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Toddlers: 12 - 24 Months
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Calling all nurses, please come on in!
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I currently am a retail manager. I'm not THE manager, basically middle management, and to be honest, I'm not loving it. I'm looking for a new career, and I thought perhaps nursing. What I'm looking for is what you love about your job, what you hate about it, and what you think all prospective nurses should know.
Also, I do have a Bachelor's in Business. If I became an RN, is there a way to combine the two degrees/fields down the road? I'm not really sure what my options are at this point.
Thank you so much for any input or advice!
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Re: Calling all nurses, please come on in!
I'm not a nurse but I've been thinking about going into this field for a while now also.
I can't wait to read the responses as it would give you and me (and anyone else interested) insight!!
Lim currently a sahm however also an RN. I'm not sure where you are but in the Northeast( along with other parts of the country) there are NO JOBS for inexperienced nurses. I graduated in 2008, and I'd say since 06-07 it's been the same. In NJ 8 or so hospitals have CLOSED due to funding, budget cuts the influx of experienced nuses have eliminated a need for the inexperienced ones. Do your research on your area and know your market. FYI if you are licensed you cannot take a lesser job. Ie. when you pass your boards you can't work as a tech. You are stuck with your RN. If that makes sense.
Yes your BS in business will help. Get your AAS in nursing and there is a bridge that will give you your BSN
Goold luck !
I've been a NICU nurse for 6 years, and now just switched to mother baby.
I LOVED my job in the nicu. You help someone every single day. You make a difference every single day. You help parents through the most difficult times in their lifes, and you can make or break their experience. I loved working 12hr shifts, being able to work full-time but still have 4 days off.
What I didn't like... it is stressful at times. You work weekends, holidays, overnights. You watch people die, and have to be that family's rock during that. There were many days I left crying. (However if you didn't choose critical care or hospice this would probably be rare.)
I absolutely love being a nurse and wouldn't change it for a second.
As for your business degree, maybe you could get into adminitration or something like that. Good luck.
I graduated at the perfect time and hospitals were begging us to come work there....now even with 6yrs of high acuity experience at well-known hospitals I can't get in the door
I am an RN on an inpatient psych unit in a hospital. I love my job. I love the flexibility. I work evenings 7 days every 2 weeks so my kids have only had to be in daycare for a couple hours on those days. I don't particularly care for working weekends and holidays, but I do enjoy having days off during the week. We get time and a half on holidays and get a shift differential for working pms/nights and weekends. I get an extra $3 an hour just working on the weekend and extra $2/hour for working pms. My schedule varies, which is good and bad, but I can put requests in for certain days off for doctors appts etc. I could find a M-F day job as an RN, but I would have to take a huge pay cut-as in I would get paid about half of what I do now. As an RN you will make the most working for a hospital.
I don't really think your degree can be combined, but it doesn't hurt to look into. You could start off getting your Associates Degree in nursing, but there is a big push (at least in our area where there is less demand for nursing) to hire only Bachelors prepared nurses so it is likely you will have to get your Bachelors down the road in nursing. However the fact that you have your degree but in a different background can work in your favor.
There are so many opportunities and flexibility in nursing that make it a very family friendly profession. Good luck!
ETA: Like the PP said, some areas are saturated with nurses and it can be hard to find a job like in my area for instance, but in areas that have more of an aging population it is a bit easier to get a job. It's one of the easier professions to get a job in this economy, but still quite difficult. Hopefully that will change soon. We are seeing a lot of RNs retire now so that is opening up some positions in our hospital.
For as long as I could remember, I wanted to work in the medical field, as a kid, I wanted to be a doctor. As I got older, I knew I wanted to be a nurse. I used to be a full time RN in pediatrics with very sick babies and children, Vent/trache dependent, g-tube/micky/mini fed, Hyperal/TPN, short gut, shaken baby, congenital issues, etc. But, the one thing I HATED about pediatrics was not just watching the children die, but watching the families (that were actually involved) grieve over their lost baby. I had to make a switch. I wanted an area of nursing in which I didn't know the patient on a personal level. Some of these kids were there for months. I knew their favorite color, favorite cartoon, favorite sleeping position, favorite binky, etc. It was very difficult to maintain personal and professional boundaries. Because I like critical stuff, but didn't want to "know the patient" on a that type of level, I decided to give ER/Trauma nursing a go! And, I LOVE IT! I love my job. I will never be anything other then a nurse.
Most of all, I love learning about the body, anatomy, patho of diseases, trauma, blood, illness. I love the ER. I love the craziness it brings, I love my co-workers, my boss, the Docs. Do the long shifts stink sometimes? yes. Does it stink that sometimes I go 13 hours with out drinking or eating (and you don't pee when you don't drink or eat)? Yes. Does it stink that I go to bed at 4 a.m. and wake up with 3 kids at 7 a.m. and I'm overtired??? Yea, that all stinks...but I wouldn't change it. I literally save lives at work. I hold hands of those that are dying and taking their last breaths. I comfort families in their time of loss. I make little kids with fevers feel better. I help take people physical pain away. I seriously don't know what else I would do if I wasn't a nurse. I LOVE IT!
My sister is a nurse. She originally had her undergrad degree in chemistry then returned to school and was able to complete her BSN in like 5 semesters because some of the classes transferred. While she was going through the program, the instructors focused a lot on the need for nurses in the future. I think it is one of the careers projected to see a shortage in the upcoming years.
My sister has worked in labor and delivery, a allergist's office, and now serves as a school nurse. I think the speed of the work and the hours have to be her 2 major factors. In the allergy office she was always bored because it was pretty slow. For labor and delivery she didn't like working an off shift from her husband and never seeing him. She loves her job now.
I seriously considered returning to school for nursing also. I think it has lots of rewards. I'd see about contacting some local schools to see what it would take. one word of caution: Avoid programs where they offer one class a month or something. We have a local school that does that and the problem is you can't transfer those classes anywhere unless you complete the degree through that school. They are ultimately profiting immensely off their students. GL
I have been a certified NICU nurse for almost 11 years and I LOVE it! There are jobs in our area (I'm in Seattle) but I know it's been difficult in various places around the country.
Contrary to popular belief, you do NOT need to be a Nurse Practitioner to have your own nursing practice. I am in the process of opening a private holistic nursing practice, where I will work with women on the cusp of motherhood. We all know what a big change becoming a mother is, and I will use holistic modalities to help them learn what to expect, get to know themselves as mother, and bond with their babies. I will specialize in working with women that are having babies that may need time in the NICU. I will refer them to other practitioners when necessary. I will work for myself and set my own hours while probably still working per diem in my current job. I have a BS in Anthropology/Zoology, an associate's in nursing, and I recently completed a business class to help me get started. Sure I won't be prescribing medications or ordering diagnostic tests but I never wanted to do that anyway... if I had, I would have gone to medical school as was my original plan.
Currently I work 75% of full time and 12 hour shifts, which means I am home with LO 9 days out of every 14 days.. Sure I work weekends and holidays too sometimes but my schedule is also very flexible and if there's something coming up I know I want to do, I make my schedule fit my life.
Nursing is very flexible, the world will always need nurses, and more are needed all the time. The nursing job market will always fluctuate but it will never go away, so it would be a worthwhile investment if you choose to go that route.
Good luck making your decision!
And I totally agree with this! Nursing is an honor. I feel honored to be able to care for babies and families in these life-altering moments.
I'm currently a Hospital Medicine Nurse Practitioner and I love my job. I started my career as an RN in a cardiac/trauma/surgery ICU and loved it. Critical care was exciting, challenging, and I really felt like I was helping patients and their families. Yes, it was sad at times but it felt good to be able to be there for people in such a heart breaking time of need. It also was inspiring to see people overcome very grim odds and survive some terrible things. I've also worked in the cardiothoracic surgery ICU with people who have had heart surgery, patients with mechanical heart pumps, and patients who have received heart or lung transplants. It is amazing to see someone receive such a gift.
The only thing I didn't like about being a nurse is working holidays and weekends. The pay was great though and it was awesome to only work three 12 hour shifts per week.
I wanted to have more of a role in making decisions and caring for patients so I decided to become an acute care NP. My first NP job was not a good fit for my life with a lot of on call time and up 60 hours a week at times. It definitely didn't work when I became a mom so I found something else. I love my current job. I only care for patients in the hospital, no clinic time. I care for patients all over the spectrum of diseases. I'm a jack of all trades and my day is never the same. The pay is good. I work four 10 hour days now and I only work Monday-Friday. I don't regret my decision to become an NP. I'm not sure what area you are living in, but Wisconsin is very progressive in what the scope of practice for an NP allows them to do. Some states are very restrictive so if you are considering an advanced degree, you may want to take that into consideration with your career goals.