How Nursing Entered My Life

This is a brief article I wrote last night about certain experiences that influenced my decision to pursue nursing. My journey begins on December 25, 2004. I was 13 years old and this is when the very first seeds of nursing were planted in my head. Nurses Announcements Archive Article

How Nursing Entered My Life

When I was 13 years old, I was obsessed about professional wrestling, sour punch straws, and video games. That Christmas morning, at my Dad's house, I awoke from my alien fighting dream filled snooze fest.

My Dad's house was really a one bedroom apartment deep in the San Fernando Valley. I went from groggy to 1.21 gigawatts in about two seconds after waking up. I grabbed my pillow, which also acted as my training dummy for doing wrestling moves, went on the top of my bunk bed ladder, and suplexed it onto my Dad's king size mattress below, which also acted as my practice ring. Almost tripping over my brother as he slept on the futon in the living room, I sprinted to the Christmas tree. I was Cortez, the city of gold was before me, and I was speechless.

Santa had come during the peak of the night, and left a ton of goodies. I yelled at my brother to wake up and look at the treasures I gathered beneath my feet as I stood upon my tower of gold. My brother was and still is to this day very cranky when suddenly awoken.

So without him, I began to tear open the presents as if I was a descendant of Wolverine himself. Of course I saved the smallest present for last, but as we all know, big things can come in small packages. Breathing heavy and lightly sweating from the mass destruction I created opening my other gifts, I opened the thin rectangular gift.

The more wrapping I peeled away, the more my smile grew. I had received the Holy Grail, Grand Theft Auto: Vice City. I became silent in awe of its beauty. Into my Playstation 2 the disc went, and my rampage of the city was underway. After a couple of hours of riots, car chases, gang shootings, drive-bys, and pure mayhem, my rational side kicked in, and I wondered who would help all the people that I had exploded with my rocket launcher? Who would fix these people up, and take care of them? I didn't know the answer, but I knew they would have to go to the hospital to do it.

This is the very first memory I can remember when the idea of working in a hospital, taking care of patients entered my mind. My dad worked in a hospital, so why couldn't I?

Fast forward six years, I was in community college at the age of 19, and taking multiple electives to figure out what career path I wanted to venture down. Still somewhat unsure about what I wanted to pursue, I dabbled in some chemistry and Earth science courses, but still wasn't sold on the idea of going down a science related path. As all desperate young people do when confused, I went to the internet to look for answers.

While Googling career tests and things of the like, I came across a video on YouTube titled 'Men in Nursing'. According to the video, the career was extremely in demand, especially for men, had endless opportunities, was very stable, had good pay, was highly rewarding, everyone looked very happy, and on top of all that I only had to go to school for two years in order to do it!

I was completely sold on the idea of nursing after I watched that video. I talked about it with my Dad, and he was onboard too. This was when I really started to buckle down and take the right classes to get to where I needed to go, all because of a YouTube video.

Would I have been so receptive to the video if I wasn't so curious and receptive to helping the people I destroyed while playing Vice City in my younger years? I don't fully know the answer to that question, but those thoughts that entered my mind when I was younger definitely didn't hurt the thoughts that were entering my mind after watching that video.

Fast forward to today. I'm 21 years old, and only need to take Microbiology (which I'm taking this fall starting August 27th), and take my TEAS V exam before I can apply to ADN programs around where I live. Unfortunately, most of the ADN programs in Southern California accept students on a lottery system, and you just have to be eligible and lucky to be accepted.

Even though this is the case, I took all my lab classes one semester at a time, getting all A's rather than taking multiple classes at once, and potentially sacrificing my grades. Hopefully I didn't shoot myself in the foot by doing this. All I can do now is pray to the nursing gods that I get my final A in microbiology, score well on my TEAS exam, and get accepted into an ADN program.

It's taken me about three and a half years to finish all my prerequisites and I feel like I've been grinding forever, yet it's only the beginning of my journey. In the words of the infamous Winston Churchill, "Now this is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning."

FATGUCCI

About FATGUCCI

I've never written an article for anything in my life, and haven't taken an English class in years, so I would actually appreciate some constructive criticism as I'm sure there are more than a few grammatical errors. Thank you for taking the time to read my wall of text.

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Specializes in Case mgmt., rehab, (CRRN), LTC & psych.

Thank you for sharing your story. :)

I find it interesting that a YouTube video, combined with your past experience with video games, provided the inspiration to get into the nursing profession.

I feel you man, I didn't know I wanted to be a nurse until I realized that I love to do unconsciously is to sit down and listen to people and to help hem anyway I can...sounds more like a psychiatrist but I can also heal people and listen to them. I really wanna be a nurse too and I'm a guy as well and I guess we are , as males, high in demand. Keep the dream alive

I grew up wanting to be a lawyer. The thought of nursing never entered my mind. When I was a kid my brother died from SIDS. Fast forward to me at 18 and I gave birth to my first child. That was 18 years ago. At that time only healthcare providers were taught CPR. Now they want you to teach your dog CPR but back then that wasn't the case. I was so afraid for my new baby because of the death of my brother that I begged my physician to teach me CPR. He refused. He told me that I was more likely to mess something up than be helpful and "if it was going to happen to me then it was going to happen and there was nothing I could do" I refused to accept that. The local hospital was offering a CNA training program so I decided to take the course. Not because I wanted to be a CNA but because I wanted to learn CPR. I did very well and when the program was over 2 students were offered positions in the hospital. I was one of them. I looooved my job and I did it well. I never thought about law again and I've never regretted a single day since. As upsetting as it was to hear what that doctor told me I suspect my life would be a lot different had he just taken the time to teach me CPR that day so for that, I am grateful.

I enjoyed reading your story. I love that there are so many different paths that can bring us to nursing. Your creative writing style is very descriptive and allowed me to visualize your experiences on that Christmas morning :) I smiled to myself several times while reading about your love of video games. I was never a huge video game player, however I've spent my fair share of hours in front of an Atari when I was a kid, but my two sons are huge gamers and your love for games reminded me of them. Thank you for sharing, and keep writing, you're rather good at it :)

Specializes in Emergency Room.

Great article, sounds like you spent a lot of your time doing the ambulance driving side missions in Grand Theft Auto, I know I always enjoyed those. I think taking your time on your pre-reqs and getting As was an excellent choice. I kind of rushed through my pre-reqs and didn't have my priorities in order so I ended up getting rejected to a few BSN programs and getting stuck on a wait list, had I done better I would have probably started sooner. I am about to start a 3 year BSN program at 23 going on 24 but it took really good TEAS test scores, work experience, a non-nursing bachelor's degree, 2nd language proficiency, and local area resident to get accepted since I got almost all Bs and a C in pre-reqs. From one So Cal guy to another, best of luck to you, I'm sure you will do well in Micro and get accepted into a program soon.

Interesting read, I wouldn't have thought Grand Theft Auto was capable of inspiring minds for the better!

Nursing is something that never entered my mind. When I graduated high school my best friend and I went straight in to a 4 year university. I majored in marketing and she wanted to be the nurse. By second semester I realized marketing was not for me. I left and came home. I needed a job and just so happen the local nursing home was offering cna classes. I became a cna and loved it. Working the LTC I realized quick there was some awesome nurses but there was also some HORRIBLE nurses. I learned everything I could from both of them. I talked my sister into becoming a cna and she loved the field. With inspiration and God's help she has been an RN for a year now. Now its my turn to go back to school. I thank God for my experience because I know seeing what all I have is going to make me a great nurse!