Why are you REALLY going into nursing? Honest answers please.

Nursing Students General Students

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Ok, I'm a bit frustrated with all of these posts telling us that we shouldn't go into nursing because we need a job and steady income. Sure, I do like to help people, but I need a steady job even more. So, I decided to post a poll to see if we can get some honest answers.

:p

Specializes in LTC/Behavioral/ Hospice.

*grouphug*:p

RNstudent, I wish you well in school, too! :)

Truly Blessed, I just want you to know I am a poor KY farmgirl who wants the same thing you do: to be happy and live a comfortable life. Best of Luck to you and I am sure you will make a great nurse.:)

I think anyone going into nursing knows it's not about them and it is all about the patient, Like I said before, just because a person's family is more important to them than anyone else is, doesn't mean they have complete and utter diregard for others, including patients lying in a hospital bed. Me, NEVER!

Exactly. Besides, if you don't have to worry about getting laid off and know you'll probably always have a job ... and you know you can buy groceries and pay the mortgage ...

I personally feel that I will be able to better focus on patients and care for others ... because I won't have to be struggling to survive all the time.

:eek:

thanks lisamc1. does this mean i am welcome here again?:chuckle

YES! Lizz, EXACTLY! When I don't have to live in survival mode anymore...that will allow room in my life to be the caring and loving nurse I want to be!

Exactly. Besides, if you don't have to worry about getting laid off and know you'll probably always have a job ... and you know you can buy groceries and pay the mortgage ...

I personally feel that I will be able to better focus on patients and care for others ... because I won't have to be struggling to survive all the time.

:eek:

Truly Blessed, I just want you to know I am a poor KY farmgirl who wants the same thing you do: to be happy and live a comfortable life. Best of Luck to you and I am sure you will make a great nurse.:)

Thank you so very much. Same to you. lol, I think we misunderstood each others posts. The internet is great, but there is no "tone" in typed words and so much gets misconstrued along the way. Ha! See ya around the board RNstudent:)

Specializes in LTC/Behavioral/ Hospice.

thanks lisamc1. does this mean i am welcome here again?:chuckle

awww, you were never unwelcome! :) i have been reading this site for a couple of weeks now, and i find that we nurses and nursing students are a passionate bunch! don't be afraid to state your opinion!

edited for poor grammar.

Well I am one of those who always wanted to be a nurse. I am the oldest of 5 children and had a Mother who saw one drop of blood and she was outta there, so I was the one who took care of all the wounds....guess that is what made me just know that I was meant to be a nurse. I was to start nursing school in 1982 but the school started in Sept and I was due to have my first child at the end of Sept, so they (head of the nursing school) talked me into Respiratory school (started in Feb) I went and I know this was not what I wanted to do, not enough patient care and in my area not enough excitement because I think that when you have a critical patient and you help then that is excitement and a RUSH and I guess I am an addict to that I LOVE IT. I worked as a Hospice CNA for four years and didn't make much money but found it to be one of the most rewarding things I have ever done in my life. Over the years I have always felt that pull towards medicne and when the opportunity arrived that I could go to school and have most of it paid for I jumped on it. Don't get me wrong I am looking forward to making good money and a stable secure job (first full time job in 15 yrs and after 1yr and 1day place closes down jobs go to Costa Rica) that can't go to a different country or state is a great blessing, but would I do it for no pay I am not sure but I was a CNA ( they work like dogs) for very little pay and I stuck with it because of my love of helping with the healing of bodies and souls. Might sound corny but that is how I feel................

1) Job security - no fear of losing my job

2) Pay - can afford to have children, house, car, etc..

3) Reward of working with people in need - meaningful work!

4) The uniform - seriously, I hate dressing up for work. Scrubs are great.

5) The variety - enough of it for everyone to find their niche

6) Mental stimulation - love biology!

7) The hours - can have a baby and still work odd shifts

8) Great career ladder - can always return to school for advanced degree

9) The fast pace - never time to be bored!

10) The "rush" - periodic adrenaline rush keeps me on my toes

11) The respect - we're the #1 most respected field in the nation!

What other field can provide this much reward in so little educational investment time? It's an incredible field, really.

Maybe I wrote it wrong! What I am trying to say is nurses need to be caring and loving too. If they see their patients as just another number that is wrong to me....

I am doing this also because it pays good. However, the #1 reason is to provide care for those in need of it. You are not the focus it is the patient! If you don't think so, let the patients begin to complain about you and see if you still have that good paying job then.

This is not directed towards you in particular RNstudent,wife&mom, but your words bring up a memory that upsets me and that I'd want to share.

I once worked with and observed a group of nurses and technicians discriminate against a fellow worker because he openly took his work as a job and not as some kind of special calling to help others. This poor fellow SUFFERED from the discrimination he recieved. He eventually couldn't function properly and had a VERY hard time doing his job, not because he wasn't a good worker or as good or caring as the next person, but because everyone scapegoated their own self-image problems on to him. I was so dissapointed to work with these self-righteous nurses who didn't know one of the top lessons in psychology: If you make someone feel degraded, you dismotivate him.

No matter what profession you are in, to be the best of what you are, you are Always told, "You are not the focus, it is the _________." It is the beauty of the product. It is the speed of the sales. It is the amount profit. It is the customer satisfaction. It is the artistic quality of litterature you are writing. The health of those tomatoes you're harvesting. Ect. In our profession, it is the welfare and being of the patient. So, nurses don't share any special "caring", "loving" qualities that all human beings don't posess. There is NOT A DAMN other suceeding professional in the world that does not put as much heart/care/love into his work as a nurse puts into his work. Nurses do not have the monopoly on being caring.

In other words, you can talk the talk and say I'm here because I really, really, really care and I'm soooo loving and I'll be sooo great and I'm such a great, altruistic person. But so is everyone. Everyone knows how to love outside themselves. Its not a requirement that is particular to nursing but to every motivated worker in this world.

For all of you who say, Please do not become a nurse to someone just for their ideologies, I say please do not discriminate against or degrade your fellow students/co-workers for not having the same ideolgies as you. It really hurts me that nurses act this way. In the end, we are all equal and it is a mistake to think that an ideologie can make someone act more altruisticly or caring than anyone else: anyone can learn to be a good nurse and making someone feel degraded for their wants/ideologies is only going to dismotivate them and make them perform less well than they and you want them to.

I believe in my heart that I am meant to be a nurse. When I first considered becoming a nurse, I felt this sense of peace inside me. To this day, I still feel that "rightness" about my decision.

That doesn't mean it is always easy. It has been humbling to go from a $60,000 a year job with my own office to making beds and filling water pitchers. Granted, I was laid off from my $60,000 job, but it is still a significant role change. Some times I want to yell, "I have a master's degree; I can manage to make a bed without supervision!" But I swallow my ego and do what I have to reach my goal of becoming a nurse.

I will say that factors such as job security, decent money, the ability to find a job anywhere and flexibility were the reasons why I looked into nursing in the first place, but I wouldn't have gone into nursing only for those reasons. Having been blessed with an excellent education, there are easier ways for me to make money.

However, I don't think the reason someone goes into nursing determines whether they are a good nurse. I am sure there are many people who felt a "calling" to nursing but are bad nurses. My only concern would be someone who hates nursing but does it only for the money. I think that attitude would impact patient care. If someone provides excellent care, it shouldn't really matter what their motivation is.

Exactly. Besides, if you don't have to worry about getting laid off and know you'll probably always have a job ... and you know you can buy groceries and pay the mortgage ...

I personally feel that I will be able to better focus on patients and care for others ... because I won't have to be struggling to survive all the time.

:eek:

YES! YES! YES! YES! YES!!! Exactly!

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