Anyone here switch careers into nursing?

[dutch_henry]

If so, curious to hear about why, what you found, and any advice you have.

Throughout my life I've been duly impressed by the RNs I've been exposed to through various injuries, family member's illnesses, and my son's nicu stay and subsequent follow-ups. Same goes for reaching out to chat with people working in the field. I'm in my mid 40s and I've worked in education most of my career, but if I had to do it again I would've pursued some certification in medicine. Over the years I picked up my EMT (now lapsed) and enjoyed volunteering. Also got to use it in some very satisfying backcountry applications and some S&R, first as an EMT, then years later as a first responder.

This fall instead of sitting on my ass and thinking about it, I decided to start in on prerequisites for an accelerated BSN. So now I'm taking A&P I and enjoying it, with a looooong road ahead.

If you've done a similar career switch, or work in the field and don't mind sharing your story about how you got started/things for me to keep in mind, please weigh in.

 

[Doc Holliday]

My wife is a nurse, my mom is a nurse. My grandad was a surgeon. In other words, I have great respect for anyone who works in that field.

That said, you have to physically be there to do the job. Right now that is the only thing keeping us from traveling more, hunting more, and spending more time in the outdoors.

If you can find something that can be done remotely/from anywhere with a WiFi signal for equal or better money, I would recommend that instead.

 

[GatorGar247]

My mother in law was a nurse. My wife is a nurse but has decided to leave the field after 20 years. The benefits have gone to just about nothing. The hospitals stretch them so thin she doesn't even get to eat lunch most days.. She has started to really see how her hospital is admitting every covid patient they can because of the money the government is handing out. Good luck to you if you decide to go that route...Hospitals are a shady business..

 

[Lelder]

Interested in this thread, I have been contemplating changing careers (I’m 38) and going to school for RN so I can become a traveling nurse.

 

[darcytribe]

I did in my 30s from construction. It’s a rewarding career but I wouldn’t go with it for the Finacial benefits. They don’t seem to make the kind of money compared to other careers that I would think they should. I specialized in cancer care but waited till I had a few years of regular experience before deciding which area I wanted to specialize in. I’d recommend that. Expect shift work and rolling schedules having to work weekends if in a hospital. I eventually went to a private clinic which was 8-5 weekdays. Nursing is a great career.

 

[Zak406]

I just started nursing school. I have a business degree which has served me well this far. However I’m tired of sitting at a desk (in my basement). I’ve never really helped anyone and quite frankly the job stability in the field I’m in is horrible. I was laid off a year ago and thankfully was brought back (due to COVID)

The reasons I’m going back to school

I want to eventually become a flight nurse

Pay is good and you can always travel/pick up more shifts if you need more

You get to help people which I’m not doing now
They work 3-12s in most hospital settings
(My buddy works in a nicu he’s got more time to hunt and scout than any of us)

Assuming you don’t screw up and kill someone you will always have a job

You can work anywhere in the country there is a health care facility. (Which would allow me to move to a rural area if I choose to)

You can get large chunks of time off if you schedule well/trade shifts with others.

Down sides

I’ve seen some sick people that I feel terrible for so far and I’m not that long into this

Nights weekends and holidays

It seems to be true there are nursing shortages

12 hour shifts are long


Body fluids

All in all we all have to work atleast this is in a heated and cooled environment. Like any career it’s what you make of it. You can do bare minimum and get buy or you can apply yourself learn new things and make money.

I don’t think it will be a financial windfall for anyone but like others have said it should be a solid career choice.

I also believe nurses will see some benefit from the whole COVID thing in the future if nothing else some sign on bonuses or what not. Supply and demand and all of that.

 

[dirtytough]

My wife is a nurse. She has worked at a few places and I’m amazed how crappy the benefits are. We always use the benefits from my work instead of hers since mine our always better/less expensive.

Working at a rural hospital is blah. The pay is mediocre and they have a decent amount of standby since they don’t have enough customers/patients. Working in a bigger city is better with hardly any standby and better pay.

After being around it I wouldn’t personally go to school to be a nurse.

 

[Rob5589]

The wife in a BSN in California, which means better pay, benefits, and nursing ratios. She works 8's, 10 days a month, which is fully benefitted. It's tiring, frustrating, and you start to dislike society in general. It's a great career but, it's not all sunshine and rainbows. Where you decide to work will be the determining factor.

 

[wyosam]

I went into nursing in my late 30s. Have a masters now, and moving to a place where nursing pay is above average. I’ve enjoyed it (though I’m currently pretty effing over it), but if I were doing it over I’m not sure I would. There are a lot of options for types of work, but if you get used to hospital pay, going to an office or similar environment for less stress is going to sting a bit more than likely. 12s are great, except when they aren’t. Nights/weekends/holidays are hard on family. Especially now, it’s not great for liking the people you share the planet with. You get to be involved in some pretty amazing experiences, but much of your day will be spent with people at their absolute worst.


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[Marmots]

I've almost made this thread myself, a few times.

I worked in wildlife the past ten years. Living in short term housing in rural and remote areas has made me roommates with a few travel nurses. I was often working longer hours than my nurse roommates, while making about 15-20% of the money.

I was understandably pretty jealous and have thought about switching careers many times. What convinced me to stay was the amount of death and otherwise depressing circumstances nurses have to deal with on a daily basis. A bad day at work in my field is usually just dealing with bad weather, while a bad day for my nurse roommates was watching someone die for some awful and unfair reason. I have a lot of respect for nurses, their jobs can be gnarly.

 

[dutch_henry]

Thanks for the comments so far--all are helpful, positives and negatives.

wyosam and zak406, thanks. Curious what compelled you to do it at a later stage?

Zak406--I hear you. My background is MBA and higher ed admin. Tremendous job stability, good lifestyle, good benefits, okay pay. But the field's changing (for the worse imo), and I can't see spending another 20 years stagnating behind a desk. Would much rather be in engaging work that benefits someone. Considered moving up to a paramedic, but RN presents more of the kinds of care situations I'm most interested in.

 

[MO-CHSPKE]

I’m 16 years in and have daily thoughts about finding a different career. Nursing in the last several years, not counting the year and a half of CoVID , has changed so much that it has lost its thrill. I have worked ED for the past 13 years, traveled for the past 6, and it’s changed from Emergency medicine to urgent care/PCP medicine. Dealing with drug seekers and drug overdoses, meth induced psychosis is not fun. We try and save their lives and get nothing but ridicule and treated like total garbage by the patients when they don’t get their drugs or their high taken away by saving their lives. Then add Administration on top off that complaining about overtime and bad survey results. It sucks!!!

The only positives about it are the pay is above average and working three shifts a week leaves plenty of time to hunt.

 

[Lawnboi]

If you are not truly passionate about healthcare, I’d pass. In today’s climate, could I go back, I’d probably choose otherwise. Not a nurse but work within healthcare myself.

 

[wyosam]

Thanks for the comments so far--all are helpful, positives and negatives.

wyosam and zak406, thanks. Curious what compelled you to do it at a later stage?

Zak406--I hear you. My background is MBA and higher ed admin. Tremendous job stability, good lifestyle, good benefits, okay pay. But the field's changing (for the worse imo), and I can't see spending another 20 years stagnating behind a desk. Would much rather be in engaging work that benefits someone. Considered moving up to a paramedic, but RN presents more of the kinds of care situations I'm most interested in.

For me it was a move away from working construction (heavy equipment operator). I figured I needed something nicer to my back (ooops, didn’t think that one through!). Went back to school, not really knowing what I wanted to do. Was initially studying geology- loved it, but realized I didn’t want to do the work that it would qualify me for. Considered med school, another friend my age had just started. Decided it was more time than I wanted to be out of work. Decided on nursing, planned to go the NP route, but quit NP school because I didn’t think it was enough education, and work/pay is drying up. Finished a masters in leadership, though I’ve found management isn’t my thing, so probably won’t ever get much out of it.


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[Zak406]

Dutch Henry- I wouldn’t say a later stage for me as I am 31 but it certainly isn’t ideal.

I had considered it when I was in college originally. However some misconceptions about what an rn truly does held me back from perusing it. Since then I have met friends and others who are actually nurses and realized that most of my preconceived (wrong) notions were not true and that I had stereotyped nursing. That’s not to say that every stereotype I had was wrong but a majority of them were.

Once again I am not to far into my journey but if all goes well I’ll be done by Xmas 2022.

Furthermore 1 year ago when I started this journey I had 2 options.

Get my mba or go get my nursing degree

The mba would have cost me 27000 and when I looked at the linked in of the two highest positioned people in my company at my location I realized neither of them have one. I also did some research and found a lot of people who hire think that it’s essentially a printed piece of paper that you pay for essentially a paper weight.

I then looked at the nursing degree which I can use everywhere and anywhere. Pay might not top out as much but at this point I want to hunt and fish and live my life. I don’t want to sit and drink the company koolaid for the next 25-29 years beating the management drum..

A year ago two friends of mine went on a elk hunt in Idaho. The 2 people’s careers who were able to go and still hunt the remainder of the season due to vacation schedules where a nurse and a kid who works for his dad. I could not have pulled that off with my vacation schedule because my company told me when I had to use it due to COVID.

 

[GatorGar247]

My wife and I both work 12 hr shifts.. I work in a chemical plant she is a nurse. I have pension 401k cheap health insurance and retiree insurance. She has a 401k that the hospital puts 2% in. Anything outside of my shift is time and a half any training etc. If I work 18 it's double time and a half. She never gets Ot unless it's past 40 hrs. I get 10 paid holidays. Double time and a half to work the holiday.. her nothing extra 5 weeks vacation her 2 and she's been there 20 years.. .. best part is my associate degree was 15k dollars. . I make about 150k a year on the gulf coast of Texas.. working 6 months out of the year and I'm home more than She is..
If and of yall are around the refinery or chemical plants I highly recommend being a process operator over nurse..

 

[Fatcamp]

Graduated BSN two weeks prior to my 50th b-day after a lifetime in construction.

Lots of directions to go once you develop some skills. If you can take it. Not an easy gig at all.

 

[Rob5589]

Thanks for the comments so far--all are helpful, positives and negatives.

wyosam and zak406, thanks. Curious what compelled you to do it at a later stage?

Zak406--I hear you. My background is MBA and higher ed admin. Tremendous job stability, good lifestyle, good benefits, okay pay. But the field's changing (for the worse imo), and I can't see spending another 20 years stagnating behind a desk. Would much rather be in engaging work that benefits someone. Considered moving up to a paramedic, but RN presents more of the kinds of care situations I'm most interested in.

Don't. Nursing has a plethora more options than a medic. I tell every EMT trying to decide between nursing and medic, nursing every single time. I've been in EMS for 29 years and wouldn't recommend it to anybody.

 

[Little Joe]

If nursing is a calling and something you always wanted to do, I would highly recommend it. If you are going into nursing for any other reason, you are making a mistake.

There has been a shortage of nurses for decades. Medical facilities have difficulty recruiting and retaining nurses. Why? Nurses are continuing to leave their profession in large numbers. A steady stream of nurses walking away from their profession and training, speaks much louder than words.

 

[Ingo]

I considered nursing many years ago. I got an AAS degree in CADD and was going to transfer to a BS program for Construction Management and Technology at Arizona State. This was right as the 2008 crash was happening.

Then someone suggested that I would be a good nurse because I'm a big strong guy (apparently that would be favorable?). The Jr College I went to has a popular nursing program and is partnered with Northern Arizona University for their BSN program. I thought about it, met with a course adviser, but I never started any classes.

What happened was I quit school all-together and stayed with my part-time college job company for nearly 20 years now (Costco Wholesale). Hopefully I can stand a few more years racking up my 401k. I get 6 weeks of vacay per year but I work one day every weekend. Working for the man, no matter how good they treat you, eventually sucks. I've been trying to figure out an exit strategy and a way to start my own business for a few years.

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