– By Ashley Letbetter, Senior –
Ashley’s future career path is not set since her summer externship has opened her mind to all the options she now has.
I have three more weeks left at MD Anderson and I am starting to feel like a real nurse! I’ve become more experienced and comfortable with my skills and I have gotten to know my co-workers very well. As much as I want to go back to Austin and begin my senior year, I can’t help but think of how much I am going to miss my job when it’s over!
This externship and being so close to graduation has made me think about the future more than ever. Once you are a senior in college, people start asking you questions about your future. This externship is starting to make people ask even more questions. “Are you going to work at MD Anderson?” “What is your specialty going to be?” “Do you know where you are going to live?” If people were to ask me these questions six months ago, I would have had all the answers. I had my whole life planned out and I thought I knew everything. However, I changed my mind, as young people often do, because I realized that’s not what I wanted for my future. So now, when people ask me what I want to do for the rest of my life, I am reminded of how much of a plan I don’t have.
I’ve talked to many other UT externs and they feel the same way. I would love to say that this externship has made me realize that I want to work at MD Anderson and be an oncology nurse, but to be honest; it has just confused me even more about my career path. It’s not that I don’t love my job, but I also enjoy too many other specialties in nursing and it’s hard to just choose one to start off with! I feel as if I have too many options. I am graduating from one of the top nursing schools. I have a job at one of the top cancer hospitals in the world. It’s not as if I feel unprepared from my education and experiences. I feel overwhelmed because I can go anywhere I want to!
Even though most of us are worrying because we feel as if we only have a year to make a major decision, I feel as if we shouldn’t be worrying at all. Of course, we still will (myself included), but there is nothing better than knowing that we’ve been provided with such a great education and career opportunities that we can go anywhere in the world. If you are still in school and have an opportunity to apply for an externship, go for it! Not only will it help you grow as a nurse, but it may also introduce you to a career option that you never considered before. But if you come out of an externship, or even nursing school, not knowing exactly what specialty you want to choose, nursing gives you the flexibility to explore and learn more, even after you graduate. So don’t stress too much over the future, whether you know what you want to do, or you don’t have a plan at all. Just enjoy the flexibility of nursing and being so young that we have nothing holding us back in deciding our career paths!