What changed for you during school?

[bethem]

When I went in to nursing school, I was only doing it to become a midwife. I was in LOVE with the idea of bringing babies into the world, and helping women through a time that was so special and emotional.

Then I met an absolutely crazy woman who happens to be the head of midwifery services for my area - she loves to be involved. She was so aggressively passionate about holistic midwifery that she really put me off!

I had a paediatric placement at the start of this year, and I loved that too, so I decided instead of bringing them into the world, I'd help them muddle through when they were unwell. I loved paeds, and I wanted (and still want) to be a paediatric nurse practitioner.

But - I'm currently on placement in the ICU. I adore it. I really want to do more ICU when I've graduated. I love kids and I love ICU, but I actually hate having kids in ICU! They look so breakable; I can't reconcile my love of kiddles with my love of ICU by working in a PICU, for example.

The point is, I would NEVER have imagined myself wanting to work with a mainly adult population! I can't believe how much things changed for me, and I'm really glad I did a BNurs instead of a BMidwifery (which you can do at some unis here).

So - what's changed for you? Did you have a hankering to be an ER nurse, but now you love geri? Hated CCU at first, but now love that? Loved paeds and now can't stand it? Share!

[tattooednursie, LVN]

I always thought that I would want to be a hospice or oncology nurse. I must say I really enjoyed working the oncology floor, but you take care of people who alot of them may not live their full life. It gets really depressing! I realized that I really don't think I could be an oncology nurse.

I found that working a medical or surgical floor, or even in an emergency department, many of the patients get better, and it gives you that warm fuzzy feeling inside helping people get better so they could possibly go on with the rest of their lives.

Another thing that really changed for me in school is the confidence I had in myself. I went in, not expecting to cut it, with alot of other people not expecting me to make it. I quit (MOST) of my partying and drinking and other things and became a much more responsible person both in school and outside of school.