Dear Nurse Beth, I am 27 years old. I take my final prereq this fall, and assuming I can pass the TEAS test I submit my application this fall to the nursing program. My back up plan is to go for a BS like my mother since my final prereq also finalizes my associates. My question is it as rewarding as I hope it is. I want to go into this with my eyes wide open since I will not have the finances to back out if I gain acceptance. My friends, and family all tell me I am doing it for the right reasons I want to help others. I have been a patient in critical need, and had my needs answered so I want to give back. I think of nursing more as a dream at this point than a career. Something that makes it easy to get up each morning when I have a goal in mind. I want to be one of those people that answers the call of those in need especially since I would be dead if not for nurses and doctors. I am not asking if It is worth it I believe it is. What I am asking is am I doing this for the right reasons. I have a tendency to doubt myself because I am 27 without a degree, but I have done well in my prereqs, and have been told I have a decent shot at getting in this fall. So assuming I can gain acceptance there will be no going back for me. Is wanting to help others because I have received assistance the right reason to pursue nursing?

Dear Doubting Yourself, When you ask nurses why they decided to become a nurse, you hear some reasons more than once. One of them is the person who was ill and for whom the experience was a pivotal moment in their life. You are a grateful person who wants to pay it forward and help others. I can't think of a better reason for being a nurse than wanting to help your fellow human being with skill and compassion. Meet their needs. Help them as you were helped. You tend to doubt yourself, so give heed to your family and friends' counsel. Sometimes in life you look back and only then do you see the open doors that guided your life path. You are in your last semester of pre-reqs. You have a good shot of being accepted. If you pass the TEAS and are accepted...I would call that a clear series of open doors. You ask if you are doing it for the right reasons. Absolutely. You ask if wanting to help others is reason enough to pursue nursing. It may be the best reason there is.

Doubting myself because I want to be a nurse so I can "give back"

Dear Nurse Beth Advice Column - The following letter submitted anonymously in search for answers. Join the conversation! Nurses Nurse Beth Nursing Q/A

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CrisM17

2 Posts

Telling a student nurse to quit, because she has some self doubt is one of the most absurd things I've ever heard! Glad you can reflect on what it felt like to be a student. Wow.

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llg, PhD, RN

13,469 Posts

Specializes in Nursing Professional Development.

OK. I can't resist this one.

There is nothing wrong with wanting to give back and help people. But they are not, by themselves, enough reason to choose nursing as a career. To succeed in nursing -- and be happy in it -- a person needs to want to do the kind of work that nurses do and have the ability to do it. If that is the case for the OP (or for any other naive student), then pursuing a nursing career is probably the right thing to do. However, if the work itself does not appeal to a person, or they don't have the intelligence and/or talent for the job, then having a sense of obligation to be a nurse is not sufficient to make a solid nursing career.

There are lots of different ways a person can help others and give back. The OP should choose the one that involves the type of work he/she really wants to do and that requires the talents that the OP has. If that's nursing, great. But if that is not nursing, that's OK too.

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Career Columnist / Author

Nurse Beth, MSN

145 Articles; 3,564 Posts

Specializes in Tele, ICU, Staff Development.

I like to encourage new nurses and student nurses as well as be an advocate for change within nursing-which I know well :)

A lot of idealistic young nurses start out with low confidence and self-doubt, and go on to become amazing nurses. Best wishes

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Desert Lady

46 Posts

The last 2 years I was working in the hospital on the ortho floor I worked part time for the very same reasons you did. Very poor management coworkers who were trying to climb to charge nurse by stepping on my back. Ugly working conditions. Constantly short and the one time I called in on my day off to come in if I could act as charge I was told no we have a charge nurse. So I didn't think anything about it. I did not go in. But when I did go in on a scheduled day I was written up for not coming in on my day off, when I volunteered to go in as charge and was turned. I said OK then I am not coming in. I wasn't trying to be a hero that day and save the behinds they could just work short.

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honeyforasalteyfish

262 Posts

I know you feel like you are just doing your job, but without your job without modern medicine I would be dead.

I think it's all the more admirable when people chalk it up to it's my job. I think doing your job is noble, and can be difficult.

I think most working people are everyday heroes we just become so numb to it as a society that we forget what courage it takes.

Somebody saves your life, and says it's my job, you could see why I get starry eyed about it. I know I will have bad days. I know I have a lot to learn, but nothing worth having in life is easy.

I literally owe my life, and future to society. I am indebted to those who have helped me, and will continue to be so every step of the way. One way or another I have a lot to learn. So far to go, and so much I need to do personally. I know it's not really like that, but I am a one type personality. I mold myself after the people I admire.

I actually admire pragmatic thinking. Even though you wouldn't think it from my post. Life hasn't been what I expected it to be, and I was warned about that too.

I want a degree a career where I can feel satisfied with myself. Where I can look at myself in the mirror, and say good job you did all you could.

So I will just leave it at that my reasons could be the best in the world without execution, and a willingness to learn it's pointless, and that's on me no one else. Thank you all.

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