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Quit Nursing School . . . taking questions
Okay, so I was accepted into the University of Kentucky College of Nursing, which is actually supposed to be a fairly good school. I quit after one semester for several reasons, which I've hesitated to talk about here because I have a LOT to say about it, and I didn't want to bore anyone. Up until now, any post like this could have gone on for multiple pages. However, I'm at a sufficient remove that I can be more brief:
The reasons I hated it include but are not limited to the following:
1. You have nearly zero decision-making ability as a nurse, but you are the first person the hospital looks to when they're trying to find someone to blame for something. Quick example - at the hospital where I did some of my practicals, nurse were often called in by the administration to explain to indignant administrators why certain patients had not yet been discharged. The real answer is, "I don't know. I don't have the ability to discharge anyone. That is the doctor's decision.", but the hospital wouldn't let you get away with that. They wanted a chance to write some notes in their files that they yelled at someone for a bit, threatened their job, that sort of thing, but it wouldn't do to ask a doctor to endure such indignities. This is very hard to deal with when you're used to working in a field where you make the decisions, or at least where your decisions matter.
2. There is WAY to much alternative medicine in that curriculum. Other schools may be better about this, but U.K. actually has a full-time professor with tenure whose specialty is something called "healing touch". This is a little like "laying on of hands" that crazy religious types talk about, but there's no touching and no invocation of religion. Instead, this person will wave her hands about you, chant softly, and try to fix your aura. She teaches an actual class you can take for credit. There is an actual, recognized nursing diagnosis called "disturbed energy field" - http://nandanursingdiagnosis.org/nursing-diagnosis-disturbed-energy-field/ . We had to sit through multiple lectures in our Intro to Nursing class about this and other alternative medicines, and let me tell you - if you challenged the validity of this crap (like I often did), you'd get into BIG trouble with the director of the program.
3. As far as bargle goes, I was pretty sure nothing would really phase me too much. Then I was asked to help change an eighty year old man's catheter. Finally, when we were taught how to clean tracheotomy tubes, I simply had enough. I can deal with blood, wounds, and gross smells, but I can't deal with trache tubes. There's something about them that frightens me on a deep, phobic level. I'm including in my living will that, if I ever have an injury or disease which will require a trache tube, I should just be put down.
4. This probably only applies to me, but I HATE, HATE, HATE scrubs. I hate how they look, and I hate how I feel in them. I always feel cold and vulnerable when I wear them, not unlike that feeling you have when you have that dream where you're naked in public. Ever have that dream? That's what wearing scrubs feels like to me, and that's not a good feeling for a twelve hour shift.
SO - I started looking for legal jobs again, and found the thing I have now. I'm working in the state public defender's office. The salary is not that great, and the location is terrible, because they put me in a very, very rural area. How rural is it? I actually have a case in which the defendant is alleged to be a cattle rustler. Even so, the work itself is generally very good and I'm very happy with that in and of itself.
Now, I just have to work on actually getting out of this state and back to civilization. I've had an interview at the Maryland Public Defender's Office, but they turned me down. I'm just happy that they interviewed me at all. I'm going to take the MD Bar later this summer (MD makes you take an abbreviated attorney's bar no matter how many years of experience you have), so maybe things will work out.
The reasons I hated it include but are not limited to the following:
1. You have nearly zero decision-making ability as a nurse, but you are the first person the hospital looks to when they're trying to find someone to blame for something. Quick example - at the hospital where I did some of my practicals, nurse were often called in by the administration to explain to indignant administrators why certain patients had not yet been discharged. The real answer is, "I don't know. I don't have the ability to discharge anyone. That is the doctor's decision.", but the hospital wouldn't let you get away with that. They wanted a chance to write some notes in their files that they yelled at someone for a bit, threatened their job, that sort of thing, but it wouldn't do to ask a doctor to endure such indignities. This is very hard to deal with when you're used to working in a field where you make the decisions, or at least where your decisions matter.
2. There is WAY to much alternative medicine in that curriculum. Other schools may be better about this, but U.K. actually has a full-time professor with tenure whose specialty is something called "healing touch". This is a little like "laying on of hands" that crazy religious types talk about, but there's no touching and no invocation of religion. Instead, this person will wave her hands about you, chant softly, and try to fix your aura. She teaches an actual class you can take for credit. There is an actual, recognized nursing diagnosis called "disturbed energy field" - http://nandanursingdiagnosis.org/nursing-diagnosis-disturbed-energy-field/ . We had to sit through multiple lectures in our Intro to Nursing class about this and other alternative medicines, and let me tell you - if you challenged the validity of this crap (like I often did), you'd get into BIG trouble with the director of the program.
3. As far as bargle goes, I was pretty sure nothing would really phase me too much. Then I was asked to help change an eighty year old man's catheter. Finally, when we were taught how to clean tracheotomy tubes, I simply had enough. I can deal with blood, wounds, and gross smells, but I can't deal with trache tubes. There's something about them that frightens me on a deep, phobic level. I'm including in my living will that, if I ever have an injury or disease which will require a trache tube, I should just be put down.
4. This probably only applies to me, but I HATE, HATE, HATE scrubs. I hate how they look, and I hate how I feel in them. I always feel cold and vulnerable when I wear them, not unlike that feeling you have when you have that dream where you're naked in public. Ever have that dream? That's what wearing scrubs feels like to me, and that's not a good feeling for a twelve hour shift.
SO - I started looking for legal jobs again, and found the thing I have now. I'm working in the state public defender's office. The salary is not that great, and the location is terrible, because they put me in a very, very rural area. How rural is it? I actually have a case in which the defendant is alleged to be a cattle rustler. Even so, the work itself is generally very good and I'm very happy with that in and of itself.
Now, I just have to work on actually getting out of this state and back to civilization. I've had an interview at the Maryland Public Defender's Office, but they turned me down. I'm just happy that they interviewed me at all. I'm going to take the MD Bar later this summer (MD makes you take an abbreviated attorney's bar no matter how many years of experience you have), so maybe things will work out.
Comments
I've come out of months (maybe years?) of forum silence because I just have to know: Is the name of the crime really "cattle rustling," or is it grabs larceny or somesuch?
I just now thought of how funny it is that it was 10 cattle - he should have known that he couldn't hold 10 cattles.
I'm not really motivated to get an expert opinion because it's so far over $300.00, that I can't imagine how it would really help. That is, I can't imagine 10 cattle being worth less than $300.00.
If you want to hear about stereotypes, I truthfully, honestly have a few sex cases where the defendants actually cannot understand that there is an age of consent and that, if your partner is less than that age, it does not matter if she tells you it's okay. It doesn't even matter if her parents tell you it's okay. It doesn't even matter if she's your Aunt and your mother tells you that her sister says it's okay.
On the bright side, if you're in Maryland, you could always be the attorney for someone like Stringer Bell.
That sucks dude, I dropped out from EKU back in 2009 because of financial concerns, but I kinda gave up on wanting to be a doctor as well. Hope you find something else you want to do.
I have a bit of a question here, though: US News and World Report ranks UK's Nursing School at #21 nationally. It ranks UofL #64, quite a bit lower ranking than the "Frontier School of Midwifery and Family Nursing". http://grad-schools.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-graduate-schools/top-health-schools/nursing-rankings
Perhaps I'm unfamiliar with this use of the phrase "better than". Is #64 better than #21? I was always taught that 21 > 64, but I'm old, so things might have changed while I was taking a nap.
I actually thought about applying to the UofL Nursing School, but applied to UK. The main reason I chose UK was that they had a DNP program and UofL did not.
I think a lot of that wacky alternative medicine at UK is the result of the proclivities of the Director of the BSN Program. However, that nursing diagnosis of "disturbed energy field" is recognized as a valid diagnosis by NANDA.
Y'know - getting a little down a divergent path here - one of the things that I constantly heard at Nursing School that became a pet peeve was the phrase "evidence-based practice". Everything they said was preceded by some explanation about how whatever procedure or theory they were about to teach was "evidence-based". I always thought, "Well, I HOPE that it's evidence-based. In fact, I was kinda hoping that I could take that for granted. Are you telling me that there are some nursing practices that are not evidence-based? Oh yeah - all that aroma therapy and stuff you like to talk about is not evidence-based, I suppose."
Actually, that "healing touch" woman always said that her healing practices could not be measured in any way and so were beyond being evidence-based, as in that they were somehow more reliable than evidence-based practices, because her results were based on the faith and belief of the patient and the practitioner. Just the type of bullshit you'd expect to hear from someone like that.
Anyways, welcome back, Joe. I respect a man who takes risks.
Alright, I guess it does look stupid, out of context. Ya got me.
What? Too old a reference?
Or it won't pay and I'll keep doing it because it's satisfying.
There are ways to get career satisfaction while working a stable but boring job.