HELP very indecisive about my uni course

A few years ago I left my Pharmacy course for Nursing and recently I've felt like I have been regretting this decision. I took this decision as at the time I wanted to be more clinical, to be more involved with patient care, have more patient interaction and look at the medical side of things, with the possibility of it leading to a nurse practitioner (and prescribing).
My main interest lies within anatomy and physiology as well as looking at drugs, I am so interested in medicines and the pharmacology linked to them, I love learning about pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics. It's safe to say since starting nursing I have done none of that and I am majorly unhappy with the lack of academic work, (although I would like to do a MSc in something more clinical or even attempt to transfer to medicine) so I have been thinking have I made a big mistake?
I am very indecisive HELPPPP (all advice appreciated)I have often thought maybe swapping courses to paramedic but I am in second year of nursing and I think that a reason I have been more confused lately is because I didn't enjoy my main placement. I think nursing has a lot of great options and a varieties of specialities, however, I HATED working on the wards, other places i've been seem to interest me, district nursing, A&E, doctors surgeries, walk in centres and other urgent care departments. I have even been out with paramedics and loved it, just the thought of having to work on a ward makes me want to quit and leave and never look back. I also hear lots of other student nurses saying how much they love it but I just don't feel this way, not when I'm doing ward work anyway.

I am quite academic and I am interested in things like pathology and pathophysiology, looking at the study of disease, diagnosis and about how drugs work etc. I think that looking at things like cancer cells and endocrine diseases as well as the mechanism of hormones/neurotransmitters is fascinating. I also enjoy neurology and neurosciences. I've never really known if I'd like to work in a lab but nothing can be as bad as constant ward work.
SORRY FOR THIS ESSAY i just require a lot of advice as my brain is scrambled.

It sounds like you like a lot of things. However, our time studying is very limited and if I wanted to study every subject I was interested in, then... I don't know. My point is, you have to know what you want and what kind of career you want to go into, especially something with medicine as that's a big field.

If you hated working on wards, then that doesn't mean you'll end up in wards after you graduate right? So I don't see the problem in just graduating with your current degree course, especially if you're in your 2nd year. I take it that means you only have one year left?

I don't know if you would be allowed to change back to a Pharmacology degree and still have enough funding left. I mean, you might be able to. I think you'd have about 2 years left. If you completed your 1st year, then in theory, you can go back to the same or different uni to go into 2nd year. I think it'd be a waste of of your nursing.

You could possibly go into a MSc. But most unis wish their applicants to have a related science degree such as Biochemistry, Medicine, Chemical Engineering, Biomedical Sciences, Physiology, etc. Unfortunately some of the unis I looked at didn't say Nursing, but you never know to be honest.

If you're looking for patient care or specially, just human interaction is usually doctors, nurses or anyone who has "clinical" in front of their subject; i.e clinical psychologist, etc. I don't think any of what you said has anything to do with patient care like a pharmacist or neurology. They're all lab and field work really. Nothing to do with patient care.

What kind of nursing are you training in? My mum's a psychiatric nurse and she also hated wards and night-shifts. She said she saw some horrendous things in psych wards. She's a district one now. She can't prescribe drugs (the only nurse allowed to do that are nurses that specialise in Sexual Health and Disease). Only doctors are allowed to prescribe drugs; doctors of medicine or doctors of psychiatry are only the ones. Whilst nurses can prescribe controlled drugs. So I believe.

But all-in-all, what are you even asking? What advice to you need?

Personally, I'd stick it out (if and only if, you get to be a registered nurse). Then you can save up and do a MSc. Failing that, there's loads of people who do different degrees when they're older. I knew a guy who was 49 and he had been a nurse since his 20s and only just decided to go back to uni to study law cause he always wanted to be a lawyer. Of course, don't wait that long imo, but I say don't ruin all the hard work you did in your nursing degree. It sounds like you already have loads of fleeting ideas... Go finish the nursing, shop around a bit within 10-15 years and if it's still not what you wanna do, change or go back to uni!

Hey thank you for your reply, it was very helpful. Yeah i'm hoping to be able to avoid ward work, although many nurses seem to have had to work on a ward for a few years before being promoted or going on to higher roles. I'm really hoping this isn't the case, I wouldn't mind maybe working in A&E or something for a bit but really really don't want to work on the wards, I would hate going to work and become in a low mood like i have been on placement.

Don't get me wrong I have enjoyed other placements, so just need to avoid wards, I always think about if I could some how go on to a medicine type course once I've finished or maybe a clinical MSc. My sister is a nurse practitioner at an urgent care centre and she can fully prescribe like a doctor, so I'm hoping I will be able to eventually.

Yeah maybe funding would be a problem, my concern is that (and no offence to nursing because I know how important they are and how hard they work) but I feel like it isn't really an academic subject, which I am better at. I am also quite worried incase I miss out on what I'm really meant to do, but hopefully this is it and this is just worry and doubt. But I really like learning about medicines and pharmacology, I also sometimes think about things like Biomedical sciences etc, I dunno if I would prefer to work in a lab some days I think YES and others I think I much prefer patient interaction. I'm just very confused about my "calling" in life. I know it's obviously something in the science field, but I constantly ask myself Biomed? Pharmacy? Pharmacology? Pathology? Paramedic work? Doctor? Or Nurse?

Thanks for your help

You are very welcome.

Maybe it was just that one ward that put you off perhaps? It's kind of the same for student-teachers. Often experience their first training school as horrendous and often start to doubt their teaching ability or the profession. It maybe that, or you just don't like wards. Either way, you might be dissatisfied with ward if you were in another one.

Can I ask what kind of nursing you're specializing in?

Nursing is a vocational subject at uni; it's not an academic subject so that's why.

I think you sound like you want the best of both worlds which isn't impossible, but maybe a little bit impractical now. I mean, I'm like you in terms of teaching I'd aspire to be middle management where I focus on classroom teaching and then subject/teaching development.

Maybe your lab/patient ratio might work in your favour once you move up in the career ladder maybe? However, I do think maybe doing a MSc in a clinical science might be best cause they both work in labs/research and then work with patients like a clinical psychologist.

It sounds like you have a lot of thinking to do! If you're still like really unsure, if you have the opportunity, defer for a year and do some voluntary work within different hospital departments or something to see which medical field you'd like to work in.

Good luck!