re: Spinoff: Starting a new career by going to nursing school

Been a nurse for 18 years and I can tell you a lot has changed. Nursing has been good to me but I had to leave the floor years ago due to all of the bullshite. As others have said, the best part about being a nurse is job security. The pay can be good depending on which area of the country you work and whether you decide to work in a hospital or not. It is true that you have to want to help people to "make it" but that is not necessarily the case anymore. Even if you want to help, you can't, because of staffing shortages, more charting, etc. The whole hospital experience has changed. It's now focused too much on patient satisfaction instead of what is best for the patient. Press-Gainey is ruining healthcare. My advice would be, if you want to be a nurse, decide if you want to work in a hospital setting and make more money with more stress or another type of setting where you will more than likely make less but have less headaches. I would not stop with an associates degree as well. It is a difficult field and I know many, many, good nurses who have left.