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First, I know the medical field quite well, as I'm working in it, and I can emphatically say that nursing is quite saturated now. It has always gone through bo

First, I know the medical field quite well, as I'm working in it, and I can emphatically say that nursing is quite saturated now. It has always gone through boom and busts, and currently, it's going through a bust. Just read the All Nurses forums to see all these threads about new grads being unemployed and unable to find jobs for a year or more. It's definitely tough out there and will only get tougher since SO much nursing programs have become accredited in the past decade. Secondly, being a nurse is a HARD job. It's a blue collar job, and it should be (probably was) on Mike Rowe's Dirty Jobs. It's back breaking labor, stressful, and debilitating. Most of my family work in health care, and so far, my cousin has three herniated discs from lifting obese patients over the years, my wife had several blood tests done from being exposed to Hep C patients, and I've known several nurses who have suffered extreme burn out. Being a PA is marginally better, I suppose, but you're dealing with the same garbage. There are some definite pros about becoming a nurse over a doctor for sure. But, if you plan on staying on working the floor, become a doctor if you're smart enough. It's still in nearly every regard better than being a nurse on the floor. However, if you have more ambition, you can try to move up the ladder in management and administration as a nurse. Finally, there are lots of other oppty's for nursing besides beside nursing. If one gets burnt out on patient care, one could move into case management, school nursing, teaching, etc...

eitally 13y ago
I second this. My wife is a biologist by training but went to nursing school (this was back in 2000) to ensure she'd always have a job, in any economy. She fell in with a nationally known urologist MD/PhD during the program and got an offer before graduation to start working in his clinic attached to the university. The pay was awful (~$35k/yr at that time) because of the glut of fresh nurses minted by the uni each year. The work wasn't bad in a clinic -- standard office hours and no obligation to pick up shifts at the hospital -- and it was a great opportunity to get involved in real research (she published in her first year there), but it was mostly repetitive and boring, and again, the pay stunk. When my company relocated me out of state, she switched over to drug safety & pharmacovigilance at a CRO, and then at a pharma. Most of the roles in those areas require a health care provider background (either RN/BSN or MD/RPh) and the stress & money are muuuuuuuuuuuuch better. I was a senior IT manager with a team of about 80 people in 10 countries and she was making more than I was (back in about 2009). Nursing school is much easier than medical school, and there are still perks to having that professional credential, and, as she and her colleagues always joke, they can "always go back to the hospital if things get bad". That said, my next door neighbors are both consulting radiologists and work from home. I barely see them, but by all appearances they're making bank while exerting hardly any effort. My childhood friends who've become doctors are a pediatrician and an ER doc, respectively, and they work much harder but they love the career they've chosen. To each his own: in every field there are ample opportunities for the top performers.

eitally 13y ago

I second this. My wife is a biologist by training but went to nursing school (this was back in 2000) to ensure she'd always have a job, in any economy. She fell in with a nationally known urologist MD/PhD during the program and got an offer before graduation to start working in his clinic attached to the university. The pay was awful (~$35k/yr at that time) because of the glut of fresh nurses minted by the uni each year. The work wasn't bad in a clinic -- standard office hours and no obligation to pick up shifts at the hospital -- and it was a great opportunity to get involved in real research (she published in her first year there), but it was mostly repetitive and boring, and again, the pay stunk. When my company relocated me out of state, she switched over to drug safety & pharmacovigilance at a CRO, and then at a pharma. Most of the roles in those areas require a health care provider background (either RN/BSN or MD/RPh) and the stress & money are muuuuuuuuuuuuch better. I was a senior IT manager with a team of about 80 people in 10 countries and she was making more than I was (back in about 2009). Nursing school is much easier than medical school, and there are still perks to having that professional credential, and, as she and her colleagues always joke, they can "always go back to the hospital if things get bad". That said, my next door neighbors are both consulting radiologists and work from home. I barely see them, but by all appearances they're making bank while exerting hardly any effort. My childhood friends who've become doctors are a pediatrician and an ER doc, respectively, and they work much harder but they love the career they've chosen. To each his own: in every field there are ample opportunities for the top performers.