nursing instructors continue to tell new students tha they will make them nurses. wrong nursing is a calling similar to the ministry. i have both callings and feel that nursing can be used to comfort and encourage those patients that are fearful and in pain. i don't preach to my patients but encourage them to talk about their feelings about their illness and what scares them most. most have told me its not knowing what's happening with their care not the illness or death. the unkonwn is more frightening than death.
if you got into nursing for the money or "glory" or to further yourself with self agrandizing titles and degrees then i feel lyou are in the wrong career. those who entered nursing when i did who were intrigued with money and prestige to be gain are no longer in nursing. they still have their license, degrees, and their prestige because they are instructors but not nurses. they have been away from the reality of nursing and changes in the real world of health care not the information in books but in the trenches. nurses have to have a calling to be willing to clean a patient who has soiled himself/herself, clean up emesis whether is is food or blood, hold the hand of a lonely dying patient who came from a nursing home with no family left comfort them or cry with a family when a child passes or a grandparent or parent passes.
the emotional draining of the above is often offset by the patient that thanks you for saving them or changing their life or saving a family's loved one. i have experienced all the above and still thank God that i can still make a difference.
the instructors i have had gave the hooks and matrix to build my career for helping my patients but they didn't make me a nurse. i had been helping others my entire life and was prepared to do so as a nurse. they just sharpend my skill level.
What do you think?
do a random act of kindness each day. smile at a stranger and watch how the return the smile. afterward notice its hard to be grumpy when working.
Life has many twists and turns. I think if someone has an interest in health science plus they are a basically kind person, plus they like the earnings, then those are good ingredients to make a good nurse. I guess I'm uncomfortable with the 'calling' talk. I mean, sure some have stronger desires than others to be a nurse, and some from a younger age. But that does not mean that my friends, the social worker, and laid off factory worker who switched careers are somehow less than. They are great.
I'm also uncomfortable with the notion that those who push for higher and higher earnings in nursing are somehow bad. Not so.
I guess I would restrict talk of 'callings' to those in the religion business.
:yeahthat:
Altruism is wonderful; but it don't pay the bills.
This is one of the reasons why I feel like nursing fits me. I agree with those that said 'it's a job, and I do it well, but it's a job." (sorry to so loosely translate your post, Timothy ) I also think it can be a calling, but as someone else said, don't put every nurse into that category because it's not realistic or fair.
In my former life as a teacher the idea that it's a divine 'calling' has done so much damage to the profession by making teachers think that they should accept crappy working conditions because they are so lucky to be called to do this important work. Baloney! It's a job, you're a professional, and as such you deserve respect and decent working conditions.
This is one of the reasons why I feel like nursing fits me. I agree with those that said 'it's a job, and I do it well, but it's a job." (sorry to so loosely translate your post, Timothy ) I also think it can be a calling, but as someone else said, don't put every nurse into that category because it's not realistic or fair.
In my former life as a teacher the idea that it's a divine 'calling' has done so much damage to the profession by making teachers think that they should accept crappy working conditions because they are so lucky to be called to do this important work. Baloney! It's a job, you're a professional, and as such you deserve respect and decent working conditions.
Exactly. And the idea that nursing is a "calling" promotes abuse toward nurses by administration, doctors, and patients and their families. After all, they expect nurses to be martyrs, not professionals.
I think that having a "calling" to become a nurse is very well possible and I think that there are most certainly nurses out there who are in the profession because they have what they experience to be a calling to be a nurse.
For me personally, I found nursing to be something I really like and I also couldn't see myself doing any other type.
I do believe that for a part, instructors change you into a nurse. This goes for me at least. Since I started nursing school about 7 months ago I have noticed some changes in the way I behave, for example I have become a bit less impatient with people than I was before, that sort of thing.
I do believe, that in order to be able to become a good nurse you have to be a kind person, not extremely so but just plain normal kind.
From an article I wrote last August, and pertinent to this discussion:
"A couple of suggestions, if you want to decide if you're cut out to be a nurse.
1. Are you good with science? While nursing isn't pure science, it's an applied area, and if you're not good with dealing with scientific areas, nursing probably isn't for you.
2. Are you good with organization? Can you deal with simultaneous multiple demands? In other words, nursing requires shuffling demands on one's time from colleagues (other nurses, physicians, other caregivers), patients, as well as supervising others, and often dealing with family members.
3. Do you genuinely like working in close contact with people? If you are someone who prefers to work alone, you might want to reconsider.
4. Are you "quick"? By this, I don't mean intelligence, though that's needed. I mean, are you a quick learner, someone who's able to assess a situation and deal with it easily.
5. Some have recommended being a CNA to see if you like nursing. That's not a bad idea (I did it) but being a CNA is not being a nurse, and as a nurse, one deals with a whole different set of priorities and problems. I would especially encourage finding a nurse (local hospitals might help with this) who would let you shadow for a day, seeing how a nurse organizes a time schedule, deals with problems, and works through day-to-day practice issues.
6. If you don't have some of these skills, it's not the end of the world. All of them can be learned. But it's important to know that they are things nurses deal with on an everyday basis.
7. Notice that I said nothing about caring. That's because -- in the end -- nursing is not about caring. It's about doing your job. Caring comes and goes, and most days you will find that you genuinely care about your patients' well-being, and that's good. But there will be days when you honestly don't give a rip. That's OK, too. When those days come, you simply go on, doing your job, and being good at your career. "Caring" is sometimes overrated, as though a nurse who is professionally or technically incompetent can get by on "caring." Not at all. Caring is not having heart-felt emotion for your patient. Caring is being a top-notch professional who is skilled, competent, and able. That's what counts."
Specializes in Specializes in L/D, newborn, GYN, LTC, Dialysis.
How, when dealing with all kinds of people, can we break this down to an "either or" situation? People are sometimes "born to it" ...others are "made" into it. Some its a combo of the two, or other variables. There just is not either-or to this one.
I made myself into a nurse with the help of mentors, job experience and perservance.
Not a calling for me at all.
I too majored in Social Work prior to this - I have wanted to do something that made some kind of difference to other people. But that could be so many things.
You can go into nursing for many reasons and still be good or bad at it. Frankly I think looking at it as an interesting and secure career that has a variety of options is a more realistic viewpoint. For those who put the more spiritual aspect of caring above all, there's plenty of opportunities to consider it a ministry. After all, even ministers get paid.
This is what I don't like about the concept of being "called" to nursing: it denies that this is truly a high tech job.
It implies that 'caring' is the MOST important concept of nursing and everything else is a distant second. Look at the title of this thread: if you 'care' enough because you were 'called' to it, then anything you learn in school and experience is fluff by comparison.
Not everybody that feels 'called' to nursing has what it takes to learn the science and thrive in a high stress environment.
I agree with Mr. Huffman earlier in the thread: defining nursing as simply 'caring' not only devalues us, but disempowers us. Every human 'cares' about something so if nursing is just a focusing of 'caring' then anybody can be a nurse. If anybody can be a nurse, then why pay nurses more than the guy behind the counter at 7-eleven? This sets us up to fail.
I am a 'caring' nurse. But, more importantly, I'm a highly trained, highly skilled bedside monitor and interventioner. I am just as likely to be tweaking balloon pump waveforms as I am to be cleaning poop. Just as likely to titrate 3 critical drips at once than to be holding a hand.
With pts more and more critically ill, even on the medical units, it's not fair to define nursing by 'caring' and 'callings'. If you don't have what it takes to critically evaluate and intervene, then you shouldn't be a nurse. You learn that in school and experience.
And the eduation and experience that makes us 'critical managers' also makes us a very valuable commodity. I remember a HR manager once that used to huff, "I just don't understand nurses that are in it for the money." Get used to it. Because not only am I a 'spiritualist', I'm an undervalued 'biologist' and a highly refined 'scientist'. So, show me the money.
ZASHAGALKA, RN
3,322 Posts
I've been a nurse for 13 yrs.
I'm in it for the money. That's why I went to nursing school. That's why I'm still working.
Now, I'm GOOD at what I do. And just because I'm earning a paycheck doesn't mean I'm not empathic and 'caring'.
I don't believe in 'callings'; I believe in free will.
Now I was given the ability to excel at this talent and that. But how I put them together was totally my free will to command.
However much I excel in nursing, if there wasn't a paycheck at the end of the day, I wouldn't be doing it.
~faith,
Timothy.