School Reflection

Hi, my name is Christine and I am hooked on school!

Today I attended the mandatory Chemotheraphy and Biotherapy Provider Course through ONS (Oncology Nursing Society) at Karmanos. I was dreading going, wondering how they can force me to attend a class that I was not interested in and expect me stay awake when it was 12 hours different from my normal schedule? Well, it turns out that being in this class was informative, interesting and totally made me miss being in school. I know, its sick and weird, but I love school.

There, I said it. I am ITCHING to go back for my MSN (Master's of Science in Nursing). What is holding me back? 1). I want to wait until Alan is done with his program so we are not both in school. 2). I want to wait until we move so I don't have something else holding me in MI. 3). I am not entirely sure what I want to be when I grow up :) Nursing is an amazing field, with so many unique and wonderful opportunities for career advancement. If we move where we are looking, in NC, I will have UNC and Duke as options for grad school. Duke is infinitely more expensive (about 3x more), but an amazing school and if I work there, they will pay something like 90% of my tuition... yeah, totally worth it. I think that working for Duke would be ok too. :)

This leads me to trying to figure out what program of study I would like to follow to get my MSN. Here are some ideas that I am tossing around. ANY and all input is much appreciated. I am also torn between pediatrics and adults. I am pretty sold on oncology no matter what. I can't imagine working with anyone other than cancer patients. They are phenomenally strong and inspire me daily. The following positions are listed in the order that I *think* I am interested in them, but it varies based on the day.

1. Clinical Nurse Specialist: Nursing and patient education. This field also involves some research and public speaking (I love public speaking). I like that I would have the opportunity to be involved in clincal trials and would be a resource for staff, patients, and their families. This is mainly a hospital based position. With this role, I would have some motivation to continue on to a PhD.

2. Nurse Practitioner: works as a physician "extender" and is able to assess, aide in diagnosis, prescribe under a physician. This is much like the role of physician's assistant (at Karmanos they are interchangeable). This role can be adapted to a variety of settings including inpatient, outpatient, clinics, hospice, doctor's offices, etc. I don't know that I could handle the stress of the inpatient NP oncology role.

3. Nurse Educator: I never thought that I wanted to be a nursing instructor, but now that I precept all the time, I think I might enjoy it. Being able to answer questions, teach/lead clinical assignments and spend more time at schools is kind of exciting to me. I have always felt that I lack confidence in explaining myself when I know something, and that is a drawback. I would need to get over this for #1 also, but not as much. In this role, I would mainly work at a college or university, with some time spent in the hospitals if I am doing clinicals. I worry that this may put a higher demand on my free time, but would probably push me to get a PhD (now I am really getting ahead of myself).

What do you think suits me?