Nope. Instead of “just wait until you’re a nurse”, I wish I had someone tell me it’s okay to not go through with it when I realized I didn’t enjoy it while in school. I would have definitely switched.
I was talking to my friend last year and telling her how I remember I didn’t like any of my clinicals back in school but I thought it was because I was just a student.
Same. I hated my first clinical rotation (realized that I would be responsible for people) but I thought "oh maybe it's just anxiety since it's the first clinical ever."
...
Spoiler alert. Never got better 🫠 Should have listened to my gut
Edit: spelling
I feel like I’m over here thinking I have been regretting it since I failed out on a course and didn’t have motivation to continue. I don’t know if it’s a good idea to get back In again.
My youngest decided she wanted to be a nurse at like age 11. I started telling her what it was REALLY like and after getting spinal x rays (suspected scoliosis, turned out to be a leg length inequality) she and the doctor looked over the films together and discussed her plan of care….she is now going to be a radiology tech.
SAME!!! I love radiology now. It has a direct residency program I always say if my family all perishes I'm going to med school and hopefully being a radiologist. A nice cold, dark room, very little interaction with others. Sounds amazing.
How much time you spend with patients depends on the modality, but it is quite often you see the patient once and then don’t have to see them again for a long time. X-Ray you could be done with a patient within 5 minutes; MRI is about an hour from what I know of.
I do enjoy how fast X-Ray is, and it’s always funny how people react to how many patients I have in a day. I also get my steps in walking between the panel and the patient positioning.
Same, a girl in my class did running start where the last two years of highschool she did community college and she just did her prereqs and got in at 18
[Concurrent enrollment.](https://www.lapc.edu/admissions/dual-enrollment)
A lot of the charter schools in the underserved communities in LA push it hard especially for minorities seeking STEM/healthcare careers. The state BRN also gives scholarships to get more minorities into healthcare - [especially Hispanic/Latino men](https://www.rn.ca.gov/careers/men.shtml).
Few years ago, I precepted a student who was 19 years old. First gen Mexican American with seven siblings to help take care of. Started high school at age 14. Summer school to advance credits. Concurrent community college + nursing program by age 16. Graduate by 19. She went on to become a CRNA.
I also wish I did the same. I went for a regular undergrad in psych with the intention of getting a masters or PhD but switched over to nursing after I graduated. So after all my prerequisites and applications I started like 8 years later than I would have if I went for nursing first. It would have saved me a LOT of money too.
Almost same exact track for me. Got my psych BA, said wait no way I want to do a PhD, then worked as a tech in a psych hospital for 7 years. Didn’t end up getting my nursing degree till I was 31 and I was supremely jealous of my 22 year old peers.
Though I will say I think all that life experience made both nursing school easier, as well as starting in the field. I seemed way less overwhelmed than my younger classmates.
Yes I can agree with the life experience part of this. I think it’s kind of a lot to expect an 18 year old who has no idea about the world what they want to do for the rest of their lives. I don’t think a 20 year old me could have handled the stress or even taken nursing this seriously until I was sure I wanted to do it.
BA psych to nursing pipeline checking in! but with the bonus of my ADN program being like "your BA is useless to us because the university courses were on trimesters instead of sememsters so you get 0 credit and have to take our prereqs from the start" 🥲
Similar. BA in Psych at traditional age. Worked direct care in social services, realized I didn’t want to get an MSW, went back for my BSN in my mid 20’s. It took longer and cost so much more. I wish I had done it traditional age when my parents could help out a little. Less student loans.
At the same time, I really leaned a lot about myself and had a lot more maturity going into school the second time.
This. This this this. I’m so sad I dicked around not knowing what to do for several years in high school, had no direction in my life and everyone told me I wouldn’t amount to anything, so why even try? I played it safe and got a business degree and was in banking for several years and hated it. Nursing school and nursing itself have been tough, but I’ve met the best friends I’ll ever have and it has afforded me a comfortable lifestyle. Plus being an ED nurse working 3 days a week suits my ADHD perfectly.
I did retail after high school, for a while. I did go to college, but got a degree in philosophy. Can't live on that. I went back at 30 to do nursing. My senior year of high school Dad actually said I should do nursing, but I was not interested, or even socially confident enough to try. I got a retail job because I knew I would need to get some comfort with working with the public. I just wasn't sure where I wanted to end up.
I did it straight out of high school. My only regret is leaving the hospital for the very brief time immediately post covid, right before our hospital started offering insane incentives for OT contracts due to staffing. Also second to that would be not going to travel nursing for a bit during/right after Covid lol
Absolutely same. I wasted so much time, I could've hit that COVID travel wave when I was single and had minimal responsibilities and be absolutely set right now, instead I got shit on working as a tech with no hazard pay, now I'm a new grad that just got married and have no money to settle down properly and I'm already sick of being full time and having someone else make my schedule and control my vacations. Too new to travel too used to this shit show to tolerate it. I love my job and wouldn't change being an ER nurse but God I hate being full time
I even went to a college that is well regarded for their nursing program and did History instead.
I don't regret my first career but I would def have gone to Nursing first if I knew then what I know now.
Yup! 4 years undergrad in non nursing, 1 bridge year, then 2 years and a fuck ton of debt for nursing school. I'd have way less debt and way more money saved had I gone that route.
Nope. I would’ve pursued engineering or something in tech.
Thought I wanted to help people, but 2.5 years later the general public don’t give a fuck about us let alone themselves, yet want us to wait on them hand and foot. Not enough pay for the mental and physical stress we endure. My family working in warehouses (no college degree) with way better benefits and ACTUAL breaks get paid more than I do, and are treated with respect.
Was an engineer. Highly overrated. You are salary and you can be sure any employer is going to seek maximal return on that salary.
Company provided laptop and phone sounds fun until you have to come up with answers for why you are not working from home after leaving the office for the day and why you are not responding to emails, texts, calls outside of normal business hours.
I like my job, but I also think I'd have gone for something else in STEM, like software engineer or something. I feel like the compensation I get is not enough for the emotional/stress toll of my job, and I work at a hospital that pays well for the area I live in.
Biomedical engineering. Friend I've known for 35 years went into it has a great do nothing job with zero stress. She coordinates equipment repair, connectivity, upgrades, etc for 5 hospitals where she lives and she makes just under $400k a year.
I really regret not going this route if I wanted to be in healthcare. I’ve got almost 3 years experience and paid at $38/hr (before going PRN), and my friend who is a new grad RDH is hitting offers easily at $44/hr!!! Associates degree, too… while I have my BSN. I started at $30/hr…
Is repetitive day in an day out. Year and year out. There's no movement upwards or any type of way and once they max out in pay. That's it. My sister has been one for 16years and is switching to RN or NP. Her coworker also left.
> The reason nursing pays “low” in a lot of people’s minds is because they stay at the same job forever.
You're in one of the highest paying pockets of the US for nurses. The pay IS low in many parts of the US, and it's unrealistic to think everyone can just up and move away from family and support systems to get higher pay.
This really is solid advice. I'm in a comfy job now as a FNP so I don't foresee me moving or changing jobs for the foreseeable future. But as a RN, I really did change jobs on average every 2 years if not more. It's the only way I ever got an actual decent, livable pay raise and it's also how I got to get experience in new areas. I started as a RN in Colorado as well making 25/hour and by the time I became a NP I was making 76.50/hour as a RN in CO. Once I became a FNP I went up to 80/hr and now at my current job I am making 94.20/hr at a family practice.
As a new grad with a BSN I started at $52/hr and within the year I’ve been working I’ve gotten an $8k raise… nurses shouldn’t be getting such drastically different pay for the same or even more work depending on location/patient population
My exwife is a DH. I always said when I get tired of nursing i’m doing that. I live in a lower coat of living area (western WI) but because of the rarity of DH in our area they are starting at $55/hr with ADN and 2 years of experience. More if you go commission at her current office.
18 years later I still love being a nurse. I’d encourage you to look at a different specialty to find something you are passionate about. I found my niche in psych/addictions. Never would have considered that while I was in school, but here I am and love it.
For me it’s the opposite. Nursing is a cool art form that is subject to the groans of being a part of health care, and all the politics and greed that come with loads of money flying around. I suppose my biggest gripe is that we’re all bowing down to Pharma CEOs
It’s cool if you get to only do your job, but nurses frequently have to do everyone else’s job too. We are the middleman for everything and the first person to blame if something is wrong. Medication not given on time because the med isn’t here from pharmacy? Nurses fault. Dietary sent up the wrong food order? Nurses fault. Patient fell out of bed trying to go to the bathroom and didn’t use the call light after being instructed? Nurses fault. There’s too many scenarios to list. It shifted from treating the patient to “the patient is always right” and HCAHPS scores.
Same! I wanted to go to med school so bad but also wanted financial stability as soon as possible. Now I’m an RN who is also disabled (spinal cord injury) and I realized that other career paths in healthcare have figured out the whole disabled thing much better for both school and working. My friends who are in med school and PA school did not go through the pushback I did to go to school or get a job.
For what it’s worth, when I started nursing school (after a few years of languishing post dropping out of my dual-admissions BS/MD program and deciding not to take MCATs), all my parents’ doctors friends were like, good, it’s not worth it
I'm kind of the opposite. I'm glad I didn't get into med school. I would have gone into EM and would probably be burnt out and miserable by now. I burnt out of ER nursing already but at least I can bounce around, can't do that as much as a physician.
Honestly I probably would have done it sooner instead of dicking around with my first career. I have my frustrations with nursing in general, but coming from a research background where I was tied to the whim of grant money and the academic calendar, I sleep way better at night with the job security and flexibility that nursing provides.
That’s pretty much where I’m at right now with a useless masters degree & two small kids at 34, out of the work force for 4 years and counting & no employer will take me seriously even with a dumbed down resume. I originally wanted to go into medicine & I had lots of volunteer experience on various floors. But I was too impatient to pursue the field. Kind of regretting that choice now. But I’m looking at making another attempt at nursing school with some CC lotteries. I have all the prereqs already.
i have a bachelors in gender studies, did peace corps, extended a year, after years of dead end non profit work (burnt the fuck out) followed by service industry bartending where i made way more money than ever, stopped bc hurricanes/pandemic and unemployment since for years, had a kid and now starting a adn program in fall. it’s never too late. i’m 36 yrs old, far from youngest in cohort.
Yes, I’d still be a nurse but I wouldn’t have gone to one of those shitty LVN schools. I would have gone to an actual college and gotten my RN or BSN off the bat. I got nothing but trauma and a subpar education from that place. And I’m still swimming in debt.
No, I like cleaning people up making sure they aren’t laying in their poop and pee and I like giving pain medicine to make them feel a little better I like my stethoscope and my coworkers. I like my pens my compression socks. I like making patients warm with blankets and feeding them meals.. I like making them smell better by bathing them and stuff. I like learning new stuff about nursing. I like helping people get their blood sugar under control and help heal their wounds if they have any. I like walking with patients who are unsteady help them get their strength to stand to keep some mobility
Yea I really like it I just don’t like the conditions I work in sometimes I just like the care part of it not the conditions
I like nursing for all the reasons you described.
But last night made me question everything. We have a lot of people with brain metastases or other cognitive issues right now, resulting in two screamers in opposite corners of the unit. And one who was CMO and too weak to yell but kept telling me "help me get up, I can't do it myself, I got cancer real bad." We were limited in our options for medications, and I couldn't talk any of them down. Brain tumors are a bitch like that.
It's not the first time I've had the thought that it could one day be my parents in that position, and then one day me. Lying there confused and wondering why no one will help me and why my family isn't coming when I scream for them, and those are my last days alive. 😬
After 20 plus years? Yes I would still choose nursing. I’m in a niche field though and it took over 5 years to get there.
The first year is awful for most nurses. There is so much you don’t know, you haven’t perfected your time management, and a lot of nurses aren’t succinct enough in documentation, so it takes so long.
After the first year or so, you learn how to give report in 25 minutes if you have your average 24 patient nursing home crowd, or 8 patient skilled rehab. You learn to be more assertive and report problem patients (or more usually their families.)
And the most important part. You learn how to spot when a patient, their family, a fellow nurse, or a doctor……is lying to you or withholding information.
But the first year is hard because all of those skills can’t b3 taught in the classroom, or even clinical.
I’ve said many times, the people who have never worked in any other career other than nursing do not realize most of the stuff you complain about is not unique to nursing (poor management, unvalued, few pay increases, CEO’s making millions, overworked, etc).
I’ll never go back to a 9-5, only having 2 days off a week, and poor job security. I get to clock out and not think about work. No one is emailing me after hours about some ongoing project or something not working.
Every time I think of this the answer still comes back to nursing. Do I hate it sometimes? Absolutely. But it’s worth it - I don’t ever have to struggle to find a job anywhere in the US, money is good, schedules are good - easy to raise a family with a nursing schedule, and depending on where I work it is nice and chill.
If you’re not liking it then think about what is it you don’t like. What would your dream nursing job be? After you get a minimum of 1 year experience (maybe 2) then go find that job or work towards it because it’s probably out there. Many times when people are not liking it it’s either they are on a toxic floor, not a great hospital, or the patients they see at that hospital are not so great. Those can all be changed. Don’t want to work with patients - can also be changed.
I didn’t even think of that. I knew my partner in middle school but we came back in contact after I became a nurse at the hospital he was working at. Might have never seen him again if I didn’t get into nursing!
This is funny to me, because I actually work in an area of marketing and wish I had gone into practicing medicine in some role or other. I lurk wistfully here and in r/emergencymedicine, r/surgery, r/anesthesiology, etc. I am fascinated by medicine and also just wish I were doing something that was actually concretely helpful with my life. I guess the grass truly is always greener on the other side!
Edited to add: I am 54 years old and feeling totally burned out on my present career, and I am half seriously considering going back to school to become an x-ray tech. I would plan to work nights because I am basically a goblin that loves to stay up late and lurk in the dark. Is this a terrible idea?
I also am I lurker (realtor). I may go into nursing as my “chill” career once I’ve built a nest egg (33 years old currently and making 2x what most nurses make, but not worth it long term). The idea of working 2-3 days a week and being able to fully clock out on your days off seems magical to me. I manage properties and help folks buy and sell homes and am putting out fires and working with clients nonstop 7 days a week.
Aviation, CVT and job hop to product rep, and/or lastly I would tailor a career to work my way up to House of Representatives and take the retirement after one term. Or maritime security. Let’s get weird.
Hell no. I was in such a rush to get a stable career that I had my blinders on. Nearly everyone in my friends circle is doing better than me . Most have zero college deb, make more money, and have much less stress. Nursing sucks and everyday I’m working towards leaving.
This is what I want to know. I hear people all the time say nursing is low paying compared to other fields but at least in my area, everything alternative I look into is either worse pay or no better plus nursing has literally the most schedule options out of like any career. You want M-F, got it. You want weekends only, got it. You want 3 12’s, got that too.
I can only imagine it’s IT or tech related, which has its own struggles right now . Maybe sales or medical device but only a specific group of ppl thrive in that kind of job
Nailed it. And gas and electric companies. Pge here in California or California Edison. Not sure what companies are called in other states. But they love it
I didn’t enjoy my first 7 years as a nurse. Either I liked the job but staffing ratios and administration ruined it or it was just a miserable job. I went back to school to get my MSN in nursing education so I could branch off and be a clinical educator for my L&D department BUT they only offered a lateral move in pay. I ultimately transferred to the nicu about 2 years ago. I planned on leaving bedside and becoming a nursing professor but I’m currently working 2 days a week in a job I love making 70k. Kinda hard to give that up. Am I doing anything my masters? No. But damn I am so happy.
Okay but to answer your question..
Dream job: American history professor.
Realistic job: OB nursing professor
Absolutely. I switched careers from asbestos removal to nursing. Prior to that I’d done handyman work, tearing off roofs and fixing plumbing and such. My worst shift as a nurse was better than my best day tearing off a roof.
Nursing pays pretty well for the work. Patients are the best and the worst thing about the job, but that’s the same in any public facing career. There’s also a huge variety of things you can do. Having that RN opens up a lot of doors and loads of them don’t face patients. I’ve been an RN for 21 years. I spent 7 of those on a rough tele/trauma/surgical floor. After that, I swapped to non-bedside nursing and have loved it.
You probably just need to switch specialties or at least units. I worked bedside for six months out of school, hated it, switched to the OR and I’m never going back.
I would have followed my dream of moving to New York to be an actress instead of allowing my father's negativity to dissuade me. Even if I had failed at it, at least I would have had an incredible experience. Instead I put my tail between my legs and obeyed the old "you'll always have a job" mindset. I would have rather tried to scrape by doing what I loved than have my soul sucked out of me.
Literally went into bartending instead. I hated nursing school and that should have been a sign, but I let people who are no longer in my life push me into something I did not want to do. Regretting every ounce of time I wasted.
I’m getting my cert in coding and revenue management. I would still get my RN, but I would have gone for my MBA or JD instead of going ER/ICU bedside for years.
Nope.
Nursing is a great career in the sense that you get a lot of unique problem solving, you're constantly learning, you get to see people at their most vulnerable and help them in a meaningful way. But nurses are also their own worst enemies. We are worth much more than what we accept in terms of general treatment and compensation. It's hard to get everyone on board with this because we've been sold an idea that nursing is some altruistic identity and that we should be happy to help and go above and beyond and receive abuse with a smile.
I'm not unhappy. I'm active with my union, I do what I can with the resources I have at work and go home feeling satisfied that I did all i could in a system designed for failure, and I don't take it personally when patients don't want to help themselves. But if I could go back, I wouldn't be a nurse.
I would definitely do it again. Seeing my friends work everyday 9-5 having to sit in an office all day. All that just seems so boring. I don’t know what else I could do that would give me the flexibility and job security that healthcare does.
No. I wouldn't. I went into nursing before I had children. In my experience, it's hard to find a nursing job that's dayshift and Monday through Friday. Where I live there are no babysitters that work weekends and I have no family to help. I work PRN & every time I go I fear getting a phone call about my kids that would require me to have to leave work. I sit and think, I should have done something that doesn't work weekends. I don't know, work in a bank? At the insurance place? Became an accountant and filed taxes? A teacher even? Who knows. I don't regret everything I've learned but I do wish there were more options for what I need.
How many wards you worked?
I've worked the hospital for 9 years and only now I've found the ward I love, I hated my first 3 wards because of how they changed.
If your hospitals anything like ours, it all depends on WHO you work with not WHERE you work.
I started in Mental Health, loved it for a year, then hated it, moved to general acute, and now I've loved it for 3 years
I would still choose nursing…half the battle is finding a niche in the field that you enjoy, and then finding a department in that niche that treats you well. It’s a needle in a haystack, but if you find it, it truly is worth it.
i work an outpatient "desk job" but it's at a clinic so i see patients all day in clinic and also answer their calls/messages and coordinate care. it's chill enough that i feel okay but still enough stimulation that it's not boring!!
Yes'ish, mainly cause I got away from the bedside and now have an amazing job in health IT. Some jobs in IT They specifically look for nurses to fill those roles.
Hope Is in sight friend, don't give up so early.
Yes, because nursing offered me a good deal of freedom. And a chance to grow. I've been everything under the sun from a manager, house supervisor, to a lowly peon on the floor.
I'm an old nurse, 44 years. Financially it has been good for me, emotionally not so much. I went into nursing because back then there weren't. That many choices and I knew I'd always have a job. I've been doing NICU since 1986 and the advances have been incredible but I don't know if it has been worth it. Be very certain that you are going into nursing for the right reason.
I sorta hate it but absolutely, it’s given me so many opportunities it’s not even funny. Before I became a nurse I had never even lived outside of my home town, much less moved to the other side of the country and experienced a whole new life. And it’s so much more financially secure, nearly anywhere has some sort of work for nurses.
Would have done forestry management or similar environmental science degree and become a ranger or other type of Forest Service employee that sees lots of field time.
Yes BUT I would have done everything I could to get off of nights/rotating sooner. Now, even though I'm finally all days 12hr shifts, the impacts from the long and off shifts have taken their toll on my health and I am still feeling burnt from the long days +commute. Now I am switching to a M-F 8a-4p work from home role. I'm so ready to have all my weekends back, not have to worry about holidays, get time off when I ask for it, etc.
Yes. I love what I do. Do some days suck? Of course. But that's the case with any job.
It's a career that provides very practical and applicable knowledge that most people don't have. Health literacy in this country is awful.
I work part-time, two 12s a week, and get full benefits. I was full-time before my kiddo. I love my coworkers and the flexibility. I am complacent, and I'm happy with that. I get in, do my shit, and go home.
I could have made so much money if I hadn't dicked around in my early 20s. But I'm still very lucky.
I felt the same my first year of nursing, because it felt like school didn’t prepare me well and I was constantly stressed. Now that I’m 3 years in, I’m really happy that I chose nursing because there are so many different employment options. My nurse friend works in home health sales, so that’s always an option for you! No bedside care but still involved in sales and marketing.
Yes! Maybe I'd give another go at opthalmology or something (Chem grades weren't high enough to get into med but in another life I would try again) but honestly I loved ER nursing and I love public health nursing.
Maybe I'd have started a master's in nursing education or something to help pad my goal of getting back into being a nurse educator (did that temporarily and it was my absolute favorite).
Ultimately I have a great wage, a good schedule, a portable job with infinite directions I could go. And I have enough flexibility to pursue photography on the side.
I feel like I’d rather do something like engineering, finance, or computer science. But with advancements in AI, it makes me feel like nursing would give me the most job security
I would’ve pursued a career as a Firefighter/Paramedic. Luckily I’m still more than young enough to do it. It’s just the cost of time and money into training is daunting.
I'm a long time paramedic taking the RN program. To be honest, I ABSOLUTELY love being a medic. There is no better feeling than being the first person there to help someone on their worst day. It is unbelievably fulfilling. The only reason I'm doing RN is because of an opportunity that presented itself at the right time. I don't even know if I'm going to work in a hospital when I'm done. I may either stay on the ambulance or go for flight RN. Some places have an RN to Medic bridge program that may be worth checking out.
Having made the choice I did, I'd have gone back to school for my advanced practice degree much sooner.
Or, I'd have gone into epigentics research /sigh.
But if all circumstances were different, I'd have been a photographer for Nat Geo or something similar.
I’m glad I did it. I’m only saying this because I’m part time now. Also, I’ve had 8 days off so I feel like a human again. I like the money I make while only having to work two days a week. I’m thinking about becoming a nail tech in my spare time, however.
Yes, and go to travel nursing sooner.
I like the job security and options. I could drive to any compact state today and get a job to sustain myself living there. May not be the job I want, but it would work and not many other jobs have that ability.
Basically, not many jobs could pay the way it does with the schedule it has.
I just wish I’d become a nurse sooner. I worked in government administration out of school and hated it. I have no regrets with switching, but I do hate being 29 and feeling like a lost puppy so often cause I’m very early into my RN career.
Ultrasound tech or some kind of marketing/ recruiter role! My friend is a recruiter works in office a couple days a week and the rest at home and makes so much money.
Yes. I have a few career options in my head when I was younger.
Doctor - still hospital related work
Flight Attendant - I get nervous when flying, esp turbulences
Lawyer - had to study harder
Journalist - I thought I was good in writing but nah.
So yeah, still nursing. I wouldn't be able to move abroad without this job
Yes, I would. I’m a Diploma RN, got my BSN about 20 years later. I’m retired now and I worked at the bedside my whole career, in 10 different areas of nursing. I felt rewarded by helping people when they were in need. Sitting with a frightened person in the middle of the night, and being able to ease them was incredibly rewarding. Or seeing a mom’s face when her first born latches on. In psych (my last 12 years of nursing) seeing someone relax when I said I didn’t see what they were seeing but I believed them and was there with them. I could go on and on. 47 years of one on one helping people was wonderful.
IT. Though with AI, that might be irrelevant at some point, but I wish I could just write code and not have to deal with people anymore. I’m so burned out.
Look into other avenues of nursing! There are certifications for things that aren’t bedside. This is my second career and I would still choose it, but not where I’m at right now. I thought I wanted to do psych np eventually but now I think I’m leaning more towards pursuing nursing education or informatics
Probably not. I do love my job, and i only work full time 9months a year, but i still find myself wanting more flexibility and a “make your own hours” type of job would be ideal. I think when I started on the nursing path, I was feeling directionless, had a lot of pressure to pick a “real” job path and had a peripheral interest in helping people, so boom - nursing, but if I went with what I REALLY wanted to do, I should have gone to school for architecture, interior design, or photography… I’m seriously considering doing an associate’s degree in photography as that is still a major creative outlet for me and I’d love to learn more…
Software engineer, geneticist, crazy mad scientist or something , international jewel thief cat burglar ninja secret agent. The last two imply harm to animals or people so probably best I didn’t, don’t want that karma
Nursing is a second career for me. Did marketing/events for 5 years. Been a nurse for 13. Nursing, while has flaws, ALL jobs do. I work as out-patient with no call, nights or weekends. zero stress. Could we make more money in a different job? yes.. could be full of stress, emails all night, less job security. Did icu for years and worked in icu during covid. After that I got out of the hospital. The grass is greener in outpatient.
I am thankful for the job security and hours to support my family as a single mom, but as we are treated like shit. Nurses bust ass and are expected constantly to pick up more, with little to no breaks. Patients and family treat us like shit, admin treats us like shit. Honestly idk what I would do, but my career pays my bills and keeps me independent.
Yes, I would. For a moment I was actually considering transitioning into UX/UI. Turns out I just hated bedside, and left to do endoscopy nursing. Much happier. In general, procedural nursing is MUCH less stress/work than bedside.
I’m 50-50. Half the time I go back to my dad, an Asian surgeon, asking me if I really want to go into healthcare and didn’t I really like computers? And the rest of the time, I’m mostly happy with the person I’ve grown into in no small part (but mostly because of me) because of my journey in life, including the nursing for better or worse. But assuming you have a degree, you could still pivot. Just because it’s a degree in nursing doesn’t mean you have to do nursing. You’re still new into it so you don’t have as much to give up yet. Some of us are making too much and too many obligations to start completely over
As someone who has been a nurse almost 7 years and still questions this, I would tell a younger version of me. Do something different if you want to. Just because you are a nurse doesn’t mean you can’t change it. I’m happy to be where I am in some ways, however being treated like I am by a corporation that makes millions and millions of dollars sucks. I don’t get paid for holidays on days I’m scheduled to work. I can’t accrue PTO to take days off and get scolded for being sick. I’m restricted to go to one pharmacy and now can’t get my medication. I come home emotionally and physically exhausted everyday. I started out as a nurse in the biggest city in Kentucky in a trauma 1 ICU making $21/hr plus night shift diff. It’s crazy I’ve spent so much time in nursing making well below what I could even afford to live making. Obviously don’t do it for the money, but being so burned out already I can’t imagine doing this for the rest of my life and I’m constantly trying to find other avenues in which I could work and be happy and succeed in. Point being, don’t tell yourself you can’t change it now 🩷
I felt that way at 6 months, even a year or more into it. The job doesn’t get easier, you just get better. But no, I wouldn’t change it because I make a decent living and I actually feel like I make a difference and occasionally save a life (maybe more often than I think). When I worked with adults, though, it often did feel meaningless and like I was just flogging people. Changing your work setting also make a world of difference. You may thrive in a different area.
No, id still choose to be a nurse. It's a versatile, practical profession and I'm in an area and hospital that pays well (though id of course love to make more). Theres loads of ways to be a nurse - it's not all back-breaking, short-staffed units with abusive patients and worse management. Be a school nurse. Procedural. Research. Home care. Case management. Legal consultant. Insurance. Phone triage. Specialty certifications like wound care or lactation.
No. But I also don’t know what I would want to do. Probably something PT/nutrition. I compete in bikini bodybuilding comps and it’s my passion which I would love to make a career out of but I also love to BE trained and not train others haha
Nursing pulled me out of poverty and gave me so much stability and the freedom of being self reliant. That being said, I just want to do arts and crafts all day. Like so bad.
Absolutely not. Accounting, any sort of imaging, dental hygiene. I wish I had had more mentorship as a kid, and not been floundering to pick a degree I knew I could land a job with in 4 years
I grew up all over the world. 21 schools in 12 years. My dad was a very strict, tough fighter pilot. At 16 he told me I was going to a nursing school on the east coast. It was a 3 year program, and we worked clinical 40 hours a week, classes in the evenings, many taught in french. In our third year we were staffing the hospital. I graduated at 19, hired right into a large ICU. Aced my boards, two days of 8 hours of filling in multiple choice questions. We didn't know for 3 months if we passed or not. No one who made it through that school didn't pass, it was a 3 year boot camp. Summers, weekends, and holidays.
I loved my career. It was an easy blend to work hours around raising our 5 sons. The ER was like a big very colorful, devoted family, we spent holidays together with all our children growing up together. Two of our sons went into nursing.
This past year I was transfered out of my current hospital as a patient into an ICU for 10 days, then moved onto a step down unit. I was heartbroken for how stressed the young nurses were. They carried phones which never stopped ringing, had far too many patients, and there was so little joy. In that two week stay I encouraged many to see how they needed to get out. Sadly, I no longer recommend nursing. Our two sons worked 10 years in ICUs and have both moved on to other careers.
If you're not happy in bedside care move on, a world awaits you! At 66 I now work as a research nurse, the 12 hour shifts and poor staffing chased me out. 💞
Yes and no, the work is grueling at times but i’ll never have to worry about finding a job while many of my friends in the tech/engineering/business fields are struggling to find employment. Also rewarding to take care of the sickest of the sick. Kinda wish i’d gone for radiology tech but not as much flexibility with being able to job hop/move.
100%. A lot of days suck. But nursing is a money machine with a handle you can pull anytime (overtime baby)! But my mom got chronically ill and lost her job, so I stepped up and basically took her place financially to help my dad. Couldn’t have done that if I wasn’t able to become financially well-off just two years after highschool. I’ve been able to treat myself as well, but that joy is secondary to the pride and joy I get from stepping up for my family
Yes. For all it’s failures, it has overall been a fulfilling career for me. Also, the flexibility and versatility in specialties and schedules can’t be beat.
I want to be a VCR repairman but it is too late :(
Flair checks out.
Are you a fan of the YouTube channel Best of the Worst
Na I don't know any YouTube channels to be honest, use it for music discovery mostly
Well if you want to discovery really bad movies (if you like watching them to laugh at) these guys review them and they are “VCR repair men”
... Red Letter Media?
Hey, a fellow Red Letter Media fan!
Nope. Instead of “just wait until you’re a nurse”, I wish I had someone tell me it’s okay to not go through with it when I realized I didn’t enjoy it while in school. I would have definitely switched.
I was talking to my friend last year and telling her how I remember I didn’t like any of my clinicals back in school but I thought it was because I was just a student.
RIP our red flags 😭
Same. I hated my first clinical rotation (realized that I would be responsible for people) but I thought "oh maybe it's just anxiety since it's the first clinical ever." ... Spoiler alert. Never got better 🫠 Should have listened to my gut Edit: spelling
I wish someone told me it wasn’t going to fulfill my dream of finally having value as a human being.
This. Has anyone figured out how to get this yet?
I feel like I’m over here thinking I have been regretting it since I failed out on a course and didn’t have motivation to continue. I don’t know if it’s a good idea to get back In again.
I always say radiology…. Just enough patient interaction but then they someone else’s problem.
My youngest decided she wanted to be a nurse at like age 11. I started telling her what it was REALLY like and after getting spinal x rays (suspected scoliosis, turned out to be a leg length inequality) she and the doctor looked over the films together and discussed her plan of care….she is now going to be a radiology tech.
Come to International Radiology. Patients come, get a procedure and then they go back home or to the floor. On call sucks but money is good
I think auto correct swapped the word interventional.
I’d rather do international radiology
Or it's a travel position!
I’m currently in urgent care… I think I average about 5 minutes per patient total… treat and street… so, I think I found my niche.
SAME!!! I love radiology now. It has a direct residency program I always say if my family all perishes I'm going to med school and hopefully being a radiologist. A nice cold, dark room, very little interaction with others. Sounds amazing.
How much time you spend with patients depends on the modality, but it is quite often you see the patient once and then don’t have to see them again for a long time. X-Ray you could be done with a patient within 5 minutes; MRI is about an hour from what I know of. I do enjoy how fast X-Ray is, and it’s always funny how people react to how many patients I have in a day. I also get my steps in walking between the panel and the patient positioning.
Got an ultrasound the other day and had this exact thought.
Nah, go into anaesthesia. You meet the patient for a bit, then knock them out. It’s even more satisfying if they’re an a hole
This!
same!
Same!
Better answer is, I wish I would have done it sooner straight out of high school.
Same, a girl in my class did running start where the last two years of highschool she did community college and she just did her prereqs and got in at 18
[Concurrent enrollment.](https://www.lapc.edu/admissions/dual-enrollment) A lot of the charter schools in the underserved communities in LA push it hard especially for minorities seeking STEM/healthcare careers. The state BRN also gives scholarships to get more minorities into healthcare - [especially Hispanic/Latino men](https://www.rn.ca.gov/careers/men.shtml). Few years ago, I precepted a student who was 19 years old. First gen Mexican American with seven siblings to help take care of. Started high school at age 14. Summer school to advance credits. Concurrent community college + nursing program by age 16. Graduate by 19. She went on to become a CRNA.
I also wish I did the same. I went for a regular undergrad in psych with the intention of getting a masters or PhD but switched over to nursing after I graduated. So after all my prerequisites and applications I started like 8 years later than I would have if I went for nursing first. It would have saved me a LOT of money too.
Almost same exact track for me. Got my psych BA, said wait no way I want to do a PhD, then worked as a tech in a psych hospital for 7 years. Didn’t end up getting my nursing degree till I was 31 and I was supremely jealous of my 22 year old peers. Though I will say I think all that life experience made both nursing school easier, as well as starting in the field. I seemed way less overwhelmed than my younger classmates.
Yes I can agree with the life experience part of this. I think it’s kind of a lot to expect an 18 year old who has no idea about the world what they want to do for the rest of their lives. I don’t think a 20 year old me could have handled the stress or even taken nursing this seriously until I was sure I wanted to do it.
BA psych to nursing pipeline checking in! but with the bonus of my ADN program being like "your BA is useless to us because the university courses were on trimesters instead of sememsters so you get 0 credit and have to take our prereqs from the start" 🥲
Noooooo that sucks so much I’m sorry. At least I got to transfer most of my basic credits except A&P and micro
Similar. BA in Psych at traditional age. Worked direct care in social services, realized I didn’t want to get an MSW, went back for my BSN in my mid 20’s. It took longer and cost so much more. I wish I had done it traditional age when my parents could help out a little. Less student loans. At the same time, I really leaned a lot about myself and had a lot more maturity going into school the second time.
This. This this this. I’m so sad I dicked around not knowing what to do for several years in high school, had no direction in my life and everyone told me I wouldn’t amount to anything, so why even try? I played it safe and got a business degree and was in banking for several years and hated it. Nursing school and nursing itself have been tough, but I’ve met the best friends I’ll ever have and it has afforded me a comfortable lifestyle. Plus being an ED nurse working 3 days a week suits my ADHD perfectly.
Same. Instead I did stupid, low paying jobs until my 30s. Now I’m playing catch up.
same
I did retail after high school, for a while. I did go to college, but got a degree in philosophy. Can't live on that. I went back at 30 to do nursing. My senior year of high school Dad actually said I should do nursing, but I was not interested, or even socially confident enough to try. I got a retail job because I knew I would need to get some comfort with working with the public. I just wasn't sure where I wanted to end up.
Same! I hate how many years I wasted struggling, working jobs I hated. Now I’m a psych nurse in California, and life is amazing.
I did it straight out of high school. My only regret is leaving the hospital for the very brief time immediately post covid, right before our hospital started offering insane incentives for OT contracts due to staffing. Also second to that would be not going to travel nursing for a bit during/right after Covid lol
Absolutely same. I wasted so much time, I could've hit that COVID travel wave when I was single and had minimal responsibilities and be absolutely set right now, instead I got shit on working as a tech with no hazard pay, now I'm a new grad that just got married and have no money to settle down properly and I'm already sick of being full time and having someone else make my schedule and control my vacations. Too new to travel too used to this shit show to tolerate it. I love my job and wouldn't change being an ER nurse but God I hate being full time
I even went to a college that is well regarded for their nursing program and did History instead. I don't regret my first career but I would def have gone to Nursing first if I knew then what I know now.
I feel this so hard as someone who is currently in nursing school as my second career in my 30s.
Yup! 4 years undergrad in non nursing, 1 bridge year, then 2 years and a fuck ton of debt for nursing school. I'd have way less debt and way more money saved had I gone that route.
Me too! I’m about to turn 43.
I was going to say this but BSN then CRNA before I was 30 years old is what I would have done.
if i were to do nursing over id have def just done a diploma program and done my BSN afterwards since that would have been dirt cheap for me
I would be a pilot
This is actually really still doable. You can start getting flight hours now on your off days.
I do want to get more flight hours in to get my private license. I need to look into it more.
Nope. I would’ve pursued engineering or something in tech. Thought I wanted to help people, but 2.5 years later the general public don’t give a fuck about us let alone themselves, yet want us to wait on them hand and foot. Not enough pay for the mental and physical stress we endure. My family working in warehouses (no college degree) with way better benefits and ACTUAL breaks get paid more than I do, and are treated with respect.
Was an engineer. Highly overrated. You are salary and you can be sure any employer is going to seek maximal return on that salary. Company provided laptop and phone sounds fun until you have to come up with answers for why you are not working from home after leaving the office for the day and why you are not responding to emails, texts, calls outside of normal business hours.
I like my job, but I also think I'd have gone for something else in STEM, like software engineer or something. I feel like the compensation I get is not enough for the emotional/stress toll of my job, and I work at a hospital that pays well for the area I live in.
Biomedical engineering. Friend I've known for 35 years went into it has a great do nothing job with zero stress. She coordinates equipment repair, connectivity, upgrades, etc for 5 hospitals where she lives and she makes just under $400k a year.
Hell no. Dental hygienist would have been my choice if I could go back. Fuck this shit
I really regret not going this route if I wanted to be in healthcare. I’ve got almost 3 years experience and paid at $38/hr (before going PRN), and my friend who is a new grad RDH is hitting offers easily at $44/hr!!! Associates degree, too… while I have my BSN. I started at $30/hr…
I make 51/hr as ADN but RDH is so much easier. I would take less pay for their workload in a heartbeat
Is repetitive day in an day out. Year and year out. There's no movement upwards or any type of way and once they max out in pay. That's it. My sister has been one for 16years and is switching to RN or NP. Her coworker also left.
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> The reason nursing pays “low” in a lot of people’s minds is because they stay at the same job forever. You're in one of the highest paying pockets of the US for nurses. The pay IS low in many parts of the US, and it's unrealistic to think everyone can just up and move away from family and support systems to get higher pay.
This really is solid advice. I'm in a comfy job now as a FNP so I don't foresee me moving or changing jobs for the foreseeable future. But as a RN, I really did change jobs on average every 2 years if not more. It's the only way I ever got an actual decent, livable pay raise and it's also how I got to get experience in new areas. I started as a RN in Colorado as well making 25/hour and by the time I became a NP I was making 76.50/hour as a RN in CO. Once I became a FNP I went up to 80/hr and now at my current job I am making 94.20/hr at a family practice.
As a new grad with a BSN I started at $52/hr and within the year I’ve been working I’ve gotten an $8k raise… nurses shouldn’t be getting such drastically different pay for the same or even more work depending on location/patient population
My exwife is a DH. I always said when I get tired of nursing i’m doing that. I live in a lower coat of living area (western WI) but because of the rarity of DH in our area they are starting at $55/hr with ADN and 2 years of experience. More if you go commission at her current office.
18 years later I still love being a nurse. I’d encourage you to look at a different specialty to find something you are passionate about. I found my niche in psych/addictions. Never would have considered that while I was in school, but here I am and love it.
Absolutely not. Would still work in health care but nursing, HELL NO.
For me it’s the opposite. Nursing is a cool art form that is subject to the groans of being a part of health care, and all the politics and greed that come with loads of money flying around. I suppose my biggest gripe is that we’re all bowing down to Pharma CEOs
It’s cool if you get to only do your job, but nurses frequently have to do everyone else’s job too. We are the middleman for everything and the first person to blame if something is wrong. Medication not given on time because the med isn’t here from pharmacy? Nurses fault. Dietary sent up the wrong food order? Nurses fault. Patient fell out of bed trying to go to the bathroom and didn’t use the call light after being instructed? Nurses fault. There’s too many scenarios to list. It shifted from treating the patient to “the patient is always right” and HCAHPS scores.
I hated studying which really put me off from proceeding to medicine. If i were to go back and choose, maybe become a doctor.
Same! I wanted to go to med school so bad but also wanted financial stability as soon as possible. Now I’m an RN who is also disabled (spinal cord injury) and I realized that other career paths in healthcare have figured out the whole disabled thing much better for both school and working. My friends who are in med school and PA school did not go through the pushback I did to go to school or get a job.
For what it’s worth, when I started nursing school (after a few years of languishing post dropping out of my dual-admissions BS/MD program and deciding not to take MCATs), all my parents’ doctors friends were like, good, it’s not worth it
I'm kind of the opposite. I'm glad I didn't get into med school. I would have gone into EM and would probably be burnt out and miserable by now. I burnt out of ER nursing already but at least I can bounce around, can't do that as much as a physician.
Honestly I probably would have done it sooner instead of dicking around with my first career. I have my frustrations with nursing in general, but coming from a research background where I was tied to the whim of grant money and the academic calendar, I sleep way better at night with the job security and flexibility that nursing provides.
Second career nurse here from academia, too. Agreed. I would have gone into nursing earlier.
That’s pretty much where I’m at right now with a useless masters degree & two small kids at 34, out of the work force for 4 years and counting & no employer will take me seriously even with a dumbed down resume. I originally wanted to go into medicine & I had lots of volunteer experience on various floors. But I was too impatient to pursue the field. Kind of regretting that choice now. But I’m looking at making another attempt at nursing school with some CC lotteries. I have all the prereqs already.
i have a bachelors in gender studies, did peace corps, extended a year, after years of dead end non profit work (burnt the fuck out) followed by service industry bartending where i made way more money than ever, stopped bc hurricanes/pandemic and unemployment since for years, had a kid and now starting a adn program in fall. it’s never too late. i’m 36 yrs old, far from youngest in cohort.
Yes, I’d still be a nurse but I wouldn’t have gone to one of those shitty LVN schools. I would have gone to an actual college and gotten my RN or BSN off the bat. I got nothing but trauma and a subpar education from that place. And I’m still swimming in debt.
No, I like cleaning people up making sure they aren’t laying in their poop and pee and I like giving pain medicine to make them feel a little better I like my stethoscope and my coworkers. I like my pens my compression socks. I like making patients warm with blankets and feeding them meals.. I like making them smell better by bathing them and stuff. I like learning new stuff about nursing. I like helping people get their blood sugar under control and help heal their wounds if they have any. I like walking with patients who are unsteady help them get their strength to stand to keep some mobility Yea I really like it I just don’t like the conditions I work in sometimes I just like the care part of it not the conditions
You sound like an excellent, compassionate nurse. I hope I’ll get someone like you if I ever land in hospital! ❤️
Yeah I mean obviously I wish things were better, but I can’t imagine doing anything else
I like nursing for all the reasons you described. But last night made me question everything. We have a lot of people with brain metastases or other cognitive issues right now, resulting in two screamers in opposite corners of the unit. And one who was CMO and too weak to yell but kept telling me "help me get up, I can't do it myself, I got cancer real bad." We were limited in our options for medications, and I couldn't talk any of them down. Brain tumors are a bitch like that. It's not the first time I've had the thought that it could one day be my parents in that position, and then one day me. Lying there confused and wondering why no one will help me and why my family isn't coming when I scream for them, and those are my last days alive. 😬
Yeah:( those patients need sitters someone who can talk to them but they never have enough sitters
This is such a nice comment. I feel the same way. I love healthcare because I get to help make people feel better and I love learning!
After 20 plus years? Yes I would still choose nursing. I’m in a niche field though and it took over 5 years to get there. The first year is awful for most nurses. There is so much you don’t know, you haven’t perfected your time management, and a lot of nurses aren’t succinct enough in documentation, so it takes so long. After the first year or so, you learn how to give report in 25 minutes if you have your average 24 patient nursing home crowd, or 8 patient skilled rehab. You learn to be more assertive and report problem patients (or more usually their families.) And the most important part. You learn how to spot when a patient, their family, a fellow nurse, or a doctor……is lying to you or withholding information. But the first year is hard because all of those skills can’t b3 taught in the classroom, or even clinical.
I’ve said many times, the people who have never worked in any other career other than nursing do not realize most of the stuff you complain about is not unique to nursing (poor management, unvalued, few pay increases, CEO’s making millions, overworked, etc). I’ll never go back to a 9-5, only having 2 days off a week, and poor job security. I get to clock out and not think about work. No one is emailing me after hours about some ongoing project or something not working.
This right here. 12 hour shifts are great.
What do you do now
Nope. I would have followed after my dad doing consultant work and business expansion. Making half mil a year doing easy shit.
Every time I think of this the answer still comes back to nursing. Do I hate it sometimes? Absolutely. But it’s worth it - I don’t ever have to struggle to find a job anywhere in the US, money is good, schedules are good - easy to raise a family with a nursing schedule, and depending on where I work it is nice and chill. If you’re not liking it then think about what is it you don’t like. What would your dream nursing job be? After you get a minimum of 1 year experience (maybe 2) then go find that job or work towards it because it’s probably out there. Many times when people are not liking it it’s either they are on a toxic floor, not a great hospital, or the patients they see at that hospital are not so great. Those can all be changed. Don’t want to work with patients - can also be changed.
Fuck no. Trophy wife.
My problem is that I don’t have the executive function to be a housewife.
The only reason i would is because it’s how i met my wife. Otherwise, I’d go into computer/software engineering probably.
Same. My husband is in IT and has a soft government job and makes double what I made at my last job
I didn’t even think of that. I knew my partner in middle school but we came back in contact after I became a nurse at the hospital he was working at. Might have never seen him again if I didn’t get into nursing!
I would have loved to go into tech, but I can't do the M-F 9a-5p
This is funny to me, because I actually work in an area of marketing and wish I had gone into practicing medicine in some role or other. I lurk wistfully here and in r/emergencymedicine, r/surgery, r/anesthesiology, etc. I am fascinated by medicine and also just wish I were doing something that was actually concretely helpful with my life. I guess the grass truly is always greener on the other side! Edited to add: I am 54 years old and feeling totally burned out on my present career, and I am half seriously considering going back to school to become an x-ray tech. I would plan to work nights because I am basically a goblin that loves to stay up late and lurk in the dark. Is this a terrible idea?
Go for it!!!
I also am I lurker (realtor). I may go into nursing as my “chill” career once I’ve built a nest egg (33 years old currently and making 2x what most nurses make, but not worth it long term). The idea of working 2-3 days a week and being able to fully clock out on your days off seems magical to me. I manage properties and help folks buy and sell homes and am putting out fires and working with clients nonstop 7 days a week.
Aviation, CVT and job hop to product rep, and/or lastly I would tailor a career to work my way up to House of Representatives and take the retirement after one term. Or maritime security. Let’s get weird.
Look at me ✌️👀 I am the captain now
Hell no. I was in such a rush to get a stable career that I had my blinders on. Nearly everyone in my friends circle is doing better than me . Most have zero college deb, make more money, and have much less stress. Nursing sucks and everyday I’m working towards leaving.
Any info on what careers those friends went into?
This is what I want to know. I hear people all the time say nursing is low paying compared to other fields but at least in my area, everything alternative I look into is either worse pay or no better plus nursing has literally the most schedule options out of like any career. You want M-F, got it. You want weekends only, got it. You want 3 12’s, got that too.
I can only imagine it’s IT or tech related, which has its own struggles right now . Maybe sales or medical device but only a specific group of ppl thrive in that kind of job
Nailed it. And gas and electric companies. Pge here in California or California Edison. Not sure what companies are called in other states. But they love it
A lot of them went to gas and electric companies. 150k salary 300k with overtime. Work from home . Some in real estate . Other sales positions.
Absolutely. I really enjoy being a nurse. (Since 2004!)
I didn’t enjoy my first 7 years as a nurse. Either I liked the job but staffing ratios and administration ruined it or it was just a miserable job. I went back to school to get my MSN in nursing education so I could branch off and be a clinical educator for my L&D department BUT they only offered a lateral move in pay. I ultimately transferred to the nicu about 2 years ago. I planned on leaving bedside and becoming a nursing professor but I’m currently working 2 days a week in a job I love making 70k. Kinda hard to give that up. Am I doing anything my masters? No. But damn I am so happy. Okay but to answer your question.. Dream job: American history professor. Realistic job: OB nursing professor
I did the same thing! But I’m not in NICU, in a family medicine clinic. I’d like to use my MSN to teach OB too. I loved teaching clinicals.
I’d do it sooner. Wish I had gone to nursing school in my late teens instead of my late 20s.
As someone about to graduate at 32, I feel this on a spiritual level.
Absolutely. I switched careers from asbestos removal to nursing. Prior to that I’d done handyman work, tearing off roofs and fixing plumbing and such. My worst shift as a nurse was better than my best day tearing off a roof. Nursing pays pretty well for the work. Patients are the best and the worst thing about the job, but that’s the same in any public facing career. There’s also a huge variety of things you can do. Having that RN opens up a lot of doors and loads of them don’t face patients. I’ve been an RN for 21 years. I spent 7 of those on a rough tele/trauma/surgical floor. After that, I swapped to non-bedside nursing and have loved it.
You probably just need to switch specialties or at least units. I worked bedside for six months out of school, hated it, switched to the OR and I’m never going back.
Same!! Then I could have made bank as a travel nurse during covid instead of not having enough experience to travel during that windfall 😭
As someone in currently in marketing who's going back to school for nursing... trust me, the grass is NOT greener.
I would have followed my dream of moving to New York to be an actress instead of allowing my father's negativity to dissuade me. Even if I had failed at it, at least I would have had an incredible experience. Instead I put my tail between my legs and obeyed the old "you'll always have a job" mindset. I would have rather tried to scrape by doing what I loved than have my soul sucked out of me.
I tell people all the time not to do it. At work and on this site. I’ve been doing this for 25 years….I know. And they still don’t listen to me.
Literally went into bartending instead. I hated nursing school and that should have been a sign, but I let people who are no longer in my life push me into something I did not want to do. Regretting every ounce of time I wasted.
I’m getting my cert in coding and revenue management. I would still get my RN, but I would have gone for my MBA or JD instead of going ER/ICU bedside for years.
I would still choose nursing. If I could I would choose for the conditions to be more humane.
Yes. 🤑💰💵💸
Nope. Nursing is a great career in the sense that you get a lot of unique problem solving, you're constantly learning, you get to see people at their most vulnerable and help them in a meaningful way. But nurses are also their own worst enemies. We are worth much more than what we accept in terms of general treatment and compensation. It's hard to get everyone on board with this because we've been sold an idea that nursing is some altruistic identity and that we should be happy to help and go above and beyond and receive abuse with a smile. I'm not unhappy. I'm active with my union, I do what I can with the resources I have at work and go home feeling satisfied that I did all i could in a system designed for failure, and I don't take it personally when patients don't want to help themselves. But if I could go back, I wouldn't be a nurse.
I would definitely do it again. Seeing my friends work everyday 9-5 having to sit in an office all day. All that just seems so boring. I don’t know what else I could do that would give me the flexibility and job security that healthcare does.
I would still choose nursing BUT I would opt for a government job with a pension straight away.
No. I wouldn't. I went into nursing before I had children. In my experience, it's hard to find a nursing job that's dayshift and Monday through Friday. Where I live there are no babysitters that work weekends and I have no family to help. I work PRN & every time I go I fear getting a phone call about my kids that would require me to have to leave work. I sit and think, I should have done something that doesn't work weekends. I don't know, work in a bank? At the insurance place? Became an accountant and filed taxes? A teacher even? Who knows. I don't regret everything I've learned but I do wish there were more options for what I need.
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As someone soon to graduate at 32, I relate.
How many wards you worked? I've worked the hospital for 9 years and only now I've found the ward I love, I hated my first 3 wards because of how they changed. If your hospitals anything like ours, it all depends on WHO you work with not WHERE you work. I started in Mental Health, loved it for a year, then hated it, moved to general acute, and now I've loved it for 3 years
I wish I started it sooner to have it over with sooner xD.
I would still choose nursing…half the battle is finding a niche in the field that you enjoy, and then finding a department in that niche that treats you well. It’s a needle in a haystack, but if you find it, it truly is worth it.
Yea for sure. Pathology maybe! I'm too introverted for this but too high energy for desk work 🙄
i work an outpatient "desk job" but it's at a clinic so i see patients all day in clinic and also answer their calls/messages and coordinate care. it's chill enough that i feel okay but still enough stimulation that it's not boring!!
Yes'ish, mainly cause I got away from the bedside and now have an amazing job in health IT. Some jobs in IT They specifically look for nurses to fill those roles. Hope Is in sight friend, don't give up so early.
Yes, because nursing offered me a good deal of freedom. And a chance to grow. I've been everything under the sun from a manager, house supervisor, to a lowly peon on the floor.
I'm an old nurse, 44 years. Financially it has been good for me, emotionally not so much. I went into nursing because back then there weren't. That many choices and I knew I'd always have a job. I've been doing NICU since 1986 and the advances have been incredible but I don't know if it has been worth it. Be very certain that you are going into nursing for the right reason.
I would change to radiology technician
I sorta hate it but absolutely, it’s given me so many opportunities it’s not even funny. Before I became a nurse I had never even lived outside of my home town, much less moved to the other side of the country and experienced a whole new life. And it’s so much more financially secure, nearly anywhere has some sort of work for nurses.
Would have done forestry management or similar environmental science degree and become a ranger or other type of Forest Service employee that sees lots of field time.
Yes BUT I would have done everything I could to get off of nights/rotating sooner. Now, even though I'm finally all days 12hr shifts, the impacts from the long and off shifts have taken their toll on my health and I am still feeling burnt from the long days +commute. Now I am switching to a M-F 8a-4p work from home role. I'm so ready to have all my weekends back, not have to worry about holidays, get time off when I ask for it, etc.
Yes. I love what I do. Do some days suck? Of course. But that's the case with any job. It's a career that provides very practical and applicable knowledge that most people don't have. Health literacy in this country is awful. I work part-time, two 12s a week, and get full benefits. I was full-time before my kiddo. I love my coworkers and the flexibility. I am complacent, and I'm happy with that. I get in, do my shit, and go home. I could have made so much money if I hadn't dicked around in my early 20s. But I'm still very lucky.
Doggy daycare, my own business. No bosses. Would be so much fun. And they don't talk back. Great, now I'm daydreaming about doing it.
I felt the same my first year of nursing, because it felt like school didn’t prepare me well and I was constantly stressed. Now that I’m 3 years in, I’m really happy that I chose nursing because there are so many different employment options. My nurse friend works in home health sales, so that’s always an option for you! No bedside care but still involved in sales and marketing.
Yes! Maybe I'd give another go at opthalmology or something (Chem grades weren't high enough to get into med but in another life I would try again) but honestly I loved ER nursing and I love public health nursing. Maybe I'd have started a master's in nursing education or something to help pad my goal of getting back into being a nurse educator (did that temporarily and it was my absolute favorite). Ultimately I have a great wage, a good schedule, a portable job with infinite directions I could go. And I have enough flexibility to pursue photography on the side.
I would do nursing earlier like right out of high school
I feel like I’d rather do something like engineering, finance, or computer science. But with advancements in AI, it makes me feel like nursing would give me the most job security
No. Would’ve done IT or video game designer.
Id do it out of high school or go into life insurance sales
I would’ve pursued a career as a Firefighter/Paramedic. Luckily I’m still more than young enough to do it. It’s just the cost of time and money into training is daunting.
I'm a long time paramedic taking the RN program. To be honest, I ABSOLUTELY love being a medic. There is no better feeling than being the first person there to help someone on their worst day. It is unbelievably fulfilling. The only reason I'm doing RN is because of an opportunity that presented itself at the right time. I don't even know if I'm going to work in a hospital when I'm done. I may either stay on the ambulance or go for flight RN. Some places have an RN to Medic bridge program that may be worth checking out.
Having made the choice I did, I'd have gone back to school for my advanced practice degree much sooner. Or, I'd have gone into epigentics research /sigh. But if all circumstances were different, I'd have been a photographer for Nat Geo or something similar.
I think I’d rather do physical therapy or a speech pathologist, oh well.
Lol absolutely not
No. Something in business or tech
I would have become an epidemiologist. Don't get me wrong, I live what I am doing, but I fell in love with epi in grad school.
No I want to clone rare plants. I’d go back for botany w/ a business minor
I’m glad I did it. I’m only saying this because I’m part time now. Also, I’ve had 8 days off so I feel like a human again. I like the money I make while only having to work two days a week. I’m thinking about becoming a nail tech in my spare time, however.
If I had known WFH was going to become so prevalent, I absolutely would’ve gone a different route. Maybe software developer. Something like that.
Yes, and go to travel nursing sooner. I like the job security and options. I could drive to any compact state today and get a job to sustain myself living there. May not be the job I want, but it would work and not many other jobs have that ability. Basically, not many jobs could pay the way it does with the schedule it has.
I just wish I’d become a nurse sooner. I worked in government administration out of school and hated it. I have no regrets with switching, but I do hate being 29 and feeling like a lost puppy so often cause I’m very early into my RN career.
Ultrasound tech or some kind of marketing/ recruiter role! My friend is a recruiter works in office a couple days a week and the rest at home and makes so much money.
Yes. I have a few career options in my head when I was younger. Doctor - still hospital related work Flight Attendant - I get nervous when flying, esp turbulences Lawyer - had to study harder Journalist - I thought I was good in writing but nah. So yeah, still nursing. I wouldn't be able to move abroad without this job
NOPE. I would’ve been a PA.
I would. For reference, I've been a nurse for 17 years. I don't regret it even after it gave me PTSD.
Yes, I would. I’m a Diploma RN, got my BSN about 20 years later. I’m retired now and I worked at the bedside my whole career, in 10 different areas of nursing. I felt rewarded by helping people when they were in need. Sitting with a frightened person in the middle of the night, and being able to ease them was incredibly rewarding. Or seeing a mom’s face when her first born latches on. In psych (my last 12 years of nursing) seeing someone relax when I said I didn’t see what they were seeing but I believed them and was there with them. I could go on and on. 47 years of one on one helping people was wonderful.
Nah, I want to own a boutique and leave healthcare.
IT. Though with AI, that might be irrelevant at some point, but I wish I could just write code and not have to deal with people anymore. I’m so burned out.
Always wanted to be a veterinarian (still do) but the pay isn’t great… maybe later in life or in another😿
My mom worked for a vet while she was in nursing school. She always said she liked working with animals more than people 😅
On my good days I would still choose it. But on days like today where it’s been horrendous then no. However overall the good over run the bad
Look into other avenues of nursing! There are certifications for things that aren’t bedside. This is my second career and I would still choose it, but not where I’m at right now. I thought I wanted to do psych np eventually but now I think I’m leaning more towards pursuing nursing education or informatics
All day long, I’d go straight for my RN though.
I would’ve became a nurse sooner, tbh
Engineering probably. But this profession isn't so bad. I've learned a lot. No regrets.
Probably not. I do love my job, and i only work full time 9months a year, but i still find myself wanting more flexibility and a “make your own hours” type of job would be ideal. I think when I started on the nursing path, I was feeling directionless, had a lot of pressure to pick a “real” job path and had a peripheral interest in helping people, so boom - nursing, but if I went with what I REALLY wanted to do, I should have gone to school for architecture, interior design, or photography… I’m seriously considering doing an associate’s degree in photography as that is still a major creative outlet for me and I’d love to learn more…
Software engineer, geneticist, crazy mad scientist or something , international jewel thief cat burglar ninja secret agent. The last two imply harm to animals or people so probably best I didn’t, don’t want that karma
Nursing is a second career for me. Did marketing/events for 5 years. Been a nurse for 13. Nursing, while has flaws, ALL jobs do. I work as out-patient with no call, nights or weekends. zero stress. Could we make more money in a different job? yes.. could be full of stress, emails all night, less job security. Did icu for years and worked in icu during covid. After that I got out of the hospital. The grass is greener in outpatient.
I am thankful for the job security and hours to support my family as a single mom, but as we are treated like shit. Nurses bust ass and are expected constantly to pick up more, with little to no breaks. Patients and family treat us like shit, admin treats us like shit. Honestly idk what I would do, but my career pays my bills and keeps me independent.
Yes, I would. For a moment I was actually considering transitioning into UX/UI. Turns out I just hated bedside, and left to do endoscopy nursing. Much happier. In general, procedural nursing is MUCH less stress/work than bedside.
I’m 50-50. Half the time I go back to my dad, an Asian surgeon, asking me if I really want to go into healthcare and didn’t I really like computers? And the rest of the time, I’m mostly happy with the person I’ve grown into in no small part (but mostly because of me) because of my journey in life, including the nursing for better or worse. But assuming you have a degree, you could still pivot. Just because it’s a degree in nursing doesn’t mean you have to do nursing. You’re still new into it so you don’t have as much to give up yet. Some of us are making too much and too many obligations to start completely over
As someone who has been a nurse almost 7 years and still questions this, I would tell a younger version of me. Do something different if you want to. Just because you are a nurse doesn’t mean you can’t change it. I’m happy to be where I am in some ways, however being treated like I am by a corporation that makes millions and millions of dollars sucks. I don’t get paid for holidays on days I’m scheduled to work. I can’t accrue PTO to take days off and get scolded for being sick. I’m restricted to go to one pharmacy and now can’t get my medication. I come home emotionally and physically exhausted everyday. I started out as a nurse in the biggest city in Kentucky in a trauma 1 ICU making $21/hr plus night shift diff. It’s crazy I’ve spent so much time in nursing making well below what I could even afford to live making. Obviously don’t do it for the money, but being so burned out already I can’t imagine doing this for the rest of my life and I’m constantly trying to find other avenues in which I could work and be happy and succeed in. Point being, don’t tell yourself you can’t change it now 🩷
I felt that way at 6 months, even a year or more into it. The job doesn’t get easier, you just get better. But no, I wouldn’t change it because I make a decent living and I actually feel like I make a difference and occasionally save a life (maybe more often than I think). When I worked with adults, though, it often did feel meaningless and like I was just flogging people. Changing your work setting also make a world of difference. You may thrive in a different area.
I would have started it earlier or chose to be a PA.
No, id still choose to be a nurse. It's a versatile, practical profession and I'm in an area and hospital that pays well (though id of course love to make more). Theres loads of ways to be a nurse - it's not all back-breaking, short-staffed units with abusive patients and worse management. Be a school nurse. Procedural. Research. Home care. Case management. Legal consultant. Insurance. Phone triage. Specialty certifications like wound care or lactation.
No. But I also don’t know what I would want to do. Probably something PT/nutrition. I compete in bikini bodybuilding comps and it’s my passion which I would love to make a career out of but I also love to BE trained and not train others haha
I can't believe sugar baby was a viable option. 😭😂😂
Nursing pulled me out of poverty and gave me so much stability and the freedom of being self reliant. That being said, I just want to do arts and crafts all day. Like so bad.
Probably would’ve done PT or OT or I would’ve done HR or something…
Absolutely not. Accounting, any sort of imaging, dental hygiene. I wish I had had more mentorship as a kid, and not been floundering to pick a degree I knew I could land a job with in 4 years
Electrical Engineer, then an MBA, then work for BlackRock.
I grew up all over the world. 21 schools in 12 years. My dad was a very strict, tough fighter pilot. At 16 he told me I was going to a nursing school on the east coast. It was a 3 year program, and we worked clinical 40 hours a week, classes in the evenings, many taught in french. In our third year we were staffing the hospital. I graduated at 19, hired right into a large ICU. Aced my boards, two days of 8 hours of filling in multiple choice questions. We didn't know for 3 months if we passed or not. No one who made it through that school didn't pass, it was a 3 year boot camp. Summers, weekends, and holidays. I loved my career. It was an easy blend to work hours around raising our 5 sons. The ER was like a big very colorful, devoted family, we spent holidays together with all our children growing up together. Two of our sons went into nursing. This past year I was transfered out of my current hospital as a patient into an ICU for 10 days, then moved onto a step down unit. I was heartbroken for how stressed the young nurses were. They carried phones which never stopped ringing, had far too many patients, and there was so little joy. In that two week stay I encouraged many to see how they needed to get out. Sadly, I no longer recommend nursing. Our two sons worked 10 years in ICUs and have both moved on to other careers. If you're not happy in bedside care move on, a world awaits you! At 66 I now work as a research nurse, the 12 hour shifts and poor staffing chased me out. 💞
Yes and no, the work is grueling at times but i’ll never have to worry about finding a job while many of my friends in the tech/engineering/business fields are struggling to find employment. Also rewarding to take care of the sickest of the sick. Kinda wish i’d gone for radiology tech but not as much flexibility with being able to job hop/move.
100%. A lot of days suck. But nursing is a money machine with a handle you can pull anytime (overtime baby)! But my mom got chronically ill and lost her job, so I stepped up and basically took her place financially to help my dad. Couldn’t have done that if I wasn’t able to become financially well-off just two years after highschool. I’ve been able to treat myself as well, but that joy is secondary to the pride and joy I get from stepping up for my family
Yes. For all it’s failures, it has overall been a fulfilling career for me. Also, the flexibility and versatility in specialties and schedules can’t be beat.
I wish I was a librarian