did you become the nurse you thought that you wanted to be?

Published

Specializes in Surgical, quality,management.

I always smile when I read about student nurses or those interested in nursing state unequivocally that they want to be an ICU nurse or an ER nurse or a peads nurse.

I myself thought I wanted to be a midwife (L + D) (I am Irish trained). But after my 4 weeks on the maternity unit I realised that it was defiantly was not where I wanted to be. Too much exposure to a section of the population that does not believe in prenatal care and expected the health service to provide everything for them.

However I fell in love with colo-rectal surgery and the care of them post operatively on the wards.

Did you end up where you thought you would be as a bright eyed student?

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in LTC.

I always saw myself as a OB or peds nurse. I now don't see myself in peds ( didn't like it much in clinical). I'm still hoping to get a job in L and D right now. Currently I work in LTC, I'm not crazy about it but I'm grateful for a job and love those residents! I think God has me exactly where He wants me to be at the moment. I'm okay with that !

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in NICU.

I did. And my nursing instructors made my life hell for it. Of course, they had seen many bright-eyed students as you describe. But I knew what I wanted - to take care of sick babies - and here I am more than a decade later.

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in School Nursing.

Not at all! In school I was all about critical care, and the closest thing to peds I thought I might consider was NICU. I truly thought I would be an ICU nurse for the majority of my career. Got my first job out of school on a cardiac stepdown and discovered the reality of floor nursing is not what I imagined. I felt like a task-master and did not have time for the things I like best about nursing: teaching, therapeutic communication, comfort care, etc. Stumbled into a job in School Nursing and here I stay! Thankfully, it is not often critical care (although I have my scary moments), but I have time for the things I value most about nursing, and I have developed a love for the public health aspect of the job. Wouldn't change a thing if I could!

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in Neuro ICU.

I seem to have, yes.

When I went into school I was interested in Hyperbarics.

Going through the program I enjoyed L&D a lot and considered Midwifery for a while. Coming out of school I was just looking for any job I could find and wound up in Neuro ICU. I hated that for about six months and then got pretty comfortable and started liking the job. I really like taking the sickest patients. Turns out I like adrenaline (I did not know that about myself).

Then a job opened up in Hyperbarics. They needed an ICU nurse to go into the chamber (it's a multiplace) with vented patients. We're the only 24/7 chamber in the state and I'm the only critical care nurse in the hospital that works here so technically when I'm on call (also 24/7) I'm covering the state.

Taking someone on a vent, sedated and critical gets really exciting when you're using primitive equipment (no IV pumps for drips, no defibrilator, extra-basic monitor) in what's effectivley a submarine that's 60 or so feet underwater.

Because there's not a lot of these patients I also work ICU contingent in a large urban trauma center to keep my critical care skills current.

I also thought I'd like to teach, so I teach clinicals a few times a year.

I really enjoy the challenge of working in those environments. So it turns out I'm doing something I was really interested in from the start.

Up Vote Up Vote ×

i was all set to take the pedi nurse practitioner course at the local university when my husband got a job transfer. interviewed for jobs in new area and ended up in critical care. 20 years of it was really great, and then suddenly... case management, then independent practice in life care planning and legal nursing. you just never know. :hrnsmlys:

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in Psych ICU, addictions.

Hell no! I hated my psych rotation in school. The class was interesting but psych nursing wasn't what I wanted. I'm not sure what I wanted--probably progressive or tele--but I knew what I didn't want: L&D and psych. But when you graduate during the start of the new grad job crisis and life deposits you as a new grad in a psych facility, which you voluntarily choose over a PCU because you had a toddler and psych offered the better hours...

Fortunately for me I fell in love with psych nursing and I don't regret my decision. Sometimes I wish I had some more of the medical side of experience, but overall I'm having a lot of fun in psych. Plus if I really want the medical experience, I could go get some.

But I'm also a relative youngster as far as my nursing career goes. Who knows where it will go?

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in geriatrics.

I was sure I would never end up in LTC. I had a rotation in LTC at school that I didn't enjoy. That's where I am at the moment, and I like it a lot. However, my "dream" is OR/ PACU. I don't want to work any nursing floors, with that exception. Someday, I plan to end up in the OR again. Good hours and very interesting.

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in Certified Med/Surg tele, and other stuff.

Sort of, lol. I always liked med/surg but thought I really wanted to work in labor delivery. I floated frequently to mother baby and would assist in a delivery (aka gopher). Afterawhile, I was getting bored floating to mother/baby. Taking care of primidonna's was old at times. I was happy to be back on med/surg where we would occasionally play with crash carts and I could take care of LOL and LOM who appreciated everything I did for them.

Every once in awhile the bug gets to me to try my hand at L&D, but I really have a sweet job and don't want to give it up.

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in Level II Trauma Center ICU.

I thought I would work in Peds, even worked there as a student nurse. But darn it, those peds nurses are a notoriously happy bunch, lol and they had a very low turnover. The director wanted me but couldn't find room in the budget so I interviewed for the ICU, the only other rotation that I really liked in school as I also thought I wanted to be a CRNA. So, here I am, still in the ICU with a love of critically ill patients, especially traumas. Spending more time in the unit also made me realize that the role of the CRNA wasn't the best fit for me. I like to be part of solving the puzzle and the progression of the critical illness so I decided to enroll in an ACNP program instead.

I must admit, however, that I still miss peds and sometimes taking care of noncompliant, chronically ill patients gets a little old.

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in Nursing Professional Development.

Yes and no. I have achieved some of my originial goals, but not others. I've had some of the jobs that I always wanted, but not others.

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in Emergency, Trauma, Critical Care.

I swore I was going to be a psych nurse in corrections, I love all those psych books about serial killers and was fascinated by those who are mentally disturbed. I really liked my clinicals at an institute for the criminally insane but was bored at a regular inpatient psych unit.

I got out of school and went straight to ICU...still enjoying it three years later, but just got a case management job. So go figure.

Up Vote Up Vote ×
+ Join the Discussion