This is your question, "Have you ever had to tell anyone they owe the IRS $20,000 and then hand them a bill for your services?!?"

My response to that is, have you ever had to tell anyone what to expect before their death and what choices they have to make it easier? Personally speaking, I would rather tell someone they owe a lot of money than explain disease process and end of life issues.

Money can't buy you life, so your bad news isn't exactly the same as what a nurse is obligated to inform patients. Dying people get a bill too. I'm sure they would rather pay the IRS and your fee. At least they will live, but our patients often do not and get a bill like you wouldn't believe, for their health care.

Money is meaningless, with end of life issues. People just want to live or die with some dignity, without pain. Do you really want to look them in the eye, giving them the facts or someone who owes money to the IRS?

I strongly suggest making an easier career change, not a hard one. You are going to lose a ton of needed cash, for retirement. If you are doing accounting, you should understand the math I am talking about. Every dime you spend for tuition and loss of today's wages is the same dime you cannot invest for your retirement. You will start a new career at bottom wage. You need to care about the money because no one cares whether or not you starve in older years.

I pondered the exact same thing you are. Everything in life changed for me, except my job. I am a RN that wanted less stress and decided to go to hair school. What I figured out is that I was so confused by changes in my personal life, that I wasn't a nurse anymore. I thought that I made a mistake of career choice too.

Here is the truth. I worked too long and hard to walk into a new profession at 41. I am an experienced RN. Why did I let my personal life changes confuse me to the point that I honestly thought I didn't want to be a nurse anymore? I couldn't separate the two, at the time.

I finally wised up. Yes, my kids are going to grow up and make their own way. They wont need me anymore. This divorce is only something I didn't face up to years ago, but I avoided the finality because it hurt. I realized that my problems were with big changes in my personal life, which had nothing to do with my professional life at all. I was so confused I was ready to go to hair school to have less stress in my life.

I would guess that most women, with a family or single parents with older children, have big changes that are far from easy to adapt to. We don't always see this change as a good thing that offers us freedom to choose, like a drastic career change, which isn't the answer at all. These life changes make us question everything, even our ability to be competent at our career. For once, we have some freedom and have no idea what to do with it, so we really do consider career change.

I faced this fact about myself. I am an experienced RN, but forgot to see how long and hard it was for me to get where I am. I learned that I am a nurse and a good one. I worked long and hard for it. So did you, in a different profession. I believe you are at an age where you suddenly have freedom from your personal life obligations and have no clue what to do with yourself, just as I dealt with.

I plaster my e-mail all over this site, so write me. I understand your situation. [email protected]. I hope that I helped you understand that your career skills are valuable and use them to help others, just as nurses do. Use your freedom to experiment with different things. You can volunteer, take up forgotten loved actives, or anything you want.

I wish you well!

fyi
HI WILDFLOWER,
WOW! YOU REALLY GAVE THAT ACCOUNTANT A LOT TO THINK ABOUT BUT ON THE OTHER HAND WHY WOULD CHANGING CAREERS BE SO TERRIBLE IN FACT IT MIGHT GIVE MORE SATISFACTION THEN SHE EVER IMAGINED. I KNOW DISCUSSING DEATH IS HARD BUT AT THAT POINT YOUR REAL JOB IS BEING THERE FOR THE FAMILY AND HELPING THEM GET PAST THE LOSS. YOU REALLY STRUCK A CORD WHEN YOU TOLD THIS PERSON WHO IS ONLY IN HER THIRTIES TO RECONSIDER A CAREER CHANGE AND YOU MAY VERY WELL BE RIGHT ON AND IT MIGHT BE A MISTAKE BUT I'LL TELL YOU THIS IN HER DEFENSE. I DID NOT GO TO NURSING SCHOOL UNTIL I WAS 41 AND I THANK GOD EVERYDAY FOR LEADING MY DOWN THAT PATH. IT IS A DIFFICULT CAREER,YOU DON'T FEEL APPRECIATED MOST OF THE TIME AND THE HOURS ARE HARD BUT A SOFT KISS ON THE CHEEK AND A THANK YOU HONEY FROM AN ELDERLY WOMAN THAT YOU WERE JUST BENDING OVER TO GIVE HER AN EXTRA BLANKET AND TURN A LIGHT ON IN CASE SHE GETS UP IN THE MIDDLE OF THE NIGHT TO GO TO THE BATHROOM MAKES IT ALL WORTH IT. SO SOMETIMES THE RIGHT REASON TO MAKE A DECISION ISEN'T ALWAYS RIGHT. BY THE WAY YOU REALLY HAVE A WAY WITH WORDS I'LL BET YOU ARE VERY POPULAR WITH PATIENTS BECAUSE SOMETIMES SAYING THE RIGHT THINGS IS ALL THAT MATTERS.

I'm 38 and starting over as a nurse.

I'm about to finish 20 years in the Air Force as a computer technician. I have a BS in computer science.

But, unfortunately, I've done just about everything there is to do in computers. The thrill is gone. I'm no longer learning vast amounts, I am learning small incremental amounts as I work daily to maintain the same old thing.

So I started over.

I don't have one reason why I want to be a nurse - I have just about ALL the reasons why I want to be a nurse. Therefore, I'm certain it's not just a midlife crisis for me.

Study the nursing career. If you keep finding more and more reasons why you want to be a nurse, then it's definately more than a midlife crisis.

Pel