[jl_nurse]

I have never ever wanted to be anything other than a nurse. My great aunt told me that when I was 3 , I told her I was going to be a nurse. I started nursing school when i was 18, met a guy, dropped a guy, ruined my life or so it seemed. I continued working as a cna since age of 18. At the age of 27 it was time to become a nurse, I was getting sick and tired of telling some nurses things were wrong with their patients and them not doing anything about it. I wanted to be able to do something.I graduated with my RN when I was 30, after starting school with a son in a spica cast, working full time in the hospital, going to school every day, and my husband working out of state. I still don't know how I did it, but I wouldn't change a thing. I ahve been an RN for 4 years and its been awesome!All that I went through in my life, made me a better nurse. I love it!!! Being there for a patient is more than just drawing blood, take someone to the bathroom, it is about listening, being compassionate, and following through with what you hear.!!!! Nursing is an art, and don't leave your canvas blank!

[hope2-B-RN]

I was married and a young stay at home mom at 18, then there came 2 more children and life was all abouth them(I wanted to go to NS when they were young, but we lived to far away from the nearest school for it to be feasable). I divorced in my early 30's and went to work, bought a home of my own(me and my kids) and fell into a career in accounting. I worked for the same company for 11 years. At about 8 years I began to feel as though I was being overlooked for promotion because I did not have a degree. So, I got fed up and marched into my CC and said help me figure out what I want to be now that I am grown up.(At this point my kids were pretty much grown) I looked over everything and remembered my dream of being a nurse, but thought that I was too old. Our CC offered a 2Yr Assoc. program, and I thought, I can do that!! So I registered myself on the spot and within the next few months I was a 39 year old first time college student. It took me 2 1/2 years to finish my pre-reqs at night after work. And in about 1 week (at 42 years old) I will be starting NURSING SCHOOL!!! My oldest son is 24 and getting married in April, my daughter is 21 and in College for Business- ugh!! I am supportive but, ugh!!!! and my baby is now 18 and a senior in High School and will graduate in May. I am so grateful for all that life has given me and all that it continues to provide. I am finally living my dream, and though the road was long it was worth it!!!

[FromVet2bNurse]

Wow you had me cracking up. You need to be a writer or submit your comical works to AJN mag. or something....very creative...yet probably true! lol....

[Blue03]

When I was younger (up to 6 y/o) I spent a lot of time in hospitals. I am an epileptic. I started having Grand Mal seizures when I was 5 months old. I would have them 4-5 times a week, even with medication. I have had almost every test, known to man, run on me and no cause was ever found. My parents were told that with the amount and severity of my seizures I would most likely be brain damaged, and yet here I am a college student going to be a LPN. I don't remember a lot about the doctors that I saw. I do remember a lot about the nurses. They would read to me and play with me. They would make all of my tests seem more like a game.

When I had my youngest (June '05) my life completly changed. At 6 days old he started having seizures. Needless to say, it scared the crap out of me. He was having them almost one on top of the other. He was having them every 4-5 minutes and they were lasting 45-60 seconds. He was diagnosed elipeptic, just like me. I stayed by his side every minute. My breaking point came just after his EEG. After his strobe test he had a 3 minute Grand Mal.

The doctors would come in and do their thing and leave again. I started to feel like my poor baby was just a lab project to them. It was the nurses that made a huge difference to me. They were so wonderful, patient, and helpful. They really helped me to hold it together. That was when I made up my mind. I started asking them all kinds of questions about how they liked it, where they went to school, Etc...

I want to be able to make a difference. Even if it is to only one person. I want to be able to touch someone's life, just like they touched mine. I want to be a nurse.

[mindyg22]

Originally Posted by hope2-B-RN

I was married and a young stay at home mom at 18, then there came 2 more children and life was all abouth them(I wanted to go to NS when they were young, but we lived to far away from the nearest school for it to be feasable). I divorced in my early 30's and went to work, bought a home of my own(me and my kids) and fell into a career in accounting. I worked for the same company for 11 years. At about 8 years I began to feel as though I was being overlooked for promotion because I did not have a degree. So, I got fed up and marched into my CC and said help me figure out what I want to be now that I am grown up.(At this point my kids were pretty much grown) I looked over everything and remembered my dream of being a nurse, but thought that I was too old. Our CC offered a 2Yr Assoc. program, and I thought, I can do that!! So I registered myself on the spot and within the next few months I was a 39 year old first time college student. It took me 2 1/2 years to finish my pre-reqs at night after work. And in about 1 week (at 42 years old) I will be starting NURSING SCHOOL!!! My oldest son is 24 and getting married in April, my daughter is 21 and in College for Business- ugh!! I am supportive but, ugh!!!! and my baby is now 18 and a senior in High School and will graduate in May. I am so grateful for all that life has given me and all that it continues to provide. I am finally living my dream, and though the road was long it was worth it!!!

Thanks for sharing. I like your story. I am from Louisian too. What part are you from?

[Peachgirl]

Originally Posted by Tait

Where to begin.

I would say nursing was like...walking past someone and catching a whiff of their perfume, realize it is familiar, but when you turn to see who it was they are lost in the crowd behind you.

I remember being around 18 or 19 and needing to work on a paper for my heredity class (I always have been a big science geek). I was wandering into the hospital my mom was working at at the time, (as a program coordinator for health programs) looking for the medical library and I remembered feeling this odd sense of elation. I didn't really know what it was, but something about being in that hospital just made me feel...right.

As college progressed and a long term relationship appeared I was pretty much spinning my wheels. I had looked into teaching (too repetitive for me), marine biology (I don't like jelly fish lol) and just settling down and being a mom (which trust me, from that relationship would have garnered me nothing but drama and no respect from either my bf at the time or his family). This bf had mentioned once me becoming a nurse, however I only knew of 4 year programs and I just didn't feel that I could handle that. (I have never been a slouch in the intelligence department, however after years of spinning my wheels on college I was just burnt out)

So after dumping the loser I moved to a new big city. I had never moved anywhere without family so this was a big step. I got a job waitressing and after about 6 months I was bored out of my gourd. I knew this couldn't go on much longer.

So one warm spring day I trucked it over to the area technical college to check out their massage therapy program. Here a sunny, friendly counselor said "well, what else do you think you would like to do?"

"Well I have been told maybe I should be a nurse, but I don't know if I am cut out for the schooling."

Well after a little chatting and a lot of optimism I applied for the program. I was wait-listed as everyone else was, however I saw this as an opportunity to work and take prereqs at my own pace. That semester I garnered my first 99% in a class in years in chemistry. I was so stoked I just kept on going until graduation day!

I have been nursing for just over a year now, and even though there are a lot of days I am scared out of my mind at the lives I hold, I go in every work day and come home feeling accomplished. Every. Single. Day.

Nothing better for me.

Soon I will start my ADN-MSN program and become a health educator which, I believe, is the epitome of what nursing can offer to me.

Tait

I know whatya mean.
My influence to become a CNA was when I was 11 and in the hospital for correctional surgery on my eye. I was paying attention to how the volunteers loved to spoil me. I always loved babies even as a small chilkd and just being a 'Mother hen" about them. I wass inticed to become a hospital volunteer and I was on for 11 yrs. While living with my grandmother for 4 Very Gloroius years and taking care of her and being her guardian angel, I married and moved to Chattanooga,TN. and became a Volunteer there as well. I married again in 1999 to my second husbang and when we moved to Florida I decided to become a CNA whwn my grandmother died and even got into Ancestry.com ect. for the sake of my son so that I can hand this information records of his history down to him. He is getting more interested in it everytime he sees me working on it. I want to find a hospital here in Macon, GA. that offers further educating training for their employees and take get certified as EKG tech as well for better pay. I have been offered a PRN position with an ALF. and I can work there as I continue my job search.

[trmr]

Originally Posted by Tait

Where to begin.

I would say nursing was like...walking past someone and catching a whiff of their perfume, realize it is familiar, but when you turn to see who it was they are lost in the crowd behind you.

I remember being around 18 or 19 and needing to work on a paper for my heredity class (I always have been a big science geek). I was wandering into the hospital my mom was working at at the time, (as a program coordinator for health programs) looking for the medical library and I remembered feeling this odd sense of elation. I didn't really know what it was, but something about being in that hospital just made me feel...right.

As college progressed and a long term relationship appeared I was pretty much spinning my wheels. I had looked into teaching (too repetitive for me), marine biology (I don't like jelly fish lol) and just settling down and being a mom (which trust me, from that relationship would have garnered me nothing but drama and no respect from either my bf at the time or his family). This bf had mentioned once me becoming a nurse, however I only knew of 4 year programs and I just didn't feel that I could handle that. (I have never been a slouch in the intelligence department, however after years of spinning my wheels on college I was just burnt out)

So after dumping the loser I moved to a new big city. I had never moved anywhere without family so this was a big step. I got a job waitressing and after about 6 months I was bored out of my gourd. I knew this couldn't go on much longer.

So one warm spring day I trucked it over to the area technical college to check out their massage therapy program. Here a sunny, friendly counselor said "well, what else do you think you would like to do?"

"Well I have been told maybe I should be a nurse, but I don't know if I am cut out for the schooling."

Well after a little chatting and a lot of optimism I applied for the program. I was wait-listed as everyone else was, however I saw this as an opportunity to work and take prereqs at my own pace. That semester I garnered my first 99% in a class in years in chemistry. I was so stoked I just kept on going until graduation day!

I have been nursing for just over a year now, and even though there are a lot of days I am scared out of my mind at the lives I hold, I go in every work day and come home feeling accomplished. Every. Single. Day.

Nothing better for me.

Soon I will start my ADN-MSN program and become a health educator which, I believe, is the epitome of what nursing can offer to me.

Tait

Wow what a story!! Good for you..keep it up!!!! This is inspiring.

[hope2-B-RN]

Hey MindyG22,
I am from South of New Orleans, Where are you from and where are you now? Always great to here from a hometown girl!!

[nursing is a joke]

I became a nurse because I was intrigued by the notion that I would go to school for four or five years....... pay $50,000 in tuiton and board (which I have to pay back for 30 years) Get a very skilled and high education with BSN in critical care. So that I could:

Be overworked while being under paid.
BE Expected to work overtime without getting paid for it.
Be Expected to be held hostage to a beeper ( over the weekends ) without being compensated for it.
Being placed in an environment that is begging me to make a mistake because of the understaffing........... and it WORKS!!! Mistakes ARE made....... and luckily...... the entire weight of the institution comes down on the nurses head while they take no responsibility for setting up the environment in such a way that is begging for the mistake in the first place.

Work in a loving and caring environment where everyone is friends and no one stabs anyone else in the back.

Be part of a culture where people eat their own young alive.

Work in an insitution where I know the guy mopping the floor is probably making more money than I am. Boy that is a moral booster!! And maked me eager to come back to work!!

Nursing is a lovely and compassionate line of work, I am glad that I spent all that time and money so that I could earn a degree that would give me the priviage of being a volunteer.

And last but not least....... the amusment I receive by watching the leadership in nursing scratching their heads ( and they are very serious about it) wondering why in the world there is a nursing shortage.

I know why there is a nursing shortage. You want to know?

Go into your bathroom and take a good hard look in the mirror for 10 minutes........ and there's your answer!!

Who would want to work in the field that you put up with and go along with and don't do anything about the shabby treatment and lack of pay for your skills that you put up with?

Would you recommend nursing to your best friend? If not, then why do you settle for this insanity? Why do you keep silent? Why are you so passive?

I don't put up with it........ and I am enemy number one; a trouble maker.

How dare I:
Not do the work of two and not even get paid for one!!! I am supposed to keep my mouth shut and be happy I have a job at all!! Now work overtime for nothing? Not twist myself into a pretzle and kiss my behind for the amusment of my manager? Stick up for myself when I get written up for something I did not do? Work in an environment that is grossly understaffed and actually speak up about it!!??!!
HOW DARE ME!!!!

Ahhhhh........ that is why I became a nurse.

My bank, who holds my mortgage, does not care that I'm a good person who wants to help others. The warm and fuzzy feeling I get in my chest, when I help others, does not pay the mortgage. ( I always hear, when I speak out,........ that there is an exchange when you are a nurse...... and that exchange is the wonderfull feeling you get for helping others).

Really?? Tell that to my bank who has no problem taking my house away regardless of how NICE I am.

What in the world is the matter with nurses??

Without nurses there would be no health care....... just like without soldiers there would be no army or victory. Do you think that if soldiers were treated the way nurses are that thier moral would be high enough to even want to fight? Let alone win? Without us..... there is nothing.

I'll prove it.......... let's get every nurse in America to not show up for work tomorrow.
What do you think would happen to healthcare in this country? It would crumble like a house of cards. Kind a like the way nurses are now when they are looked at crooked by their managers.

Which brings up another point: the selective remembering by the nurse managers is astounding. They had it even worse than we do....... and they had all the complaints and arguments that we new nurses have now. But they have forgotten where they came from and how horrible it was for them. And who can blame them? I can understand why someone making a six figure salary.... that took 20 years to accomplish, would not badmouth the insitution providing that salary. So I must forgive them. But it is still astonishing to me........ they have forgotten where they came from. But I guess they feel we have to pay our dues like they did.

But times are different now. Nursing is not a second income occupation anymore. We cannot be satisfied with our pitiful salaries while being forced to work like dogs.

I'm stunned by the passivenes of very highly educated people who let others step all over them for a living. Nursing, Unfortunetly, IS a joke. It's about millionairs making more millions at the expense of putting our licenses at risk and the lives of the patients at risk to save a couple of pennies. ( from a millionair's perspective; a couple of hundred thousand dollars is pennies) It's pathetic.

Don't deny it fellow nurses........ you know what I'm talking about.

The last time I spoke like this they took down my thread without explanation.

I wonder if they will do it again?

Thanks for letting me exercise my right to free speech and tell it like it is.

This forum does alllow free speech; does it not?

[mindyg22]

Originally Posted by hope2-B-RN

Hey MindyG22,
I am from South of New Orleans, Where are you from and where are you now? Always great to here from a hometown girl!!

I am from Baton Rouge. I currently live in Orlando, FL but plan to move back to BR after school is over next year. I can't wait to move home!! My husband's family is from Chalmette, LA. I love talking to people that are from Louisiana too. I miss it so much!!