7 Questions to Ask Before Becoming a Nurse

Are you a high school graduate choosing your options for a future career? Have you been in the workforce for a number of years and you’re considering making a career change? Students of all ages and backgrounds turn to careers in nursing every day, looking for a fulfilling, challenging job that contributes to the community around them. Is a career in nursing in your future, too?

If a future nursing career seems exciting, but you’re not sure if it would be a good fit for you, check out these questions to help you determine if you have what it takes to be a nurse.

Q: Can you handle the emotional stress of pain, sickness, and death? Being a nurse is not for the faint of heart. Everyday, nurses must witness, and assist patients through difficult treatment plans, painful diagnoses, strenuous recoveries, and the dying process. If you tend to get emotionally attached to people easily, you might find yourself feeling depressed, angry, or discouraged because of the pain and suffering that nurses witness. Great nurses must be able to take the sorrow along with the tremendous joy, because nurses often must demonstrate the willpower and determination that their patients must model to have a successful recovery.

Q: Do you get grossed out easily? There isn’t any way to make blood, bodily fluids, feces, vomit, guts, and pus sound more glamorous. It’s not pleasant. It’s not what most people dream of working with all of the time. But, for nurses, it’s just a part of the territory. There’s no getting around this. So, if you know you’ll have a difficult time keeping your cereal down while giving a sponge bath, maybe reconsider your career path.

Q: Can you keep calm during emergencies? If you have a difficult time keeping your cool in high stress situations, nursing may not be a wise career path for you. Nurses must be able to stay focused and stable, able to think quickly and make instantaneous decisions in a responsible manner that may mean life or death for their patients. Nurses who freak out in emergency situations cannot be effectively help doctors, patients, and their family members.

Q: Are you a compassionate person? If people who moan and complain about life’s circumstances easily annoy you, you might not be cut out to be a nurse. Nurses must be a listening ear for patients and their family members, often guiding them through some difficult medical decisions. Nurses are caregivers, and always must consider the physical, mental, emotional, practical, and medical needs of their patients: even the difficult ones. It’s not a good thing if your instincts are to care for patients and then immediately go and complain to other nurses about them.

Q: Can you handle a physically demanding job on a daily basis? Do you mind standing on your feet for long hours at a time?  Do you have the capability to lift heavy objects routinely? Working as a nurse every day can mean very little time to sit down, as you may be 30 or 40 patients that you care for at a time. It also means that you will have to life patients, roll them over from time to time, and assist them as need to move around the hospital. Many times, a typical nursing shift is 12 hours long. Can you adjust your internal clock to working 12-hour shifts at a time? If you’ve answered no to any of these questions, nursing may not be for you.

Q: Do you have good people skills? Can you communicate clearly, professionally, and calmly with others? Do you find it easy to advocate for others? Nurses must often be the go-betweens for patients, their families, and the physicians and surgeons

Q: Do you enjoy learning and recalling medical facts? Let’s face it. Anytime you work in the medical field, there’s a lot of terminology and lingo that is crucial to the job. You can’t get around it. Nurses must be familiar the specifics of the human anatomy, patient treatment plans, medication and prescription names, dosage terminology, medical emergency lingo, and so much more. If you have a difficult time memorizing and recalling an abundance of information, then you might want to reconsider your interest in nursing.

If your responses to these questions seem to be more negative, that does not automatically exclude you from a nursing career. What it does mean, however, is that you will have to be extremely disciplined and work hard to overcome some of your personal struggles on the job. If you really have a love of nursing and want to be a caregiver for the sick and hurting, but struggle with memorizing facts or being a strong communicator, there are still ways for you to excel as a nurse. Don’t let those things stop you from following your dreams. Talk with different nurses in the field and find out how they’ve overcome some of their struggles in nursing, and learn what you can do to better prepare for a career in nursing.

Are you ready to get started on an exciting journey toward becoming a nurse? Athena Career Academy is here to help. Our experienced administration and teaching staff has years of nursing experience, and will equip you with the tools you need to succeed in a nursing career. Call today to schedule an informational appointment to learn more.

Athena Career Academy is located at:
5203 Airport Highway
Toledo, Ohio 43615
Hours: Monday - Friday 7:30AM to 4:30PM
Phone: (419) 329-4075