That's the thing...
I only have 1 year of nursing classes until I get my ASN, which is solely actual nursing related classes, skills, and clinicals. (But I have been out of classes for half a year, so I feel like I have forgotten a lot too) So I feel like its a waste to not just toughen up and finish, with at least my ASN. The working 3 days a week was also a major plus. It will be great to have, but it's a lot of time and money to put in, when I might just hate it or get too overwhelmed with it all. The brain side of me says it's dumb not to finish.
I have worked in a Nursing Home doing clinicals when I was getting my CNA license. And I worked as a CNA making home visits and sitting with my teachers elderly mother. I loved it, but was to small to confidently move, assist, or lift most of the people in the Nursing home. I just didn't think I could do it efficiently enough to be left alone with a really dependent person. Low self confidence probably doesn't help that either.
But I have way more confidence in myself when it pertains to animals. Maybe that's why I keep considering something in another field, animals are the only thing I know I am capable of no matter what the job.
The vet assistant/vet tech route- I assisted with one surgery last week, a deer dog beagle that accidentally stumbled up on a wild hog. Tore the poor things chest to pieces and peirced straight to the lungs. But I absolutely loved getting to be that hands on and helping out. Only two minutes in, and I told her she has ruined the med field for me because I already fell in love with the vet work. But is it worth it to go into that if I will barely be making a living? I mean how much is it to live? When I don't even know what part of the country I will end up in.
I guess it's easier with an animal, an actual humans life is a much greater risk and that is the part that scared me about nursing. My pharmacology class for nursing was pretty much a whole semester learning how many ways there are to injure or kill someone on accident. I guess they do it meaning to scare you enough to quit, but let me tell you, it really did work on me.
The vet tech would be great to go towards a boarding/training kennel in the future. I am really hoping I can visit those sheepdog kennels for at least a few days, sometime soon. But that is something that will take a few years of working and saving before that's an option. And it will have to be after I decide where I want to live, because if I am taking the time to set up a kennel and facility, I will be there forever.
Your answers are there. I hear your passion about working in the vet field.
My daughter loved animals (which she got from rural raised me).
We did everything we could on our 1/3 acre to give her experience. We did Guide Dogs for the Blind (7 projects), chickens, and gardening.
She went to the local community college and got her degree as a Vet Tech (EXCELLENT program btw). She worked at a local clinic for about 5 years. She loved it, though it didn't pay a lot, it was enough for her needs.
More importantly, it gave her the skills for farming she uses every day. She met and married a young man who is an organic farmer, and they now are living the farm life.
She tends the animals while he focuses on the plants. Her knowledge of animal husbandry from Vet Tech school is invaluable. Her med knowledge also invaluable because, as a farming wife, living out in farm land, she can treat animals and her family as a first line of defense before going to (or being able to get to) a vet or a doctor. That saves a lot of money as well as helping to keep herd, flock and family healthier.
They have to work hard, and sometimes money is tight, but they absolutely love what they are doing and wouldn't do anything else.
Vet Tech is emerging and the pay is getting better. In my area, veterinarians have flooded the market, and it is hard to get a vet job. But a good Vet Tech is valued and needed.
You can get better pay at different facilities. Working at an emergency clinic will give you better pay as will working in a research facility. Being a vet tech doesn't mean working in an animal clinic or farm clinic. There are other areas too.
I say get your Vet Tech degree, then use those skills for a job to fund your farm, then use those skills to run your farm.
LofMc
Proud momma of a farmer, proud grandma of a farmer to be
