I have just started taking the pre-requisite classes to attend nursing school. After about 3 years of not knowing what the hell I wanted to do with my life, I decided that nursing was for me and now I am dedicated to making myself one.
I would like to know if there are any nurses out there who have some advice on how to get a good nursing career started, i.e. what to do when just starting out.
Any general advice is welcome, and I would love to hear how you feel about your job.
FWIW, my daughter is a freshman in college and has just switched from pre-pharmacy to pre-nursing, and she was told by a nursing school graduate, “If you ever hear of anyone who wants to become a nurse, just send them to me and I’ll talk them out of it, ha ha”, but she then went on to add, helpfully, that getting that Bachelor of Nursing degree serves as a useful jumping-off point for any number of health care-related careers. IOW, it doesn’t automatically mean becoming a “nurse” as such–an LPN or RN–anymore. So you can go ahead and get the degree and not worry about how you’ll deal with bedpans, etc., because you might not have to.
Do what my daughter is doing–go ahead and get the degree, and along the way at some point you’ll figure out what you want to do with it.
Many hospitals have what amount to apprentice jobs. They’re usually half or 3/4 time positions where you can work under an RN and learn the job from the inside. The ones I’ve seen are open to nursing students who have completed their med/surg clinical rotations through a nursing school (usually after the first or second semester)
I’m starting on the same road by the way, planning to finish an ADN program and the last 27 cr. of my B.S. in biology over the next three years.