nursing a calling?

Nurses General Nursing

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do you think nursing is a calling? or just a career you want to do? i know what a calling is but how do you know nursing is a calling for you? i want to work in the health care field..im a senior in high school..graduate in may and will probably start pre-reqs for nursing this fall..ive been interested in nursing for a few months now and im just trying to get as much information i can about nursing. thanks

I guess you could say it's a "calling" for some. I went into nursing because I wanted a job with flexibility that could support my family should something happen to my dh. I wanted something I could do part-time, still make good money, and could do anywhere in the US.

I have no grand scheme about wanting to "save" people or wanting to "help" people. While I did enjoy by job and was a very good nurse the bottom line was MY family.

I am not actively doing nursing anymore. The staffing ratios, power struggles with management were just too much to overcome even thinking about after I had my kids. I decided to stay home with them (much more rewarding for me personally). ;)

I'm one of the late bloomers into nursing. I always wanted to work in healthcare but I married young and had 4 children. They were my priority and I worked unfulfilling retail jobs to help meet but still be there enough for the children.

I am now completing my last lot of clinical rotations to become an endorsed Enrolled nurse(similar to your LPN) in Australia.

It is a calling for me as I have a heart to reach & care for people esp. having a chronically sick son.

I'm not in for the money as I got paid just as well in retail.

Caroline

I always knew I was a nurse. How....because as a child when someone would get hurt/injured on the playground I would run towards them and help. I wanted to help the sick get better. I knew I was different because the other kids would run to go get help...I considered myself the help. Getting my RN was just a formality for me. I have ALWAYS been a nurse, studied medicine books in my spare time, for fun. Last week on the med/surg floor where I work a case manager walked into the nurses station and announced "the guy in room XXXX is having racking chills and has a blood transfusion hanging"....not one nurse moved from her seat! I jumped up and attended to this patient, alone. No it was not my patient but he was in desperate need of help and I loved being the one to help him. The other nurses at the station are in it for the money/benefits, they are not bad nurses but are missing the "calling". I am called everyday.

When I was younger I said I would never be a nurse. Never say never.. If it was a calling I didn't hear the phone ring.. Nursing is whatever you want it to be and make it to be.

Specializes in Acute rehab/geriatrics/cardiac rehab.

I think it is a calling at this point in my life. But then again, I did many other things on my way to becoming a nurse....so I believe I was called to do those things also.....

But with nursing...., Yes, I think to deal with the human emotions and bodily fluids that I see on a daily basis, that yes, it would appear to be a calling....but there are also rewards that are hard to explain to people outside the nursing profession. For every time I've felt like I've wanted to quit, there's another time that I leave work thinking.... Wow.... This is a great job I have....

I once heard someone say "Nurses love their job, but hate the work"....

I think that's possibly true.

Specializes in Psych.
Not a "calling" per se to me.

However, while I am going into the field for non-altruistic reasons, I do feel that I have a caring nature and the right emotional and cognitive makeup for the profession.

For some people, it is a calling - those people usually get used horribly by their employers and are willing to accept lower pay rates. For others, it is just a reasonably well-paying job - those folks usually burn out quickly under the demands of the profession. The largest group combines the best features of the two extremes, and they end up as long-term, happy, skilled nurses.

I couldn't have said it better myself, clee1. Calling-schmalling. I went into nursing for non-altruistic reasons but I knew I had the cognitive/emotional raw material. The altruistic stuff is gravy, o.p. Never forget that as a nurse you are a valuable, highly-skilled professional. Make sure you are compenstated adequately and NEVER let anyone make you feel you are less valuable than any other member of the healthcare team. If you choose to go into nursing, you will see what I mean soon enough when the realities of the job hit you. :balloons:

Check with some of your local hospitals about shadowing oppurtunities. We offer shadowing through my insititution in various areas so that people who are interested or curious in a career in the health field can come in and see if they think this is what they want. They can come in as many times as they would like for 3 hour observations.

Specializes in Psych.
I always knew I was a nurse. How....because as a child when someone would get hurt/injured on the playground I would run towards them and help. I wanted to help the sick get better. I knew I was different because the other kids would run to go get help...I considered myself the help. Getting my RN was just a formality for me. I have ALWAYS been a nurse, studied medicine books in my spare time, for fun. Last week on the med/surg floor where I work a case manager walked into the nurses station and announced "the guy in room XXXX is having racking chills and has a blood transfusion hanging"....not one nurse moved from her seat! I jumped up and attended to this patient, alone. No it was not my patient but he was in desperate need of help and I loved being the one to help him. The other nurses at the station are in it for the money/benefits, they are not bad nurses but are missing the "calling". I am called everyday.

Not bad nurses? I beg to differ. I can not believe those other nurses just SAT there and did nothing. Isn't that negligence?

Not bad nurses? I beg to differ. I can not believe those other nurses just SAT there and did nothing. Isn't that negligence?

It was my impression that they were hoping another nurse would deal with it......which is what happened. If you are in this for the money then you are ever mindful of which patients you are getting paid to attend to. If I had not gone to the patient they would have eventually found the patient's assigned nurse and told her....sad but true....I don't think they had any intention of going in themselves. And BTW, important to note is that the case manager is also an RN and she made no move to intervene other than report the situation out loud in the nurses station. She didn't even stop the transfusion! I work in an atmosphere of "not my job". That doesn't make them bad nurses, it is a reality created by administration. I stand by my statement that they are not bad nurses, just in need of good role models and better management. Here is how this intervention impacted my shift....the charge nurse seeing that I "had the time" to help out with a patient that wasn't mine decided to give me the next admission. That is the outcome the other nurses were avoiding.

Hi Nurses,

Very interesting thread! I am just starting LPN program in Jamaica. I have been a dedicated Early Childhood Teacher for 20 years. I love my teaching job it is rewarding and guess what it pays next to nothing!!! However, I do love working and being with children. My Mom is a retired mid-wife and my Dad is a Chiropodist (foot Doctor). They had encouraged me to enter the Medical field, however, I wanted to teach. Now, I see that with only 25 years to retirement I need to look at other options. I am married with 2 children and will have to provide for them for years to come.

I do not know that nursing was a direct calling but I got the urge to add something to my career. I would like be of service as a nurse and educator to children who are in long term care. I am compassionate, I am very dedicated and I can offer more from my life. With the current shortage of nurses, I also see this as an oppotunity for me to not only "Touch the lives of others" academically, I have the ability and the determination to go on further and to truly touch and change the lives of others. Life has been great for me I have been allowed by Divine Order to live out all my dreams so far. I really hope that I will enjoy making this change and I sincerely hope that I can make a difference for more children. Being paid a better wage will certainly be an advantage and a change. It will help me better plan for the future of my own children. All the children I have taught over the years have excelled and gone to colleges overseas. My own children would lack such opportunities because my teacher salary would not help in any way at all.

You guys please encourage me I have given a lot of myself and I really want to continue to be of service.

Any ideas on tying in my teaching skills with nursing would be welcome. I am currently doing a Massage Therapy Course too. I figured that during the nursing program I will be able to give "alternative therapy" as a plus, who doesn't love a massage/ foot rub!!?? It even calms and relaxes my just-turned-four year old son. He loves his back rub at night "more lotion please mummy!"

Take care folks!

ONE LOVE!!

Miss Determination.

Back in 1974, I took an apptitude test that pointed the way to nursing. Up until then, I never thought of myself as medically inclined. (In fact, I got sick at the sight of blood!) But after working in a nursing home, I knew I had found my "calling". It was very fulfilling to care for others.

After the first few heavy bleeders, I got used to that, and learned how to be a good nurse. I started as an LPN, then went on to RN school. I have never regretted it, even tho, the pay and hours were not so good when I started out. I like knowing I am helping others.

Today, there are many who get into nursing because it is a stable career with decent pay and benefits. I find many "nurses" who don't view it as calling but as a career. Most of them I wouldn't want to nurse me or mine. It takes more than booksmarts to be a true nurse. You must be willing to give of yourself, even if the patient doesn't appreciate you and your work.

So, I do consider nursing a calling. Just like teaching. Your attitude is just as important as your education.

I don't really see nursing as a calling, because for me, the word "calling" has a religious connotation - and please note, I mean for me, because it may not be seen as this by other people. When I decided to become a nurse, it was more of a "drive" that sent me in this direction, and the RN at the end of my education was the goal. I did want a profession that offered me a way to support myself with some flexibility, but the money was only a secondary consideration. I can't deny that a motivation was to find a job in which I could be useful and help others, but I never regarded this as a calling.

One last thing that just twigged and probably had a great deal to do with my choice was a counsellor in high school. This was a few years ago, and then she tended to steer the girls toward teaching, nursing or secretarial work. I picked nursing because I saw it as the most useful! Of course my feelings have changed over the years, there are many "useful" professions, but that's how I ended up where I am today!

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