this is a career that i am interested in pursuing but i want 2 make sure that i am making the right decision before i dedicate my remaining yrs in college to it. Im in da process of getting a bachelors.

here are the questions, and its completely anonymous so its OK :)

1. DEMOGRAPHICS-

Gender; age; Ethnicity; how long u been a nurse; what educational preparation you have; any specialty certifications?

2. What type of setting do you practice in? have you practiced in any other setting? if so, which setting has been your favorite and why?

3. Why did you become a nurse?

4. What do u believe are the advantages of becoming a nurse?

5. What do you believe are the disadvantages of nursing?

6. How has nursing changed since you became a nurse?

7. What are your professional goals for the next 5 years?

8. What are the most important issues in the nursing profession right now?

9. Describe an incident in your career that made you question your decision to be a nurse?

10. Describe an incident in your career that gave you the most professional and or personal gratification.

im sorry its so long, but i know (at least for me) it feels nice to reflect on life with someone, so maybe this will be a self-relieving thing for someone .

More than one nurse is welcome to answer on any or all views.

THANK YOU SO MUCH :) FOR THOSE WHO DID, UR ANSWERS R APPRECIATED.

this is a career that i am interested in pursuing but i want 2 make sure that i am making the right decision before i dedicate my remaining yrs in college to it. im in da process of getting a bachelors.

here are the questions, and its completely anonymous so its ok :)

1. demographics-

gender; age; ethnicity; how long u been a nurse; what educational preparation you have; any specialty certifications? female; 50+; white non-hispanic; since 1975; diploma 1975, bsn 1996, fnp ongoing; acls, pals, ccnc/8a (army critical care course)

2. what type of setting do you practice in? have you practiced in any other setting? if so, which setting has been your favorite and why? critical care/intensive care; spent several years in hospice/palliative care. have worked telemetry/icu step-down. favorite setting: intensive care ...why? dunno i guess the challenge of managing critically ill patients, the collaborative care envirnonment...

3. why did you become a nurse? just something i had always knew i would "be" since i was a wee little girl. well, actually i always wanted to be a cowboy (but the gender issue) and then i was thinking about becoming a truck driver...but this was when i was about 5 years old (smile)

4. what do u believe are the advantages of becoming a nurse? never thought about that. advantages...have been exposed to so many different cultures, have learned so much (about myself)

5. what do you believe are the disadvantages of nursing? sometimes never really getting a chance to "know" the person who is so critically ill and dying; seeing people at their worst (health-wise); continued misconceptions of what the art and science of nursing is really about ( and no, not just pushing pills and cleaning bedpans) especially how the profession is portrayed in the media (television, for example)

6. how has nursing changed since you became a nurse? back in the day nothing was disposable, from the gloves to the endotracheal tubes; saw arterial lines and swan ganz catheters being used for the very first time (mid-70's) ct scans were not routinely used as a diagnostic tool; no one really worried about universal precautions; hospitals er's could - and did - refuse treatment; the only private or semi-private rooms were usually reserved for the "rich and famous" everyone else were either in the wards or 4 bed-ed rooms; dumbwaiters were routinely used to transport everything from food trays to specimens; female nurses wore caps and scrubs were only worn in the or and recovery room; most hospitals had windows in the patient's rooms that you could open for some fresh air (no a/c back in the day and boy could it get hot and humid during those summer months in nyc); my salary as a new, graduate nurse was $13,000/year and boy did i feel rich!; the most common drugs found in the "code cart" were: dopamine, dobutamine, leveophed, epinephrine, lidocaine, calcium chloride/glucamate, 50% dextrose, atropine, isuprel. no beta-blockers, no ace inhibitors, no calcium channel blockers. for someone in chf we would either do a "wet phlebotomy" or a "dry phlebotomy": wet was to "take off" about 250ml of blood. insert an angiocath and hook it up to an empty blood bag. dry was applying rotating tourniquets. then lasix and morphine came into fashion so the wet phlebotomy soon became a thing of the past, but we still used the rotating tourniquets in addition to the morphine and lasix; used the two and three bottle system of chest tubes (no pleurovacs)...i could go on and on.....

7. what are your professional goals for the next 5 years? hopefully get promoted to major and pcs back to the east coast; finally obtain my fnp

8. what are the most important issues in the nursing profession right now? what i think for the civilian side of nursing: safe nurse/patient ratio's, making the bsn entry level, more respect from nursing administration

9. describe an incident in your career that made you question your decision to be a nurse? never had one

10. describe an incident in your career that gave you the most professional and or personal gratification. every time a patient or a family member says "thank you" and asked me if i would be their nurse again