Do you believe in a "calling" to nursing?

allnurses Guide · Nov 10, 2003

Originally posted by alphafe
Well. Hmm. I don't quite know how to respond!
I certainly don't hear voices or hear "the Lord" calling me. It's very hard to describe -- it's just an idea that won't let go. I'm a pretty cerebral
(v. spiritual) person which makes this all that much more inexplicable! Then again, maybe that is why I'm pulled to ER care v. hospice care. Maybe it's time for me to develop other parts of myself, get off my franny and start **doing** v. reading, talking, thinking, blah blah blah! I've been doing the LATTER since my dd was born. Well that and one h*** of a lot of stuff that makes me really qualified for nursing! Hey, speaking of which, how many credits should we get for having been MOTHERS?!

NOT ENOUGH CREDIT!

steph

colleen10 · Nov 10, 2003

I've never been much of a religous person but definately spiritual.

Before my husband and I got married a few years ago I went ahead and got confirmed in the Catholic Church and attend regularly.

After about a year of going to church every Sunday I was having a hard time in my career of HR and also Marketing. I knew that I wasn't going to be very successful or move ahead in either of those fields and I really felt I was a lot smarter than what I was required to do in that line of work.

I started thinking about nursing and healthcare but then one Sunday I went to church and the reading from the bible was about a servant who had many talons but instead of using them he buried and hid them away. The jist of the story is that it is a sin to hide your talons, god gave them to you for you to use and you should.

So, that day a light bulb went off. I am smart, have always been interested in science, medicine, etc. and am a very empathetic person. No matter what your religion or spirituality I think that it is a sin to not use what gifts and talents whoever created you gave you. That day I decided to go ahead and become a nurse.

a_clay · Nov 10, 2003

I felt a calling as well. When I was a teenager I had no clue what I wanted to do for a career and then 1 day out of the blue at age 19 I decided right then and there I wanted to be a RN. I don't remember exactly what was going on but I am 26 now, still working toward that goal, but in all the years since I have never wanted to be anything else. I am very compasionate person and I get a great deal of personal satisfaction by being a "giving" type of person and as a nurse I can do that everyday. It gives me a sense of worth helping someone - it feeds my hunger within and helps people at the same time. In that time period I had bumps in the road and sometimes people have asked "Well, is there anything else that you'd like to do?" and I say "ABSOLUTELY not....even with a friend of mine (an LPN) telling me how much she hated being a nurse....I still want to be a RN.

kelticfairy · Nov 10, 2003

I am very new to this. I have recently submitted my application for nursing school and I am very scared/excited. I am currently a events coordinator which is o.k. but I have this feeling of "What else am I suppose to do with my life?". I feel like I have done everything there is to do except see grandchildren be born and raised. I am only 26 years old with a wonderful husband and two small boys and I don't think I should already feel this way. So, I decided to go to school. I went a couple years ago for horticulture classes (while their thought of taking anatomy classes just for the fun of it and my husband said I was a geek) but not more than three semesters and I had thought before signing up for them about nursing but thought I would not stick with it or be bad at it or something. Whatever it was I didn't do it. So, now I am. I have to quit my full time job and figure out how to help with bills and see my little ones to school and spend time with everyone while learning to make myself go to school for the next three years. I am so lazy with everything that I feel I need a chalange in my life and I look forward to this one but, well...

I am petrified of everything. Will I finish, will my kids remember me, will they except me, will it be worth it in the end? Did anyone else feel this way? I'm sorry for such a jumbled message but I have been waiting to spill my guts to someone for weeks. Please help.

Oh, and is the math crazy cause I can do most anything but math.

:confused:

candi361 · Nov 10, 2003

I feel it's a calling. I wanted to be a nurse since I was a kid, let myself be talked out of it, and here some 30 years later, after doing a variety of careers that have left me unfilled and continuously searching, I decided that it was time to listen to the small voice within that has been trying to make itself be heard for years. I've found it's still telling me the same thing.

I have tried to talk myself out of nursing in every which way possible over the past several months but ultimately, I feel deep in my heart that if I don't do it, I'll be letting myself down in some major way and turning my back on an important thing I came here to do. I know it won't be easy but then again, it's been my experience that anything worthwhile seldom is.

alphafe · Nov 10, 2003

...and anyone else who cares to listen. Thanks for opening up on this board!

I'm a lot older than you are and I know how hard it is to hear things from old ladies like me. But this is advice I need to hear, too -- it's sounds very corny but you MUST follow your bliss, whatever it is and how seemingly unattainable that is.

You know what it is for you -- it might be nursing, it might be something altogether different. I have paid dearly for not *really* acting on who I know I am -- fundamentally, way down deep. I have chosen careers and activities and ways to procrastinate becoming that person for years! When you are who you really are you'll be amazed at the *stuff* you can live without...

:kiss