Why did you want to be a nurse? Why be a nurse? Why not be a doctor?

[getbabygirl]

i get a lot of people asking me this question so i thought it would be interesting to find out what other people think. i know it sounds corny and you probably get this question very often!!! try to anwser honestly :) or as honest as you can!! thanks!!

[peaceful2100, BSN, RN]

Well when I was in junior high school and high school I had always dreamed of becoming a pediatrician. I really had no clue what everything involved in becoming a doctor. Well, I had a change of events that occured. When I had my daughter almost 5 years ago I had some truly horrible nurses during labor/delivery and postpartum. They treated me horribly and I thought to myself that is NO way to treat a patient. No matter what. NO patient deserve that kind of rude behavior in their time of need. So after I had my daughter a few months after that I talked to an advisor at school about becoming a nurse. She gave me some info on all the nursing schools in my area, she gave me some career info/brochures on nursing and she was even so nice and told me her sister is a nurse and her sister loves to help out people especially young moms because her sister was once a young single mom too. So she gave me her number and I called her sister and she told me everything about being a nurse. Recommended some books on being a nurse and a doctor. I read up and decided that nursing will best suit my career plans and my personality.

Sure a doctor makes money but is it REALLY worth the extra stress, the extra high cost of malpractice insurance. Besides doctors focus more on the scientific, the diagnosis, the pathology side of medicine. Nursing focus on the scientific too but nurses also focus on the well-being, the art, the care of it all. I wanted to me more on the art/well-being side.

Doctors spend a lot of time in school, a lot of time during residency/intership, a lot of time away from their families. Having to be on call a lot. Being a doctor just isn't for me.

Looking back, I am glad I went towards nursing and not the other way around. My cousin just graduated from medical school and looking at what she went too. I thank God that he helped me decide that was not the route for me to take.

[Jennabugs]

let's not forget about intuition that some good nurses have and like Tonya said, the art of nursing. I would never want to be a Doctor, I respect nurses more anyway :)

Jennifer