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Nursing? Nah. Or maybe? Is someone trying to get my attention?
It's funny. I don't deal well with people. I've always been an uneasy, awkward person torn between a genuine desire to help others in any way I possibly can, and a fear of being abused for my efforts rooted in the fact that it's already happened several times over.
When I was in high school, I just knew I wanted to go into psychology because I wanted to help people. I wanted so badly to ease their pain. I was always the shoulder to cry on, and the rock in the storm. I had a certain empathy for others that I could never explain. I just KNEW when someone was hurting, and I knew what to say on the spur of the moment to make them smile.
As I was writing recently, it occured to me that subconsciously, I had made nursing a strong element in the story, first with two main characters who are, themselves, nurses, and later with the heroine taking a minor role in 'paying forward' by helping another girl with a physical injury at camp.
Now it's been nagging at the back of my mind for a week now, as I've been trying to rewrite the last chapter to my liking. I stopped by TopShelf to do some light reading and noticed, in the Random 5olos list, Karen J's "Drawn to Nursing". Spooky, eh?
I have serious doubts that anything will actually come from any of this, and even MORE doubts that someone like me (my eyesight being what it is) could find her place in a job where people's lives could be on the line, but it's more thought to my own future than I've given in a long time.
I dunno. I just know that I can't handle corporate, and I don't have the patience for minimum wage in a factory, not that we even have a factory anymore. The meat packing plant burned down in an industrial accident a couple of years ago and the parent company decided to outsource rather than rebuild, but I digress.
Anyway, I just thought that that popping up was kind of neat and worth mentioning. It's a beautiful, short-and-sweet story if you've never read it. Now if I could just find that nice young woman to draw my portrait... ;-)
God bless,
~Zoe
Comments
Nursing
It's a good job choice. I work with nurses a lot, a heck of a lot and caring for others is the biggest job requirement. I'll say this though it's a tough job and nurses get a lot of crap from both family and patients but the rewards are said to make it worth it.
That being said both in the USA and Canada as well as many other parts of the world it's a job they are short of bodies for. It should be easy to find work.
Plus there is the bonuses of if you get in with a health care corporation, like a co-op of hospitals under one banner they will often help pay to move you and set you up if you're willing to move to the position offered. Plus there is the job protection benefits of being in a union.
A possible fix for your habitation woes? If you're still looking to get away from your area.
Bailey Summers
The big thing
The big thing for me right there actually, is that I would happily relocate for a job. I think that's why I was so interested in park service before. Working somewhere like Gettysburg or D.C. Metro and just being... somewhere not here.
It's an Alanis Morissette-an irony that I'd even be considering it. I absolutely hate hospitals, on a level of hating where I was born (which is actually worse than where I live now. People here will at least smile to your face, unlike where I was born, where they'll spit in your face if they think you might be anything but a red-blooded american homophobe...), but like I said, I like to make people smile, and I wonder if healthcare could be worth pursuing, as a profession where you get paid to help people on a daily basis.
The only major problem, eyesight aside, is that I tend not to react well to belligerent people, but that would more likely result in my walking away from the situation than it would saying something inflammatory.
I guess it couldn't hurt to at least ask around though, especially after this morning.
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Other areas?
There are other areas in the medical field that need people and are not direct contact with general population. Record keeping and medical transcription come to mind and I don't think lab techs have as much contact as a nurse but still are needing people. And I hear that pharmacy assistants get good pay and are needed as much as pharmacists. Many options out there without being an RN. Do some research, you might be surprised.
Bye
Nellie
Don't reject it ...
out of hand. I have two friends that went into nursing - in their 50s. Both have been VERY glad they did.
One, previously, made his living as an entertainer (he still does gigs every now and again). The other, she made her living in retail.
Ann
Finally had 'the argument'
I just had a nice, long twenty minute argument with my mother, and a lot of things I've been keeping hidden from her came out in the open, namely her tendancy to be judgemental, and why I refuse to trust either of them.
By the time we were finished, we were both on the verge of tears, but I refused to let her see that. I reminded her that the last time I tried to talk to her, she shut me right down with that "You live in a fantasy world" defensive crap, and that just because she doesn't remember her judgementalness, doesn't mean it didn't happen or that I don't remember it.
I think she understands a little better that I'm seriously hurting because of her and because of people like her, who claim faith when they really mean bigotry. She raised me to love others unconditionally, and yet at the same time, that's exactly why we tend to clash and just not communicate anymore - because I do try to ignore others' faults, where she harps on mine, then tells me I have a perception issue.
I know she cares about me and my well-being, but my God, she can be infuriating to talk to. Before she left, I reminded her that the last time I tried to talk to her about 'what's bothering me', she had something judgemental to say and shut me right down before I could finish. I told her, point blank, that I don't trust her anymore, and that I CAN'T trust her, but made her promise that if I ever do come to her and ask her to listen, that she will listen.
Hell, I'm not even saying that I'm sure about my feelings, but I think not being able to trust her cuts deeper than anything, and it's something I need to either come to grips with or get over.
*ahem* Sorry. I just woke up after a whopping four hours of sleep and got pulled RIGHT into that little argument because of a snide remark about how I don't understand things like having to go to work, as though I wanted to live in the middle of bumf*ck Arkansas and piss my life away. I allowed it to happen, yes, but I'm trying to take responsibility for it.
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Thanks
I'm glad you enjoyed my little story. Of course, Paula Dillon supplied the framework with her story "Drawn Together"; and graciously allowed me to set my story in her universe and borrow a few of her characters. Without her help, my story would have likely never gotten off the ground. I highly recommend it.
As you can tell from "Drawn To Nursing", I highly respect these angels of healing. Due to my health issues (I have Cystic Fibrosis), I have met a LOT of nurses since I was a young child. The best ones were/are goddesses in white. The worst ones . . . well, let me just say I learned what a "sadist" was long before I learned the word! ;-) (Mostly kidding)
There are a lot of different types of nurses, and each has her own educational and skill requirements. For instance, there are L.P.N.s, Licensed Practical Nurses, who require less training prior to licensing. I dated an LPN for awhile. You can then upgrade to an R.N. while still being able to earn a decent wage.
There are also various types of R.N.s, I won't even attempt to categorize them, do an online search for information. Different specialties have their own specific requirements which determine what, where, and how long you have to take courses. It's worth taking a look around and see if a particular specialty strikes a chord in you.
If you have a sincere interest, I say go for it. For local information, try your area votech, many offer nursing classes leading to a R.N. It's a good place to start.
Karen J.
"Being a girl is wonderful and to torture someone into that would be like the exact opposite of what it's like. I don’t know how anyone could act that way." College Girl - poetheather
"Life is not measured by the breaths you take, but by the moments that take your breath away.”
George Carlin