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MissDeBudlieAy · May 6, 2011, 08:20 AM

I'm just about finished my first year in college doing psychiatric nursing. To be honest I'm not entirely sure if I even want to do nursing but in a sense I do. I've got depression and I find it very difficult to concentrate and study and I barely passed the first semester exams and I am struggling with these ones that are coming up. My dad would be furious if I did drop out but I don't know what to do

southamerica · May 6, 2011, 08:38 AM

Is this your first year in college, period? If so, were you taking general electives?

I ask because if you're unsure of what you want to do with your life, you can drop out, yes. BUT, what I did is I switched from my major to Liberal Arts. Then after my general electives I realized that I wanted to do and switched to THAT major. If you think you want to do something in nursing but not sure what, maybe just do a general Sciences major for now and then explore different electives and talk to advisors about what you want to do.

You want to keep the ball rolling if your intention is to have a college degree. Even if it's one class a semester exploring your interests. Or maybe getting an unqualified job at a hospital, seeing what piques your fancy (e.g. working in the kitchen, getting a CNA certificate, turning over rooms).

Either way-if you feel like you're pouring your energy into a field that you're not passionate about, don't keep going. But don't give up school altogether because of a rough semester. I failed 2/3 of my classes one semester and didn't come back to school for three semesters after that. It stretched my 4 year degree into 6 years.

Good luck.

kellymarie8424 · Jun 22, 2011, 03:38 PM

I really feel for you. I studied Accountancy for 2 years doing really well but decided that it just wasn't for me. I didn't want to give it up out of fear of dissapointing my family but looking back now I can see that was the wrong reason to carry it on so long...
I think you should try to sit down with your Dad and explain to him how you feel, he might surprise you! Also with depression it might be worth speaking to your Doctor.

Also you said that it was psychiatric nursing, perhaps explore other avenues of nursing as if you did a more generic course you can specialise at a later stage.

Hope that you manage to make your mind up soon! Just rememeber, not finishing the course is not the end of the world, I'm now a nearly qualified Social Worker with 2 degrees :-)

Synnen · Jun 22, 2011, 04:10 PM

Go see your university counseling services and/or your academic advisor.

Do NOT make any decisions right now.

Your college/university is very probably set up to help students like you, and can help you get a support system in place not only to help you with school, but to help you with your mental and emotional struggles.

They can't help you if you don't reach out to them, though. Make an appointment as soon as possible to talk to them so that they can let you know ALL of your options, and get you in touch with resources you probably didn't even know you had access to.