I’m going to be a senior next year and am thinking about what to major in. Several people have suggested nursing, and while nursing does sound interesting (I did relatively well in AP math and sciences), I tend to be rather squeamish. How big of an issue would this be? Would it be something that would be easy to get over through training?
Another thing is, I heard that nursing programs are hard to get into and tend to accept students that have demonstrated clear interest in nursing through EC’s and essays. How true is this? Because in my situation, all of my EC’s involve music and the arts. Would this set me back, should I decide to apply for nursing?
My daughter finished her BSN last month. She sings opera. Sometimes, you want your hobbies (ECs) to have nothing to do with your major/career. It didn’t seem to hurt her.
Squeamishness is another issue altogether. While there are many areas of nursing that don’t deal in daily gore, you’re not getting through the training without encountering a lot of it. Sure, you can probably become desensitized to almost anything, just ask soldiers, but can I ask why? There are many math/science fields without the yuck factor.
Your extra curriculars do not need to be nursing oriented, but it is advisable to try to do some type of paid or volunteer work in a health care setting before you apply. First, it shows you have a strong interest, vs. just going into nursing simply for job security. Second, it helps you know that nursing is right for you.
You might try watching some online surgery videos to see how squeamish your really are.
I can understand how you might feel that way. I can say that once you have more knowledge about what you are looking at or the importance of noticing clues to how the patient is doing, you tend to see things differently. Urine means the person is hydrated or dehydrated. Poop means their GI system is working correctly or not. A wound that is healing well is amazing to see. Unless you know more of the behind the scenes knowledge, it can make you squemish but there are plenty of areas of nursing without that.
I think you need to look at some anatomy drawings and if what you see intrigues you, then working with people’s bodies perhaps not in nursing but other areas of healthcare like Physical therapy or even biomed engineering, will be the thing that draws you or pushes you away from this field.