Is nursing for me?

Question

I'm a first year science student, but I've been thinking about transferring into nursing next year. I've always wanted to work in a health-related environment where I can help people improve their lives, so med school was my goal when I entered university. But after many seminars and career fairs, I found myself more interested in nursing, as doctors bare way more responsibilities (not saying nurses don't), and I usually like being the underdog because I don't like the spotlight. However a few friends told me that being a nurse is like cleaning up after a baby for life? I certainly don't care if I had to clean up after patients once in a while, but I'm not sure if that's what I want to do everyday every minute in my life. Can of the RNs out there describe what's like being a nurse? Also what sorts of specialties are there? Thanks!

Thanks for your inputs. Would you recommend taking up Masters in Nursing right after BScN? Or is it better to work as a RN for a while and then pursue further education? And if I decide to be a nurse practitioner, what role do I have in a hospital?

Answer 1

I'm about to graduate with my BSN in May :)

Nurses are not in the spotlight, but we still have a huge responsibility...we are with the patients for 12 hours at a time, and alot can happen in that time. No, we don't prescribe or diagnose, but it's our responsibility to ensure our patients are safe--from medications, to procedures, to monitoring and assessing...it's all our responsibility.

Nursing alot has alot of options. If you don't like clinical nursing (like on a unit in a hospital), you can go into education, management, research, public health, or onto an Nurse Practitioner program. There are also many forms of specialization--pediatrics, emergency care, operating room, ICU, dialysis, gero... the list goes on and on!

Nurse Practitioners, by the way, are very cool. They diagnose medical problems and prescribe medications. They have their own liscence, but they work with a physician to carry out their job. NPs can work in family practice, ER, OR, Peds, gerontology, and anything else you can think of. Incredibly cool.

Yes, nurses do dirty work. But most nurses have patient care assistants (techs) to help them. In the ICU where I'm working as a tech, I'm the one that changes linens, changes diapers, gives baths, and all that. Nurses help me, but I do the "gross" work. Nurses, especially in high acuity settings, focus more on patient assessment than on "cleaning up after a baby". If that was all there was to nursing, it wouldn't take four years of school plus passing the NCLEX to practice.

You won't really be able to get into a master's nursing program without at least a year or two of experience. Most schools set it up this way so that the experience you gain will add meaning to the program and you will learn more. Having been through most of school, I feel this is fair: the way things are taught in school is so different than the way they are done in the real world, that it's important to see real-life what nursing is before you move out of a clinical nurse experience.

Good luck!

Answer 2

I have been in many facets of health care. A pharmacy tech, an OR tech and an orderly when in under grad school, an RN, OR nurse, Nurse Practitioner. Then I did Family Practice, worked with pre and post op spine patients and their pain issues, in a pain management practice, and finally with patients with primarily pain conditions with no physical or diagnostic cause and headache patients.

I have cleaned up patients, and cleaned and sewn up deceased patients and presented them to families after organ harvesting.

I have never had a job in health care that was not rewarding.

Most of the time RNs do not "clean up after babies". Their job has become patient management. THe needs of the hospitals is for RNs to manage patient care and for LPNs and NAs to perform the bulk of the patient care. This is of course not true for all areas of the hospital, and there are plenty of RNs that get their hands in on the patient care every day. But they also have a very responsible position in the health care milieu. It is the interaction of RNs and physicians that meets the patients needs in the hospital setting. Assesment and adjustment of care, analysis of diagnostic readings, tests, and studiers is often involved in the RNs day. Many RNs become advanced practice nurses.
As anesthetist, nurse practitioners, midwifes, and clinical nurse specialists, nurses work doing the same functions as physicians with some procedural exceptions. While nurse do not become surgeons, pathologist, or ophthalmoligist, they work in most other areas of medical practice in the advanced practice settings. Many Nurse executives/Administrators, are the CEOs of hospitals or healthcare organizations. There is no limit to what you can do in nursing if you put your mind to it.

Answer 3

Your milk is packed with white blood cells, that of course shop the nipples germ loose sufficient to be risk-free to your toddler. My lactation representative instructed me to no longer wash my nipples formerly or after nursing. noticeably under no circumstances with cleansing soap, which has a tendency to dry epidermis. I solely nursed for the 1st 14 months and my son became into in basic terms as healthful as he could desire to be! Your toddler would be in basic terms fantastic.

Answer 4

Being a nurse is rewarding. Yes,it is true that we do all the dirty work but who else is going to do it? I remember this one time when I changed this woman's diaper (she was in labor and all sorts of fluids was leaking out of her, the stench was nasty). She saw that I was covered in her goop so she apologized then thanked me. So what's so rewarding about that? Well, knowing that she appreciates what I did for her was good enough for me.

Do you still want to be a nurse?