[camay1221_RN]

Originally Posted by brian

Everyone has his or her own story about how or why they became a nurse. What's your story?

Please be as detailed or as short as you wish. It'll be interesting to hear everyone's stories.

I saw an advertisement on the side of a city bus that said,

"Get your RN in 2.75 years."

I don't know why it appealed to me, but it did, so I wrote down the phone number of the school and the rest is history.

Oh, and by the way, it took me five years, but I was working full time and going to school part-time for my pre-requisites.

[jalene]

Hi Just Wanted To Say That Being A Nurse Is Great. But I Find That In My Small Town You Can't Go Anywhere That People Aren't Asking About This And That. Everyday People Call Me For Advice. I Still Direct Them to Their Mds.
But Help When I Can . I Have Even Been Called To Help In My Church To Go Around To Peoples Homes That Are Having Problems... But I Guess I Asked For That By Becoming One.......being a nurse has also shown up in my children, both my twin girls are in a c.n.a program and going on to greater things...

[dotty865]

My oldest sister was in nursing school when she passed away . I was 6 years old and from that time on I told my parents that I wanted to be a nurse. That I wanted to be like my sister Diane.
During my nursing schooling I was the same age of my sister when she died. Needless to say my mom worried alot about me during that year . That was 20 years ago, and I love what I'm doing .

[dinkymouse]

I had always been the one in my family to have to deal with our cuts and bruises. I didn't mind the blood and things and everyone else either fainted or puked. It wasn't a dream of mine to be a nurse. I had been accepted at an university in their journalism program. OOOPs! Got pregnant and worked as a waitress for another 9 years. My brother's girlfriend got pregnant and she is mentalily challenged. I went with her to her first appointment and the doctor was using words like intercourse, vagina and penis. She had no clue what he was talking about so I explained it was when my brother put his "thing" inside her. She knew exactly what I was talking about and answered him. He looked at me and asked if I was a nurse. I told him no and that is when he said, "Well you should be one." I graduated with an ADN when I was 30. I loved nursing. I worked 4 years before I mentally lost it from childhood abuse etc.... During my recovery I was adament that I would not go back to nursing. Too much stress!. Well after 11 years of "living off others taxes" I have reactivated my license and am going through a vocational rehab program and I will start applying at places in a week or so. I got to the point that I remembered how being a nurse made me feel and how patients and family told me what a good nurse I was. I enjoyed all the aspects of nursing but especially working with dementia patients. I was always given the worst patients because I was the only one who could get them to cooperate.

[RainbowSkye]

My mom brought home a box of Cherry Ames books she bought at a garage sale when I was nine or so. I read them all, and decided then and there I wanted to go to a diploma nursing school and be a nurse.

At 15 I became a Red Cross volunteer (complete with blue striped dress and cap), at 17 I became a nurses' aid in a nursing home and at 18 I went off to nursing school.

And more than 30 years later I'm still a nurse....

[rogramjet]

Originally Posted by dinkymouse

I had always been the one in my family to have to deal with our cuts and bruises. I didn't mind the blood and things and everyone else either fainted or puked. It wasn't a dream of mine to be a nurse. I had been accepted at an university in their journalism program. OOOPs! Got pregnant and worked as a waitress for another 9 years. My brother's girlfriend got pregnant and she is mentalily challenged. I went with her to her first appointment and the doctor was using words like intercourse, vagina and penis. She had no clue what he was talking about so I explained it was when my brother put his "thing" inside her. She knew exactly what I was talking about and answered him. He looked at me and asked if I was a nurse. I told him no and that is when he said, "Well you should be one." I graduated with an ADN when I was 30. I loved nursing. I worked 4 years before I mentally lost it from childhood abuse etc.... During my recovery I was adament that I would not go back to nursing. Too much stress!. Well after 11 years of "living off others taxes" I have reactivated my license and am going through a vocational rehab program and I will start applying at places in a week or so. I got to the point that I remembered how being a nurse made me feel and how patients and family told me what a good nurse I was. I enjoyed all the aspects of nursing but especially working with dementia patients. I was always given the worst patients because I was the only one who could get them to cooperate.

Welcome back to the world of nursing. That is great.

[BSN2004]

Originally Posted by Bekahlynn

I didn't dream of becoming a nurse growing up. I was originally a nuclear medicine major. My older sister became ill with leukemia, and fought an amazing fight. She was the strongest, bravest person I will ever know. She always said that when she recovered, she was going to go back to school to be a nurse. It will be four years next month since she passed away. She was only 30. The care from that she received from her nurses was nothing short of extraordinary. When I returned to school that fall, I switched majors, and just graduated with my BSN last weekend. I am 24 years old, and so glad that switched so young, because I know that I am going to love doing this for the rest of my life.

Originally Posted by Bekahlynn

Bekahlynn

That message just made me tear- and that is why I became a RN, to help and heal. My Best friend had a hard life and was pregnant at 18, my first hospital experience helping her give birth and her nurse was a b@^$h, I went to college a month later starting my pre-req's determined to improve hospital visits. Now being in Neuro and watching a pt go from unresponsive to walking out the door hugging and thanking you- no matter how long it takes- makes every ass-wiping day worth it.

[asher315]

After the night I just had, I'm not sure why I became a nurse? I might have been abducted and turned into one, too!

Seriously, last night was one of those nights, when you feel like everything but a nurse...secretary, stockboy, housekeeper, computer genuis, detective (where is that report?) and mother hen.

Back to the question: Why a nurse? I honestly don't know where it began but I was always the first aid and soothing family member. My mother wanted me to be a nurse. I thought "no way". But after 2 years in college with no real major, I decided on PT (too hard to get into), maybe OT (nah, not all that interesting to me). Then I tried nursing. I believe God must have really wanted me to be a nurse because He pulled me through my clinicals and classes (we're talking real miracle here!). I've threatened to leave many times but I really can't see me as anything else.

By the way, the first time my mother ever saw me "nursing", she was a pt on my floor (not my pt) and I was making rounds...emptying pt's trash cans. Some things never change!!!

[bsugaRN2b]

What an interesting thread!

I'm a 19 y/o nursing student, and it's interesting, actually - I never really intended to go into anything medically related, even though I was always the one handing out medicine, dishing out the bandaids, and now that I'm in college, friends knock on my door asking what medicine they should take, and I'm like, "Guys, I'm not an RN quite yet, you're a few years early!!!" Ah well, no one's gotten sick from my Advil recommendations, so that's got to be a good sign, right? (when I was little, I always thought that I'd be majoring in violin performance at some elite music school somewhere...boy, was I wrong!!). The thing that made the difference was that I was also diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes at the age of 6, at a blood glucose way past 800 - definitely not the best of times. At the time, I was like, "I want absolutely nothing to do with this at all,", and the nurses would be like, "You need to be doing this, this, and...yadda, yadda, yadda," and I'm like, "Right, that's nice, lucky you, you don't have to do all this crap..." Such a bitter child I was, eh?

Then, I was in a bad car accident when I was 8 (drunk driver), so then, of course, it was all the nurses who kept me going through the surgery and the physical therapy afterwards for a dislocated hip, not to mention taking care of the rest of my family...

(And back to the diabetes team...) As the years went by, I guess it's more than safe to say that the diabetes team grew on me, lol! Although I didn't realize it at the time, I was interested in the whole "planning" process of diabetes, like putting the insulin together with what blood glucose, what time for what type of insulin, and all that...I'd always make suggestions to the doctor about what dose she should give me (this is like, when I was 9 or 10), and she'd look at me, look at the logbook, and then look at me like, "Why do I feel like I'm talking to another endocrinologist, and I don't see anybody else with a white coat in here...she's reading my mind, I swear!!" One of the diabetes educators on the team...well, I have to laugh because when I was 8, I definitely didn't appreciate the fact that she would tell you the flat-out truth even when you don't really want to hear it ("Your A1C is 10.0%...yeah, this kinda sucks, what happened?"), but can also give words of encouragement to get you back on track - now, it's one of the things that at 19 I most appreciate about her. My doctor eventually switched me to an NP that she had just hired to help her out on the team, which I was pretty upset about, but to make matters worse (or so I thought at the time), she says, "The new NP has diabetes as well, so I think you will get along really well!" And I'm like, "OMG, she is going to be the most strict, uptight person in the world, and I am going to be so freaking screwed..." Turns out, the new NP happens to be one of the coolest people I've met in my lifetime - who also manages to tell me everything I'd somehow missed in the first 8 years that I had diabetes, like "This isn't your fault," "You aren't a bad person because your BG was 491, it just means the PLAN is out of whack," and "You're normal, and yes, you can be cool and have diabetes...think, be like your cool NP and everything will be just fine!" Needless to say, the first adult T1 diabetic I ever met left quite the lifelong impression on me.

So why do I want to become a nurse? Because I want to help other kids with diabetes like myself. In a way, I just wanted to return the gift that I got from my diabetes team of just being there for me, when I never really expected them to put up with me for a good 13 years. No, I have to admit, I'm not in it for the rush that one gets after saving a person's life in the ER (been in the ER as a patient, done that, never want to go back again, although obviously I'd do it if I had to - see above explanation about car wreck), but as to make people feel like their life is worth living because they think they stand a chance, and to know that as someone living with diabetes, the experiences and knowledge that I have might be able to help someone live a happier life - THAT is what I'm in it for.

Whew! Sorry so long, guess I needed to get that out!!

[jhawk07]

Originally Posted by ryanfocker

i saw "meet the parents" and just knew i had to be a male nurse.

actually, i always wanted to save the world, involved in green politics, the union movement and such. and realized the only way to help people was to get hands on.

9-11 played a big role too, i wanted so bad to help but realized i had no skill to help. i realized my psychology degree would not enough. now with the asian tsunami i am convinced that i must do nursing and help when another catastrophe occurs.

my ultimate goals are to get into doctors without borders and really get my hands dirty and get my heart pumping, i figure to save the world around 2043 or so, if it all goes according to plan......which it won't.

Have you thought about joining the Navy? I read this thing in Parade magazine about the Navy Medical Ship going to help out with the tsunami and other places in the region that needed help. My fiance is in the Navy (engineer though) and I might still do it too someday. I think it would be a perfect fit for you. If you get your BSN you would be an officer and everything. They also pay really well. Look into it!