So I’m thinking about going back to school. I’m currently working in healthcare and I’ve kinda hit a dead end in my career and can’t go much further without some sort of certification or degree. Everything that I want to do or interests me required an RN degree. Here’s the tricky part: I can not handle blood/needles/gore etc. I can’t stomach it. I pass out when I have my blood drawn, I have to look away at surgery scenes in TV shows or movies. I always counted myself out of going into the patient care side of healthcare because I don’t think I could do it.

However, I got pregnant last year and I actually handled all the medical parts of pregnancy, labor, delivery etc way better than I expected. I never passed out once while getting my blood taken, I handled all my shots pretty well. I feel like it really helped me get over my personal fears.

My current job involves looking at pictures of surgical procedures/tumors/ostomys/incisions etc. and I can handle those ok. Pictures are obviously different than being hands on. I’m just nervous that I’d get through the academic portion of nursing school and just not be able to do the clinical part.

For those of you who have done it: how “graphic” was it?