithstanding. They are full of drug-resistant bacteria, death, and politics. You can find a decent clinic here and there, but be wary.
Critical care facilities and ED's are some of the worst, because they are dealing with life-or-death situations that make everyone very stressed and edgy. I volunteered at this Boston hospital for a while, when I was getting into the medical care profession, and some nasty nurse got me fired for "loitering in the CCU" (I was supposed to visit the CCU regularly to get patient statuses off the whiteboard, but lingering and watching an emergency for 30 seconds was a cardinal sin.)
Someone claimed you wouldn't experience politics as a male. Hah. That's not true. In fact, since males are usually the minority (except in some ED's) they tend to get picked on by the more-senior female nurses. It can be pleasant, or it can be extremely unpleasant.
I did pre-medical classes and went into med school. Slightly more brutal than pre-nursing -- we had to do physics and organic chem which I believe you don't for RN (maybe you do for DNP though). But similar experience, I think.
It's science; very fascinating material if you're interested in it which I hope you are, because if you're not, you'd better not waste your time. This is not stuff you can fake your way through; you have to really work hard to get good grades, and a lot of the challenge is learning to retrieve information quickly and accurately.
You can't work from home as a nurse (of course, you could become a dialysis nurse and you will visit all kinds of people's homes). You can't just take the day off; you have to make sure someone can cover your shift. You can't just leave early. You start out at the bottom of the totem pole and take orders from everyone -- other nurses, nurse administrators, practice managers, physicians, PA's, and of course patients. It requires humility and a profound work ethic.
From what you have posted, it sounds like you're bored and restless with your career and want to make a change. But a medical career is a brutal road, and you have to have a passion for it. Ask yourself if you have a passion for helping people, for overcoming challenges, for dealing day to day with difficult situations like seeing someone die. Can you put up with the disrespect from screaming families? You probably don't get a lot of disrespect in your current job. Politics, sure. That's universal, and you won't escape it in a medical field.
Anyway, a career change is always exciting. I would advise taking one course such as A&P or chemistry, at night, and put your all into it. If you do really well, take another, and keep researching the profession. Who knows, you may decide that you'd rather be a biologist, or a PA, or an MD/DO. Or maybe a whole different experience such as a high school science and math teacher. At your age, you have lots of options and lots of time to make mistakes! Best of luck and don't forget to have fun.
You can work from home in your PJs and know two that do as advice RN...
There is a lot more to Nursing than Hospitals... I have several friends that work in Surgery Centers and love it... one center is strictly eyes... in general the population is older and the hours are great... no nights, no weekends and all holidays off... plus with outpatient you must generally be "Healthy" to be a procedure candidate.
Other RN friends work in Education as teachers, administrators and school nurses... others work for Industry otherwise known as Occupational Health...
The point is Nursing opens the doors to many areas... even as being an expert witness/legal or insurance and regulatory...
Have some very interesting stories picked up from decades in the medical field...
One of my good friends Mom is a nurse... her Mom passed away at 86... she is African American and would be about a 100 now... and dreamed of being a Nurse... applied and paid for Nursing School and when she arrived was the only African American student... as in Only One... there were many obstacles... she did very well but even that was not good enough... finally after taking her oral exam and failing twice she met the Dean... she explained her frustrations and then said she had accepted a job at an Indian Reservation in Oklahoma... but would not be able to take it unless she passed... the Dean signed her Diploma that day...
Anyone can read into it and know what was going on... the school had never had a Black Graduate and that was the problem... but having her go to the Reservation wasn't.
Nurses have overcome a lot and those today build on the accomplishments of those that came before.
Oh... my friends Mom was working at the Reservation when WWII started and got a job at Letterman in San Francisco and was a true pioneer in the Nursing...
Of note is we have nurses that came late in life into the profession... one I am thinking of is male and was 43 when he started... he had a career as a Mechanic and was tired of the games Dealerships played and didn't want to open his own shop... cashed out his 401k and paid for private Nursing School in an accelerated program... total cost about $60k... he is a wiz in technology and the go to person for Patient Electronics...
And unlike most professions, nurses can make mistakes that can kill someone.
Consumer Reports estimates that 400,000 to 440,000 people die each year from medical mistakes and other health care related causes. If that many people died each year from gun violence the Second Amendment would be repealed. Yet there seems to be absolutely no outrage over that many people dying each year due to medical mistakes.
Consumer Reports estimates that 400,000 to 440,000 people die each year from medical mistakes and other health care related causes. If that many people died each year from gun violence the Second Amendment would be repealed. Yet there seems to be absolutely no outrage over that many people dying each year due to medical mistakes.
I know this might sound harsh or cruel, and of course everybody wants every medical professional to be right all the time, but to err is human. Even the best and brightest doctors/nurses/health care providers can make mistakes, it's sad, but true.
Until we replace every single health care provider (doctors/nurses/technicians) with robots, mistakes will be made, and even then with all robots, the human body, even in 2018 and hundreds of years from now, is still a complex organism with so much still needed to be understood.
The shortage isn't what they say it is. Take a look at the nursing forums where plenty of people have difficulty getting a job. My sister graduated with her BSN and ended up taking a crappy job at a nursing home after months of applying and getting no where.
My field (health care) cries a shortage as well but there are not that many openings. But I guess they figure if they say it enough, people will start to believe it.
I know a couple of nurses who say it's complete BS and they know plenty of recent nursing school grads who have to take bottom-of-the-barrel hourly jobs with the worst schedules imaginable because there's nothing else for them. It's all a ruse to ramp up hiring foreigners who'll take less money. Nothing more.
I know a couple of nurses who say it's complete BS and they know plenty of recent nursing school grads who have to take bottom-of-the-barrel hourly jobs with the worst schedules imaginable because there's nothing else for them. It's all a ruse to ramp up hiring foreigners who'll take less money. Nothing more.
EVERYONE starts at the bottom, in every job... why do you think nursing is any different?
even new doctors, the residents, are put on the worst shifts until they make it out of residency "AKA training period" <--- during this time, their pay is worse than minimum wage if counting hours
do people on CD think they can wave a college degree in the air and somehow magically get a cushy job with a 9-5 high paying position?
I know a couple of nurses who say it's complete BS and they know plenty of recent nursing school grads who have to take bottom-of-the-barrel hourly jobs with the worst schedules imaginable because there's nothing else for them. It's all a ruse to ramp up hiring foreigners who'll take less money. Nothing more.
Where do you live?
So far, from what I've seen here, people in major metros report decent wages, while people elsewhere aren't happy.
EVERYONE starts at the bottom, in every job... why do you think nursing is any different?
even new doctors, the residents, are put on the worst shifts until they make it out of residency "AKA training period" <--- during this time, their pay is worse than minimum wage if counting hours
do people on CD think they can wave a college degree in the air and somehow magically get a cushy job with a 9-5 high paying position?
Obviously not; nurses know it's not a 9-5 job but I don't think they (or anyone else) should have to string together 2-3 part-time/contract jobs without benefits just to pay rent.
Quote:
Originally Posted by jhtrico1850
Where do you live?
So far, from what I've seen here, people in major metros report decent wages, while people elsewhere aren't happy.
have a job requirement to work 2 years for government, meaning they got a job for you, hey people on CD seem to love getting them gov jobs right?
currently the active postings are for medical technologists and physicians though, the nursing one ended at the start of this month, last week
but outside of government, even hospitals run their own nursing scholarships too, or private employers do
walgreen runs a pharmacist scholarship, labcorp has theirs for lab workers, kindred healthcare scholarship for their employees
hell, I think there is a group in california providing full tuition for medical students willing to go into general/family practice because too many of their students are going for higher paying specialties
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