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

[Anonymous]

Discourage? Neither?

[Anonymous]

Encourage, yes! Assuming I think they'd be good at it.

[Anonymous]

Yes! (I'm a second career RN and I love it).

[Anonymous]

Sure. Why not? I'd just mention that the hours are different and getting approved leave is harder than many other jobs. But when someone has a passion for a particular kind of work, these things are often secondary considerations.

[Anonymous]

Definitely yes. In fact my DD got her Nursing Assistant certification through her HS. It is my impression that nursing is so , you can work anywhere you want. As for RN, I love my RN as my main practitioner. Very few Drs are as attentive and listen like she does.

[Anonymous]

Yes! Health care is one of the best industries amd its growing

[Anonymous]

Absolutely. Nurses have so many career options. It's a great field.

[Anonymous]

Second career RN/MSN here.

I'd encourage them, but also ask about their motivation for becoming a nurse. Some think of nursing as being an easy job. It's not. Nursing school does a good job of weeding out those types, though, because nursing school in some ways is worse than actually being a nurse!

I love my job for its flexibility, ability to change specialities without too much disruption, excellent benefits and high income in proportion to hours worked, endless educational opportunities, and family-friendliness.

I hate my job because of the often heavy workload (nurses do a lot more than fetch water and give pills, and some patients are very demanding and never satisfied), the responsibility that is heaped upon nurses (we're accountable for anything that goes wrong or awry, even if it's not our fault and the issue in question is outside our scope of practice), high burnout potential, the need to plan my schedule 3-6 months in advance to get time off (which doesn't always happen), hospital/regulatory politics, the amount of redundant documentation that seems to go into a black cloud and is only read if something goes wrong, and the lack of respect some have for nursing as a profession.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Second career RN/MSN here.

I'd encourage them, but also ask about their motivation for becoming a nurse. Some think of nursing as being an easy job. It's not. Nursing school does a good job of weeding out those types, though, because nursing school in some ways is worse than actually being a nurse!

I love my job for its flexibility, ability to change specialities without too much disruption, excellent benefits and high income in proportion to hours worked, endless educational opportunities, and family-friendliness.

I hate my job because of the often heavy workload (nurses do a lot more than fetch water and give pills, and some patients are very demanding and never satisfied), the responsibility that is heaped upon nurses (we're accountable for anything that goes wrong or awry, even if it's not our fault and the issue in question is outside our scope of practice), high burnout potential, the need to plan my schedule 3-6 months in advance to get time off (which doesn't always happen), hospital/regulatory politics, the amount of redundant documentation that seems to go into a black cloud and is only read if something goes wrong, and the lack of respect some have for nursing as a profession.

Also forgot to add that job security is perhaps the best part of being a nurse.

[Anonymous]

Yes. Also, demand is going to continue to go up for nurses.

[Odysseus]

It means your kid doesn't want to be a lawyer, so I'd encourage it.

[Anonymous]

My kid who wants to be a nurse has severe ADHD inattentive and lousy with details so I am concerned, but otherwise I wouldn’t be.

[Anonymous]

Why wouldn't you OP??

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My kid who wants to be a nurse has severe ADHD inattentive and lousy with details so I am concerned, but otherwise I wouldn’t be.

I'd be concerned about the inattentive to details part. Does medication help him/her?

[Anonymous]

I'm 43 and have worked as a nurse for 20 years. It's been a rewarding and interesting career. I went back to graduate school, worked as a nurse practitioner for a number of years and am now in a very flexible work-from-home job.
The only downside is the pay. I would never be able to live in NW DC on what I make alone. I make less ($95K, 20 years into my career) than most people on DCUM seem to make their first year out of school. Nursing is a great starting salary,
it's a very, very dependable salary (there are always jobs anywhere in America) but it's difficult to raise a family, buy a house, etc. on this salary in many urban areas. In DC every nurse I know who works at GWU or GU or WHC lives an hour
or more outside of the city because they can't afford to live any closer. Or they're married to a higher income earner. In contrast, nursing can provide a great life in much of rural and middle America.