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Is it a good idea or a bad idea in America to become a Nurse?
I'm 20 years old and female. I really want to go to college starting this year to become a Nurse or Nurse Practitioner so I'd either be getting a Bachelors or Masters of Science in Nursing.
To me it seems like Nurses are always needed, they get paid quite a bit more than the average salary and much more than somebody who was working somewhere who didn't have a college degree would earn. I'm a healthy, strong, intelligent, social butterfly and I have already taken two medical college courses in the past that I really enjoyed so it seems like a good career choice. I also love children and want to give back to the community and being petite I think I'd be a perfect pediatric nurse.
However my Mother who's a Medical Transcriptionist and my brother's long time girlfriend who's a Certified Nursing Aid disagree with me. My Mother would rather see me work up the ladder in mobile phone retail sales (that I have current experience in) and forfeit a college degree. She thinks nursing is grueling, expensive and that people will disrespect me as a petite female nurse and she says I won't be able to do it. My brother's gf says she hated her job as a CNA because it was disgusting and the environment was like high school and that they paid her very little and tried to talk me out of it. Everybody else has told me it's a good idea though and that I'd be very good at it.
My question is in your opinion is nursing a good choice or a bad choice to pursue based on the details I've given you?
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You have excellent advice from adviceman. Everyone will have their own opinion based on their personal experiences. I can't say what a Nurse is guaranteed to earn. As far as I am concerned, even though the economy seems to be running even keel for now, evidence of the homeless and their growing numbers are very disturbing and point to the real fact that all is not well with our economy. The middle class is disappearing. WE have two classes, poor/poverty class Americans and the really rich who don't have to worry about paying their bills or their school loans. Schools and colleges would have no students willing to sign up if they were told that even with their degree, there isn't much of a chance of finding a position with their degree in the city of their choice, with the employer of their choice, for the salary they desire and the hours worked/work schedule they want, then they might think twice. School loan payments come due immediately on a monthly basis whether you find a job with lets say a nursing degree or not. And so it becomes imperative to take any job you can get, even one not in your degree, maybe a couple minimum wage jobs, just to pay off your bills and try to make ends meet. So now a highly educated person is living a tight budget on the poverty side of life in America. This to me is the biggest factor these days in considering college if you already have a good job that pays the bills.
I need look no further than my oldest daughter and my husbands only daughter to have two examples of how the fancy degree got them no where. The oldest daughter was shown statistics of how short medical staff was, and how nurses and medical assistants are in great need and all the kids would find a job in no time. My daughter reported only 2 people from her class got a job immediately when applying for them. The others never found a job as a medical assistant. She even tried to volunteer time at offices of Drs. she already used in order to get some experience to move on to a job later. Years went by and her husbands military earnings went to pay off her school loan. She now works at a store, the swing shift, unloading deliveries and has had that job for years. The other daughter went to one of the highest acclaimed colleges in the US for CG degree, Computer graphic art, and was one of the top students in a school with grueling schedule where 75% drop out cus they can't hack it. She has not yet found a job in her field after two years of searching and has taken odd jobs to pay her school loan in jobs that don't come even vaguely near art or computer related. She is living at poverty level herself. I and the husband can't help as we are living at poverty level ourselves. So my advice would be to stick with your current income because it is more of a guaranteed income than a hoped for one in nursing after graduating.
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A CNA is not a nurse they are nurse’s assistants and therefore get all the jobs the nurses do not want to do such as emptying bed pans. Nurses are skilled medical practioner who are highly valued members of the medical community. CNA's are not skilled medical practioner the do not medically treat patients. They care for a patients basic needs such a bathing and cleaning up after and helping them dress and getting them in and out of bed. Most CNA's work in nursing homes and not hospitals and usually earn just above the minimum, wage. A Nurse generally earns well above the average income for the area he or she works in.
While a nurses work is often times hard work it is not always a physically demanding job. The physically demanding part of patient care is usually done or assisted by orderly's, CNA's and patient transport specialists." The nurse job is to provide the medical care as ordered by the doctor for the patients they are charged with and to handle any emergency's until the doctor arrives. A nurse’s job is all about medicine.
Being a pediatric nurse is also very rewarding though it can also be very heartbreaking if you allow yourself to become attached to the children in your care. Before my son became a paramedic/firefighter he worked at the local trauma center as a paramedic and was trained to transport intensive care patients including pediatric patients. It can be heartbreaking to see these little kids on these big stretchers with tubes running in and out of them. If you can detach yourself from that it is a most rewarding career.
Because of the training he received in pediatric care he was rewarded with a medal from the fire department for saving the life of an infant who had stopped breathing. He revived her and got her to the proper hospital.
If you want to become a nurse you should do so but not so much for the money but because you can. Nursing like some other professions is not a profession you go into strictly for the money. If you do you will hate your job. The money is an extra benefit that you receive because it is a job few people can tolerate and do properly.
Your mother and your brothers’ girlfriend are wrong. Nursing is an honorable profession, one where you can always find work wherever life takes you. You can also work in nursing in management positions there not quite as rewarding but the pay is great, higher than what you would make working in management for the phone company you work for now.
Nursing offers many more opportunities then working for the phone company does. If you feel this is what you want to do. If you feel you can do what is required to be a nurse then go for it, even if it means getting student loans to pay for college. Some hospitals will even reimburse your loans in return for signing a multi-year contract with them once you graduate. That is how desperate they are for nurses in some areas of this country
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Well i married into a family of nurses, CNA's, and military nurses.
and i can tell you that from what ive heard. being a CNA is a dirty job. you spend most of your time cleaning up vomit, poop and pee, then cleaning and changing adult diapers, everything that involves the uglier side of caring for people who cant care for themselves.
You should follow your heart though now matter what and get into the field you feel you best fit.
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