I have heard several times, including in nursing school; that many nurses are products of broken homes, drug dependent/sickly parents, abuse etc. I have not been able to find true statistics online about this topic. I remember a nursing instructor listed a stat as high as 85% of nurses come from drug/sick/abusive homes and parents.
If you are willing to share your own personal story or also have a link to an article that shows data r/t this topic, I would be very interested.
I'll start by saying that growing up my Mom was and still is a very strong habitual marijuana user. Now I know some would argue that pot is not as bad as others or whatever. I'm not trying to start a discussion on that issue. But with my MOM, she had to smoke, all day long, every day. Wake up, smoke, eat, smoke, smoke before work, smoke before she went to bed, road trips etc. And if she wasn't " high" she was quite cranky. She also was abusive to me. Her and my Dad had a rocky relationship the last few years and she took it out on me. Verbally, emotionally, physically, spit in my face...etc. It caused my parents to have even more arguements, including physical, cause my Dad would stick up for me.
On to my father, he also was a substance user, cocaine, early on in the 80's, in fact he went to rehab shortly after I was born for some time. However, I don't recall him ever relapsing or such afterwards. He did however, have cardiac and renal disease (PKD), he had MVP repair and CABG when I was 7, and I remember, he had a very SLOW recovery, and just was always very sickly afterwards. He tried his best to help, try and coach me when I played basketball and in band, but he was physically limited. He ended up on dialysis for 5 years before having a MI at the age of 60.
My family situation made my grow up real fast, I had to help care for two younger siblings, who honestly did not have it like I did. By the time they were my age (teenager), our parents had divorced and did not live together. I would say it affected me the most. But, I do believe it has made me a stronger person and a better mother and nurse. In fact, when I get angry with my child, often I distinctly remember how my Mother would lash out at me, and I am able to recompose myself, something I am proud that I am able to do. Cause I remember how devastated I was when I was younger. Oh course, I do not abuse pot or any other drugs. Which I believe was part of my Mom's issue, along with stress from relantionship with my Dad.
Thank you for reading, I know it is a long post. I just wanted to share my story and I am interested in other's similiar stories. And again, if you have a article or link to such data, Please also post it.
I highly doubt that 85% of nurses came from the same kind of background. I grew up in an abusive household, my father was an alcoholic and abused drugs as well as all of us. My parents divorced when I was 16. None of that has anything to do with my becoming a nurse.
The vast majority of the nurses I went to school with/worked with came from happy homes.
im guessing your statistics are a little... false. just judging from the responses in this thread, and nurses/students that i know personally.
however, you can add me to your list of (soon to be) nurses from broken homes.. mom was/is a heroin addict. not sure it has much to do with me becoming a nurse, but maybe it did..
Hmm... we need some actual data. Those statistics sound skewed. Granted, there may be some data on this subject, but 85%? Whoa. My mom's a nurse. I grew up fairly happy. My parents have been married for over 30 years. No drug or alcohol usage period. My mom didn't influence me to become a nurse, my grandmother's death in a nursing home did.
Not a nurse yet! (just found out I got into school actually, so I don't know if I should really answer, but I'll give it a go!)
My mother was verbally and physically abused throughout her childhood, and whenever she goes up to visit my grandmother she goes back for that same verbal abuse. She dropped out of school because she was constantly bullied and got pregnant with me when she was 17. My biological father was 16, and he bailed. She was forced to marry a very abusive man and this was who I knew to be my father until I was 8 and my mother told me the truth. He rarely ever hit me, but he would beat my brother (his biological son) within an inch of his life. After my mother got a good teaching job, she divorced him. After the age of 10, I remember having to constantly "talk her off the ledge" I've had to literally take knives away from her wrist. When she's not depressed, she's the most wonderful mother in the world, a living angel. I've since learned how to really deal with her depression, when I was a child she would be depressed for months, now my brother and I know how to get her out of it in about a week. She was on different medications to deal with her disorders and they all had very negative effects. I still refuse to take any medications that aren't totally necessary, and if I feel that I can fight an infection on my own, I refuse antibiotics. Though Mom dropped out of high school she highly valued education and went on to get her PhD, so even though we grew up very poor, we always knew we would go to college, there was just no question. I knew I wanted to either be a doctor or a lawyer (I was a big smarty pants as a child) but after my AP chemistry teacher told me I was too stupid to be a doctor, and I found out that a law degree had become useless unless you planned on working in a family practice, I felt hopeless, and my mother suggested nursing! Thought about it, talked about it...endlessly, and finally decided on it. We'll see if I can handle nursing school!
I am a statistic. I am married to a cop and a soon to be nurse. :) My parents were married, I had an older sister and they tried to have me so I was planned. That didn't stop them from later imploding and giving me away by the time I was 3. I was raised by an aunt that was resentful of having to do so and it probably would have been better to have put me up for adoption. I was forced to spend half the summer with my drug addict mom and the other half with my alcoholic dad. Neither ever spent a christmas or a birthday with me. It was a joke and a nightmare. It was rough growing up and to this day I still don't know where I fit in to my family and I don't think they know either. Not that it matters as I have my own family now and yes...I think it led me to nursing. I love people and I understand hurt...it gives me a level of empathy I don't think I would have otherwise.
I've been a nurse for 18 years and have never used a drug in my life other than OTC or what was prescribed for me. Likewise my parents have never used drugs.
I don't think nurses are anymore likely to come from a drug/alcohol addicted home than any other profession. In fact, the majority of parents who are drug/alcohol addicted place no value on education and do not instill the value of education in their children. Don't flame me, I said the majority, not all.
Guess I'm one of the lucky ones. My parents have never partaked in any illegal activites. Have been married for 38 years, taught me good morals and values. No complaints here! Weird, I've never heard of this "statistic" before. First time for everything I guess.
My biological mother was a nurse who's alcoholic father took off for another state when she was a young girl. She had me at 19; my dad was 18. She had drinking problems and drug problems but usually kept them at bay when I was young. She became a nurse when I was 10 years old. Then she and my dad divorced and her problems escalated. I hadn't seen her since I was 13. Hadn't talked to her on the phone since one time when I was 14. She died last year of a drug overdose in a crack house. Oh, she had lost her license years before for drug diversion.
I didn't have plans to be a nurse; I actually wanted to be a teacher. I fooled around in school, dropped out, and then became a CNA. The rest is history.
I sometimes wonder at the fact that we both are/were nurses. My dad said she and I (when she wasn't on drugs) were very similar in personality so maybe that had something to do with it.
.thumb.jpg.08933f6edc7e47f7212fcc1350e1031e.jpg){kind=small}
KelRN215, BSN, RN
1 Article; 7,349 Posts
I highly doubt that 85% of nurses came from the same kind of background. I grew up in an abusive household, my father was an alcoholic and abused drugs as well as all of us. My parents divorced when I was 16. None of that has anything to do with my becoming a nurse.
The vast majority of the nurses I went to school with/worked with came from happy homes.