What's your story? Why did you take up nursing? - Page 108

During the summer of 1996 my grandpa was in a head on collision that sent him to the nearby Mayo Clinic in Rochester Minnesota. My grandpa had several surgeries and was in the Intensive Care unit with and uncertain prognosis. I remember my grandma going out into the hall to talk with the nurses or the doctors with my mother and I was left alone in the room with my grandpa. I remember the nurses tied the sheets to the bedrails and all I could think was I hope those knots hold and my mom and grandma hurry up. Our last night at the hospital I read a doctor seuss book to my grandpa. About a year later he thanked me for being with him while he was in the hospital and gave me two silver quarters before he died the next summer. Exactly nine years later I became a nurse.

I took up nursing after losing my first child. He was delivered with forceps, and lived for three weeks before passing away from cerebral edema. I remember how absolutly hopeless and helpless I felt when he was in the NICU and then the PICU, and I vowed to never put myself into another situation where I didn't know what to do besides give CPR.

Honestly, my grandmother and my mother told me to.
I'd disappoint her if I didn't take up nursing.

Thanks, grandma!; Love ya

Because my grandmother told me to.

Thanks, grandma; Love you!

Background on Grandma: RN for 40+ years

(sorry for the double-entry)

I did it for the money

That's actually true. When I graduate HS in 1974 there were very few well-paying jobs available for women in South Alabama. Women were actually barred from certain jobs, like commercial flying, police & fire, construction, etc. I couldn't type and I didn't want to teach. So that left nursing, the one job that I knew would always provide me a paycheck large enough for me to support a family on. And it hasn't failed me yet.

Lucky for me(and everyone else, I guess) I fell in love with nursing and I've been at it >32 years.

i was in real estate sales back in the 80s and 90s and one day i woke up and realized the only reason i had to get out of bed was to find someone...anyone..and take their money. I got up but i never sold another house. i went to lvn school then rn school and the funny thing is i now make more money than i did in real estate and most days dont feel like im working. im just doing what i love to do...saving peoples lives...its really like that since i do hemodialysis...i show up...do my thing ....they live...its great..and they pay me ....whata deal!!!!!!woohoo!!!!

The factor that influenced me to take up nursing was when I was 13 years old, my father got hospitalized for a very high fever. After a day of hospitalization, he died. The reason? When he was already shivering, he was injected Valium twice! A nurse already gave it to him and some other nurse also injected it to him... I didn't know the truth until 3 years ago. My agenda was to find what really caused his unexplainable death so that's why I took up nursing... plus, I adore children.
I'm currently reviewing for nclex, hope that I pass.

i took up nursing for five reasons:
1. I believe that this is what God planned for me.
2. I want to be like my tita who are working in new york for almost 25 years and she is in a higher position.
3. this is want my mother wanted me to be.
4. I want to serve sick people.
5. and also i want to work abroad.

i believe that through this profession it will give me a better future.

If you had asked me this question in 1952, when I was 12, I would have said it was because my uncle (a physician) to whom I'd timidly confided my vocational aspirations, thundered "No one in this family will be a nurse!"

My future was sealed......

I was in 10th grade and watching a show called University Hospital about 4 girls training to be nurses. Then a light bulb went off inside my head and I thought that was what I wanted to do. Then I took an anatomy class and became fascinated with the material and learning about the body. I loved nursing school and here I am years later and loving nursing.