So why do you want to be a nurse?

[JenM]

I am just curious to hear stories or thoughts about this. For me: there is nothing else that I can imagine doing with my life. Have you ever seen the movie "Pay it Forward"? I guess that's how I describe my desire to become an RN. I was a preemie born in 1979. I wouldn't be here if it weren't for wonderful nurses that helped keep me alive. I also have 3 children of my own now. And had wonderful nurses help me through preeclampsia, gestational diabetes, placenta previa and delivery. I want to give to others, what has been given to me!

[Logos]

Never wanted to be a nurse- still don't think I have any desire to work in a hospital. I love my job now- not in nursing- but it's getting a little stagnant- so I am going to learn some new stuff and see where it takes me. I don't have a problem "nursing" just don't have any desire to deal with hospital politics or bullshit- I'm to old for that crap- I want to be my own boss and make my own decisions- if I can find a nursing job with a lot of autonomy that would be good. I don't want to deal with nursing clicks, I don't really like to work with a lot of people- patients fine- but backstabbing and gossip is not for me, and from what I have seen of hospitals I don't want to be part of it.

[bekindtokittens]

I'd considered nursing as a career after high school, but I knew I would be on my own, fully supporting myself, and I just didn't have it in me at that point in my life to work full time and go to school. For the next 10 years I worked in the food industry (I'd dream about bagels) and then in offices doing entry level work (I'd dream about 10-keying).

Now that I'm married, my partner is supporting me while I get my education. I started out a chemistry/forensic science major, but it just wasn't practical. I'm a military spouse and I need a career that will survive moving about. I've also seen many of my peers get 4-year degrees that turned out to be practically useless in the working world, but health care will always be in demand. And after 5 years of crunching meaningless numbers in an office, I wanted the third of my life I'll spend working to actually make some sort of difference as well as earning me a living.

It's working well so far. I've enjoyed my biology classes much more than chemistry, and I just started my first semester of the nursing program. Not a very romantic story, but I still think I'll be a good nurse.

[dorselm]

For me, this question couldn't have come at a better time because I am pondering this one myself. Originally, I wanted to go into the nursing field when my daughter, who is now 16, was a baby. Back then, the field was saturated, everyone and their mom wanted to be a nurse. Also, I had an aunt who was attending CCAC for nursing. She had been going for 4 years at a 2 yr school to get a degree in nursing. That scared me so since I was on welfare at the time and they were going to pay for whatever I chose to do I told my caseworker I wanted to be an accountant and she told me I didn't look like I was cut out for accounting. To prove her wrong I enrolled and graduated with an Associates Degree in Accounting which helped me to get a job in a fortune 500 company.I started in the mail room and worked my way up to a general accountant. I was there for 8 years. I was miserable everyday of those 8 yrs because it wasn't what I wanted to do. I took some career tests and they all said that I should be a nurse. So I put a plan together to go to school. I got fired from accounting (they wanted me to take more classes in accounting, I went to nursing.)

Now I'm not so sure that I want to be a nurse. After I left accounting, I took a job as a CNA to get an idea of what the health field is like. I work at an LTC facility on the skilled nursing floor. Each day I work, I dread going in. It is physically and mentally draining. Yesterday was the day from hell. One of my patients was given a laxative on the previous shift, it didn't start working until my shift. I had to bathe and change her 3 times because it was coming out full force and ruining her clothes because she kept trying to make it to the bathroom and couldn't. Being that I had to keep tending to her, it was putting me behind on all of my other patients which put everyone else in really stinky moods! After I tended to that patient, a patient that I had bathed and dressed and was bed bound had a feeding tube in his stomach. He needs a new stomach so the tubes keep getting clogged. The family come in and found him covered in the feeding formula because it leaked all out and all over him. They were claiming he wasn't cared for and that he was neglected. Then while I'm caring for him, there are 4 peoples lights going off ( I had 10 residents to care for on the 7-3 shift). I had to try to maintain my composure to keep from snapping out. By the time I left I couldn't stand up straight and my feet were throbbing. I now question why I want to be a nurse and wonder if I will be able to get through my second semester of school and beyond.

[OgopogoLPN, LPN, RN]

I've wanted to be a nurse since I was very young. I goofed off in high school and only aimed to graduate. I didn't take extra math or science. I took a medical office admin course right out of high school and have worked in doctors offices ever since. It was the closest I could get to the medical field without being a nurse.

Well, I'm now 31, married with a 4 year old and 7 year old and I start LPN school next week!! I couldn't be more excited! I had to take Biology 12 by correspondence last fall as a pre req.

I've always thought the clinical part of nursing would be very cool. Like injections, tubes, etc. I worked for a dermatologist and I got to remove simple sutures from skin biopsies. It was by far my favourite task of the job!!! I felt like I was doing something quasi-nursing and I loved it!

[Natkat, BSN, MSN, RN]

I have to be perfectly honest: nursing is not my life's passion. I would define a passion as something that would make one's life worth living. Truthfully, I'd be just as content and happy doing something else for a living, so I can live without nursing. In other words, I was not "born to be a nurse."

However, I have decided to pursue nursing further because of the flexibility in scheduling, money, and advancement opportunities. I would be able to take comfort in the fact that I could relocate to almost any state, and find a nursing job soon thereafter. Also, jobs that require a "human touch" are hard to outsource to other countries that offer cheaper labor.

However, I am not so naive as to think that corporations wouldn't find a way to import the cheaper labor into the U.S. They're already doing it, albeit on a smaller scale.

Same here.

There is this belief at there that people are either born to be nurses or called to it somehow. For many people like me, it's a career choice, an intellectual decision. I don't have a burning desire to care for people. I didn't have an earth-shattering medical encounter. I just have loved medicine since I can remember, and nursing is a way for me to work in the medical field, flexibility with work schedule and physical environment, lots of opportunity, job security, decent pay, a change of venue when I get bored, and no chance that my job will be outsourced to India.

For me it helps that this is something I chose with my head and not my heart. It has kept me from getting my heart broken or overly disappointed when I found out that nursing isn't what I thought it would be. I feel more pragmatic about the bad things and can focus on the good things and move on.

[Wise Guy]

They used to call me "Fall Guy". I was very accident prone as a kid. I've literally got more scars than i can count. I've had stitches four times (forehead, chin, belly, and right next to the lateral canthus of my right eye... all trauma), five broken bones (arm, toe, bone next to right eye, and two ribs), and inguinal hernia surgery... twice. And you know, i never even considered a career in health care. And then on my 23rd birthday i got into a car accident and transected my aorta. I know, I know, I wouldn't be here to type this reply if I had transected my aorta... right? I'm one of the lucky 3% of people who live through it. So, I spent a week in the cardiac ICU where I met two amazing nurses, Michelle and Lonnie. They were always around when i needed them, they never let me stay in pain for too long, they hung out with me just to keep me company. Michelle held my hand when i got an epidural for pain and yelled at the guy that was giving it to me for being too rough with me. When you're in a hospital bed and in excruciating pain, completely incopacitated, and completely dependent on other people for everything, you feel very vulnerable and helpless and it is miserable. Any time spent in a hospital bed is miserable and when you have a nurse like Michelle or Lonnie, it just seems so much less miserable. I've had lots of nurses, good and bad, but i only keep in touch with two of them. They've inspired me to become a nurse and that's my cheesy "earth-shattering medical encounter" story.

[Eirene, ASN, RN]

they used to call me "fall guy". i was very accident prone as a kid. i've literally got more scars than i can count. i've had stitches four times (forehead, chin, belly, and right next to the lateral canthus of my right eye... all trauma), five broken bones (arm, toe, bone next to right eye, and two ribs), and inguinal hernia surgery... twice. and you know, i never even considered a career in health care. and then on my 23rd birthday i got into a car accident and transected my aorta. i know, i know, i wouldn't be here to type this reply if i had transected my aorta... right? i'm one of the lucky 3% of people who live through it. so, i spent a week in the cardiac icu where i met two amazing nurses, michelle and lonnie. they were always around when i needed them, they never let me stay in pain for too long, they hung out with me just to keep me company. michelle held my hand when i got an epidural for pain and yelled at the guy that was giving it to me for being too rough with me. when you're in a hospital bed and in excruciating pain, completely incopacitated, and completely dependent on other people for everything, you feel very vulnerable and helpless and it is miserable. any time spent in a hospital bed is miserable and when you have a nurse like michelle or lonnie, it just seems so much less miserable. i've had lots of nurses, good and bad, but i only keep in touch with two of them. they've inspired me to become a nurse and that's my cheesy "earth-shattering medical encounter" story.

good god! i had to laugh, but your story reminds me so much of my teenage son. he's never had a transected aorta though (knocking on all of the wood around)!

it's not cheesy, it's cute. some people are in it for different reasons; each reason is special and unique to that person, no matter if it's because of their "hearts" or "intellectual thinking". i personally think we all have a little of crazy for going through this myself. :)

thanks for the cute story.