Is nursing right for me?

SummerMeadow · Oct 30, 2009

Has anyone gone through this before? I have heard of many people being scared out of being a nurse because of a close friend dying, and not understanding if they should gone on with there life.

Trauma Columnist · Oct 30, 2009

Even as nurses, we grieve. It is different when a close friend or relative dies versus a patent where you have less emotional environment - they are just different circumstances. Your reaction to a death of a pt is usually not as intense as when you are intimately involved.

I'm sorry for your loss.

itsmejuli · Oct 30, 2009

I lost my husband died 9 years ago in a car accident, that was before I decided to become a nurse.

When someone close to us dies suddenly we realize how fragile life is. The reality of the fragility is forced upon us like a slap. Its a shock that makes us analyse our own lives.

For some people the death of someone close makes them face their own fears of death. Whether that fear be dying themselves, the death of a loved one, or dealing with the death of a patient.

My first clinical rotation was in a nursing home. My very first patient who I got to know over the course of 3 or 4 weeks died. She was a lovely lady, I knew she was going to die, but what made it ok for me was knowing she died peacefully with her family at her side.

So I think for you its a matter of examining how you will deal with death. Perhaps read some books on death and dying, explore it.