[lamazeteacher]

Wouldn't it be utopian, if everyone felt as you do, not just on occasional days, but all the time? Getting satisfaction from your work, makes it seem not like work.
We're here for each other, and I was lucky enough to have a hospital training, (in the long past world of "probie" skits, capping ceremonies, and 10 P.M. curfews), with a class of 18 bonded students who lived in "residence". We helped each other study, made sure we all got our work done, helping those who hadn't, and felt destined to be nurses.
I took my first airplane flight in 1955, admired the "stewardess", and when I found out you had to be a Nurse in preparation for that job, my mind was made up!
It was a rude shock to find that every Nurse wasn't as dedicated and felt as privileged as I did, but I've never felt it was a bad decision, and of course I never worked for an airline, but on crowded flights, I've helped clear the trays (also a thing of the past, except on first class at a $1,000./meal).
I don't know any other profession that has so many different avenues in which to work. I've been a clinic, ER, Maternity/L&D, Home Health, In-Service (now clinical education), QA/QI, Infection Control, Employee Health Nurse, and a Director of Nursing. Each opportunity gave me so much, I've often said I feel like I should be paying my employer for the happiness I get (well, not really....). The more tired I've been the more I felt I accomplished.

[lamazeteacher]

O.R. Nursing is not a way to get satisfaction, other than relief that the "counts" come out right. You'd need to be pathologically OCD to do that your whole professional life!
I've never worked anywhere that produced less individual support, or more criticism. The competition for "best", is unreasonable. Thank goodness someone dreamed up O.R. "techs". Now we have robots in there........ (like we didn't before...........).
There is a whole world of more satisfying work in Nursing. I've been a Nurse for 47 years, and know I couldn't have done anything else that would make me happier, but I do like to work with conscious patients.

[finallyiamanurse]

Well I became a CNA so that I could have insurance through an employer for me and my son as I was in college at the time not to necessarily become a nurse. Fast forward 3 years I meet my best friend she says " go to nursing school with me!" Like a fool I say "OK" 3more years and we're graduating nursing school. Believe it or not we're still best friends sometimes I wonder if i should hate her?

[MagnoliaBee]

As much as I would like to say it was the journal my great grandmother made from letters she has send home from Europe when she was a world war 1 nurse its not, though sometimes I'd like to think the reason I'm where I am is maybe because there was a little nurse in my blood to begin with. The truth of the fact is I had no idea what I wanted to be when I grew up. I didn't know what to go to school for actually. My mom being the practical woman that she is, convinced me to go to school for business saying it was a waste of money to take classes for the "undeclared" because what if I never figured out what I wanted to become? At least this way by the end of 2 years I wouldn't just have a pile of classes that didn't add up to anything but a business degree! So off to college I went and met my best friend who turned out to be my roommate. She was always kinda sickly. Upset stomach, dizzy, she would throw up. I think she was just nervous about being all that way away from home but who knows. Anyways, I had come home from class one day only to find blood on our bathroom floor and my good friend with a bloodied towel around her face! She has run to the bathroom to make friend with the toilet again and passed out, cracking her chin wide open. A quick trip to the busy campus health center and a diagnosis of stitches was all it took to freak her right out. She asked me to go in with her because she was nervous. Though I didn't really do anything medical for my friend I was there to help calm her down, hold her hand, wipe her face and hold her hair when she puked just like any good friend would do but that Dr. must have thought it was nurse quality because he asked me what I was going to school for, I told him business, and he said "well, its too bad, because you would make a great nurse."

[defeatedcreek]

I watched my mother leave the factory life at age 30 to be a nurse. We lived on my father's income for nearly two years while she finished her RN in 1991. Since then she has gone on for her BSN and now Nurse Practitioner. My father's brother was a wilderness paramedic for several years although in recent years he has stepped back in raising my cousins.

How does this relate to my story? I knew that I wanted to do something great with my life. I tried to crack it in the academic world as a historian, graduating from the university when I was 20. Life was rather empty, although history is still a tremendous passion of mine. I spent a year back home languishing in box-store retail until I finally decided to join the enlisted ranks of the Navy as a hospital corpsman. I'm now stationed in Guam and absorbing vast pre-nursing experience. IVs are still difficult for me oddly enough but I stack that against everything else I do well: phlebotomy, lab interpretation, field medical tactics, handling codes, medications, etc.

The military can be full of day-to-day nonsense and extra duties, but it has given my life purpose it did not have before. In the next year it will be decided whether or not I will be stationed in Kuwait handling injured combatants or on a humanitarian ship in the Pacific. Then I will return to the islands again. You see so many jaded nurses and corpsmen in the Navy, but it has yet to feel like "a job" to me. In 2009 I will be returning to the US full time and I bring medical experiences that can only be found living in a remote area as this.

This is wordy but I think it describes why I became a corpsman. I was looking for purpose in life. I think now I've found it.

[Diahni]

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 became a nurse because of allnurses.com!!! Yes, I went to nursing school, and I hated it with a passion. The studying was interesting. I liked my patients very much. But the teachers were from the middle ages, nor were they very good. Many believed it is possible to teach by humiliation and intimidation. As a "grownup," it was intolerable. I received much support from my epals at allnurses.com, and discovered Excelsior College. I'm almost done with my RN, but did take my NCLECX-Pn with much support from the "Nov test takers" list, which is still alive. It baffles me - the students in my "real time" school were not only not supportive of each other, they would complain if someone had the least "advantage" - such as when a fellow student had to take an exam late because of illness.
My first inspiration to become a nurse was first my sister, who has been a cardiac nurse for a long time and loves her job. I have mostly been a journalist, and wanted to do something different. Though we all have to be "people people" to be a nurse, there's something else that appeals to me greatly: On one hand, it is a "real" job - it cannot be outsourced to a foreign country, nor will it ever become obsolete. Another thing that appeals to me is that one must learn and change constantly to keep up with medical changes. But unlike most "real" jobs, it is very flexible. I remember reading about RV retirees living a nomadic life in the US - the wife, a nurse, said she could pick up work wherever they went. This is so cool!
From my perspective, the only down side is grouchy families and psycho co-workers. Thankfully, this aspect doesn't exist everywhere.
Diahni

[nurse2b2010]

can being a pre-nursing student count? I worked for JERK ATTORNEYS . . . thought I would try doctors! LOL. No really, hope my nursing career is everything I envision.

[strong_willed]

I originally went in for the money, but found out that I LOVE this job, money is just icing on the cake for something I love to do anyway

[Love2benurse80]

well....where do I begin. I want to become a nurse to rejoice with others and their families when a baby is born, I want to be there when some one is sobbing do to the loss of another...right to the point?? I want to BE there for others in need, let it be happiness or sadness, I want to be a support system either way
For me the money is just a bonus, but helping someone and supporting them is the prise. Iam a very very compassionate person, and sometimes I just feel as if Iam misunderstood.
I feel that nursing will help me put that compassionate energy to some good use!
Iam a goofy, and lighthearted person, and Nursing IS right for me, I feel it in my heart, I feel it in my bones

[Mariah1952]

When I was very little, 2-3 years old. I had to be hospitalized in a specialty hospital that was an eight hour drive from home. My parents left me there alone. I felt that they would not come back and I was very frightened. The nurses were all very special, brushed and put bows in my hair and made sure I had what I wanted to eat, just made me feel cared for. It had a big impact on a little girl who was feeling lost and abandoned. I will never forget them.