brewerpaul wrote: (although I don't fool myself that I'll be taking on new, different chud...).
It's probably not well known 'round here, but I used to be in nursing school. I was a 40 yr. old mother of 4 when I hit Johns Hopkins as a full-time student.
What I loved:
The camaraderie among the students, many of whom were career changers, the geeky academics, (Hopkins is one of those nasty schools that makes you get a 94 for a full-fledged A, but I scraped and clawed for the A- in pharmacology,) and getting myself the hell out into the world because I have
never worn the Suzie Homemaker label gracefully.
What I didn't love:
Well...the first semester was about 90% academic. Great for me. The second semester was about 75% academic, 25% clinical. With this ratio change came several revelations. I really, really dislike working with an unfortunately high proportion of available clinical instructors. Some have downright unnecessary personalities. This is unpleasant if you're a 20 year old. For me, at double that age, with half my life lived, I was thinking--"I didn't enter this field to take crap and have people speak to me like I'm an idiot." (and I really wasn't any more idiotic at clinical tasks than average--but the protocol for many instructors seems to be a generally oppressive attitute. Is it because they hate their jobs? Is there some kind of understood frat rush requirement? I don't know.)
I also realized that I really don't love patient care as you, Paul, stated that you do. I didn't want to go wake the person up to take vitals, though I would have been happy to go fix the computer. That was another revelation--I clearly am happier working with things rather than people. I want people around--because I like'em--but I don't want to be in charge of them, nor do I want them in charge of me.
So, after summer break, I had
serious misgivings, but gave myself the pep talk about following through, and the practicality of completing the degree. It was unavoidably obvious on day one that the year would be 80% clinical. After sitting through an introduction to the adult health clinical--with my mind elsewhere--I realized I was as close to a full-fledged insanity crash as I'd ever been, and I left, and never came back.
I surprised myself, because I'd attacked the first year with such vigor and success--but in retrospect there were ominous signs all along:
The job title Nurse never sat right with me. I'd always felt a visceral negative twinge at the word, as applied to me.
I've often had a difficult time with bosses. Taking orders and such. I must have the prickly soul of an independent contractor.
I could have toughened my hide, seen it through, and taken a job at a school or as a visiting hospice nurse where I would have been away from the hospital environment with its personnel hierarchy. Most of my classmates did not have my issues and are now working.
I had personal issues which ultimately would have made launching a career in a serious way difficult. Health concerns with my spouse put me in a more necessary role in the family context--there is no-one to take up the slack at home. Creative pain about knowing that a demanding career would seriously impede continuing to work at writing.
Well, this was a lot of unloading that had little to do with your question Paul, except for this:
You have achieved a certain degree of professional success in podiatry, and generally, I'd assume, have come to expect respectful treatment in the context of career. In the early years of this career change--the school part, and the getting established part--you may encounter behavior that makes you wonder why the heck you're putting yourself through this. But if you like the field in most ways, it's probably safe to say that there are jobs for nurses that are not under the direct gaze of Supervisorzillas.
I hope you do love it. The world needs good people in nursing.
I'd be eliminating LOTS of the chud associated with modern medical practice (although I don't fool myself that I'll be taking on new, different chud...). At the end of a week, I can take my paycheck, say "Thank you very much" and go home leaving the problems behind. I'll also have a profession that is portable so if Charlene and I decide to move to sunnier climes I can still work (getting a podiatry license in another state at this point would be virtually impossible). Best of all, I'll still be doing patient care.
It's interesting how we change over the years. Myself, I have found that I would have enjoyed going to a trade school to be a machinist. Or I could have enjoyed being a heavy equipment operator.