This thread has gone off topic, although some very interesting points have been raised by everyone. But, to come back to the OP's question about choosing between nursing and RT, I think you will find information that will be very useful in your decision making on sites like allnurses.com for nursing, and on forums like the one at the following link at indeed.com
http://www.indeed.com/forum/job/respiratory-therapist/05390c183c137e1b707a4505
for RT. I think both are good careers, but as a nurse, I will tell you that unless you REALLY love people, have a lot of patience, and a high level of tolerance for BS you might want to think twice before deciding to go into nursing because you will eventually get to a point where you will either really love it or really hate it. And some people get to that point when they are no longer motivated to go back to school to transition to something else.
I have been a travel nurse for a while now, and there are many things about nursing that I like. But I decided on a change to premed back in '06 because, for me, nursing no longer provides the type of challenge that I need in a career. Almost every doctor that I've worked with during the past couple years has tried to discourage me from going to medical school...saying that its just not worth it anymore, that they aren't making the type of money they used to make, and that in years to come they are going to be making even less. But, for me, its not just about the money or the title. I actually love patient care, and becoming a physician would allow me to do more for my patients than I will ever be able to do as an RN. I even considered NP and PA, and would have been equally satisfied with either, despite the countless debates about the inferiority of mid-level practitioners.
One thing that I have really enjoyed about nursing is the hands-on connection with the patients and being totally involved in their treatment and recovery. I especially love the patient education part of it because I've worked with so many people who are scared and have no clue what's going on, and some of them really appreciate it when we take some time to talk to them and explain things without all the medical jargon. Its tough on the doctors, too. They have so many patients to see all over the place, and they just don't have the time to sit at the beside for 20 minutes to hold hands and talk to everybody.
I've been fortunate, in that, throughout most of my career I've worked with nurses who were good team players and physicians who treat nurses with respect. The whole health care system is changing, though not for the better, and there's not a lot of that teamwork out there anymore. These days its all about business and competition, and the arrogance, rudeness, and hostility of some nurses, doctors, and administrators that I'm seeing nowadays really makes me wonder.
The nursing profession itself has changed. The Nightingale-esque type of nursing is long dead, and so are all the glorious nursing care models dreamed up by brilliant nursing visionaries and theorists like Drs. Watson and Leininger. Nursing is no longer about physician support, or safety, or even actual patient care. Now its all about 'customer service' because the hospitals now view patients as 'clients', and we are expected to act as their maids instead of professionals who are there to coordinate and execute the physician's medical care plan. Hospital administrators are aggressively cutting back on everything to make more profit for their shareholders, and they are forcing us to work short-staffed with more and more patients, limited or no supplies with basic things like machines to check vital signs, scales to do daily weights, and sometimes even supplies to do dressing changes. Sometimes we're lucky if we can even find a pitcher to bring the patients some water to drink. We are forced to work with lots of outdated and broken equipment, many of which get repaired only when they know that the Joint Commission inspectors are coming.
Then there is the ever-increasing amount of paperwork that we are expected to do. And, on top of it all, we stand directly in the line of fire---taking all sorts of verbal and physical abuse and threats from some family members, doctors, the patients, and even the administrators themselves. And they have the nerve to put numbers in the patients rooms for them to call and make complaints if they are dissatisfied with the care they are receiving. Of course, many of those complaints are not about their medical or nursing care, but about the fact that the steak served for dinner was too dry or that the coffee wasn't warm enough. And, yes, administration expects us to drop everything that we are doing to go warm up the coffee and to call dietary to get something else for the patient to eat. In some ways, we're like room service in a hotel. LOL.
Some days the crap hits the fan, and you have to constantly be re-prioritizing everything, not just for one patient but for all of them simultaneously. The physicians don't call back when you page them with critical labs or to clarify orders or to get new orders; or they call back with a nasty and sarcastic attitude because they would rather not be disturbed (but guess what, if we don't call to report those critical labs, or changes in the patients' status, or to get that order, then the patient ends up either in trouble or dead, and all our asses get sued.) Radiology is calling because they've decided to send for the patient now even though the scan was scheduled for three hours from now, The OR is calling because the surgery schedule got changed and they want the patient prepped and sent now, the ER is calling to give report on a new admission that's on the way to the unit right now, the family members are yelling at you because they are unhappy about one silly thing or another, a surgeon suddenly shows up and demands that you drop everything right now to get supplies to assist him bedside with a procedure, the lab is calling because the specimens that were sent down by the previous shift were either contaminated or hemolyzed and they need new ones (only, there's no phlebotomist and no tech to get the specimens so you have to get the equipment and do it yourself), a doctor is on the phone with stat orders (but there's no secretary to enter the orders so you have to take them off yourself) and then execute them right away, you have a confused patient---big fall risk--- but the hospital has a policy against using restraints and there is no sitter available so of course the patient falls and you have a ton of paperwork to fill out afterwards, your tele patient suddenly goes into V-tach and before you know it you have a code blue on your hands. It gets old. Everybody wants a piece of you, and no matter what you do or how fast you run you just can't do it all at once unless you have top-flight time management skills---especially if you're juggling a dozen or more patients on a med surg floor. A nursing shortage exists not because there aren't enough nurses around but because more and more of us are getting tired of the abuse and the stress and are leaving to pursue other careers. I chose to stay because despite all the madness, I still love it.
So what if we have to wipe incontinent butts, burp colostomy bags, clean up urine, vomit and blood, and clean and dress infected and disgusting looking wounds? I don't even think about those things when I do them anymore. Rather than turn up my nose or make a face, I perform the tasks quickly and in a way that maintains the patients' dignity. Anyone who looks down on nurses for doing these things is an idiot because they are just as important to the patient as performing diagnostic tests or writing orders for treatments and medications. We not only have to clean up body fluids, but also assess them for clues that help physicians with their diagnostic workups. Our report of the odor, color, and consistency of that poop may be the physician's first clue of a GI bleed. The pink tinge in that urine may be the first clue of renal problems or the need to more closely monitor patients who're on anticoagulants, etc. Besides, everybody poops, pees, pukes, and bleeds; and if and when some people ever find themselves so sick that they can't even clean themselves, perhaps then they'd have a little more respect for the nurses who are there doing it for them. This is why I have always believed that the 'heirarchial' politics in the medical field is really BS. Everyone's role is important, from the physician to the janitor who mops the joint. If any one group stops working it wont be long before the whole operation comes to a standstill. And this goes out to everyone out there with thier noses in the air who think its cool to bash nurses and other non-physicians.
If the stress was all there was to be concerned about it wouldn't be half bad. Some of the conditions that nurses are being forced to put up with are just downright dangerous. The administrators know it and most of them don't care. I was once floated to a med surg floor and one of my 13 patients began to go bad. Chest pain, racing heart rate, SOB, all the classic symptoms of you know what. Most places have a chest pain protocol. This particular joint did not. According to them, you can't even put O2 on the patient without an order. Called the in-house hospitalist and got a stat order to give O2, SL nitro, and push IV Cardizem and start a drip---on a med surg floor. That hospitalist was a demon. No orders for cardiac enzymes, no cardiology consult. Those of us who know the game know what happens next... All they intended to do is temporarily resolve the chest pain, patch up the patient, and then quickly d/c him back to skidrow before it occurs again---a practice the hospitals are still engaged in. (The Kaiser hospitals in California have been busted several times for doing this. In one case, the ambulance was caught red-handed dumping patients on the street, still wearing the hospital gowns and with the hospital ID bracelet still on thier arms.) I refused to give the cardizem off-monitor, and the charge nurse went in there and gave it herself---no consideration whatsoever for the safety of the patient, all because the patient was an indigent with no insurance and they didn't want to move him to a tele bed.
Same day, in addition to my 13 patients, I had to cover an LVN who gave PO PRN lorazepam to an aggitated and confused patient with respiratory issues. The patient went into failure and almost didn't survive the code, and because I was covering her assessments I had to do all the paperwork about the sentinel event. Then there are the noncompliant patients who refuse treatment and develop complications, the ones who decide to leave AMA, the CHFers who sneak out of their rooms to buy drinks from the vending machines and fill up till they can't breathe, the family members who sneak in food and give it to patients who are supposed to be NPO, the chest pain patients who sneak outside to smoke cigarettes, the druggies who always have pain of "10" even though you just loaded them up with dilauded. The morbidly obese patients with huge decubiti on their butts but they can't move and there's no one to help you turn them so you can dress the wounds. I could go on.
I sometimes envy the physicians because they don't have to hear about or get involved in any of this crap. As nurses, we are generally not treated well by everyone. To survive in nursing nowadays you have to be tough, you have to be fast, and you have to really love what you are doing otherwise you will eventually burn out and quit. Everyone else in health care works with only one patient at a time---except nurses. But, once in a while, a patient or a family member will actually say 'thank you', and some are so appreciative that they even make special requests for you to be their nurse on the next shift.
But, its not all bad. Sometimes when you're working in a decent facility and you have a good team of nurses who work together, you can actually have a lot of fun, especially if you're working the night shift. The nurses and doctors on the night shift at my current gig are an awesome crew. Everyone helps everyone else, and even if we're in the middle of a code you don't feel the stress of it because people are cracking jokes even during the compressions and the intubation. And, you know what, our code team rarely loses a patient. I'm being long-winded, but my point is that although nursing isn't an easy job it can be interesting, and it can be fun---all depends on where you're working and who you're working with. Even some of the crabbiest doctors will eventually begin to respect you and trust your judgment once they get to know you and they know that you know your stuff. And it works both ways. I give them brief but accurate assessment details about their patients, they give me the prn orders and parameters I need, and then I don't have to wake them up in the middle of the night.
Maybe this post will help you in your decision making.
. Cost of living is great here. A lot of married residents with kids buy homes in and around my neighborhood to build up equity for bigger and better homes later on.
