“Who, me? a career in Nursing? No way, I just can’t deal with the blood and smell.” Have you ever uttered such words to yourself? What about this one, “I don’t have the drive and the commitment to stick to those grueling science and nursing classes.” Is this what you say when you talk to yourself? Well, I said it more than once. But, guess what, if you put your mind to it, a career in science can be yours.
If you are considering a science career, please read about how I mapped out a plan for myself and ended up with a very rewarding career.
Choices, choices
Like other young folks, during my senior year I really had no idea of what I really wanted to do. Music was a very big thing at my small, all girls parochial school, and, since I had a penchant for the arts, it seemed like a dreamy and glamorous career to become a classical musician. Little did I know that most people don’t successfully travel that path. It’s so amazing how we look at things through rose colored glasses. But youth is a time for learning and laying down a foundation of knowledge that will carry us through decades of life to come. Anyway, I subsequently enrolled and completed four years of college in a music education curriculum.
The work world
Four years later I found that career options in music can be very limited outside of the classroom, so I settled down and resigned myself to teaching music or any subject that I could easily settle into.That ended up being grammar school. Well, lo and behold, after five years of teaching, I landed a job in an alternative high school. I found myself teaching subjects that I had had no teaching experience in whatsoever. One of those subjects was Biology. I wondered if I could pull it off. I actually found myself studying and preparing the lessons, with abundant notes. Initially, the lessons were like just sharing information with a group of classmates. But. as time went by, I found that I could present lessons on the cell structure and other Biology topics without notes. Success! It was at this time that I began to consider the idea of changing over to a career in the sciences. But how?
Well, as I sat down to review what I wanted, I realized that it would take a few years. I consoled myself with the thought that at least I had already taken the core college curriculum, so, it shouldn’t be that difficult. Well, I didn’t immediately begin studies at this time. Instead, I took a series of technician classes: phlebotomy and pharmacy technician. The classes laid an excellent foundation for nursing school, which I did begin about a year and one half later.
Over the next five years I obtained a diploma as an LPN. I obtained an ASN (Associate of Science in Nursing) and completed the course of study for a Registered Nurse. Wow, was I really happy! I also began a number of jobs in nursing: Med/Surg nurse, Sub-Acute staff nurse, Charge Nurse on a Long term care unit, school nurse and ED finally! What a nice feeling to have achieved the goals that I set for myself. Years later, I have returned to school to work on a BSN/MSN degree.
The bigger picture
By sitting down and asking yourself exactly what you want to do, write it down, along with a time frame and then begin chiseling your path to your career goals.