Once a nurse, always a nurse

The last entry I wrote was in 2007. I was a nursing student at the University of Rochester School of Nursing, making a mid-life career change into nursing. I decided to keep a blog to help give other people considering a career in nursing a view of what to expect, and to encourage them. I hadn't looked at my blog since 2007. Imagine my surprise to view it again, and find that 19,000 other people have viewed it in the interim.

Here's the update. I'm yet again a student, this time in a master's program. And I'm yet again writing in the blog to procrastinate what I should be doing, which is studying for an exam in my Advanced Symptom Management class.

I'm a student in a Family Nurse Practitioner Master's degree program, and I'll graduate with an FNP degree in May, 2015. Some things haven't changed. Once a student, always a student. I've been a nurse for 8 years now, in a cardiac ICU, where I still work shifts while studying.

And I'm here, 8 years after I started this blog, to say that my undergrad nursing program was worth it. I had doubts and questions before the program. How old will I be when I finish? How can I afford to be a full-time student? Am I crazy? What if it turns out I can't find a job. What if it turns out don't like nursing? Will I really survive in a real work situation as a nurse, since I feel so unprepared?

I now have the answer. Becoming a nurse was one of the best decisions of my life. It is right up there with the my husband and daughter, who were the other two best decisions.

Now back to studying antibiotics for skin infections!