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So You Want To Be a Nurse When You Grow Up?
You're interested in becoming a nurse. How do you get into the field? First of all,
you need to assess your basic interest. Why do you want to get into nursing? Are
you getting ready to graduate from high school and always wanted to be a nurse?
Do you want to go into nursing, because a relative is in the profession or your
family has a tradition of graduating nurses, and it seems like the right thing to do?
Nursing seems like a nice secure profession-the pay attracts you? You've always
liked helping others and you care a lot?
Have you worked in another career field and want a change for various reasons?
Does the "nursing shortage" make you feel like you need to be a part of the "gold rush,"
because you have read and heard about all of the wonderful sign on bonuses?
Thorough research still needs to be done, before the decision is made to embark upon
a nursing career.
There are many resources which provide information on getting into nursing school,
studying for and passing boards, getting into new graduate employment programs,
summer exploratory programs, etc. But for traditional nursing work (bedside nursing)
in a hospital or long term care facility (traditionally known as a nursing home), it really
would do some good if you had a reality TV type experience. Reading books and
articles exclusively, won't prepare you for what the profession is like.
During my first nursing clinical rotation, I knew instantly that I didn't like hospital nursing.
However, I loved research, collecting data, writing papers, and so forth. Since I had a
science background and had worked in various laboratory settings (e.g., a dairy plant
testing milk to biotechnology company testing, human sera, a county environmental
health lab testing water sample on a mass spectrophotometer, a food plant testing
spaghetti sauce), going into nursing research seemed like a natural progression. The
rude awakening: No one ever told me about the 5-6 years of med-surg hospital experience
needed, before an employer would even look at me. It was not anyone else's responsibility
to tell me this. Clearly, the lesson is to do all of your homework.
After graduating from nursing school, I combed the Internet, help wanted ads, journals,
and even enlisted a network of friends to be on the lookout for any nurse research employment opportunities. Positions in nursing research were scarce. My diverse science background,
along with my Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Rochester, weren't a
powerful enough combination to hurry me into the interviewing seat. Hence, I never
landed an interviewing spot for any nursing research positions.
There are simple, invaluable, economically efficient ways to thoroughly research
nursing as a profession. Of course, nothing can substitute for the actual on the job
experience. But you are not there yet, and you want to investigate to see if you want
to get there. Here a few suggestions to include on your career research things to do list: (1)
utilize the Internet to the fullest, (2) use the services of your ISP (Internet Service Provider)
such as AOL, MSN, etc., (2) make contact with potential employers in your area, (3)
try volunteering, (4) and find student mentors at your local college and university.
Start with an open mind before you use any of these resources.
Many prospective students have their specialty title etched in stone. "I want to go into
pediatric nursing, because I love children." "I want to work in trauma." Moreover,
they don't want to discuss or research anything else. There is absolutely nothing
wrong with having a vision of which practice area you'd like to specialize in, but it is
a good idea to keep the door open for other possibilities. The turn over can be high and
many nurses change specialty areas for various reasons, from burnout, boredom,
needing a change of pace, advancement reasons, to unforeseen circumstances. The
good thing about changing specialty areas is your skills are transferable.
Utilizing the Internet yields a wealth of information. There are many contacts to be made
on the Internet. Let's hypothesize, for reference purposes, CRNA (Certified Nurse Anesthetist)
will be used as an example specialty area, and hypothetically, you are interested in becoming
a CRNA. Keep in mind you have already researched nursing schools, salary ranges,
employment outlook, and in addition to becoming a registered nurse you're aware
of the advanced degree requirement. This part of your research has already been done.
There are many organizations where you can make email contact, or get other
contact information from nurse professionals who are retired CRNAs, or those
who currently work in the field. Go to www.google.com to do a search. Try Google's
advanced search feature and type in keywords "email" and "CRNA" without quotes,
on the first line.
Your first 100 search results will include some email addresses for people who
are actually CRNAs. You will find some with university addresses, who may be
professors or alumni, company addresses of CRNAs who are employees, and
personal email addresses. Select a CRNA's email address from these four
different areas: (1) university employed, (2) hospital employed, (3) military employed,
(4) and other areas, such as a physician practice group. To narrow your search
you may type in "email" & "CRNA" or "military" or "physician practice group" or "retired."
Click on the web page links to view email addresses listed. Send each nurse
professional a simple introductory email, about your interest in the profession
and ask them three open ended questions: (1)"What are some of the things I
should consider before deciding to go to nursing school to become a CRNA?"
(2)"What is your outlook on the future of CRNAs?" (3) "What are the positive and
negative aspects of working as a CRNA?" Nurses are a kind body of professionals
and most won't mind that you took the time to contact them. It is
always a good idea
to get feedback from someone who is currently in the field (new graduate and
seasoned professional), as well as retirees. Your email should be composed
of a very brief note. Don't forget to thank them for their responses.
Another place to locate a CRNA is the AOL people directory, provided you are
an AOL subscriber. On your navigational tool bar, just click on "People”,
then "Member Directory." Next, on the first text field line, type in “CRNA” and
you will find hundreds of CRNAs who are already in your own backyard. If you
are not an AOL subscriber, check to see if your ISP has a searchable membership
directory and find other members in a similar fashion. Send a member or two
the same introductory note mentioned earlier. This may be time consuming,
but going through nursing school and getting an advanced degree, only to find
it is not for you, is both equally cost and time consuming. So save yourself
some time, money, and peace of mind. Becoming a CRNA is an investment.
Nursing associations, in which your specialty area is affiliated with, usually function
on a national and local level. Here are two examples: on the national level,
American Association of Nurse Anesthetists, http://www.aana.com/, and on
the local level, Alabama Association of Nurse Anesthetists, http://www.ala-crna.org/.
It's important to note, these are not the only CRNA focused nursing associations,
they are merely cited here as examples. Study their respective websites and
contact them to see if you can attend their next meeting. Tell them a little about
yourself and interests in the profession, and that you'd be interested in sitting in
on a meeting or attending an upcoming event, as a guest. The national associations
have local affiliates, so find out where the nearest affiliate is and give them a call or
send email. The worst they can say is "No." If you don't receive a favorable response,
try another organization, even if you aren't interested in the specialty area. Remember
the idea is to gain some experience, and more knowledge about the profession of nursing.
If you get to attend one of the organization's meetings or functions, you will surely
meet nurses who have changed specialty areas at some point in their career. Therefore,
interacting and mingling will benefit you greatly. If you were interested in another specialty
area, here is an ANA (American Nurses Association) link to Nursing Organizations: http://www.nursingworld.org/affil/.
Online nurse focused discussion forums are another place worth investing some
time in. You can ask the same open ended questions mentioned earlier.
Or you can read message threads of those who have already asked similar
questions about getting into nursing. Remember, you don't have to be a nurse
to read or participate in most forums. Also, you may run across some discussions
from disgruntled message posters, but don't let this discourage you, this is another
person's experience. You are not in their situation. You don't have all of the
facts. For all you know, the person may not even be a nurse. Be objective
when you read the posts in the nursing forums. A good place to start is
All Nurses website, http://www.allnurses.com, since it has one of the largest
number of participants in nursing forums.
Contact your local hospitals and other employers that hire nurses, and ask
to speak with the human resources or personnel manager. The manager
will be able to provide you with information on nursing and may be able to
connect you with one of their employees who would speak with you about the profession.
The last task you need to complete is to try to volunteer at a hospital
or nursing home. You don't have to commit to a lifetime of volunteering;
many organizations need volunteers to sit with patients or residents as
companions. Volunteering in the mail department of any facility won't help,
so concentrate your efforts on volunteering in a patient care setting,
and then you can have a direct visual of the nurse-patient interaction.
This experience will be invaluable for you.
Now, if you have a busy schedule and you're saying, "I don't have time to
volunteer," there's another alternative for you. Contact your local community
college and college or university's school of nursing. You can ask them to
put you in contact with a first & second year student at the community college
and a freshman and senior student and the college or university. Spend a day
with them in school. Due to liability issues, you probably won't be able to go
on the clinical rotations with the senior student, but that student can inform
you of what can be expected and you can attend a class or few for the day.
Find out how many courses the student is enrolled in and how much time is
spent on studies. Remember, this will vary with each student and educational institution.
All of this data and experience should be collected and completed at least
six months to a year before you decide to apply to nursing school.
The Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetist (CRNA) title was used merely
as an example and any aspect of this career research can be applied to any
person seeking information on how to career research for becoming a nurse
and wishing to practice in any specialty area. Before you actually start applying
to schools and taking entrance exams, as you can see there are many ways to
do your research on nursing as a profession. In addition to researching schools,
reading career books, taking aptitude tests, talking to family and friends in the
profession; these combined reality experiences will help you to become better
informed and prepared for the decision you will make. Best wishes with your nursing career.
About the Author
The author is a registered nurse entrepreneur and publishes a nursing career website, GraduateNurse.com, found at http://www.graduatenurse.com and can be reached at graduatenurse@mail.com.
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