911paramedic
Diamond Member
- Jan 7, 2002
- 9,448
- 1
- 76
Neo-natal is very stressful, the turnover in there is pretty high.
Pediatrics would be pretty good, but geriatrics should be avoided at all costs unless you really like bodily fluids/substances.
Pediatrics would be pretty good, but geriatrics should be avoided at all costs unless you really like bodily fluids/substances.
I am MrsSkoorb, BSN-RN.
I also have a bachelor's in biology but decided that I wanted to be a nurse. All of my education was done in Canada, where I was born and raised. Shortly after graduating nursing school, I moved to the US with Skoorb where I now live and work.
A bachelor's degree is nursing opens many doors, which is one of the main reasons I choose to go that route. You can be a clinical nurse, researcher, administration, educator, drug rep...you name it! Because I had a previous BSc., I did the BSN in three years rather than four and to be honest, I found it quite easy. I passed both national exams in Canada and the United States and felt more than prepared for them with no cramming or panicking on my end. Although this is my own personal experience, the education part is not difficult, nor is actualy nursing itself. The things I find difficult are dealing with having too many patients and your basic hospital administration crap. I choose to ignore the latter although some days, having 8 patients on an high paced cardiology unit it not easy. Starting Monday, I will be moving to the Surgical Intensive Care Unit.
Overall, being a nurse has to be one of the most rewarding professions....I would recommend it to anyone willing to take on the challenge of patience...and as Skoorb said, dealing with smells.
Azraele
Elite Member
- Nov 5, 2000
- 16,524
- 29
- 91
I'm not a nurse, but I would think that it is a career path that can be both rewarding and hard/stressful.
See if you can tag along with a nurse for a few hours/day to get a feel for it.
There is great demand for nurses. Around here, you get a nice sign on bonus with the job.
See if you can tag along with a nurse for a few hours/day to get a feel for it.
There is great demand for nurses. Around here, you get a nice sign on bonus with the job.
You change diapers
give showers
Clean up vomit
I have done it for almost a year.
It is very satisfying.
Been an RN since 1982, LPN (Army trained) for 5 years prior to that.
"Retired" from the profession in the late 90's...............I worked almost exclusively in ER, Cardiovascular/open heart surgical recovery, neonatal ICU, and Surgical/Medical ICU.
Got very tired of patients dying on me.....especially the children.
Can be a very rewarding profession with no shortage of job openings. But be prepared for patient families with no patience, doctors who slough off parts of their jobs onto you, doctors with patients who are going bad at 2am and tell you to "deal with it until I get there in the morning", lots of grunt work, and lots and lots of paper work.
Make sure you keep your malpractice insurance up to date and get the most you can afford. If you have poor writing skills, brush up on them..........documentation is everything in the profession.
After you get your RN and have worked for a while, there are several avenues open to you that may be very attractive, such as Nurse Anesthetist and Family Nurse Practitioner. The former is essentially works an anesthesiologist, and the latter works essentially as a family practice MD......both under the "direct" supervision of the appropriate physician.
Good Luck and it's one hell of a job!!!
By the way......since you are a guy, be prepared for a few things: the idiots with the "gay" jokes and the women who cannot tolerate men in the profession.......remember this is a profession run by women and has its consequences, like the governing board not being able to make one standard for RN education. They've been feuding over that for almost 3 decades and still cannot reach a consensus.......there are three avenues to RN: 2 yr. ASN, 3 yr. diploma (most run out of hospitals but are disappearing), and the 4 yr. BSN. You can contrast this to the male-run MD world where there is one standard of education nationwide.......makes one wonder sometimes why the women cannot agree on much of anything.
Make sure you go to a school that's more clinical-skilled oriented vs. management-oriented. Management skills can be learned anywhere, but shorting yourself in the beginning with little clinical work during school, as a lot of BSN programs seem to do....not all, but a lot, will make it a bit more difficult on transitioning to the "real world" of nursing.
"Retired" from the profession in the late 90's...............I worked almost exclusively in ER, Cardiovascular/open heart surgical recovery, neonatal ICU, and Surgical/Medical ICU.
Got very tired of patients dying on me.....especially the children.
Can be a very rewarding profession with no shortage of job openings. But be prepared for patient families with no patience, doctors who slough off parts of their jobs onto you, doctors with patients who are going bad at 2am and tell you to "deal with it until I get there in the morning", lots of grunt work, and lots and lots of paper work.
Make sure you keep your malpractice insurance up to date and get the most you can afford. If you have poor writing skills, brush up on them..........documentation is everything in the profession.
After you get your RN and have worked for a while, there are several avenues open to you that may be very attractive, such as Nurse Anesthetist and Family Nurse Practitioner. The former is essentially works an anesthesiologist, and the latter works essentially as a family practice MD......both under the "direct" supervision of the appropriate physician.
Good Luck and it's one hell of a job!!!
By the way......since you are a guy, be prepared for a few things: the idiots with the "gay" jokes and the women who cannot tolerate men in the profession.......remember this is a profession run by women and has its consequences, like the governing board not being able to make one standard for RN education. They've been feuding over that for almost 3 decades and still cannot reach a consensus.......there are three avenues to RN: 2 yr. ASN, 3 yr. diploma (most run out of hospitals but are disappearing), and the 4 yr. BSN. You can contrast this to the male-run MD world where there is one standard of education nationwide.......makes one wonder sometimes why the women cannot agree on much of anything.
Make sure you go to a school that's more clinical-skilled oriented vs. management-oriented. Management skills can be learned anywhere, but shorting yourself in the beginning with little clinical work during school, as a lot of BSN programs seem to do....not all, but a lot, will make it a bit more difficult on transitioning to the "real world" of nursing.
Originally posted by: MrsSkoorb
I am MrsSkoorb, BSN-RN. I also have a bachelor's in biology but decided that I wanted to be a nurse. All of my education was done in Canada, where I was born and raised. Shortly after graduating nursing school, I moved to the US with Skoorb where I now live and work. A bachelor's degree is nursing opens many doors, which is one of the main reasons I choose to go that route. You can be a clinical nurse, researcher, administration, educator, drug rep...you name it! Because I had a previous BSc., I did the BSN in three years rather than four and to be honest, I found it quite easy. I passed both national exams in Canada and the United States and felt more than prepared for them with no cramming or panicking on my end. Although this is my own personal experience, the education part is not difficult, nor is actualy nursing itself. The things I find difficult are dealing with having too many patients and your basic hospital administration crap. I choose to ignore the latter although some days, having 8 patients on an high paced cardiology unit it not easy. Starting Monday, I will be moving to the Surgical Intensive Care Unit. Overall, being a nurse has to be one of the most rewarding professions....I would recommend it to anyone willing to take on the challenge of patience...and as Skoorb said, dealing with smells.
hellloooooooooooooooooooooo nurse!
At present, I am in transition from a very busy cardiology unit to a surgical/neuro intensive care unit. I start there on Monday. Yaye!
On my previous floor, I started my day getting my patient load: who my patients were for the 12 hour shift. It varied from 5 to 8 patients, usually 6 as 8 is way too many with the floor acuity that we had. I would go in, assess each person thoroughly and then start handing out my morning medications. Doctors would make their rounds, write orders, and I would take them off, do what had to be done. On occasion, I would have to call the Dr to say I need an order for such and such as this patient is feeling this or that based on my initial assessment...ongoing assessment that is. Often times patients were going for different tests and so forth and that required preparation on my part. Bascially, I run around all day long....because I was in Cardiology, patients were connected to monitors that required monitoring on my part.....they had medications running through IVs that required vital signs to be monitored frequently.....lots of good stuff! Anyone with chest pain had to get a stat EKG done...you get the picture. VERY rewarding, but VERY busy!
Hope that helps a little! A lot can happen in a 12 hour shift!
MrsSkoorb
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