becoming a nurse

Nurses General Nursing

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first of all thanks for all the replys on my first post. Now I have a

second question. Why did you choose a to become a nurse, and

do you what to move up in your career. Like becoming a P.A. or

N.P. or CRNA.

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I became a nurse because I thought it would be interesting and hands on helping people, and because I wanted a job I could travel with and that offered varied opportunities. Yes, I am interested in becoming a CNM...eventually. I don't think of PAs as a step up in nursing because I thought they were a different field.

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Specializes in Pediatric Rehabilitation.

Nate,

A bit of honesty here, so be patient ;)

I became a nurse after 8 yrs of college, changing majors 10 times. My employer started a scholarship program for nursing..they paid the full tuition, you worked a couple years for them. I decided I needed to make a committment that would force me to stick with a major.

I have never regretted that decision. I love nursing because it offers so much. It allows you the satisfaction of helping others. It gives you the constant reward of being told how much you are appreciated. The appreciation is not like a boss telling you how much he appreciates you meeting a deadline, it's a much greater appreciation. It's the greatest appreciation possible; it's that of love. Nursing is also very challenging and fast-paced. It requires you to stay educated and to think and act (react) quickly. It's one profession that uses several characteristics at one time. It requires great physical stamina, it requires logic, it requires creativity, it requires compassion, it requires the ability to control your emotions, it requires critical thinking, it requires patience, it requires assertiveness. It requires all those things and more, but if you truly have a love of people, then the rest will usually fall in place.

Moving up in nursing is easy. You can move anywhere from management to advanced-practice. The requirement for moving up is usually education. Management usually requires a minimum of BSN. The advanced-practice degrees require a couple years beyond a BSN. My advice to anyone thinking about nursing would be: First, start out with a BSN. Work the field for a while, find your niche' and then go after your goal. You may, like many nurses, find that you love bedside nursing and have no desire to "move up", or you may immediately decide bedside isn't for you. Either way, your options are wide open. Get your degree, get a job and learn as much as you can. Most of all, set your eye on your goal and don't let anyone discourage you.

Good luck & welcome to nursing!

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i became a patient volunteer at hospice and fell in love with caring for people (especially in their last hours).

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I was working in a Detox center and the LVN's told me that I would be a great RN or MD. And I was original a edu. (history) major. :eek:

I would start off with a RN and then move up, or start with a BSN, and move up. I do not believe that a LVN or CNA position is the best if time and money money allows you to go to school full-time.

Every LVN, I know wants to be a RN. Some have the time, others do not.

old-master has spoken.......

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Specializes in ER, Hospice, CCU, PCU.

I was in the process of a divorce and needed to support 2 boys. I went to the career office at a local community college and asked what I could complete the fastest and make the most money at. He suggested nursing. Back in those days (a century or two ago, you could actually get an AA degree in 2 years with no pre-req's.

So I finished school and have never looked back. Have raised a couple families on my salary and wouldn't want to do anything else. I fell in to ER nursing by accident and never left. They will just end up coding me right there on my own ER floor.

I hope you find your "nitch" like I did.

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Nate,

First of all a PA is a Physician's assistant and is not a nurse. PAs follow the medical model. NP is a Nurse Practitioner and they follow the nursing model. Depending on the individual state one or the other can have more or equal authority/freedom.

To get in to a PA program you have to have in most places a BS. To become a NP in most places you have to have a BSN. In other words become a registered nurse first in including the clinical experiences. In California, one college has a dual PA/NP program but you have to be a registered nurse to enter into the NP portion.

If you have intentions on going in those directions then you might want to check out Physical Therapy as well.

They are all about the same length of time. And all are in high demand. Some other fields within health care are Occupational Therapy, Radiology, and Administration. The demand is high in these areas as well.

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Nate,

Having been an exceptional student these past few years has made me think of going to medical school. There's nothing more unreproachable as a profession in the public eye, but the reality of it is that they don't actually do much real patient care.

Doctors and P.A. s alike use a theory to "care" for patients called The Medical Model. The patient is an organism in thier laboratory that needs the proper stimulus so they can get to the end of the schematical diagram that tells them what to do. I've found since investigating it that they are just more or less automatons for HMO's.

In investigating the possibilities and comparing nursing to other medical professions I've found that nurses not only actually treat the obviouse(with thier own hands. Unlike doctors) but seek out underlying conditions that exist in the patients life as a whole.

To a nurse that is a person that exists outside the walls and interacts with a family and is part of "the bigger picture". Nursing takes an holistic approach that treats the whole person.

This post could get very wordy if a tried to explain all that a nurse is so let me just say that a nurse is first trained with the knowledge of the human as a biological machine as a basis for then actually learning to care for that marvel of evolution as a person.

Medications can relieve pain. Modern technology can keep us all alive long after we should have been dead. The Medical Model will usually lead to a patients discharge, but only a nurse can heal you.

I'm going to be a nurse practitioner some day but my goal before I leave this earth has always been to do something with my life that would actually mean something. That "something" is to heal.

Nursing is the only way I can see to accomplish that.

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That is what interests me too healing the whole person, the "big picture":)

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My husband had open heart surgery at the age of 34 to replace his aortic valve. After the surgery he developed arrythmia problems and to make a long story short (and weeks in the intensive care) I appreciated the way the nurses cared for him AND me as a family member and wanted to return that to others. I also have to admit that I liked the intensity of the unit and that exact unit is where I work today!!:cool:

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:rolleyes:

nate,

Good question!!

For me, it's answered in retrospect - relative to the time in my life (as a Jr. and Sr. in high school) when our Guidance Counselor was obsessed with "hammering home" career decisions- being pondered by the next "round" of budding young adults, all chomping at the bit for a whack at life's glamorous opportunites!

My passion (in my young heart at that time) was to become a "writer" (Journalist).

"Nursing" never entered my mind. Then one day....."voila"........because I was a member of the local Girl Scout Organization I raised my hand to express "interest" in being a "Candy Striper" at the local hospital. It was purely volunteer of course, but I found I loved it. And those were the days when "certification" for anything remotely close to the description of a "nurse's aide" was not yet even heard of.

As I carried out my "volunteer" role which I truly enjoyed,.......it was the adults around me who started to bombard me with the idea that....."you would make such a great Nurse some day!" Well, one thing led to the next......the Nurses at the hospital took me under their "wings" and "trained" me as a Nurse's Aide. I now had a real job, with real responsibilities and made $2.25/hr whenever I worked. (this was in the mid-60's)

BUT.....I became conflicted in my heart and soul to be quite honest about it all. My heart and gut said: "writer" (screamed "WRITER").........the significant adults around me said: "NURSE." (screamed "NURSE"). The adults around me won in that tug-0-war.

So, here I am......thirty years later......NURSE, still listening to my heart and gut SCREAM......."writer!!"

P.S. I love what I DO, make no mistake about it. And am good at it besides. However, I have never viewed myself as a "healer" like other posters have expressed. I bring knowlege, skills, experience, and a love for my fellow man in the form of service, and it is God who does the healing, if there is healing.

Doctors do not heal. Doctors apply science and art. They write orders, we carry them out - using the tools we have available: therapies, medications, surgery, labwork, x-rays, etc. etc. They find what is "broken" and apply what we know, but it is the patient who possesses the healing properties God created him/her with. (all of us with) We are not "automatons."

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