Don't even know where to start

blossom
Fri, 24 Jan 2020 16:43:45 +0000

Why does she want to be a nurse?

Start there.

Nursing is unusual among the health care professions (even pre-meds) where there is just not a lot of flexibility in the curriculum. There’s a set amount of content which needs to be mastered in a particular order, the strong programs have high pass rates for the boards which means that the students who make it through have a thorough grounding of the material.

If your D has shown so-so motivation for things she doesn’t think are relevant to her nursing career, she may find her training an absolute slog. And if she’s had trouble balancing her academic load with other things, managing her rotations, transportation, plus dorm living and doing laundry might prove to be really challenging.

If this were my kid, I’d be encouraging her to find a part time job- ASAP, working at a nursing home, a homeless shelter, a center for kids with developmental delays. Even if she’s working as the weekend receptionist and not doing anything hands on with people- give her some experience with a challenged population so she can figure out how intense her ambition is to become a nurse.

Even if she ends up- 20 years from now- managing a chain of plastic surgery centers where her only patients are affluent people getting cosmetic surgery-- between now and then, she’s going to be face-to-face with new immigrants with antibiotic resistant TB, women who are in labor but have had zero prenatal care, homeless men with diabetes who haven’t showered in a week.

If she finds she loves this experience, she will likely dig down and “get it together” for her program, whether or not it’s a direct admit. If she finds that it’s much too gritty for her, she’s got time to explore OT, PT, Speech, Genetic Counseling, or any number of other health professions.