How important is it to you to be a nurse?

At this point in my life, after being a nurse for 26 years and hitting my 50th birthday last year, I can honestly say that it is not important to me at all. That doesn't mean that I hate it or that I don't do my best when I'm working, just that if something happened where I could no longer be a nurse, I would not cry or lose any sleep over it. 26 years is a long time.

My dream is to work in, or better yet, own a bakery. I love to bake, but the pay in a bakery is a fraction of what a nurse makes and I can't afford to start a business and don't know anything about running one, so I continue in nursing. I would not go back to school at this point in my life if I wanted to pursue another career that requires a degree, like teaching or IT. I have no desire to return to the classroom and we just FINALLY finished paying for college for our two kids. No more tuition!!!

I was wondering the same thing not too long ago! But I haven't been around long enough to seriously think about quitting. Plus there are SO many things in this field that I would love to do. Yeah I'm not jaded enough to leave just yet.

I loved being a nurse and miss it as I am now retired. If I had to do it all over, I would have done a few things differently. Overall, I am proud of my profession.

Nursing is a career that I continue to peruse; is it important for me to stay a nurse?

That's hard for me to say...

I had a time where I was out of nursing-not by choice, it was for health reasons, and all I could think like was a nurse; my nursing education evolved me so much in a positive way those aspects have benefitted me personally; however, I have learned that I am MUCH more than a nurse and have a very fulfilling life outside of my career; my career just an asset.

Nursing is not who I am...rather, it is what I do to earn a living. I work as a nurse to afford a comfortable lifestyle and do the things that I actually enjoy.

I'd be just as pleased, if not happier, doing something else that paid similarly and enabled the degree of flexibility that nursing bestows upon my lifestyle.

In essence, nursing is important to me, but not all that important. I would jump ship immediately if I won a multi-million dollar jackpot and not look back.

We must be twins separated at birth lol.

I'm very proud to be a nurse. During my first few years of nursing - especially year #2, when I got into hospital work - it was a huge part of my identity. But it wasn't solely because of the career path. I came from a difficult situation, and spent much of my 20s floundering. I knew I wanted to be something, but I didn't know what. I'd had an intense fear of making the wrong choice instilled in me, but no help making the right one. I knew I wanted job security, decent pay, and I wanted a job that helped people. I stumbled into nursing without really knowing what it was.

And I'm proud of myself for growing through that experience, for figuring out how to get through college and knowing that I had what it takes, despite the fact that my college wasn't well designed for nursing students who don't walk in with some kind of foundation in nursing already present. I'm proud of myself for overcoming the challenges that made college life so difficult. I'm proud of myself for graduating and earning a license.

So nursing was a huge part of my identity, but not just because it was nursing, but what it meant for me and my personal growth.

I'm ok with growing beyond that, too.

It's important to me in that it's what I'm trained to do and I need to, you know, make money to pay bills but if I could find someone to pay me $89K a year to travel the world, I'd take them up on that offer in a heartbeat.

Being a nurse is a HUGE chunk of who I am. I can't see myself doing anything else.

I like my work, I get pretty involved in it and look forward to projects and am driven to make things happen. But I don't how important it is to be a nurse. If I wasn't a nurse I would have the same drive in any other field. It's not the nursing part I'm as much wired for as it's the areas I where focus and excel. I can take that and translate it to anything and anywhere.

I am a nurse to the bone, but I would rather work as an admin or something similar after 23 years of stressing my soul.

Being a nurse is a HUGE chunk of who I am. I can't see myself doing anything else.

Same here!