[SoldierNurse]

"And my main drive is for the money."

You have a very long road ahead of you... prereqs, BSN [make sure GPA is at least 3.5], at least one year ICU experience, and score > 1000 on GRE. Therefore, I'd advise you'd better find another motivational tool in addition to $$$.

JMO

[SoldierNurse]

Originally Posted by Tiredofthesystem

More people die on Monday morning than any other day of the week. At 9am actually. -Deepak Chopra

Reason: Lack of purpose in life. Lack of meaning, and a failure to be able to render and design their lives. I am wondering if EITHER ONE of these career fields are for you.

As far as loan officers go. I have a buddy who is doing cash back loans at closing and will be retiring in 3 years. he's a total flake, but has found a way to inflate property values and talk crap, and give people $10k back at closing for refurbishing. He says it isnt a scam but other realtors think differently. Regardless he has banked over $300 k in the last year. So again . back to Deepak.. WHAT IS "YOUR PURPOSE IN LIFE? Mentioning the purpose concept in a nursing forum is like a turd in a punchbowl ( see jungian personalitys) / people who cannot think out of the box. You need to re-tapestrate what your calling is....go back to the rainforest of your mind.. rent the movie AMERICAN BEAUTY.. and sift through it..........BECOME your dream and design your life. 90% of medical personell do not have such thoughts..........something to think about eh.

We all sit in a circle and suppose.. while the secret sits in the center. and KNOWS - Robert Frost.

WARNING...

YOU ARE TREADING ON THIN ICE [AGAIN]. BE ADVISED, NEGATIVITY TOWARDS HEALTHCARE IN GENERAL WILL NOT BE TOLERATED IN LIEU OF YOUR PAST HISTORY.

[hsieh]

my brother in law is a nurse anesthetist but he was a nurse practicitoner for a few years before that. there's a lot to know - like one member said maye 8 yers before you get your license. when my brother in law was in school for 2 years he didn't work. they had one or two kids at the time so i don't know what they lived on unless they had money saved up. it's a marathon you're about to run.

[hsieh]

nursing isn't a get rich quick scheme. you're 25? throw all your stuff away and join the peace corps for 2 years. then decide what you want to do with your life. we all have a fantasy (defense mechanism) that we're going to live to be 80 or 90 but few of us do. don't waste your life trying to be rich - you're not taking it with you.

[hsieh]

so what's your decision?

[stillearning]

You sound like a thoughtful person. Here's my 2-cents worth on your career...

First, my hubby is a mortgage broker. He started his own company (at the age of 75, no less) because he saw greed and corruption in the companies where he learned the trade -- having come out of retirement where he was bored silly! He and his partner (a 30-something guy who knows tons about mortgages but hardly anything about running a business) are doing what I would call ethical matching -- finding the RIGHT lender for the RIGHT consumer at the RIGHT rate and terms. Hubby uses this slogan: If it's not good for EVERYONE, it's not good for anyone. So it's never about getting greedy and cranking up your commission at the expense of either the lender (on the back end of the loan) or the consumer (on the points, percentages or risky ARMs)

I'm sure all of that made sense to you -- even though my nursing colleagues may not get it.

I'm a nurse. I have 30+ years of practice and I'm still in school, so I'd never want to discourage a fellow-learner -- especially one with two nurses in his family. But let me propose to you something you may not have considered. Instead of embarking on a lengthy academic journey to the CRNA, maybe you should devote your energies to becoming THE mortgage broker to nurses in your state.

Why? Because the statistics are dreadful on nurses as money managers. Up until recently (and often only because of union activity) nurses have been poorly prepared for retirement. A solid mortgage is but one tool in the tool-kit of financial decisions, but if it is a GOOD mortgage with a secondary HELOC, it can give a single woman (many nurses) a single mother (lots of us) and even a family a very important sense of security for their future.

Think about it. Maybe you should do the academic pursuit -- but maybe you've stumbled onto a "higher calling" one that will make hundreds of nurses more secure in their financial futures.

We'd love to have you become a nurse, but you may be able to do so much more by bringing the talents of the mortgage loan officer (when done with a high sense of ethics and prosperity for all) to the profession of nursing and serving the needs of nurses who manage patient care well, but money --- well, that's another story.

Thanks for your interest in nursing and your loyalty to the profession of your mom and sister!!

--p