How come you are a nurse?

What's your story? How come you are a nurse?

I grew up knowing I could never be a nurse. Too selfish, too immature, too lazy.

So I became an engineer. Like others, I became weary of corporate life - the layoffs, the plant closings, the downsizing, and the outsourcing.

The part of project and quality engineering I still liked was working with people from all backgrounds on projects, designs, manufacturing methods, process improvement... People often said, "You just don't seem like an engineer..." I think they meant I had a lot of social skills.

Later in life, I also developed a passion for learning - about anything, but science in particular.

So after a layoff, I decided I needed a new career. I knew people who had gone back to school for nursing and two of my roommates from college are nurses. So I called them. After a short conversation, I said, "I am going to be a nurse." I still remember the exact place I was driving by when I made that decision.

I chose my ADN school based on their reputation, got my CNA cert and quit my job to take prereqs full time. Four loooongg years later, I am an RN!

Unlike Dolce, I didn't take a big pay cut. (Well, those four years of not making hardly any money were a big pain). Heck, I'll probably make more money (with better benefits) my first year of nursing than I made my last year of engineering.

Thanks for asking!

cause I didn't like working at McDonalds! seriously, it just seemed the right thing to do. I knew I needed to have a job when I got out of school. I wanted to do all sorts of creative things and working 3 twelve hour shifts a week seemed an awesome way to make a living and still have a life. I liked science and would have taken biology, micro, psych, anatomy and physiology, chemistry on my own anyway so why not nursing. plus my grandmom was a nurse, and my dad was an MD, I was dooooooomed to be in medicine!

I had decided that the corporate life was completely unrewarding (in any way but money). So I retired from that life and kicked around a for a couple of years. In 2004 I caught pneumonia (caused by MRSA), got sepsis, developed ARDS. No exaggeration -- nearly died (on a vent, last rites and everything). Obviously I survived. Even though I remember nothing my family couldn't say enough about the ICU nurses who looked after me all of those weeks while I was in a coma on a vent. Out of gratitude to that hospital for saving my life I started volunteering in the PACU. The seed was sewn there. Incredibly skilled professional nurses worked there.

At the same time I started volunteering for the Red Cross in disaster relief. Went to a few disasters nationally and then was deployed to Katrina. That was a complete game changer for me. The need for people who could handle the stress of disaster relief AND who had medical training was so huge. Teams of nurses were coming from all over the country. When I got back home I registered for all my prerequisites. Now I am a seasoned disaster volunteer AND have my RN.

Now all I need is proper nursing experience -- baby steps!

ps -- It would be nice if going into nursing was not such a massive pay cut. LOL

Thank you for your service. I was in Katrina and evacuating patients right before the storm. Didn't sleep for about 3 days. All I could think about were the patients and elderly and poor who didn't have a way out of the city. I heard about the looting right before the storm hit, and the rapes in the superdome after. I can't imagine a hotter, sweatier place than NO after the storm. I came back 2 weeks later and rescued as many dogs and cats as I could. I'm so glad there are people like you in the world...and the National Guard...hi Pa nat guard!

I wanted to be like people who had been really nice to me, and helped me feel better. I wanted to be able to do that for someone else. Just about every birthday as a kid, I got a nurse kit (with the candy pills ). THEN, I was going to be a special ed teacher (thank God I got over that - and bless them that can do it). So, back to nursing (after being in a 4-yr university for educ)....decided on an ADN because it was a quick ticket out of town.

I don't regret anything except not being able to do it longer. Back in the nursing shortage of the mid-80s til when I left TX, it was possible to just go do something else when it got to be a major grind doing the same thing day after day (yet I didn't want to do home health because of the traveling- TX summers in a car w/o A/C was lousy!).

I also liked the science of it, and the discipline. I was terrified during nursing school, but chilled out when I graduated, and it was sink or swim time.:)

To tell you the truth, i never thought i would be a nurse one day. It just happened and here i am .

I'm not a nurse yet...I'm still taking my pre-reqs, but I will be a nurse one day. I've always been very interested in science and I wanted to be a marine biologist. However, I live in Indiana and didn't want to move somewhere where a job like that would be availible...so I graduated highschool, got married and had 4 children. I decorated cakes for 9 years and really loved my job, but I just felt like I wasn't helping people, unless you count making sure someone had a cake for a special occation! LOL So then I decided after my youngest child started school I would also go to school for social work. The more I thought about it the more I realized that I wanted to go into the nursing field. I didn't even wait for my baby to start school, he is currently 2, I enrolled in the nearest university and am about to start my sophmore year. I started school at 37 years old and was so very worried that I was starting my career too late, but this is what I want. I LOVE learning things! I'm actually a bit of a nerd I'm really happy that I've decided to further my education and can't wait to start the new semester in 7 days!!