How did you know Nursing was/is for you

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:confused: I have been volunteering at a hospital for 2+ yrs. I see many different positions around the hospital. I am leaning towards nursing but know that there are many options in the medical field. I would like to know how you picked nursing and knew it was or is for you.

Went to school for a business degree and hated it so I sort of ventured through life for a few years. My mom who has been an EMT for 20+ years told me she would pay for me to get my EMT license and I agreed because I had nothing else going on. Realized that I liked being in the medical field and since then I've been an EMT for 7 years and worked as a CNA for the past 4. Love the challenge of the work and the variety.

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Specializes in Psych,Peds,MedSurg,Tele,OB,Subacute.

To the PP who asked how I handled having 3 kids at 18....well to answer that...it is why I did not go to nursing school. actually i had my 4th child when I was 20. I was divorced at 21 and now I am 32 and remarried. It was difficult when they were little, mostly because there Dad was not into being a Dad. One thing I am glad that I did was become a CNA. I was fortunate to get the opportunity to work in various areas such as telemetry, Dou, resp-oncology,peds, postpartum, mental health. So i was able to get a pretty good idea about the field. of course there alot of differences between licensed nurses and CNA's but it will give you a practical glimpse as a whole.

karla

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Specializes in Infusion.

After working in a job where I had to do some interfacing with nurses, I just thought it sounded really interesting. This was more than 15 years ago. At that time, I never dreamed I would have the time, resources or brains to go back to school. Fast forward to about 10 years ago when my first child was born and I had the best care from 3 or 4 L&D nurses. I definitely got the itch to consider nursing. While my youngest was in preschool, I made up my mind that I wanted to go to nursing school and told my DH my plans. Once my youngest got into elementary school, I dived into school by taking one little class. That made all the difference. I got hooked on all the new things I was learning and knew this was the right direction. Got into nursing school this year and just love the classroom and clinical time. I really enjoy researching disease process for my clinical preps and enjoy meeting and working with my patients. It takes a leap of faith for those of us who have come from other career paths. You just never really know for sure until you have invested a lot of time, effort and money, and until you are in the thick of it.

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Specializes in Family Nurse Practitioner.

When I was nine I live with my grandparents for the summer. My grandfather was on kidney dialysis three days a week in their home. Which was the room I lived in. I never left his side and I kept track of what he ate when my grandmother wasn't around. I had my own syringe for my teddybear, I gave my teddybear injections. Originally I wanted to be a dialysis nurse.

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Specializes in ER.

When I was in elementary school, my best friend's mom went back to school to become a RN. She would tells us fun stories about her work day and that really peaked my interest in nursing.

After high school, my grandparents really pushed me to go to college, they even offered to pay for it, but I was too busy partying. My parents never attended college and they never cared or tried to get me to go. Life happened after that, divorce and kids.

Most of the jobs I had were accounting and HR, and I was good at them, but I HATED those jobs. I had decided that when the kids were old enough for school I would go back too. Everyone thought the natural step was an accounting degree, but the thought of doing that really depressed me.

Both of my children had been in and out of various hospitals and I loved watching the nurses. Some of them were turds, and made me wonder why they picked this profession, and then others were so awesome! The final thing that really pushed me was in Nov of 2008. My grandmother fell and broke her hip and had to be put into a LTC facility. I know it's crazy, but I had always felt like I had disappointed her for not going to school and us all knowing she was close to the end really had me thinking of my life choices.

My grandmother had the sweetest nurse. I loved him. not only did he take great care of her, he took great care of our family too. We knew every minute of everyday what was going on with her. When she died, he was just as upset as we were. The next month, I was enrolled in classes and I have been kicking-ass ever since! I just submitted my nursing application a couple of weeks ago!

I hope my grandparents are looking down on me, they were such an inspiration. After writing this it made me realize I should find that nurse at the LTC and thank him.

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Specializes in Skilled Nursing/Rehab.

Thanks for the reply, MokahFitChick. I don't think I would mind working the "non-prime" hours as a new nurse. I am burned out in my current job and I think I would welcome the change!

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Specializes in CNA.
I would like to know how you picked nursing and knew it was or is for you.

I knew nursing was for me after a few weeks working at a LTC facility as a CNA. I hated the facility, many of my coworkers, and some of the nurses.

But I loved the work.

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