nursing

[Avocado]

I'm currently a nursing student.

Nursing is cool for several reasons:
- It's a viable career. It's becoming more important in the US, especially with higher levels of nursing education.
- It's versatile. You can specialize in something and avoid things you dislike.. dislike children? There's plenty of ways to be a nurse without working with them directly eventually.
- It's decent money. You can work part-time as a nurse and make the same as full-time at a low paying job.
- It's rewarding. At least, it can be.
- There's plenty of work opportunities. You can move anywhere and pick up a job doing something. I'm planning on working overseas as a contractor.

It sucks because:
- It's competitive. That means you'll have people purposely sabotage you, steal your hard-earned position from right under you, talk shit behind your back, and all you have to do to earn that is to be good at your job. It sort of sucks to get shit thrown at you by people the better you get at something.. but that's how any competitive field is.
- You deal with ALL kinds of people. You helped that sweet sick old lady last week and she thanked you so kindly for your service. And now, Crackhead McSnorts is throwing a shit fit about what a piece of garbage you are for not giving him more morphine. And the fucking kids are crying in the room next door. And a family member is pissed at you because you were 5 minutes late getting into the room because their poor Winslow is in dire pain from his wisdom tooth removal procedure that he just cannot wait for the cancer lady next door to get some extra attention so she doesn't atrophy further.
- Your boss sucks. Usually. Probably. From what I've heard anyways.
- Your co-workers see you a lot. It's not like good ole target.. where susy does cathy at the party and everyone heard about it next week. I mean, any work environment where you see the same number of people in a stressful environment for extended periods of time is going to quickly degrade into a high school like environment. The army had this amazing way of turning a sort of crappy situation into a full blown suicide attempt just because people could shut their god damned mouths. You work 12 hour shifts with all sorts of people who have to see your mug all the time. People are going to start to talk. A lot. And you'll be in that mix for sure.
- You work. Like, actually work. They aren't paying you all that money to pop a pill into someone's mouth. You go to school for a few years and get shit there, then you get shit as a newb at your hospital settings, then you get shit for not knowing procedures between different hospitals, and then patients give you shit. Then you document everything and wash your dried out hands and do it all over again. Then you realize you're only half way into your 12 hour shift.

You really have to take the good with the bad.. and with a job as awesome as having medical expertise, and saving lives, knowing what to do, having to challenge doctors and hospitals sometimes, and being able to go wherever you want to do whatever you want in the field... yeah, there's going to be a lot of downsides.

You need to have a job that works for you. If you dislike pressure, and making decisions, and competitive fields, nursing is NOT going to bode well for most outside of moving to a small town or working in a small, specific clinical practice that suits those needs. But even then--those things exist. It can be great.. and it can be tiring.

Nursing a great career--if you're up to it. If not, there's plenty of ways to take that career.. you can get more into research, you can work in small clinics, you can be an NP and just deal with peoples sniffles and aches and pains.. but to say it has a lot of downsides is misleading. Everything has a proportionate amount of downsides.

Very insightful, and I will think about that sometime.

 

[Scott N Denver]

I'm not a nurse, and I am not in training to be a nurse, but I am in training for medical imaging and we interact with plenty of nurses, particularly in the ER and ICU's. I feel like many nurses I see are definitely ISFP's, particularly in ER and ICU. I don't have that many stats to go off of but I feel like I see more J and SJ nurses in like PACU/surgery. When I was doing my trauma rotation at our level 1 trauma facility most of the ER docs I saw seemed to be young ENFP women. As an FP whose has spent almost none of their life in FP environments or FP cultures I must say that being in ER/trauma was like coming home in the sense of "hey, fellow FP's!!!" Particularly ENFP's INFP's, and fellow ISFP's. I'm sure other types were around somewhere too. When I was doing imaging at our level 1 trauma site many, though not all, of the best imagers were P's. As we say a lot in school and at site, "it takes a particular type of person do be able to do trauma", in my experience most of those people were NF's and/or Fi-dom's. The relative lack of both NT's and of SJ's was quite refreshing to me.


I can't claim to have talked much with many nurses, but of the ones I did talk with managerial/bureaucratic/administrative/policy stuff was their biggest area of complaint.

There is much talk about "burned out nurses" or "nurses that used to be nice but now always seem grumpy." I have seen some of those, but by and large most nurses I've interacted with did not come across that way to me. For the record, and maybe this is a reflection on Denver, but most nurses I've dealt with have also been somewhat younger, as in 20's or maybe 30's. Not a lot, but I've definitely seen a sizeable enough number of male nurses.

Being in imaging, there is definitely WAY more money to be had in nursing. Personally I'm more techy so imaging was the more obvious and natural route. Talking with a friends wife they made jokes about either types of nurses or nurse vs respiratory therapist based upon "what body fluids you can stand and which one's gross you out." Nursing involves more poop, respiratory more sputum. Oh, and there seem to be way more respiratory therapists at hospitals that I imagined there would be.

I can make more money in medical imaging than I could for the jobs I held in science/engineering having a masters degree. Nursing especially if you are a traveler, do extra hours, night shift, or are in ICU can be WAY more money than that.

ER and ICU nurses definitely see death more often than other nursing specialties do. This is just my subjective personal opinion but ER/trauma has turned out to be WAY more tame than what I imagined it would be. Maybe FP's just "shake things off better"? Maybe they are just really good about walking that empathy/"personal boundaries" line??? Maybe they are just really in the moment and there is always something new to focus on???

I think nurses know WAY more about drugs and IV's and needle insertions and such than we do.

If your not comfortable with naked bodies nursing may not be a good choice. Particularly in ER/trauma we see naked bodies frequently, and often the patient is not doing well. I'm sure there are body fluids around somewhere, but ime I haven't encountered them all that much. Oh, and catheters up urethras, plenty of those too, especially in the OR. The OR can be a very bloody place to be. Many OR's can be pretty high energy and surgeons-are-jerks. The ones I've been in have usually been tamer, but urinary catheters and blood are frequent and in abundance, respectively.

For a generally tamer experience, that still pays awfully well, speech pathology is another route to go.

 

[tkae.]

You go to school for a few years and get shit there, then you get shit as a newb at your hospital settings, then you get shit for not knowing procedures between different hospitals, and then patients give you shit.

And God help you if you move to a different state where you don't have a license. Or if you let your license lapse.

 

[Avocado]

And God help you if you move to a different state where you don't have a license. Or if you let your license lapse.

that bad, eh?

 

[Avocado]

I'm not a nurse, and I am not in training to be a nurse, but I am in training for medical imaging and we interact with plenty of nurses, particularly in the ER and ICU's. I feel like many nurses I see are definitely ISFP's, particularly in ER and ICU. I don't have that many stats to go off of but I feel like I see more J and SJ nurses in like PACU/surgery. When I was doing my trauma rotation at our level 1 trauma facility most of the ER docs I saw seemed to be young ENFP women. As an FP whose has spent almost none of their life in FP environments or FP cultures I must say that being in ER/trauma was like coming home in the sense of "hey, fellow FP's!!!" Particularly ENFP's INFP's, and fellow ISFP's. I'm sure other types were around somewhere too. When I was doing imaging at our level 1 trauma site many, though not all, of the best imagers were P's. As we say a lot in school and at site, "it takes a particular type of person do be able to do trauma", in my experience most of those people were NF's and/or Fi-dom's. The relative lack of both NT's and of SJ's was quite refreshing to me.


I can't claim to have talked much with many nurses, but of the ones I did talk with managerial/bureaucratic/administrative/policy stuff was their biggest area of complaint.

There is much talk about "burned out nurses" or "nurses that used to be nice but now always seem grumpy." I have seen some of those, but by and large most nurses I've interacted with did not come across that way to me. For the record, and maybe this is a reflection on Denver, but most nurses I've dealt with have also been somewhat younger, as in 20's or maybe 30's. Not a lot, but I've definitely seen a sizeable enough number of male nurses.

Being in imaging, there is definitely WAY more money to be had in nursing. Personally I'm more techy so imaging was the more obvious and natural route. Talking with a friends wife they made jokes about either types of nurses or nurse vs respiratory therapist based upon "what body fluids you can stand and which one's gross you out." Nursing involves more poop, respiratory more sputum. Oh, and there seem to be way more respiratory therapists at hospitals that I imagined there would be.

I can make more money in medical imaging than I could for the jobs I held in science/engineering having a masters degree. Nursing especially if you are a traveler, do extra hours, night shift, or are in ICU can be WAY more money than that.

ER and ICU nurses definitely see death more often than other nursing specialties do. This is just my subjective personal opinion but ER/trauma has turned out to be WAY more tame than what I imagined it would be. Maybe FP's just "shake things off better"? Maybe they are just really good about walking that empathy/"personal boundaries" line??? Maybe they are just really in the moment and there is always something new to focus on???

I think nurses know WAY more about drugs and IV's and needle insertions and such than we do.

If your not comfortable with naked bodies nursing may not be a good choice. Particularly in ER/trauma we see naked bodies frequently, and often the patient is not doing well. I'm sure there are body fluids around somewhere, but ime I haven't encountered them all that much. Oh, and catheters up urethras, plenty of those too, especially in the OR. The OR can be a very bloody place to be. Many OR's can be pretty high energy and surgeons-are-jerks. The ones I've been in have usually been tamer, but urinary catheters and blood are frequent and in abundance, respectively.

For a generally tamer experience, that still pays awfully well, speech pathology is another route to go.

Well, nursing sounds pretty good, then! I love travel, so more bucks already...

You say most are FP...are they happy?

 

[HollyGolightly]

I recently dropped out of nursing school. I was training to be a mental health nurse.

Nursing HAS to be your passion, else it will destroy your soul. It near enough finished me off...I became a nervous wreck. BUT when I am a bit older and in a better financial position and when I can actually drive I would like to give it another go. Nursing is more academic now than it used to be so there's a lot of work involved (at least that's the way it is in the UK). Also, placements are really grueling. You are expected to do all teh shift patterns, including night shifts. And relying on public transport is kinda pointless. I was travelling two hours there and back to my hospital placement...where I was doing 12 hr shifts. I got really bullied by the staff as most people don't like students. I found the academic work a bit much...they put a lot of pressure on you to learn everything all at once. Whereas with other subjects learning it off by heart and regurgitating it into an exam and then forgetting about it gets you by, in nursing it does not. You have to know EVERYTHING inside out and constantly be keeping your knowledge up to date. I found it was a hack of a lot of pressure. The actual work, as in nursing and caring for patients, was great. But constantly having to cover my back and having red tape and bureaucracy get in the way of me truly making a difference started to really get me down. Perhaps it's because I chose the mental health branch which is the most demanding area of nursing (mainly because of the legal aspects, had to learn shit loads of law because of sectioning people etc).

If it is your passion and you are thick skinned...go for it! I'd recommend getting some work experience first though. Volunteer or get a job as a nursing assistant in a hospital or as a care assistant in a nursing home/residential home. I currently work in a nursing home as a care assistant and it's made me realise that if I go back into nursing I'm going to choose the general nursing route instead of mental health.

Hope that helps

 

[Avocado]

I recently dropped out of nursing school. I was training to be a mental health nurse.

Nursing HAS to be your passion, else it will destroy your soul. It near enough finished me off...I became a nervous wreck. BUT when I am a bit older and in a better financial position and when I can actually drive I would like to give it another go. Nursing is more academic now than it used to be so there's a lot of work involved (at least that's the way it is in the UK). Also, placements are really grueling. You are expected to do all teh shift patterns, including night shifts. And relying on public transport is kinda pointless. I was travelling two hours there and back to my hospital placement...where I was doing 12 hr shifts. I got really bullied by the staff as most people don't like students. I found the academic work a bit much...they put a lot of pressure on you to learn everything all at once. Whereas with other subjects learning it off by heart and regurgitating it into an exam and then forgetting about it gets you by, in nursing it does not. You have to know EVERYTHING inside out and constantly be keeping your knowledge up to date. I found it was a hack of a lot of pressure. The actual work, as in nursing and caring for patients, was great. But constantly having to cover my back and having red tape and bureaucracy get in the way of me truly making a difference started to really get me down. Perhaps it's because I chose the mental health branch which is the most demanding area of nursing (mainly because of the legal aspects, had to learn shit loads of law because of sectioning people etc).

If it is your passion and you are thick skinned...go for it! I'd recommend getting some work experience first though. Volunteer or get a job as a nursing assistant in a hospital or as a care assistant in a nursing home/residential home. I currently work in a nursing home as a care assistant and it's made me realise that if I go back into nursing I'm going to choose the general nursing route instead of mental health.

Hope that helps

It does help.

I find law a bit icky, too. I went through a section on it in my pharmacy class.

 

[kyuuei]

Also recommended: Get your education first. Don't think you'll get into nursing, start working, then go back for your masters or whatever.

Nursing school on ALL levels suck. If you're going for NP, stay in school until you are an NP. If you want Ana, stay for ana.

Holy made a lot of really good points on the personal time aspect of it--there isn't much.. But if you're smart, you'll get around that. I was in basic training for the army for 5 months, and we had zero personal time--but you make some for yourself, and keep yourself sane. It isn't so horrible you won't graduate--you just might not have a 3.9 GPA when you do. And that's okay really. Experience will trump that score after a year or two.

 

[garbage]

From what I can tell second-hand, environments are diverse, and they matter as well. For example, cancer chemo joints see the same patients regularly, where ERs deal with different patients every hour.

 

[Avocado]

Also recommended: Get your education first. Don't think you'll get into nursing, start working, then go back for your masters or whatever.

Nursing school on ALL levels suck. If you're going for NP, stay in school until you are an NP. If you want Ana, stay for ana.

Holy made a lot of really good points on the personal time aspect of it--there isn't much.. But if you're smart, you'll get around that. I was in basic training for the army for 5 months, and we had zero personal time--but you make some for yourself, and keep yourself sane. It isn't so horrible you won't graduate--you just might not have a 3.9 GPA when you do. And that's okay really. Experience will trump that score after a year or two.

I wouldn't have expected that...

 

[Avocado]

From what I can tell second-hand, environments are diverse, and they matter as well. For example, cancer chemo joints see the same patients regularly, where ERs deal with different patients every hour.

chemo sounds nice...it would be sad to see a friend die, though...

 

[kyuuei]

I wouldn't have expected that...

Nearly all of my professors have told me this. They started to work 'just for a little while', and before you know it you feel needed (because you are), and you get so much experience (Which is awesome) and you move up the ranks (which gets you more money and better shifts), and then you realize 3-5 years have gone by without ever pushing your career where you originally intended for it to go.

 

[kyuuei]

chemo sounds nice...it would be sad to see a friend die, though...

It really isn't for everyone. I'm doing my clinical rotations on the floor where the cancer is either close to metastasizing or it's already terminal. Some of the girls in my group are scared to interact with the patients for the sheer aspect of getting to know them--only to realize in their records that they have a death sentence and aren't lasting long.

One guy was suppose to get married 2 weeks before he had a cancer diagnosis and it was a bad diagnosis. It really put a damper on the girl who had the patient.

 

[The Great One]

[MENTION=18694]Magic Qwan[/MENTION]

You're gonna hate it dude. You a core head type and it won't allow you to sit and analyze. Also, it's very fast paced, and you already seem like a nervous person to me, so I think it will make you even more nervous and stress you out. Pick another career dude.

 

[kyuuei]

[MENTION=18694]Magic Qwan[/MENTION]

You're gonna hate it dude. You a core head type and it won't allow you to sit and analyze. Also, it's very fast paced, and you already seem like a nervous person to me, so I think it will make you even more nervous and stress you out. Pick another career dude.

Initially yes. Absolutely. But, nursing has lots of other implications, and you could have a slow paced setting with the right job. It really is viable.. You can take on a lot of careers with the education you get from it. It's not as specific as, say, a radiologist.

 

[Avocado]

Initially yes. Absolutely. But, nursing has lots of other implications, and you could have a slow paced setting with the right job. It really is viable.. You can take on a lot of careers with the education you get from it. It's not as specific as, say, a radiologist.

my reason for staying

 

[The Great One]

Initially yes. Absolutely. But, nursing has lots of other implications, and you could have a slow paced setting with the right job. It really is viable.. You can take on a lot of careers with the education you get from it. It's not as specific as, say, a radiologist.

True. You can do many things with a nursing degree. However, if he is actually doing to specifically become a nurse, I think it would be a poor choice for him.

 

[Avocado]

True. You can do many things with a nursing degree. However, if he is actually doing to specifically become a nurse, I think it would be a poor choice for him.

I considered education and engineering in the past...

 

[midnight rambler]

Ok, here are some pros and cons about the nursing field. I am not a nurse, but my mother and sister are both nurses.

Pros:
- Good pay
- its pretty in demand
- You can be as versatile as you want. For example, say you want to work with elderly, you can work in nursing homes. Want something really fast paced? go working in the ER. Want something a little slower? Work for a Doctor in his office or in a Clinic. Like Mental Health ? Work with psych patients. Wanna be more a coordinator of services? Become a medical case manager. There is a great deal of specialization you can do with nursing, so you can easily find what you like to do best in nursing school.
- It can be rewarding
- working with a wide range of people

Cons:
- Patients can be a real pain
- Really long hours
- gotta have thick skin
- Dealing with narcissistic doctors and administrators ( There are plenty of good doctors and admins though)
- Co workers can be gossipy and annyoing