Did you choose nursing because it was your "calling"?

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  1. Was nursing your calling?

    • 20
      Yes
    • 56
      Not at all
    • 27
      To some degree
    • 4
      Other

107 members have participated

Hello :) I'm a first year in college interested in pursuing nursing.

Did you feel "called" to be a nurse? Did your expectations of nursing fit reality?

I read that people who choose nursing because of their desire to help others, rather than the actual enjoyment of the job, were more likely to burn out quicker.

Any thoughts on this?

I'm trying not to see nursing as a profession that is always "rainbows and butterflies" and to not let that cloud my expectations of nursing.

Specializes in Psych ICU, addictions.
I'm not sure where you're going to find the opportunities for meaningful conversations or to dig deeply into patients' lives.

Come to psych nursing. Therapeutic communication is one of our major nursing interventions. :)

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Specializes in Pediatrics, Pediatric Float, PICU, NICU.

I always knew I wanted to be a pediatric nurse. Specifically pediatrics, and I would never have become a nurse if I had to work adults. My expectations were based on my own personal experiences of being hospitalized multiple times throughout the year from the time I was a baby until I was 19 years old for my own chronic health condition. With that being said, it started with this romanticized idea as a younger kid that pediatric nurses got to have fun and play with me all day and as I grew into my teenage years I realized that it was less rainbows and butterflies and more "combat with rations" (as one of the replies said) and that is what really sold me on becoming a peds nurse. 10 years later and I wouldn't change a thing.

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OMG, has this one come round again? Save some time and go to this link and check out the MANY threads that have beat this horse to death many times over. It's a job, it's a holy calling, whatEVS. As with immunizations and abortion, lots of heat but little light, and nobody's opinion changes.

https://allnurses.com/gsearch.php?cx=partner-pub-9350112648257122%3Avaz70l-mgo9&cof=FORID%3A10&ie=UTF-8&q=is+nursing+a+calling%3F

Can you tell it's only Tuesday and it's been a long damm week already? Calling? Not so much. I liked science and I liked physiology and I liked the adrenalin rush of critical care for 20 years. Now, with other priorities I mostly like the exorbitant pay I get for using my brains rather than my back and feet, and the ability to take a day off whenever I want to (or can, since I have my own business). Couldn't do it if I hadn't gone to college and grad school for nursing, but I have no illusions of being "called." Call me anything but late for dinner.

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I wouldn't say that I even had an idea of nursing as a "calling" when I decided to start. I was taking classes for computer sciences and discovered my friends that had finished had a hard time finding jobs. I did some research and found that nursing had a "shortage", but more interestingly that nursing had MANY facets that someone could work in.

I've always found people interesting. While I like that math has concrete answers to equations and can be used to calculate and program computers, humans have no such restriction. Every single one is different, even if it is a twin with the same DNA. The draw to be able to work with people and see how we deal with life is eventually what made me switch my career outlook. I'd say the pay isn't bad and the fact that there are so many other jobs that can be had is a decent bonus as well.

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Well I'm glad you're taking the time to look into it, because nursing is not rainbows and butterflies as you said! It is a tough job and you have to think on your feet a lot, I'm a senior in my BSN program so I only have so much experience but I have seen a lot, and there is definitely a more to nursing than you would think going into it...however, I do feel like its my calling and passion! Some days more than others :) But please, to be a nurse you have to #1 CARE about people, even when they're gross and smelly and rude to you, you have to be professional and empathetic and caring. If you don't care about people then please don't pick it just as a job because its more than that! And you can tell that the unfavored nurses are the ones that come just to get the paycheck and could careless about what's going on with the patient.

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Specializes in Pediatric Hematology/Oncology.

Can you tell it's only Tuesday and it's been a long damm week already? Calling? Not so much. I liked science and I liked physiology and I liked the adrenalin rush of critical care for 20 years. Now, with other priorities I mostly like the exorbitant pay I get for using my brains rather than my back and feet, and the ability to take a day off whenever I want to (or can, since I have my own business). Couldn't do it if I hadn't gone to college and grad school for nursing, but I have no illusions of being "called." Call me anything but late for dinner.

A- to the effing -men. ;)

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Specializes in Pediatric Hematology/Oncology.

I have thought a lot about this concept -- nursing as a "calling." I definitely wasn't called to anything. Everything I've done in life was out of sheer practicality, the idea that I would go into something that would eventually put me where, as AliNajaCat said, I can use my brain more than my already broken down jalopy of a body. The specialty I am in, however, summoned me. I didn't really have a choice, I definitely didn't go into nursing school thinking I EVER would go into this specialty. I'm in pediatric hematology/oncology and there are very few unicorns and rainbows to behold here. I'm brand new to this entire career and I have days where I think to myself, "What the **** am I doing?!" But, I definitely wouldn't change that for anything. I'm in an RN residency at a Magnet hospital (that walks the Magnet walk as much as the talk) and I am so, so, so incredibly lucky. Everyday I see things and learn things and feel things that are completely new to me. My whole world has expanded. I feel like I already have leveled up in life quite a bit (especially since we don't get paid holiday pay in residency so on this blessed Thanksgiving 2016, for the first time in 7 years, I will NOT be working a 23.5-hour Black Friday shift -- totaling about 50 hours in the *******ed 3-day weekend).

Tangents aside, I say I was summoned to peds hemonc because it was something I swore I could never do -- I truly never wanted to go into pediatrics let alone cancer! But, on my very first shift in my pediatric clinical rotation, I had an awesome hemonc nurse who basically tricked me into falling in love with the specialty. I never looked back. I busted my ass to get into the hospital of my dreams and busted my ass further to pass the NCLEX. The competition in nursing in stiff. But, that aside, I must caution you that it is dark on this side. There are no rainbows and fuzzy feelings because as nurses, we deal with the absolute worst life has to offer. Those "special" moments you might think of where you're connecting with a patient, you're actually witnessing and sharing in raw, human emotion rooted in desperation, fear, pain, anxiety, trauma. You're simply doing your job when you can sufficiently provide assurance to the patient and walk them back a little bit from the edge of the abyss. You'll wonder at how you simultaneously feel so much and so little to all that is going on around you. If someone is having a good day, you'll be relieved that it's one less thing you have to manage -- you enjoy it but it's not really for your benefit. When things are bad, you enjoy it in a different kind of way but it's hard because sometimes you just can't fix the problem. You are changed -- you are stronger, parts of you might get a little messed up and your sense of humor adapts to help you cope, you may cry like you've never cried, when your friends and family complain about their "problems," you might find yourself inclined to say that petty **** isn't actually a problem.

Is it a calling for me? No, I think the universe put me where I'm supposed to be whether my ditzy butt thought it was right or not. It's a job -- I'm lucky I found a great one. It gives as much as it takes.

FYI, your mileage may vary. It's so much more than just going to nursing school and graduating and getting your license. Nursing school is very involved, not just intellectually but socially (i.e. volunteering, leadership -- so much leadership).

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Specializes in ICU.

Nope, no "calling" for me. I always saw myself as staying single, literature professor at a college, and living alone with my cats. Fast forward: divorced twice, 2 kids, 4 grandkids, nurse for almost 30 years now. As for literature? I don't remember the last time I was able to "read for pleasure."

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Hard to believe you can call yourself an atheist and still be a nurse. I have been a nurse for 33 years and witnessed beyond a doubt there is a God in heaven who created the living and the dying. I vowed to be a nurse at age 16 when my boyfriend's father died of cancer of the brain. I never like nursing for a long time due to the physician's who abused nurses in those early years of long ago. But I found my place and now am sorry that I do not have another 33 years to give to nursing. I love it and it has become a part of me. I want to give everyday to others because of what God has allowed me to be given. Yes, nursing has allowed me to see much and I am grateful. DSPKFM

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I feel like I had a calling. We were supposed to say what we wanted to be at our 6th grade graduation. I said I wanted to be a nurse who helps women in labor. I don't think I had even a concept of what labor actually was at 11. I pushed through my bachelors degree in 3 1/2 years, missing all the fun others reminisce about college. I did not romanticize the job, was not shocked by the reality of it. I've been a nurse for 27 years now, a CNM for 18. When I wanted something to allow more time with my kids, I found school nursing. However you define "a calling", I feel like that defines me.

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Specializes in CCU, SICU, CVSICU, Precepting & Teaching.
Well I'm glad you're taking the time to look into it, because nursing is not rainbows and butterflies as you said! It is a tough job and you have to think on your feet a lot, I'm a senior in my BSN program so I only have so much experience but I have seen a lot, and there is definitely a more to nursing than you would think going into it...however, I do feel like its my calling and passion! Some days more than others :) But please, to be a nurse you have to #1 CARE about people, even when they're gross and smelly and rude to you, you have to be professional and empathetic and caring. If you don't care about people then please don't pick it just as a job because its more than that! And you can tell that the unfavored nurses are the ones that come just to get the paycheck and could careless about what's going on with the patient.

You're still a student, so I'll cut you some slack. There are some fine nurses out there who actually DON'T really care about people when they're gross and smelly and rude to you. You can be professional and "caring" even when you don't really care. You can be sure that there are days when even the most empathetic and caring nurse doesn't really give a flying fig about her rude, nasty patient -- but if she's professional, the patient will never know it. For some of us, there have been days, weeks or even months when we don't really care about our patients beyond ensuring that they receive high quality, competent care. Of course, caring is better but that can be faked. Competence cannot be faked and is far more important. As far as the "unfavored nurses who are the ones that come just to get the paycheck" -- someone else's motivations for doing the job are none of your business. As long as they're professional and competent, they're good.

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Specializes in CCU, SICU, CVSICU, Precepting & Teaching.
Hard to believe you can call yourself an atheist and still be a nurse. I have been a nurse for 33 years and witnessed beyond a doubt there is a God in heaven who created the living and the dying. I vowed to be a nurse at age 16 when my boyfriend's father died of cancer of the brain. I never like nursing for a long time due to the physician's who abused nurses in those early years of long ago. But I found my place and now am sorry that I do not have another 33 years to give to nursing. I love it and it has become a part of me. I want to give everyday to others because of what God has allowed me to be given. Yes, nursing has allowed me to see much and I am grateful. DSPKFM

I'm not sure what flavor of religious you are, but it is perfectly reasonable to call yourself and atheist and still be a nurse. Not everyone sees the same thing as you do. When you see "God", other people see other things, and their viewpoints are just as valid as your own religious viewpoint.

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