I have a question and PLEASE dont anybody blast me for typecasting, this was not MY statement, it was a LCSW I was friends with. She claims that a huge % of nurses are first born females of alcoholic fathers. Something to do with the fact that as the first born in dysfunction family of origin you are a caregiver from the get-go. Now my father was not an alcoholic, but I am a first born. I was wondering how many of us are first-borns. (Also, she said this to me a long time ago, and I have lost touch with her, so I cannot ask her where the heck she got her information was) I was just starting school at the time and didnt really fight with her about it, just kind of gave her one of the Hmmm, thats an interesting opinion.... answers. Also, she meant it as a compliment, that we take a difficult beginning and build on our strengths and turn them into a career.
When I was in nursing school, the instructor who taught the psych portion of our lecture had the same theory. Definately true in alot of cases. For those of us in the class who were not the children of ETOHer's, she had a second scenerio. It seems that the children of devout religious parents also were drawn to nursing. (whether or not they were religious themselves).
1st and 2nd born here...I'm my father's 1st born, and my mom's 2nd. I've always been a family caretaker. My father was not an alcoholic but he was always really emotionally and mentally abusive. Not an RN yet but I'm working on it.
2nd born, but only Daughter. Dad was an alcoholic until he found out he had colon cancer. I was 4 at the time so he didn't drink for most of my childhood. He gave it up all together from that moment...he survived cancer and is glad he got the reality check. I by no means had a bad childhood though. That time was scary because I didn't know what was going on and his nurse would always bring me juice and a lollypop...I still remember the nurses first name and face because she was the one that made me feel like my dad was going to be ok...and she was right.
First born, to a single father whom is the best dad in the world by the way(hence he does not have a substance abuse problem). He is a dentist and is so proud that I will be graduating in August. yay!!!!
Not a nurse yet, but I am firstborn- from a stable household with still married parents. My reason is that my family has had so many bad med experiences that I want to counteract that. Plus my mom just had MRSA pneumonia and that really made me decide to pursue my interest in medical environments. And I also realized that its the perfect way for me to eventually get involved in humanitarian orgs.
RNontheroad
85 Posts
When I was in nursing school, the instructor who taught the psych portion of our lecture had the same theory. Definately true in alot of cases. For those of us in the class who were not the children of ETOHer's, she had a second scenerio. It seems that the children of devout religious parents also were drawn to nursing. (whether or not they were religious themselves).
I fall into the later, BTW.