Drastic career change- New student seeking advice

[Tate]

I am so happy I stumbled upon this website. I am currently an accountant desperately trying to make a drastic career change into nursing. I have been taking the prerequisite classes for over a year now while I am waiting to get into the actual nursing program. The good news is at the rate I am going I will be very close to a BSN when I finish the 2 yr program I am going for. Here is my problem. I have 4 RN's and 2 LPN's in my family. Most of them are doing everything they can to steer me away from nursing. I am extremely excited about making this career change but after a while they are starting to scare me. They are making me second guess myself. The thing is, I am 25 years old and only know the business world. I am extremely bored with my job. I've looked into taking a CNA class to get my feet wet but so far the classes conflict w/ my 60 hr work /part-time school schedule. Can anyone out there help me out. If you had it to do all over again, would you choose nursing? I have yet to meet/talk to a nurse that likes their job. Please tell me you are out there!!

[Julie35]

Hi...while I'm also working on my pre-reqs and not a nurse, I have had similar experiences as you with current nurses. I know that I am excited & am enjoying all my classes. I THINK that I will feel this way in clinicals also. I understand that nursing is a stressful job & that burn out occurs. On the positive side, I do have a friend who is an RN and was in the NICU for the past 5 years or so. She needed a change & switched to the OR. She loves it & feels as if she's in a whole "new" job. That is what I'm counting on for myself. When burnout occurs, looking into other opportunities. Good luck to you & don't let anyone make your decision for you! [img]/ubbthreads/images/icons/smile.gif[/img]

[All41]

I wish I was in your position! (Especially being 25! You are NOT making the wrong move. We need nurses and coming from your background you will be a great asset wherever you end up. I would suggest you finish your BSN since you are so close. Then get into ICU or the like for a year, THEN get yourself into anesthesia school. You will have much autonomy in that profession as well as $$$$ and market ability! There are many disgrunteled nurses out there, I am one on any given day but you are not doing the wrong thing!

[Jerryh53]

I'm pretty new here,,just registered at about 7 am on sep, 17. But before registering, I read about 90% of the posts to see if this was a site currently active. I am 53 Y/O and have worked in the tecnical repair field for about 30 years. But after being caught up in the nat'l passtime of corporate downsizing found myself in a awkward position. Old and unable to find work in my field of expertise. And after many many weeks of sleepless nights decided that nursing is where this old man wanted to go. As like you, I am currently working on pre-requisites. Nine down, working on nine more,,eighteen left. And as far as the financial aspect goes,,went from 36,000 last year to about 15,000 in unemployment. And since I made that much, no financial aid except for the hazlewood act, since i am a viet nam vet. I have my wife working 6 days out of 7, and am figuring I will have 2 or 3 jobs to even make ends meet. But I firmly believe that the end result will be so much worth the effort. I will be applying to the ADN program of a local college this Feb. and look forward to a new adventure in my life. This just lets you know that your not alone out there, and I think this site will do a very good job in the mental support area as well as many others. Keep the faith and believe in yourself. Have a great nre life. Jerry

hey Jerry, at that rate, after a year of college you should probably qualify for a grant. If not a grant, anyone is elligible for student loans. That isn't always the best idea, BUT, if you can get a subsidized loan, then the gov't pays the interest.

Heck, even if you don't need the loan, if you qualify for a subsidized loan, take out the full amount, and invest it. When you are done with school, cash in the investment and pay it all back in one payment, and you can keep the interest earned on the money you took out. It's great if you can keep from spending it while it's in there.

Good luck in school. It's never too late. One of my classmates just graduated. He's 48, and former military.

[writeRN]

> Can anyone out there help me out. If you had it to do
> all over again, would you choose nursing? I have yet to
> meet/talk to a nurse that likes their job. Please tell me
> you are out there!!

I loved the actual work -- patient care. I loved my patients. I loved the excitement, the challenge, the knowledge that what I was doing was making a difference for people.

I hated the constant CYA mentality. I hated the corporatization of hospitals, which changed the field of medicine into a for-profit endeavor. I hated the constant focus on the bottom line, on whether patients had insurance, on what their DRG classification was and whether we could come up with a few more things in order to get them just a few more days in-house to recuperate. I hated the fact that administration constantly understaffed even when we had people available to cover the needed slots, and that staffing was done by the "warm-body" approach, with aides staffed interchangeably with LPNs, and admin shrugging shoulders and saying, "that's who we could send you today."

I loved the actual work, and when I could shove all the crap out of the way and do the actual work, I was happy. And if I could have found a way to keep the crap out of the way, I would have stayed in forever. But the last straw was being forced to sit at the computer putting together care plans that no one used and no one read because they were required by the state, when I wanted to be on the floor with my patients. Aides and LPNs were out on the floor doing patient care, RNs were nailed to the damned desk and had to fight for a chance to actually care for patients. And, in my last job, with three RNs and 32 patients, they made sure we had enough paperwork to kill us. I got an out, I took it.

I'm glad I was a nurse. I don't regret for a minute my time as an RN. I can think right now of lives I saved, of people I helped, of the difference I made, and I know that some of those people would not be alive today if I had not been there. But I'm glad I left, too.

And I'm still fighting like hell to figure out if I want to do it again.

[All41]

Nursing is an extremely demanding profession. Some people approach nursing from the point of a sincere desire to give of themselves and take care of the infirmed. Others may start that way and change along the way. Still others enter nursing and climb the ladder (kicking anyone out of their way and those following behind) only caring about what they can receive from nursing. I don't think it is any different from any other profession where there are a majority of women concerned.
I think that anyone who wants to go into nursing need to do so with eyes wide open. It is not easy physically or mentally or emotionally. It can and will break you on some days. The difference is what you gain when you are doing what you worked so hard to learn. It is an honor to take care of another person who is so very-not in control. It is also a delicate balancing act to not become a control freak. Anything in life worth having is not easy to come by. If you want to be a nurse, go for it! Don't let another put you off because there are those kinds of folks in every arena.