Registered Nurses PLEASE!?

For a while, I thought I wanted to become a RN... well up until a few days ago. I love to help people whenever I can and do what I can to make them happy or please them. Well one day ago or two I was on here looking at some information about RN's and found that most of them say its more difficult and stressing than they thought initially it was going to be. I mean I know that nothing in life is going to be easy, but I was reading how some even went as far as totally switching their career because they thought they couldn't handle anymore of it. I don't know. Maybe some reassurance would me nice. Is there ANY RN's out there that can maybe give me some incite on this whole thing, or tell me what they think of the career all together? On a scale from 1-10 what would you rate the stress? Thanks in advance!

That's a hard question to answer. It depends on your job and your work environment. Some places are inherently more stressful than others - hospital setting in ER, for example. Or working in an ICU. That can be very stressful. Out patient settings like clinics or homecare have patients that have less acute, immediate, and/or life threatening needs and therefore some might say that those jobs involve less stress.

I knew going into nursing that it could be stressful. But no job is ever 100% stress 100% of the time. You learn to effectively manage your stress, and the better you become, the less that stress affects you over the long term. Also, the more you love your job and what you do, it makes the stress bearable.

If you're finding yourself in a job where you constantly feel overwhelmed and like you aren't meeting your patient's needs, and you aren't happy, then it's a sign you haven't found the right fit for yourself. But that is what is great about nursing, there are endless opportunities and specialty areas to try out.

I'm a labor & delivery nurse who works for a hospital that gets a ton of high risk patients. We have a lot of emergency situations, and even with a normal delivery it can be a bit scary at times when you think of the enormity of the circumstances and what is at stake. But the stress is limited, I know I can count on my coworkers to support me when I need help, and for every emergency there is a protocol to follow. The rewards of my job far outweigh any of the bad I encounter.

Good luck!

Jill obviously knows her stuff. I'm on the flip side, I'm a liscensed therapist who si now a nursing student. You couldn't tear me away from ym decision to pursue it, and its largely because therapy was so stressful. Now, as a therapist, let me wax psychological on you. If its something you're interested in and you have well-developed coping and stress management skills, go for it. It very well may be that the people you've talked to don't have the patience and intentions that you do! Also, there are SO many options for a career with nursing, so you'll find your niche!