I rebelled against nursing. I saw how exhausted my mother was when she’d come home after a 12 hr shifts at the hospital. I read stories from nurses on Reddit when I was in my early 20s to further prove my thoughts on how awful nursing was. My grandmother was also a nurse and I said…”I’ll be damned if I’m a 3rd generation nurse, haha. Not gonna happen.”

Well, now that I’m a nurse…all those awful nursing stories I read 10+ years ago are very much true.

But! You will never be without a job. In fact, you will get at least 10 job offers a week, I’m not kidding.

-You can work 12hr, 8hr, or even 4hr shifts if you want. (4 extra hours for picking up more cash as a FT/PT nurse. Or, 4hrs per day however many days of the week you want as a per diem employee). I work the latter because I’m burned out myself after 7 years, but this has been beneficial for my mental health. I’m not sure of many other careers where you can do that.

-It’s a diverse career. I took a break from the hospital and did remote work from home for a year. Correctional facility for 1 business day (lol, it’s not for me). Nursing home, I love the geriatric population but the long-term nurses there can be very negative, go figure. You can also work on a cruise ship as a nurse. Become a flight nurse. Occupational health nurse in Corporate America. Work agency nursing (locally, or travel) for good money. I did agency nursing as an LPN and worked in at least 5 different nursing homes. Local traveled as an RN in 3 hospitals at a time. And then there’s all these different specialities you can work in like Cath Lab, ICU, Trauma, Endoscopy, etc… it’s endless.

I’m thankful I gave it a shot, it has literally changed my life. But I’m ready to learn about a completely different field, and yes I will still do nursing on the side.

Go for it.