new guy, nursing as a career, input plz

nurse_gigolo69 · Mar 8, 2002

ok

Im sure its obvious im a total newbie here, but thats why im here. I need to soak up some info before i start in 7 months, maybe this site can help. On a serious note, i've had a neighbor ive known all my life, helped mow here lawn, groceries etc and in the hospitol visiting her i felt "a need to be needed" maybe its cause i know her or what not, but it seemed right. Im getting ALOT of slack from my friends for my career choice and i seem to be the attention of ridicule for not picking a "masculine" job title, but im still going for it. . Dont take my nickname personally, its simply a joke, im a youngblood and a bigkid with a big heart:rolleyes: .

Can anyone recommend any books, sites, magazines etc for me to read ahead? I dont wanna be to overwhelmed when i start.

mario_ragucci · Mar 8, 2002

ghechaw CNA license. Become a certified nursing assistant. Then, as "Kidd rock" says, "get in the pit and try to love someone!" Just make sure you don't "Up jump the boogie" too quick :-)

That was a crock, the person who dissed the older nurses, calling them old. Those kinds of statements become hooked in the sky, and drop on you when you ain't thinking. Yawda know better :-(

OBNURSEHEATHER · Mar 8, 2002

Originally posted by mario_ragucci
Become a certified nursing assistant. Then, as "Kidd rock" says, "get in the pit and try to love someone!" Just make sure you don't "Up jump the boogie" too quick :-)

:chuckle :roll :chuckle :roll :chuckle

Mario, I think I've finally found someone with a taste in music as psychotic as mine

Heather

Mary Dover · Mar 8, 2002

Same here with the psychotic music. Just bought new KidRock CD and love to listen to it LOUD while screaming down the highway in my Camaro. And BY THE WAY, to to those who wish to stereotype us 'old nurses', I have a son gigolo's age. So THERE!

Mary

Jaylee · Mar 8, 2002

I'm new to this board also, and like Gigolo I'm looking to go into the nursing field too, but after reading ya'lls comments I'm re-thinking. Is it all bad? Surely there has to be some kind of gratification, or you wouldn't have been doing it as long as you have. I know everyone's nursing life is different, so someone please respond with some good news about this career, it all can't be gloom and doom. (jaylee)

mario_ragucci · Mar 8, 2002

Originally posted by OBNURSEHEATHER
a taste in music as psychotic as mine
Heather

Mario's tastein music encompasses everything. Thats called eclectic, not psychotic. Psychotic folks can't appreciate music, right? It's all good, and its understood. With a pocket full of shells.

So slide over here, and give me a moment, your moves are so raw, I've got to let you know, your one of my kind (I'm one of your kind):kiss

live4today, RN · Mar 8, 2002

Hi Jaylee! :)

As an "oldster" to the field of nursing, nursing has been very kind to me for the most part of my career...until I injured my right shoulder on the job, but couldn't claim any financial assist from workman's comp because I "wouldn't name a specific patient that was the cause of my injury".... :rolleyes:

Moving on.... :rolleyes: Nursing is what you make it just like any other career choice of a person's choosing. Every career has an "upside" as well as a "downside". Questions to ask yourself are: (1) Why do I want to be a nurse? (2) What do I hope to "give" to the profession of nursing? (3) What do I hope to "gain" from the profession once I become a nurse? (4) Am I choosing nursing for anything other than the true satisfaction of helping the sick and dying? (5) Am I choosing to become a nurse because of the money I stand to make?

Nursing, like motherhood, can often be a very nonappreciative course of life, but the rewards are so overwhelming at times in the outcome of seeing those you help along in their life become someone special to society. Nursing the sick and dying is often times very stressful. Nursing drains one emotionally, physically, and spiritually -- more times than not. Nursing is a very challenging career filled with many possiblities, but there is nothing "glamorous" about nursing. You'll get dirty, bloody, germier than germy, bruised, abused, disrespected, and all the things no human being should ever have to endure. But, that's the brunt of nursing "human beings" back to wellness, and dealing with management, and administrative politics to boot!

If you can handle all of the above, then nursing may be for you!

I loved helping patients feel better! I loved doing dressing changes, wound care, giving injections, starting IVs, teaching patients and their family members pre and post-op instructions; I loved knowing that during the course of my day, I was able to reach out and touch someone other than those within my own world of relatives, and make a difference in a stranger's life. I loved knowing that my patients appreciated me, even if nursing management didn't. It's a wonderful lift to be able to "lift" another human being above one's own self, and see them on the road to living as healthy a life as they possibly can "for them".

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"We make a living by what we get; we make a life by what we give." -- W. A. Nance :kiss

KellieRN · Mar 8, 2002

LIKE I SAID, GROUCHYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYyy.........................I LOVE OLD NURSES, MY MOTHER IS AN OLD NURSE, AND A GOOD ONE TOO, IM JUST SAYIN. IF HES IN THE NURSING FEILD FOR WOMEN, HE BETTER LIKE OLD WOMEN, CUS MORE THAN HALF OF THEM ARE OLD,..........IF YA TOOK IT AS AN INSULT, O WELL CANT HELP YOUR FEELINGS...........ALL I CAN DO IS EXPRESS MINE! TOOTLES........

live4today, RN · Mar 8, 2002

Ahhhhh, Kellie...don't allow us "oldsters" to get to you in that way. We're just having fun teasing you with our "old age wisdom". There isn't a time in anyone's life that they don't go through stages of looking at others as either "young ones" or "old ones", so we're just teasing, arent' we "old nurses"??? :cool: Everythings cool, huh guys? :)

My youngest daughter is 25 years young, and just this morning she was saying how my oldest two grandsons -- who are her oldest two nephews -- think their "16" year old baby sitter is "old", and how at 25, she thinks anyone over 40 is old, and how people who are over 40, start thinking even 60 is looking pretty good to them....:chuckle :roll :chuckle

I hope this makes you laugh and feel better, Kellie! After all, we WERE your age once upon a season!

Socrates in Plato's "The Republic" once said..."I enjoy talking with very old people. They have gone before us on a road by which we too may have to travel, and I think we do well to learn from them what it is like."

mario_ragucci · Mar 9, 2002

Kellie - you know as well as I do - that you don't get old until you get married. People are like flowers. They're beautiful. But once the pollen hits them, now they go to seed. Or a river, your young when you are free flowing. But once you get married, you slow down, stagnate, and stink (yuck!)

Zap! Pow! Bing! Boom! Crash! Roar!

Mario dies laughing, and ascends to the great soap box in the sky :-)

4XNURSE · Mar 9, 2002

Originally posted by Jaylee
.... Is it all bad? Surely there has to be some kind of gratification, or you wouldn't have been doing it as long as you have. I know everyone's nursing life is different, so someone please respond with some good news about this career, it all can't be gloom and doom. (jaylee)

H*** NO!

It's not all bad. I still love it. I fit in with the "old" croud, chronologically, though I have to admit, my chromosomes don't match.

Nursing has it's own set of rewards. You won't get rich as a nurse, but, you won't starve either. Like any profession, you'll always want more money, better conditions, less work, more vacation time, ...... Pro ball players go on strike for more millions. It's just your perspective.

Go for it! Add your talents and make your improvements as you can. Just don't expect to change it overnight. Choose your battles, and then fight them to win. In the long run it's YOU that you have to live with.

Just my $ 0.02.

ken :devil:

live4today, RN · Mar 9, 2002

Amen Ken! I like your ".02" worth! Good advice, and so well put!

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"I've learned that the best laid plans of mice and men often go to waste if not tended to with passion of heart and given one's 100% focus."-- "Me own words here"