FA+
Shop
Decisions, decisions... (input requested)
8 years ago
General
I'm currently stuck in a position in my life where I don't know what to do and have some important decisions to make. School has come to a dead halt. The combination of medical issues and needing to work a full-time job to support my household has made it impossible to give school the focus it needs to get good grades. I have several options, but the two most practical are:
1. I can keep doing what I'm doing and take the first available opportunity to go back to school, get my biology degree, then keep teching up to a Ph.D. This would take, assuming I started in the fall (something I have no idea how I'd pull off) about 7 years to complete.
2. I can take 1 more year of prereq classes at my local community college, then go into the nursing program. That would see me with a BSN in 5 years.
Option 1 is pretty much its own thing. Option 2 has some choices of its own.
1. I can become an RN, then use that to pay my way through my Ph.D. A part-time RN still makes about 4x more than what I make full-time right now.
-The main issue with this choice is that it will take for-fucking-ever. 12+ years. I'd say 15 is most likely. That would give me my Ph.D. at the ripe old age of 45. And
that's assuming everything goes well.
2. I can continue with my nursing education and become a Certified Nurse Practitioner.
-There are two problems here. First, I really really want to go into research. Second, Massachusetts is one of 13 states where NPs lack autonomy. There's currently a bill
kicking around to remedy that, so it may be a nonissue by the time I need to make this decision. Either way, it bears thinking about.
3. I can leapfrog from nursing into medical school and try to become an MD or DO.
-Again, I really, really want to do research. While being a doctor was my dream as a child, and I'm sure I'd be happy doing it, it's not my dream now, merely a viable
alternative. Also, time is a major factor here. It would take another 5 years to become an MD or DO, and that doesn't include the time it would take to specialize. By
the time I finished specializing, I'd be back in the mid-40's range.
4. I can just stay a nurse.
-Very unattractive option. Nurses have very little autonomy and are bound by the decisions of the doctors over them. In my 6.5 years at the hospital, I've seen many,
many nurses frustrated by stubborn doctors who spend 5 minutes a day with the patient and think they have a better idea what's going on than the nurse who's
working with them all day long. I don't think that's a frustration I could handle gracefully and patiently for my whole career.
I really don't know what to do, but I need to make a decision pronto. Time is already an issue, and spending years hovering indecisively won't help it. I'm leaning quite heavily towards RN to Ph.D. RN is something I KNOW I can do. I already know most of what an RN needs to know from my work experience and training as a Medical Assistant and Phlebotomist. I'm just so caught up by how long it'll take me.
1. I can keep doing what I'm doing and take the first available opportunity to go back to school, get my biology degree, then keep teching up to a Ph.D. This would take, assuming I started in the fall (something I have no idea how I'd pull off) about 7 years to complete.
2. I can take 1 more year of prereq classes at my local community college, then go into the nursing program. That would see me with a BSN in 5 years.
Option 1 is pretty much its own thing. Option 2 has some choices of its own.
1. I can become an RN, then use that to pay my way through my Ph.D. A part-time RN still makes about 4x more than what I make full-time right now.
-The main issue with this choice is that it will take for-fucking-ever. 12+ years. I'd say 15 is most likely. That would give me my Ph.D. at the ripe old age of 45. And
that's assuming everything goes well.
2. I can continue with my nursing education and become a Certified Nurse Practitioner.
-There are two problems here. First, I really really want to go into research. Second, Massachusetts is one of 13 states where NPs lack autonomy. There's currently a bill
kicking around to remedy that, so it may be a nonissue by the time I need to make this decision. Either way, it bears thinking about.
3. I can leapfrog from nursing into medical school and try to become an MD or DO.
-Again, I really, really want to do research. While being a doctor was my dream as a child, and I'm sure I'd be happy doing it, it's not my dream now, merely a viable
alternative. Also, time is a major factor here. It would take another 5 years to become an MD or DO, and that doesn't include the time it would take to specialize. By
the time I finished specializing, I'd be back in the mid-40's range.
4. I can just stay a nurse.
-Very unattractive option. Nurses have very little autonomy and are bound by the decisions of the doctors over them. In my 6.5 years at the hospital, I've seen many,
many nurses frustrated by stubborn doctors who spend 5 minutes a day with the patient and think they have a better idea what's going on than the nurse who's
working with them all day long. I don't think that's a frustration I could handle gracefully and patiently for my whole career.
I really don't know what to do, but I need to make a decision pronto. Time is already an issue, and spending years hovering indecisively won't help it. I'm leaning quite heavily towards RN to Ph.D. RN is something I KNOW I can do. I already know most of what an RN needs to know from my work experience and training as a Medical Assistant and Phlebotomist. I'm just so caught up by how long it'll take me.
HALP!!!
And maybe you do something different all together, who knows.
But I'd say option 1 is likely the better of the of the two and will get you there faster.
Like I said, it is not an easy crossroads and I am dealing with my own hard decisions so I can empathize
I would suggest either option 1 (going back to school) so you can try and do your dream of research -- OR do any of the sub-options besides d/the last one for option 2. Being a doctor sounds like something you would be good at, based on what the rest of this journal has said. All of these would take a lot of time, yeah, but it doesn't sound like you're happy staying as just a nurse.