Hi everyone! I never wanted to be a nurse until recently, but I always wanted to help others. I am not the best at science, but I’m a hard worker. I didn’t realize I had a passion for children until I took child development in high school. I want to be a pediatric nurse, but for the program I am going to, students must do a surgical clinical class and I don’t know if I could handle that. I cannot handle the site of the organs outside of the body. Vomit, blood, pee,poop etc doesn’t bug me, but seeing a heart during the surgery isn’t for me. I want to know, with nursing will I have
Job stability
Decent salary (65-70k)
Chance to help children
Have to be in o.r. ?
Thank you so much for taking the time to read my post!!! Have a good day!
Most nurses do not work in an operating room. In fact, becoming an operating room nurse may be hard, because some nurses want the position because it has mostly daytime hours.
I’d suggest watching some online surgery videos to get yourself accustomed to it.
The answer to your other questions are yes, although you need a few years of experience to reach that salary in most areas of the country.
During clinicals, you will most likely do rotations in the OR. Having said that, the best way to conquer a fear is to tackle it head on. Like the person above said, watch some youtube videos of different surgery. Watch some eye/heart/foot surgery. Watch a C-section video on youtube. You’ll find that after watching these videos for a few days, they will seem less gross to you. Good luck to you, my fellow future nurse!
my dd sat in on a surgery before her junior yr in HS. It was an ACL reconstruction and then a shoulder surgery she was about 6ft from the operation. actually found it kinda boring. then viewed an open heart surgery in junior yr. and was much further away. she felt fine. Certain things she thinks is amazing then just told me she saw a you tube video where a finger nail was removed and thought it was disgusting and made her sick. Ive had a nail removed and watched it, its not that bad but could no way be a nurse myself… SO, what I am saying is that you might surprise yourself and not everything will be as bad as you think.
Most baccalaureate nursing programs do not have an operating room rotation any more where you actually scrub in and pass instruments- maybe a couple of days of OR observation. Now, you will need to rotate in labor and delivery which may include a C-section in the operating room. As long as you don’t faint and require smelling salts, you should be ok - you just need to make it through that day. Even if you faint, I think the nursing instructor would be understanding the first time as long as it doesn’t happen weekly in clinical. De-synthesize with watching CSI shows or surgery you tube videos - it will get easier to get use to a little blood and a few body organs. Babies come out very bloody but it is a happy environment for the most part. On one of our School of Nursing tours, my dd and I were brought into the anatomy & physiology lab which had 2 cadavers. Our tour guide put on gloves & opened the 2 metal containers - home to the cadavers [one male & one female]. I think he wanted to see if my dd would flinch which she didn’t [all those years of CSI shows paid off]. Not all nursing programs have A & P labs with cadavers.
As a RN you can choose what area to work in and it doesn’t necessarily need to be in the hospital. Working as a school nurse would give you a pediatric emphasis, but kids have plenty of bloody noses, vomiting etc.
Good luck to you!
At my daughter’s nursing school, one of their high tech simulators is a pregnant woman. It is very realistic with lots of fake bodily fluids. They were showing it off to a man on the College’s Board of Trustees, and he passed out.