If your (college age) child expressed interest in going into nursing, would you encourage it?

Anonymous
I'd see if they are interested in being a physician.
Anonymous
Anonymous wrote:I'd encourage my kid to shadow a nurse as well as volunteer in a hospital (preferably in several different departments) to be sure that he or she fully understood the job and the tasks required. Nursing is a great field - but I'd like my child to understand the amount of on the spot problem solving and hands on stuff that is required of nurses. It's so much more than fetching water and changing bedpans.


Yes, I would encourage candystriping or some other type of volunteer work. If I thought they understood the work and it was their passion? Sure. It's pretty far outside of anything that would be of interest to me personally, so I might struggle to understand it a bit, but their lives their choices.
Anonymous
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Yes! (I'm a second career RN and I love it).


What was your first career? Did you go into floor nursing immediately?
I worked in international public health and had a pretty good career but was tired of the lower pay, job insecurity (your job is only secure for the length of the remaining contract funding then everyone scrambles to find a new job, increasing competition for global public health bids/contracts and the higher up you go the harder it is), and the constantly being on and expected to answer phone/email etc when out of office.

I love the flexibility of nursing, so many areas I can go into and when I leave the hospital I don't spend a single second thinking of work or working and I cannot bring my work home! I also love the job security. I worked my public health job while in nursing school and was laid off when our project was not renewed but I had already graduated with my nursing degree and got a job immediately as a nurse. My colleagues who were laid off with me are STILL looking for work almost a year later....
Anonymous
Anonymous wrote:I am encouraging my son to be a nurse and yes, people are discouraging me from doing that.

The #1 comment I get "he can't support a family on a nurses salary".


You know what’s infuriating? Male nurses make more than female nurses. And women have been in the profession much longer.
Anonymous
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:I am encouraging my son to be a nurse and yes, people are discouraging me from doing that.

The #1 comment I get "he can't support a family on a nurses salary".


You know what’s infuriating? Male nurses make more than female nurses. And women have been in the profession much longer.

No they don’t
Anonymous
I don’t recommend breastfeeding beyond a year or so. College age is too old to still be nursing.
Anonymous
At one point back around 2008 I remember hearing that new nurses couldn’t find jobs. It was said that foreign nurses were coming into the country from the Philippines and working for lower pay. Has that situation gotten better?
Anonymous
Anonymous wrote:I'd see if they are interested in being a physician.

why?
Anonymous
Anonymous wrote:At one point back around 2008 I remember hearing that new nurses couldn’t find jobs. It was said that foreign nurses were coming into the country from the Philippines and working for lower pay. Has that situation gotten better?

DC is a new grad destination. WHC churns them out like no one's business.
Anonymous
Anonymous wrote:I'd see if they are interested in being a physician.


Even if you are interested in becoming a physician (or doing any other professional school:graduate school) nursing is still a great bachelors degree, and it’s easy to take premed classes with any degree. I had a few friends who were nurses when I was in medical school, and not only were they leaps and bounds ahead of the rest of us in knowing practical information on the wards, they had a job doing shift work for real money. While the rest of us were living off of student loans and waiting tables or teaching Kaplan classes for a little extra money, the nurses were working a couple of shifts a month and making enough to live on.

Even if it isn’t your ultimate career path, a BSN is a great degree to have.
Anonymous
Yes, a BS in nursing is a good degree to have. Seconding all the other posters that they need to volunteer in a hospital before pursing the degree just to see if they will be ok working in a hospital.

I taught are a university offering a nursing degree and a number of students were deselected from the program because they couldn't pass the required math and science classes.

One of my friends daughters is already working towards becoming a CNA in her final year of high school, so she can try out nursing before she goes to pursue her bachelor's degree.
post reply Forum Index » Jobs and Careers
Message Quick Reply
Go to: