30s crisis?

[Frugal Nurse]

I made a career change too. I was in my early twenties, working as a paralegal, stressed beyond my limit, and miserable. It was effecting my marriage (I took my stress out on poor DH). I decided to go back to nursing school. It was scary to leave a good paying job for 2 years to work as a nursing assistant while in school, but I'm so glad I did.

There is great money to be made as a nurse. Regular, full-time nurses make so-so money (usually $27/hr to start. That is including base pay plus shift diffs). PRN Pool nurses make quite a bit more (35-50/hour), and I have known travel nurses to make as much as $60/hr.

I will caution you, though, that nursing is not all passing meds and holding patients' hands. It can be very stressful. You have 12 hours to pass meds, coordinate care (physical therapy, respiratory therapy, occupational therapy), change dressings, start and maintain IVs, clean poop (yes, nurses spend most of the shift elbow-deep in some of the foulest smelling poo in the world), clean vomit, suction sputum (so very,very gross), manage ventilators, manage tube feedings, bathe patients, make beds, insert and manage catheters, walk your patients to and from the bathroom, talk to family members, talk to doctors, talk to patients, talk to managers, help out your co-workers, and, oh, yeah, chart meticulously on everything you do, in case someone dies and you have to go to court. And people do die. A lot. Guess who gets to pronounce death (in my state, nurses can do that), clean the body (and dead bodies can be pretty gross), remove the equipment, contact the coroner, console the grieving family, go to the morgue to retrieve the morgue cart (yes, from dead-body freezer), put the patient in a bag, put on the toe tag, zip 'em up, take them to the morgue, and place them on a shelf in the freezer? Yep, that would be the nurse. You see people at their sickest. You see 19 year olds who have drank so much that their livers failed, mothers with newly diagnosed aggressive cancer, fathers dying of lung disease and leaving behind young children, teenagers in car accidents, people who have caused their own health problems, and people who just got dealt a bad hand. But you have to treat them all the same. I can't tell you how many times I've been hit, kicked, punched, spit on, vomited on, cussed out, had things thrown at me, had perverted men grab me, hit on me, get hard-ons during a bath, try to convince me to wash their "little men", even though they are perfectly capable.

On the other hand, nursing gets into you. I can't explain it, but you love it. Because there is that occasional patient that you fall in love with. The one who you look forward to going to work to see, who young spend more time in their room talking, whose family you connect with, the one you're sad to see go home.

Of course before you get to the wonderful world of nursing, you have to go to nursing school. I went the ADN route, so I can only comment on that. It is 2 years of pure hell. You get a TON of info. thrown at you in a very, very short period of time. You are expected to learn everything that can go wrong in every system of the body, how to recognize these things, and what the common treatments are. You have to learn about older adults, adults, pregnant women, newborns, children, special needs, mental health etc. You have to learn hundreds of drugs and all their uses, side effects, interactions, etc. The grading scale is usually higher, and in my program, anything below a 78 was an F. The teachers are strict, the classes fast paced, and you have no time for anything else. I worked part-time and still barely saw my husband.I was always at school, at clinical, or studying. I don't see how people with children got through. Then you finish nursing school and have to take the worst exam ever put upon this earth: the NCLEX (nursing license exam). I have never known anyone to have a good experience with that horrible test. Then you spend your first year on the job feeling like you haven't learned a thing in the past 2 years.

I'm not trying to discourage you, just to give you another side of the picture. I love my job, but I tell people that are thinking of nursing school to consider being an ultrasound tech instead. They make similar money, have better hours, and it is much less stressful.

Also, there is a website called Allnurses.com, it is a message boards for anyone in the nursing profession or nursing school or those thinking of becoming nurses. I think going there and reading a few threads might help you get a clear picture of whether nursing is right for you.

Good luck! I hope you find a career where you are happy.

[yogiii]

frugalnurse - Thanks! That was a great description and I'll certaintly check that website and the messageboards out.

[bring in the new year]

Yogiii,

When I first started working, I worked with a woman who was 10 years older than me and just about your age. She was not an accountant although she knew a lot of basic accounting and although she wasn't happy, she said she was too old to go back to school again.

I told my aunt this and my aunt said, well, she's actually got another 30 years left in her worklife left, so spending 3 or 5 years getting the degree would still leave her with at least 25 years as a CPA.

Twenty years doesn't really go faster than all that, but two or three years does. I know a vet tech who is just finishing her CC nursing degree and she has a new job lined up for July. If you want to do this, I think you should look seriously into it.

BUT - and this is a big But for me - have you ever volunteered in a hospital? Before you put the time and effort into the degree spend some time with sick people. You really want to know that you don't get nauseated by them or are allergic to latex or any other odd quirky things that would pretty much mean that your degree was wasted.

We have all sorts of students who want to be veterinarians. Some of them have underlying allergies to one kind of animal or another - allergies that aren't obvious with one pet but get pretty severe when there's a animal coming through every 20 minutes. Some are afraid of big dogs or barking dogs. Some are afraid of cats or hamsters or rats. Some get so depressed by euthanasia they have to leave the room. Some of them don't want to deal with bodily fluids.

Isn't it nice that they found this stuff out before they spent 30k a year on vet school?

[trimatty471]

Jun 30, 2011 10:20:33 GMT -5 thyme4change said:

I just can't see myself doing this

When you say "doing this" - do you mean the same job at the same desk at the same company? Or, any mouse-jockey job?

I felt that way around 30-ish, and then I got a new boss, who was awesome and gave me some really great opportunitites to grow, and then I got a promotion and then I changed companies and I love what I do now, 12 years later. It seems like it is the same thing (basically) as I did back then, but somehow between technology advances and such, it feels fresh and challenging.

I am 35 and been with my company for 12 years. Yep been at the same job and same desk at the same company and there do not seem to be any room for growth here. It may sound cruel but a lot of people with in my age group feel the same way. We cannot wait for the older employees to retire or

[piff]

Change things whilst your in good health ,,,,,,,,,Do it now while the going is good .

Life is too short to dither about it.

Good luck to all who change things,,,,,,,,,,,You will not regret it.

[Peace77]

Go for it.

If you have pre-requisite classes, take them at night while you keep your current job.

Start setting aside money for your classes now.