Career as a nurse -- DH has a prejudice against it

[Anonymous]

To the OP: I'd question how much your DH actually knows about any of this.

UGA (the state flagship) does not have a nursing program. Neither does Georgia Tech. Georgia State, West Georgia, Georgia Southern, and North Georgia all do, but I wouldn't call any of those our "state flagship."

So what he thinks he knows about his HS classmates' lives is already pretty inaccurate, and what he assumes he knows about what it's like to be a nurse is guaranteed equally inaccurate.

Let your daughter talk to actual nurses to make her decisions.

-RN, BSN in GA

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Sorry to revive but this is a relevant thread to me, right now, and my DC.

Curious for the poster or posters who claim that the path to NP or CRNA will be "oversaturated"? The BLS and some other career sites seem to say the opposite. I def recall hearing that anesthesia specialties are in demand and understaffed, currently.

Just wondering if I'm wrong or what people are seeing in real time on these sorts of advanced nursing paths?

I think your DC needs to look carefully at what type of NP she thinks she's like to be. For example, PNP is really saturated in the market where I live, but FNP is still in high demand. CRNA programs are extremely competitive and require several years of experience in an ICU. Even other NP specialities will have a hard time getting a job post-MSN / DNP without a few years of RN experience. I'd strongly discourage combined BSN-MSN programs.

That said, I love being a nurse (second career for me- graduated with my BSN at 35). The shifts are long and sometimes really hard. As others have said, we deal with everything from hard hours (nights/weekend/holidays) to bodily fluids to death to abuse (I have been punched by a psych patient). But the work is fast paced, varied, and challenging.
I've been a nurse for 8 years now and still learn new things every week. And I love the flexibility and ability to work in so many different settings.
My only regret is that I didn't become a nurse sooner. Good luck to your DC!

[Anonymous]

OP, I get it. I currently live in a small town in GA against my will, and lots of the "nurses" here are are actually CNAs or LPNs who went to community college, so I have the same knee-jerk reaction against nursing as your DH. And my sister is a CRNA!

So, cut him some slack. It's a really hard stereotype to shake if you've lived in certain areas.

[Anonymous]

The original post was from February 2022 and I don't think OP included her DD's age. Curious if she started BSN program somewhere or changed her mind and studying something else. My sophomore DD is considering BSN.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:To the OP: I'd question how much your DH actually knows about any of this.

UGA (the state flagship) does not have a nursing program. Neither does Georgia Tech. Georgia State, West Georgia, Georgia Southern, and North Georgia all do, but I wouldn't call any of those our "state flagship."

So what he thinks he knows about his HS classmates' lives is already pretty inaccurate, and what he assumes he knows about what it's like to be a nurse is guaranteed equally inaccurate.

Let your daughter talk to actual nurses to make her decisions.

-RN, BSN in GA

I changed some details for anonymity. The state flagship has a college of nursing, I've confirmed it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:regular RN will not make 100k unless you become a travel nurse

this is not true at all.

Agree. Not true. I work for federal government in a specialty clinic as a staff nurse and make over 100K, no weekends, holidays paid.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:DH grew up in a rural town where like the default path for a LOT of the women in his graduating class was to go into nursing. He wants to dissuade our DD from the field because he feels it is underpaid, over worked, and not given enough respect in the profession. He claims they barely break $100k, despite working long hard hours responsible dozens of patients.

My impression is that there is a nursing shortage, and I would expect salaries to rise to approach $150k or so, a solid professional salary. And if you go into a specialty, like CNP or CNA you can break $200k riveling pediatricans and internist salaries.

Love to hear stories of nurse careers to balance out my DH's long list of RNs scrapping by in rural Georgia!

I dont get it- why would you choose to be a nurse instead of a physician? Is it a class thing? If I was going to do all of that work, I'd just go to med school etc etc.. it's not like the work load is any less. Its more stress and responsibility but academically it's the same and you earn a LOT more.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:regular RN will not make 100k unless you become a travel nurse

this is not true at all.

Agree. Not true. I work for federal government in a specialty clinic as a staff nurse and make over 100K, no weekends, holidays paid.

you're a fed in a high priced city. OP is not

[Anonymous]

Navy nurse. Get stationed in Italy.

[Anonymous]

Former SIL is now a nurse on a cruise ship; she has large private quarters and makes more than what she made on land.

Weird hours but travels all over the world free. Sh’s been at it about 3 years now and no intention of quitting.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DH grew up in a rural town where like the default path for a LOT of the women in his graduating class was to go into nursing. He wants to dissuade our DD from the field because he feels it is underpaid, over worked, and not given enough respect in the profession. He claims they barely break $100k, despite working long hard hours responsible dozens of patients.

My impression is that there is a nursing shortage, and I would expect salaries to rise to approach $150k or so, a solid professional salary. And if you go into a specialty, like CNP or CNA you can break $200k riveling pediatricans and internist salaries.

Love to hear stories of nurse careers to balance out my DH's long list of RNs scrapping by in rural Georgia!

I dont get it- why would you choose to be a nurse instead of a physician? Is it a class thing? If I was going to do all of that work, I'd just go to med school etc etc.. it's not like the work load is any less. Its more stress and responsibility but academically it's the same and you earn a LOT more.

Nursing is a different career than being a physician, with more patient contact (at least floor nurses). You can be a nurse after much less schooling. And you can end up $400k in debt from med school and still have to do residency and fellowships, etc.

I think a more interesting decision is between nurse practitioner and PA.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DH grew up in a rural town where like the default path for a LOT of the women in his graduating class was to go into nursing. He wants to dissuade our DD from the field because he feels it is underpaid, over worked, and not given enough respect in the profession. He claims they barely break $100k, despite working long hard hours responsible dozens of patients.

My impression is that there is a nursing shortage, and I would expect salaries to rise to approach $150k or so, a solid professional salary. And if you go into a specialty, like CNP or CNA you can break $200k riveling pediatricans and internist salaries.

Love to hear stories of nurse careers to balance out my DH's long list of RNs scrapping by in rural Georgia!

I dont get it- why would you choose to be a nurse instead of a physician? Is it a class thing? If I was going to do all of that work, I'd just go to med school etc etc.. it's not like the work load is any less. Its more stress and responsibility but academically it's the same and you earn a LOT more.

Nursing is a different career than being a physician, with more patient contact (at least floor nurses). You can be a nurse after much less schooling. And you can end up $400k in debt from med school and still have to do residency and fellowships, etc.

I think a more interesting decision is between nurse practitioner and PA.

Nursing is better because it teaches you how to work with people. The nursing model is about the how. (How to change an IV, how to check for vitals, how to give insulin and give injections, how to talk to a patient and answer “am I going to die?”)

The medical model teaches the what. (what is the diagnosis? What is the prognosis? What is the cause? What does the X Ray or blood test say?)

Two very important things. I find that doctors have the knowledge but low people skills and nurses don’t have much greater people skills.

PA’s are a happy medium because they’re taught the medical model like doctors not the nursing model in school, but they are required to have 2 years of direct patient care prior to school.

Most doctors were in research labs, scribes, or EMTs prior to med school and those jobs just aren’t as patient or people centered as nursing.

Nursing has a skill set doctors don’t learn and Vice versa

[Anonymous]

Don’t have as much medical knowledge but have greater people skills*

[Anonymous]

Nurses have far better work/life balance than MDs.

[Anonymous]

My RN friends have good quality of life. They work 3 hour shifts a week and are off 4 days each week.