Bashful Nurses?

[moosie]

Is nursing a bad career choice for someone that is bashful, or does bashfulness usually wear off if you have a strong desire to help people and a strong interest in things like anatomy & physiology and assessing patients for clues about how they are doing?

Thanks in advance for your replies.

[LPN1974, LPN]

I used to be extremely bashful and shy.....

I've gotten over the most of it.

It just takes time. As a person grows their confidence will grow, too.

Sometimes, tho, that old bashful feeling will rear its head and make me feel afraid I'm going to do or say something stupid. And sometimes I do....but I've learned to laugh at myself more.

If you admit how dumb you feel sometimes, you'll be surprised at how others feel the same way.

I'm a natural brunette, before my "gray" hair came in, now I'm a hi-lighted blonde out of a bottle and my blondeness sure shows sometimes......no offense to real blondes.......it's just ME. I'm dumb sometimes.

[Otessa, BSN, RN]

I am an introvert. I don't do well when speaking in front of a crowd of people(I'm in Toastmasters for this) BUT the patient's room has been my 'stage' for 18 years(CNA and RN) I know what I'm talking about and it is educating the people I am caring for_the patients and their families...........

[Jo Dirt]

I'm not exactly shy but I tend to be very quiet and a loner. However, I love people (especially elderly folks) and when I am around patients I tend to loosen up a whole lot, become talkative and very personable. In fact, my marriage has even become stressed due in part to my sullen nature at home. But put me with patients and I do a complete turnaround. It happens to be the way I am wired.

I have heard Robin Williams is like this (not claiming to be like Robin Williams). As personable as he is for the public they say he is very serious and a loner when he is offstage. Maybe that is why he is so good at what he does?

So, yes, I believe it is very possible to overcome this issue, in your case, being bashful. When you start to focus on the task at hand you will naturally feel more confident in yourself and one day you will realize, after having cared for a patient that you weren't so bashful after all and you will be surprised with yourself.

[jhawks83]

I went from manual labor to waiting tables to bartending. I am currently a PCT that starts nursing school in Aug. I think that that works as a good transition, but I am also pretty sure that few people have made the same changes.

[VivaLasViejas, ASN, RN]

You all might be interested to know that on the Myers-Briggs personality inventory, most nurses (or would-be nurses) are Introverts! Not sure exactly why that is, since nursing requires putting yourself out there every day, but I remember taking the test back in my college days and discovering that out of a class of 30, I was one of only 7 students who scored high in the Extrovert category. Go figure.......of course, I don't have a shy bone in my body, but I was surprised to learn that so many of my fellow students did. Who'da thunk it?