Identity as a nurse.

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Specializes in Med/Surg, Academics.

There are certain professions in which identity as that profession is obtained over time: police officer, firefighter, teacher, doctor, nurse. It seems to be limited to those professions in which the skills are difficult to translate to another profession.

Some people in those occupations never absorb it as part of their identity, and I do not believe that that determines their competence. It's just an internal evolution. Nothing to make a goal nor avoid. It just is.

So this leads me to my question. If part of your identity is being a nurse, can you recall when and why it happened. If not, why not? I'm very interested in everyone's perspective.

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Specializes in Pulmonary, Lung Transplant, Med/Surg.

I would say much of my identity as a nurse comes from my and my husbands family. Just when I let the nurse in me sit back and relax someone in the family drags me back in.

I don't dislike that though. I like that they feel comfortable coming to me and trust my experience to help them. I've accepted early on that being a nurse is just who I am and always will be! I married a cop so our house is chaotic with schedules and defined professionally!

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I don't feel it identifies me any more than any other job I've had.

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Specializes in PACU, Surgery, Acute Medicine.

I started to feel it in nursing school. No one thrust it on me, it just happened. I guess a few people started asking health-care questions. At any rate, I felt like I always had to be ready to provide first aid or offer my two cents worth about whatever med or procedure people might bring up. It continued when I moved in to management, even though I lost my nursing smarts awful fast :-). I feel like I always have to have the answers! I love it and I hate it. Love it when I know and can help, hate it when I don't know and feel like I've let them down, because only we nurses know that being a nurse doesn't actually mean that you know everything there is to know about all aspects of health care.

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Specializes in Emergency/Cath Lab.

I stop being a nurse the second I leave the hospital. My job is not who I am, or even a part of me. Who I am is reflected in my job though.

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Nursing is very much apart of who I am. I'm naturally caring and curious. Curious in a way that I want to know what is going on and why and how can I make it better. When I leave my hospital, I'm still a nurse at heart. Sometimes I love it, sometimes I hate it. Last month I saw an elderly man on the ground after getting hit by a car. Sure I could of drove away and kept going as others did, however the nurse inside of me was concerned. So I stopped and offered to stay until EMS arrived. Nursing is my calling and purpose in life.

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Specializes in ICU.
I stop being a nurse the second I leave the hospital. My job is not who I am, or even a part of me. Who I am is reflected in my job though.

+1 agreed

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I was a teacher for 20 years (mostly early childhood) before starting nursing school last year. Being a teacher was very much a part of who I was/who I am. I could never just "leave" it at the door when I clocked out. I'm already seeing the same thing with being a student nurse. It is a part of who I am. When I become an RN, it will be a part of who I am. I know I'm won't leave that part of me at the door when I leave work.

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Being a nurse is who I am, and I think that's tied with how being a solider is who I am, though I've been out for 4 years. Order, discipline, problem solving, protecting---it's seen in both fields. If there's an emergency, I try to help (car accident w/out rescue there, fallen elderly..no EMS, I stop). Whether you leave it at the door, or it is in you, doesn't matter as long as while you're at your job, you are doing your job. Shoot, I even have a tattoo representing what I do. LOL

Posting from my phone, ease forgive my fat thumbs! :)

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Specializes in Critical Care, Education.

This thread is great!

I can clearly remember the first time I became aware that I was unconsciously "thinking like a nurse". In my last semester of nursing school (a loooooong time ago), I was in a supermarket checkout line and noticed that the elderly woman in front of me was breathing heavily (pursed lips) - then I noted her nailbeds (a tinge cyanotic) and clubbed nails. I distinctly remember thinking ... "hmm COPD".

Another flashbulb moment a few weeks later. Came upon two women shouting/screaming at one another over a parking space. I butted in and started trying to calm the situation and encourage them to achieve a 'win-win' outcome. They both stopped the argument and looked at me like I was a nutcase. I realized I had a nurse brain - Sheesh - no normal person does that!!! Yep. "nurse" is not what I do, it is what I am.

Hey, does anyone wonder how this will come out when/if we get dementia? Can you see us in the nursing home? The staff giving us "med carts" to push around to keep us oriented and occupied during the day? LOL.

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"Nurse" is absolutely part of my identity. I honestly can't put a finger on when it started. I'm as proud of my identity as a nurse as I am of my identity as a mother. I love my career choice and have worked very hard to get where I am. I can't imagine ever doing anything else. I respect those who don't have nurse in their identity, but I know I could not be the nurse that I am without that sense of identity. I know other people have major issues with people always asking them medical questions, but that is not the case with me. I love being able to help people even if it is just gently directing them to see a doctor.

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I sort of went into nurse mode one time (however im a student, 1 year to go!).

I live in an apartment complex and my neighbor, an older guy who is sickly locked himself out of his apartment. As fate would have it the office was closed. I called the ''emergency'' maintenance number and left a message.

I wasn't sure how long they would take until they came and let this guy into his house, so I asked if he was feeling alright. He said yes.

I asked if he was a diabetic and he said yes. I asked if he'd taken insulin recently and he said no.

Maintenance came about 10 minutes later and let him in.

:D

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