If your motivation is almost entirely financial stability or job security, don’t do it. The amount of articles and postings I see of people talking about healthcare as the new “it girl” of jobs and the crazy misinformation about nursing on social media is very scary.
Nursing always has been and will be a labor of love. The odds of someone who is not in it for the patients being successful aren’t good. It just raises the liability for colleagues and risk of burnout and patient harm.
Nursing is one of the highest risk fields for non-fatal assaults (we’ve had 2 fatal in my area in the last few years), usually from patients. 5x higher than the general population and in my facility is basically guaranteed.
It is estimated that 10 to 20% nurses have clinically significant PTSD symptoms. One of the most consistently elevated suicide risks upwards of 20 to 40% higher than the rest of the population.
I can only speak as a psych and ED nurse, which I am aware are some of the highest risk areas, but Im seeing a lot of new grads wanting to start out in those departments. Our last orientation group came across a code on their way to their lunch break and almost half of the people left that day and never came back. Research what you will be doing and the realities of the setting. Pick somewhere that you will be happy and can be a positive influence on coworkers and patients.
It’s a lot of money and years of your life in school to realize 6 months in that it’s not for you. If it is, help me herd this naked patient windmilling his penis back to his room.
Adding: i’m not saying everybody needs to be a bleeding heart Florence (I’m definitely not) but you do have to care about sick people and not expect this is gonna be an aesthetic 6 figure job like you saw on TikTok. Patients hang themselves because their 1:1 falls asleep. Headaches turn into brain bleeds when nobody cares to do a Neuro assessment. You don’t have to take the job home with you but you need to do it while you’re there and that includes some degree of empathy and accountability.