[aleyamma]

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.

ONE OF MY AUNTS WAS A NURSE AND MY TWO SISTERS ARE NURSES TOO. WHEN I WAS A LITTLE GIRL I WAS FASCINATED BY THEIR STORIES AS A NURSE.I WAS ATTRACTED BY THEIR DRESS WITH WHITE FROCK AND THE CAP.

[fero]

In my country there is an unfair exam that all the high school students have to take in order to attend university. after taking this ridiculus exam, students have to make about 24 preferences ( which universities they want to go) according to what they want to be. I did all these procedures and I found myself in a nursing school. but I always wanted to be a teacher of chemistry. Now I am in the USA.

[Sue7573]

When I was 5 or 6 I remember the day my Aunt Pat found out she had become a nurse. I remember standing in the living room and watching my aunt rub ointment on her oldest of 6 kids shoulders (he had just got home from boot camp so my aunt had to have been around 30) My dad said to her Pat I think this would be your first act as a nurse. Then he hugs her and whispers to her I am so proud of you. Of course at the time I didn't know what kind of impact that would have on me. A few years later I guess I was around 9 years old, Mrs. Janey that lived next door to my grandmother had just lost her husband and had a stroke in the same month. I don't know what/or if the family done anything for her. I never saw them there. I would be out playing with my cousins in the yard and I would here SUUUUUUEEEEEEEE and i would come running. SHe would want a sandwhich or chocolate milk sometimes I would have to run to the store for her, and a couple of times I emptied her bedban. I don't believe my mom realized how much I was doing for her because later in life when we would talk about Mrs. Janey mom said she would not have let me do "that" much for her that she would have rather done that.

Anyway, in the neighborhood I would visit all the elderly people and talk to them. At 10 I could sit with retired school teachers and salesmen for hours. I loved talking to older people. We moved away from that town and mom got a job at a local nursing home. I was 13 I would come to that nursing home and help feed the residents and take them to activities. As soon as I turned 16 I got hired there and Loved it I would have worked there for free. (practically was started at 3.45/hr). I worked all during high school and for a while after that. Then I got into it with a nurse and put in my notice I wanted to try other things. In the mean time I didn't graduate HS I lacked 1 history credit. SO I fumbled around for years I worked in restuarants and convience stores I liked doing those jobs but my heart wasn't in it. After I married and had my first child I went back to my old nursing home. And a year later (from fighting with nurses) I quit again. A couple of years later I went back to same ole nursing home and again quit (it was the nurses again) For some reason I couldn't get along with them. I vowed I would never be a nurse until I moved to another state and went to work in a wonderful, wonderful nursing home. The nurses were so different. Like for one thing one of the nurses came to me and said that so and so was trying to get up. Now as accustomed to nurses as I was I said "fine I will go get her, thanks for your help" the nurse floored me with her next statement she said finish what you are doing I got her up she is in the DR. OMG I was shocked where did that nurse come from. Turns out all the nurses were like that. Meantime my son started school kindergarten and he was so excited. They started talking about college early on, before his first report card came he asked me how come I didn't go to college. I didn't really know what to say to him. I didn't have a high school diploma and didn't know how to go about getting GED. So when he got his first report card on the back cover was an advertisement for a local school that was have GED classes. I went and after the first day the instructor asked me how come I was wasting my time in the classes. She signed my 32 hours of class work off and sent me to take my GED the next week. I made a 96 over all. History was my best score. I applied the day of my test for The LPN program and got the paper work to do my financial aid. My husband and I were fighting at the time and some kind of miracle happened while I was at work, somehow all of my tax papers got put in the dump. (To this day I can't figure out how the one bag of trash was taken to the dump while the rest of the garbage sat there till I took it out, any way that is another issue) So I moved back to my home state and another 2 years passed. I went back to my old nursing home and this time with the attitude of just do my job and go home. Things happened pretty fast after that. My sister in Law and I went one day to the community college to apply for school. (we were using that as an excuse to get out of the house). Anyway we both started in Aug. I got alot of my pre req out of the way and start the ADN program this Aug. My immediate plans are to become a nurse like my aunt, loving and caring and humorus. Eventually I would love to be the DON of my own Long term care facility. (maybe even the one I work at now). I don't want to get my first experiances as a nurse in my LTC. I saw a thread in about cna's and fellow coworkers will forgive anything but some one that comes up from the ranks to become a boss ( I figured she knows which LTC I work at). So I am looking into commuting maybe to Nashville or Memphis on those weekend warriors things.

Sorry so long. Believe me there is a lot I took out and a lot more I wanted to put in here but I am very tired and bless your heart for being able to sit thru this ramble.

Sue

[nursemary9]

HiMine is also kind of a long story.
I grew up in the 50's & early 60's. My younger sister had always wanted to be a nurse, just like our older cousin. I think that Dolores graduated nursing school in 1950. I NEVER wanted to be a nurse. As I was in high school, I took all the right classes to go to college. As time marched by, I decided I wanted to be a mechanical engineer.

My Dad and my school councilers all said to be---"But Mary, women don;t become engineers". Well, at that time, women were either nurses, secretary's or teachers apparantly. I was pretty timid and of course would never buck the system. So, well, I then decided at the last moment just to go to nursing school--why buck the system. So I did that and graduated in 1966. My sister followed behind me & graduated in 1968.

Well, I have been nursing since 1966 with time off only for 2 hip replacements!! I love nursing & am so glad I "HAD" to do it. I really & truly found my niche!! Now my little sis & my cousin who both just wanted to always be nurses----neither one of them stayed with it. They each worked about a year or two, had kids & never worked again!! Go figure!!

If I had my life to live over, tho, I think I would be a Vet. Over the years I have truly fallen in love with all animals!!

Mary Ann

[PeachyOrthoRN]

I guess I have wanted to be a nurse as far back as I can remember. My mom is a nurse and I always loved to hear stories from her about the patients she took care of. I've worked as a CNA in both hospitals and LTC and loved it, but I really have enjoyed being a nurse the lst 4 years and I'm sure I'll enjoy the next 30.

[expatnurse]

I like many never thought about being a nurse. I only thought that it was for the smart people. I was a ballet dancer since the age of four and always knew that is what I wanted to be. However after getting married and my feet screaming in pain I deceided I wanted to do something to make a difference in someones life. My mother in law is a live in carer for people. She is the most wonderful person I have ever met. So while my spouse was working I went to be an Health care assistant. One day I had a nurse refuse to come to a patients aid who had fallen on the floor because 'that wasn't her patient' that night I went home in tears. I deceided right then I was going to be the nurse because at least I cared. Now three years later I am. :hatparty:

[DhornRN]

I became a nurse because I was sick of living in a ratty trailer, fed up with the excuses my then-husband was feeding me about why he couldn't work full-time, and in desperate need of a mental challenge. I loved nursing school, clinicals, even the nazi instructors. I am in the right profession no matter how crazy it may become. I'd like to be able to say that I initially had this heart-felt burden to help people, but that isn't what was on my mind then. It was the need to find a good wage, and a stable profession. My, how I've grown since then.

[TNnurse05]

I first decided I wanted to be a nurse in high school. My father had lupus and was in and out of the hospital. I saw that the nurses were the people who did the most caring for him. They were there 24-7; the doctors came in for a few minutes every day and left. When my father died, it was the nurses who cried with our family.
I went to college straight out of high school for 1 1/2 semesters. I had a 4.0 G.P.A., but I lost all of my financial aid (my husband and I made $10000 that year together which was too much!!). I got frustated and quit school. I was nineteen and too dumb to see there were other options, like borrowing the money or tranferring to a cheaper school. I went to work at a card factory. Where I made a good living for almost 8 years. The company announced thier intentions of closing the factory, and I started looking into going back to school. The company changed their mind and stayed open, but I started getting my pre-reqs at night and working there during the day. I quit the factory in January of 2003 to attend nursing school. I graduated from nursing school on May 7th with a 3.953 G.P.A. I take the NCLEX on July 7th, everybody say a little prayer!!

[Keely-FutureRN]

Originally Posted by TNnurse05

I first decided I wanted to be a nurse in high school. My father had lupus and was in and out of the hospital. I saw that the nurses were the people who did the most caring for him. They were there 24-7; the doctors came in for a few minutes every day and left. When my father died, it was the nurses who cried with our family.
I went to college straight out of high school for 1 1/2 semesters. I had a 4.0 G.P.A., but I lost all of my financial aid (my husband and I made $10000 that year together which was too much!!). I got frustated and quit school. I was nineteen and too dumb to see there were other options, like borrowing the money or tranferring to a cheaper school. I went to work at a card factory. Where I made a good living for almost 8 years. The company announced thier intentions of closing the factory, and I started looking into going back to school. The company changed their mind and stayed open, but I started getting my pre-reqs at night and working there during the day. I quit the factory in January of 2003 to attend nursing school. I graduated from nursing school on May 7th with a 3.953 G.P.A. I take the NCLEX on July 7th, everybody say a little prayer!!

Wow! Good for you! I'll be thinking of you!

Keely

[jalene]

as i said before i guess sometimes it just happens to you.....i am very proud of all those who do ..... it was one of the hardest things that i have ever done..my twin girls' are both finishing with their cna programs now , i am so proud of them... one just took her final exam yesterday an recieved an 87%..and she never thought that she could do that....she is smiling now. so remember to all of you there is joy and hope out there...so keep on keeping on... "we are what we repeatedly do..Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit" - aristotle