A friend quizzed me about nursing careers on behalf of his wife recently because she works part time as a teacher's aide and he would like to encourage her to go back to school to have something to "fall back on" in case something happened to him.
Stop and think about this before you encourage a family member or child to enter nursing school. A newly minted MBA can command a significantly higher salary than an RN even one who has gone on to become a Nurse Practitioner or a manager. The exception to this might be if one choses to become a Nurse Anesthetist and even they eventually top out at less than what an an MBA makes after five years.
Yeah, yeah, I know it is not all about the money. Perhaps you saw that cheery Johnson and Johnson commercial, when the perceptive nurse noticed her patient was a touch stoic and uninterested in interacting. She saw a picture of him, realized he was a musician, and put head phones on him bringing a contented smile to his face. You nodded to yourself and said "I'm a people person" this is for me. I'm the super altruistic type. I'm gonna save the world. And besides, those scrubs will sure cover up my less than perfect body.
One becomes an entry level RN by obtaining a diploma or a degree. I already had a degree so the diploma route was most appealing to me. I am just a diploma nurse. I say that with a touch of sarcasm because my personal opinion is that there is no real difference. However, there is a general trend toward encouraging the degree option in order to enhance the ideal of nurses as professionals, thus removing the stigma of nursing as a bastion of handmaidens with technical skills. There are also other valid reasons to obtain a degree rather than a diploma. There are a great many positions in nursing away from direct bedside care that require a degree.
There is a discouraging pattern developing in which RNs spend only a few years at the bedside before going on to graduate work and becoming either Nurse Practitioners or educators. It is discouraging because RNs are being lured away from the bedside, and intriguing since it indicates that there is a burgeoning basket of opportunities in the field. This is based my own anecdotal observations not hard data.
But you're still tickled by that commercial, and then there is Aunt Sally or some other relative you admire who is/was a nurse and you have heard both the amusing and not so amusing "war stories" nurses love to trot out in an effort to out do one another or simply to commiserate.
Are you prepared to work shifts, holidays, weekends, rotating shifts, and pretty much other time that is not convenient to a relatively normal functioning life. Do you like blood, body parts, bodily fluids, machines that break or fail to do what those damn instructions say they do? Do you enjoy meeting people under stressful circumstances? Do you have really, really thick skin? Are you an amateur psychologist/social worker? Are you easily intimidated. If you are easily intimated nursing is not the job for you. You will meet arrogant MDs, arrogant and pushy patients and families, arrogant and pushy support and allied health services people, and sometimes be surrounded by arrogant and pushy colleagues.
Do you like solving mysteries, enjoy thinking on your feet, can you make a comprehensive plan of care in your head and then revise it five minutes later when every circumstance you knew about changed? Can you eat in three seconds? Can you hold your bladder for hours on end? Are you a thrill seeker who loves the rush of coming through despite less than perfect circumstances? Can you absorb stress like a sponge and at least pretend things are under some semblance of control? Can you even laugh during dire circumstances, either with your patient or colleagues, in acknowledgment that the universe is a bizarre difficult taskmaster? Can you be there in that moment when life is gone and all has been done even if you say nothing and just offer a hug?
Can you bounce back after a broken heart? You will meet people you want to take home with you. You will bear witness to events that are cruel and unjust, you will be astounded by the bravery of ordinary people. Even if you are not a Christian, you will know the meaning of grace engaging in emotional and physical adventures that just did not seem possible or probable.What seemed impossible, will come true and the triumphs you will be a small part of will make you believe in something greater than yourself even if you do not subscribe to a particular set of beliefs. There will also be times when the mundane is the order of the day. Your patients will sometimes get into your head. A few faces will haunt you the rest of your life. The patients and families who test you the most, who push you unbearably, who you cannot satisfy or comprehend will often be the ones from whom you learn the most.
Nursing like any other profession, is subject to assumptive stereotypes garnered from pop culture. There are three broad stereotypes that I can think of: the angel of mercy radiating sweetness, unflinching altruism, and eternal kindness, the sadistic, bitter, "battle ax", and the unflappable "super nurse" who never breaks a sweat, always rescues the day, and never makes a mistake. I am none of these. I am simply a regular working person who strives for the best. Many of my colleagues do have some of these traits but they are just far too complex to fit into a category. I have seen the sweet ones turn into tigers and the so called tough as nails ones break into tears.
I never mentioned the nursing shortage to my friend. The only good news one can draw from that is job security. While I might not have infallibility at my current position, I imagine I could work until I was 95 if I wanted to. In fact, the joke among the older RNs at work is that in 20 years the people taking care of the elderly and sick will be in almost as decrepit shape. Nor did I mention the darker sides of nursing: chronic and acute staffing shortages that can have an adverse impact on patient care, labor relations, and rising violence directed against nurses in the workplace.
Wages and salaries are influences by the area of specialty, region one is working in, and a few other factors. In general, floor nurses experience a condition in which salaries "flatten" after about ten years while the MBA will continue to increase earnings. Notice that I did not complain about how much I make for two reasons: one I am not telling and two RNs do make a decent wage. Spit at me for saying this, but I am very confident given the complexity of the job that if nursing were a male dominated profession we would be making more.
Before I could mention some of the darker aspects and the M word my friend said my professional sounded too intense. Huh, who me?