Help: Deciding if nursing is for me
I have been accepted into a direct entry MSN program, but am getting
cold feet. Most things about nursing excite me, but there is one issue
that I am really struggling with. I am currently a software engineer,
and my nurse friends and I have the same question: Would a task
oriented job like nursing give me the intellectual stimulation I want
from my job? I have no doubt that nurses are plenty smart, so please
don't take this as a condecending statement. It is more a question of
how you use your brain.
The problem I am faced with is I don't know what it will be like to be
a nurse, without quitting my job, moving, and going to school. I want
to be as sure as I can be that this is the right path for me before I
pull up roots.
So, my question to all of you is
Does nursing provide you with problem solving type intellectual
stimulation? If so, how? Tell me what area of nursing you work in,
and the types of things you have to think about, and any other words of
wisdom you might care to share.
Despite what some may seem to say and or think, nursing is no longer
strictly a task orientated profession. Within the scope of the
profession, one is expected to observe and interpret data , make
assessments and be a full member of a patient's care team. As a RN you
are still expected to be your patient's primary advocate and if one
will, protector. If a treatment, medication or procedure ordered is not
having the desired outcome and or may cause harm, as an RN you are
responsible for knowing what is what. Just because a doctor orders are
incorrect and you follow them will not get one off the hook should
something go down.
My standard advice for anyone considering a career in nursing is take a
position as a hospital nursing assistant or at least volunteer. Working
side by side with nurses is the only way to gain the exposure necessary
to make an informed decision.
Sharing of thoughts will all very well, still can not replace
experiencing nursing first hand as described above. As you will soon
find out, speak to 10 nurses and you will get 11 or so different
responses about the profession.
Different areas of nursing require different special "talents". For
those who can work in fast paced areas and can process information on
the fly, there is emergency room/trauma or the critical care units.
Am I correct in assuming you have no prior experience in nursing or
education in said profession> Most direct entry MSN programs are just
that, masters in nursing programs which means you will have the same
training/experience as nursing students in ADN or BSN programs. In short
your employment options are probably not going to be the same. Most MSN
grads teach or work in other of nursing, but not normally on patient
care units.
One difference between nursing and software engineering, is that nursing has
a lot more "ethical moments" in it. Sooner or later, as a nurse, you are
going to see someone do something so wrong, so perverted, that the only
right and ethical thing to do, is to "report" them. It could be another
nurse, it could be a physician, it could be a CNA. If it's your boss, or
your best friend, what are you going to do? What are you going to do, after
you go to all the trouble to report this person, and all they get, is a slap
on the wrist?
I know a master's degree nurse, that the only nursing job she can get, is in
a nursing home. She works in a gift shop now.
I too used to be a software engineer, and I thought that nursing might be
good for me. I figured out in time, that it was not. I recently got back
from six months in the Basque Country of Spain, learning about the
aborigines and their quaint customs. I got back, graduated with a
bachelor's in Spanish, and now I am going to start a master's. I can't wait
to get back. Don't you want to travel, see a city with a real Roman wall,
meet the Lehendakari, dance all night in a disco with a woman half your age,
and stagger back to your hotel at 5:00 AM, singing out loud? El vino tinto
de La Rioja se parece al néctar de los dioses, y las vascas son diosas.
Nursing, or this http://www.vitoria-gasteiz.org/imagenes? San Sebastian and
A Coruña are even prettier. The countryside is to die for.
Many nurses are "plenty smart", but what about the nurse who spends an
entire shift playing computer solitaire, while important orders in a
patient's chart go ignored, who doesn't see anything wrong with acting that
way?
You could make a wrong decision. If you do, "nursing process" from your
first semester should help you to correct that mistake. It will show you
the way, anyway. Assess, diagnose, plan, implement, evaluate. Repeat until
problem is fixed, or you can live with the result.