I find myself in a similar situation.  My children are 11 and 4, I am going to begin prereq.s this winter.  I think the best thing to do might be to go in and speak to an advisor about meeting with/shadowing people in the fields you are interested in.  I think personally, I will opt for Nursing because I want to have that flexability to change positions as my life or interests demand.  Best wishes!

Many OR techs after awhile continue their education and go for their nursing degree.  OR techs make pretty good money.  However, you have to understand, most places require you to be on call, which is being available during the week and on weekends to do cases and being called in to do those cases, so technically you aren't off and free.

The OR is such a highly specialized field, but you can still work other areas, if you wish to do so, but no one can float to the OR because of it's speciality.  Unless of course they have currect OR experience.

smoxignal says ...

One of my friends went to a Community College and got her OR tech cert.  Then once working she used the tuition reimbursement to go back to the same school to get her RN and she circulated.  One thing to remember:  You have to be a very early morning person. She would frequently have to be in by 5am.  Ask the advisor.

I loved the OR on my clinicals, but was very disturbed by some of the surgeons' behavior.  I saw an anesthesiologist, slap a kid's hand and call him call him a "little bastard"  when he couldn't get a line in his chubby little hand ( he was already out) , and I've heard really nasty jokes about the patients on the table.  I had a real problem with that.  Hopefully that was unique to that one hospital.

Anyone else seen this?

Used to see this behavior, but rarely anymore.  Nurses are speaking up and reporting this behavior and admin is stepping up to the plate and doing something about it.

Be a RN. I would not want to be locked into one arena and nursing has so many different things you can do. If I still had to do what I thought I wanted to do 20 years ago, I would be in big trouble. I have found a world of different oppurtunities in nursing, and thank GOD. Plus if you love surgery you can do that as a RN get paid more to do it.

smoxignal says ...

One of my friends went to a Community College and got her OR tech cert.  Then once working she used the tuition reimbursement to go back to the same school to get her RN and she circulated.  One thing to remember:  You have to be a very early morning person. She would frequently have to be in by 5am.  Ask the advisor.

I loved the OR on my clinicals, but was very disturbed by some of the surgeons' behavior.  I saw an anesthesiologist, slap a kid's hand and call him call him a "little bastard"  when he couldn't get a line in his chubby little hand ( he was already out) , and I've heard really nasty jokes about the patients on the table.  I had a real problem with that.  Hopefully that was unique to that one hospital.

Anyone else seen this?

 

I have heard stories but when I did my OR rotations everyone including the docs were really nice.  They even made a spot at the head of the bed for me to see and the one resident doc even took the time to explain to me what he was doing.  Even though I do not want to go into the OR now I never considered it before and once I get tired to bedside care with awake patients I would consider this. 

But to answer the question I would go for my RN because they can scrub in too and there are so many more options if you want a change of pace.

i was in the same boat ur in, i didnt know if i wanted surg tech or nursing so i chose nursing because you get paid a little more than a surg tech and u can be your own boss so to speak. my friend who is an rn made close to 80grand one year doing ovrtime! whereas you dont hear alot about surg techs doing o t. unless you like working in a confined space for 8 hrs listening to a surgeon who makes 3 or 4 times more money than you bark orders! nah! you should do the nursing program.   good luck!