I'm having a career direction crisis.
Getting into PA school is looking less likely every second. The is due to a number of things. One being that I didn't get many A's in my college science classes. Evidently A's are a must, whereas I was just happy to finish the class in the B range. Another reason is that I took Vertebrate Physiology and Comparative Anatomy, as opposed to taking Anatomy and Physiology 1+2. The schools just don't care that I took the harder classes. I also got terrible grades in Organic 1+2, both C+'s. And although these classes aren't necessarily required for PA school, they hurt me nonetheless. You know for being someone obsessed with scheduling and such I really dropped the fucking ball.
Many of my patients have been telling me to go into nursing. I don't really know why. I tell them that I'm apply to PA school, and they all say "Oh, you should be a male nurse! (as opposed to a female nurse?) There is such a demand for them!!!" I'm not going to lie, when I was a stupid undergrad I totally underestimated the role of nurses and would scoff at the idea of being a nurse. I have since come to have much more respect for them.
I looked into it. I would be eligible for accelerated nursing programs, which would allow me to get a BSN in 15 months. From there I would surely find a job with ease with a salary that's pretty decent for starting, but without much upward mobility.
Something that nursing offers is international traveling. Evidently, nursing is one of the few professions that is in high demand basically everywhere. I've heard that nurses can get permanent resident visas in Australia, and can even get jobs in England which are generally impossible to get since I'm not from the EU. Since I'm a very enthusiastic traveller this would offer nice opportunities.
The other things to consider in nursing are the master's programs to become a practitioner. As an NP I would basically be the same thing as a PA, but I probably wouldn't be able to get a surgical job. I don't know how I feel about that. I think I would want to be a surgical PA, but would I really? After working in an office setting I see that I could be totally happy doing that. I've also worked with hospitalist-NPs and I think I could really enjoy doing that also. I don't think I could handle doing primary care because you just see so much routine BS. Plus the pay would suck.
So yeah, I'm in quite the conundrum. But as part of my new post-college philosophy I've decided to stop planning far into the future, because the only thing you ensure by planning for the future is that you will eventually change your plan. Assuming I don't get into a PA program I think I'm going to take Human Anatomy and Physiology this spring/summer, as well as take some psychology courses like abnormal psych and developmental, because deep down I know that since starting and finishing college I still don't know whether I like psych or bio better. Wouldn't it be funny if I became a Psychiatric NP and could prescribe meds, whereas my mom is justing finishing getting her PhD in clinical psych and she wouldn't be able to?
5 comments:
Heh, heh, that would be great! i think you would make a terrific nurse, the guy nurses are always the best, imho...or in my experience, anyhow. Or maybe i just like guys better, in general, in the health professions. (no offense, ladies, i'm sure it's a "mother thing", haha!).
Best always to you,
tracy
Murse...! Ha, ha, i get it! i'm kinda slow on the up take thees days!
Personally, if you go to nursing school and excel, you can then use those grades to get into med school. You can always reach for that goal, even though there's bumps along the way.
Nursing can be government, military, private corporations, hospitals, teaching, etc.
A nurse friend in NC makes $100K a year and does mostly paperwork.
15 months isn't a big investment, it would atleast spring you forward in some direction.
I think NP's in Family Care are crap. Like those minute clinics, they usually just want to push something or another and get you moving. I much rather prefer a PA in a Family Care setting. Atleast, they have stronger clinical knowledge.
Good Luck!
Hey, House, yer' old blog-friend Panda Bear here...listen...don't go into nursing. I know you want to be in some health care related field but I gotta' tell you, and this is just my personal opinion, the medical profession would be intolerable as anything but a doctor.
Maybe you should consider another career? You are obviously fairly intelligent and an excellent writer, have you considered engineering or some other useful and honorable profession?
As a 32 year old guy going into nursing, I think the "useful and honorable" profession of nursing has so many upsides it's hard to deny that it's an excellent option as a career. You simply have to get over your preconceived idea that any one part of the medical industry is better than another. I guarantee that even docs go home and complain about their job and the people they work with. Let your mind wander and unbiasedly consider nursing as a career. Look into CRNA school if you're interested in the surgical setting.
Good luck.
Neil
Post a Comment