Are you a Registered Nurse?
Hello! My name is Caeden and I am a current high school student. I'm conducting an interview with any professional in the Emergency Room Nursing field for a Foundations in Health Science Class project about careers! I have created a total of 13 questions. Comment on this post, answering all 13 questions to be apart of my assignment.?
1. What profession did you choose and why?
2. How many years of college did you need to go through?
3. What jobs did you work before you landed your present professional
job?
4. How can I decide if I should earn a Ph.D. in this field?
5. Were you in a college program?
6. Did you have to pivot and go back to school at a later date?
7. Did you shadow another professional in the field?
8. Did you join any school clubs related to your current profession?
9. Was there a particular subject you struggled with during your school years?
10. What skill sets did you learn or gain while pursuing your career?
11. What motivated you to keep going with this career when things got tough?
12. On a scale from 1-10, how stressful is it to be an ER Registered Nurse?
13. Do you recommend internships for this pathway?
1 answer
Katherine’s Answer
Answer: I chose public service and health care very early in school. I was influenced by my grandfather's military service and grandmother's career as a nurse in my local county hospital.
2. How many years of college did you need to go through?
Answer: I started wanting to be in mental health; so, a 4 year college degree in Psychology and a Master's Degree in Counseling. I become a licensed psychotherapist. At 45, I went back to school in a 1 year accelerated BSN and became a Registered Nurse.
3. What jobs did you work before you landed your present professional job?
Answer: I knew I wanted a lifetime career in public service, so I didn't care were I started. Immediately out of undergraduate school, I was hired in an entry-level clerk position by the VA in the San Francisco bay area. Federal employment allows you to move across the country, provides you with comprehensive health care, and most of the time pays for your college education. It paid for my Master's Degree.
4. How can I decide if I should earn a Ph.D. in this field?
Answer: If you elect to enter the health care field, this answer comes organically. Your direct care of patients, or work with your peers and speciality, builds a passion and interest in fields that may require a Ph.D. Generally, the interest and the funding are put in front of you when you least expect it. My BSN did that for me.
5. Were you in a college program?
Answer: I was in several.
6. Did you have to pivot and go back to school at a later date?
Answer: I didn't HAVE to, the pivot happens TO you. Health care as a career choice is dynamic, requiring constant demands in skill sets and training requirements. It's very, very easy to pivot and go in any direction you want. Especially as your private life changes; your nursing career can be modified to accommodate.
7. Did you shadow another professional in the field?
Answer: No.
8. Did you join any school clubs related to your current profession?
Answer: No
9. Was there a particular subject you struggled with during your school years?
Answer: No
10. What skill sets did you learn or gain while pursuing your career?
Answer: Translating federal government funding cycles into local health care delivery systems and direct patient care.
11. What motivated you to keep going with this career when things got tough?
Answer: Now THAT is the best question yet. Because you are going to want to leave, a lot. Every time I have left to take a literal break, long vacation (8 months), it always came down to the same thing: I love the people I work with whom love the patients they care for. Money is money, but no matter little or a lot of money I made it was the health care staff that brought me back. Renewed.
12. On a scale from 1-10, how stressful is it to be an ER Registered Nurse?
Answer: Mostly 4/10, punctuated with intermittent 8/10.
13. Do you recommend internships for this pathway?
Answer: I don't know; it really depends. Are you on the fence about becoming a nurse? Maybe nursing is not for you. Nursing school will provide you with all the rotations you need to figure where you want to LAND has a new grad. But it won't help you decide to become a nurse. Probably best to spend a lot of time with real nurses, informally, answer their questions.