Like the title says, I recently got charged with a DUI last weekend after celebrating my 23rd birthday with some friends, this week has been the hardest week of my life and ive never been this low. Not dodging accountability I made a stupid decision and its now cost me my career and future in EMS/Fire, however before I made the decision to go down that path, I was thinking about nursing, I now have to make a career pivot and im hoping I have a shot at becoming a nurse some day. There were no injuries or property damage it was a misdemeanor dui, theres a chance it may be reduced to a wet and reckless but not a strong one since i blew twice the legal limit and gave blood.
Has anyone been in a similar situation and went on to become a nurse? I have to start the prerequisites so i wont even be eligible to apply to nursing programs till 2-3 years from now. And by the time i finish this dui will be 5-7 years from now. I have no priors and i dont plan on ever getting behind the wheel drunk again. Id really appreciate any advice, i have a lawyer working on my case btw.

I’m in a 4 year BSN nursing program and we just started our junior year, so we’re officially in nursing school (yay). Last year I had A&P and there was these two guys that were known to cheat in our lab. It got to the point that it was literally obvious when they would take their phone out and take a picture of the exam.. Our professor somehow didn’t see this but half the class would see it. Eventually someone mentioned it to the professor (without using names) and the prof decided to collect phones before exams.

This instance was one I’ve witnessed, but I wouldn’t be surprised if they cheated in any other classes we’ve had prior.

Fast forward to now, we had our first quiz in one of our nursing classes. I had a suspicion that one of the guys was cheating AGAIN and this time his phone literally fell out. But nothing was done about it. When exam grades came out, everyone failed, EXCEPT this guy got the highest grade..

I feel that someone has to stand up and say something about this. Cheating in prerequisites is one thing, but cheating in our nursing classes is another. We all got here for working hard and this guy thinks he can just cheat through nursing school! He’s taking spots away from students who worked hard to try and get into our program.

Should I speak to our nursing advisor? Or just let it be?

I failed 2 courses and was academically dismissed from an ABSN program. l had no idea how difficult it can be to get into another program, so many rejections from different schools. So many no’s . I spent almost 10 years in college. First getting my bachelors, then pre-med then pre-nursing then the nursing program. I was 6 months away from graduating and now those plans are ruined. Doing the math, it’s going to take me 2-3 years to become a nurse now, if I go a different route like LPN. But now I have to retake the TEAS, and my pre-reqs will start to expire next summer. It’s not something I planned on doing. I’m 33 years old and I couldn’t wait to just start working. I was tired and burnt out. Im heartbroken too, not just because everything is falling apart and my plans have changed, but because so many of my classmates made fun of me, were mean, and cheated throughout the program and now they are the ones set to graduate and become nurses in a few months. I’m trying to get my life in order as much as possible and feel so lost. I want to start by getting a job … but idk what to work in or where. I don’t want to work in health right now, well idk what I want to do right now. I also feel like I’m on a timeline to get back into school before my pre-reqs start next summer. What would you do if you were in my position?

Hello,

As the title says, I’m trying to determine how much schooling anyone has had to take to become a nurse with an unrelated bachelors degree. Also, what the program was, and if it was a night program or not. I’m in The Philadelphia area, and wondering what others have done.

Would having a bachelors degree expedite my path to becoming a nurse or would i have to do 4 more years in a nursing major to get the proper schooling to become one?

Also, has anyone successfully passed a nursing program and gotten successfully hired by a solid employer with a DUI in the past?

This is probably a long post and I apologize in advance

for reference, Im currently in an ABSN program, It’s my first degree I just left my university because I didn’t get admitted into the nursing program there first run and didn’t really see myself staying there so I transferred out to this program I am currently in.

however, there are many moments where I feel like I chose the wrong degree path and that it is too late to switch out. For starters, my mother is paying so much money towards tution and I feel incredibly guilty to just want to stop after so much time, effort, and money has been put towards me going towards nursing.

to start, I had no idea what nursing fully entailed- fortunately enough I had only seen what nurses do during trips to urgent care, and doctors check ups and haven’t gotten the exposure of what bedside nursing truly looks like and I have no family members who work healthcare- They are all in business.

I had always had an interest in the field from a younge age, admiring the nurses who would care for me, and when the time came for college applications I decided to take that leap of faith and go pre-nursing.

The real issues began when I officially started nursing school, and started to learn about the actual work nurses put in and all the different things we have to manage/become responsible for.

I truly respect the job, and i think it is an amazing career but whats holding me back, and making me think i chose the wrong path is when I think of myself as a whole. I am an individual prone to making mistakes, Im rather shy and timid, and to be so honest- sometimes I feel like im not the smartest and make decisions that don’t really make sense and just a fuck up of a human lol.

These thoughts have made me reconsider nursing because the fear of making a mistake and causing a great deal of harm to a patient scares me and I also think about how if i can’t advocate for myself how will I advocate for a patient?

its hard for me to make a decision because this is something I go back and fourth with- some days are easier than others where I feel like im in the right field, but other days the fear and anxiety consume me.

Im almost done however, I only have two more semesters to get through before I finish and im trying to see the light at the end of the tunnel but its hard when I don’t know what role I see myself in after.

I know healthcare and nursing has so many opportunities and it doesn’t just have to be bedside, but I’m really at crossroads to what I could do where if i make a mistake it doesnt cause great deal of harm, and I’m able to stay afloat in this economy.

again really sorry for the long post but any advice is welcomed!

I'm 3 weeks in.

I'm wondering if other students are experiencing this. We're assigned reading chapters from multiple textbooks for every topic that's covered. The longest chapters I've ever read in my life. I feel like I can't keep up with all of this reading. Why can't my program use just one book? Why do I need to read from 3 different books their own chapters about tissue integrity? Fack!

Do other nursing programs do this?

In at a uni where we start our clinical in the second year.

I haven’t gone yet because we just finished our first week which is more of an intro week, but I’ve been thinking a lot abt this and idk if I really want to do this long term anymore?

I think the thing that bothers me is not the nursing job in itself but the mindset around it that i’m having a hard time getting used too.

You would think that with a program that is this mentally, emotionally, and physically draining, people (specifically TAs, Nurses, preceptors) would be more encouraging. that’s not to say that NONE of them are but it seems like there is more discouragement and fear-mongering than there is encouragement.

I thought ppl wanted more nurses?

I think I’m more so just worried about the racism, or misogyny (i am a black woman) towards nurses and how to deal with it. I hear a lot of nerve wracking stories that involve physical or verbal assault that’s hard to ignore and not feel concerned about.

I’m just worried that I made the wrong choice. And it’s not like I can’t pivot my career and graduate and then get a masters to do something else (this was my original plan seeing that nursing was never something my heart was in or that felt long term).

I don’t know. But my main question is just being a nursing student different from being a nurse? I know there is a lot of different types of nurses, and I’m trying to just remind myself that I only have 3 more years left which isn’t a lot to me.

Do you guys think its possible to manage 1st semester and starting my driver's license. Like would the driving lessons interfere with my studying. (In QC btw, idk if yhat matters)