The DU Lounge

...that I feared I had made a career mistake. While I was in nursing school, it was pretty obvious that the med students were held in high regard for their intelligence, much more so than we were, so I decided I would finish the nursing degree and then apply to med school. I made the mistake of taking 2 semesters of organic chemistry in summer school right after graduation and only got a C. Back in the early 1970s, organic was the "make-or-break" class - if you didn't get an A, no school would even look at you. It scared me off.

My first nursing job didn't seem to care much about what I knew, just how fast I could move. How many bed baths and bed changes could you get done on the morning shift before the breakfast trays came up from the dietary department? Not much of an intellectual challenge.

The NP role offered me the independence and problem solving opportunities that my brain craved.