Did you *know* you were going to be a nurse all your life? Or did you come upon nursing in a way that surprised you and your family?
I have always loved writing, so I majored in journalism in college 12 years ago. Everyone always told me that I was a great writer, so I chose journalism as my major. No one ever really mentioned nursing as a career to me.
Fast forward 8 years after college graduation ... I have gone through a few journalism-related jobs and one boring secretarial job when I become interested in nursing ... I am attracted to the fulfilling aspect of the job, the decent pay, the security, and the variety it offers. There are six nurses and a CRNA in my immediate family ... and all of them love their jobs. I realized that I have been longing for a career that is rewarding and pays well. I want to feel like I've made a true difference at the end of the day, and I do not want to sit at a cubicle all day.
So ... after pondering it for about two years, I decide to pursue my ADN. Now that I've made this decision, my family tells me that I would be a good nurse and that I would enjoy nursing as a career much more than journalism. But I can tell you that I *never* thought I would pursue nursing! It is strange for me to hear people say that they "always knew" they wanted to be a nurse. I mean, here I am ... a writer-turned-nursing student ... it's so crazy! And yet I'm even *more* excited than I was when I started journalism school. I think having "RN" beside my name one day will fascinate me for the rest of my life, simply because I never thought I'd go down this path.
Anyway, I'd love to hear any other stories about how and why you chose nursing! There's got to be some really interesting stories out there!
I first entertained the thought of being a nurse when I was thinking about switching majors in college. I was only a few semesters short of my business degree though, and the thought of having to stay in school and incur more debt worried me. I talked myself out of it, remembering how I never really liked science courses in high school and felt I wouldn't have the stomach for it.
Fast forward a couple of years later, and I'm in a finance job that I hate. I realized that the most fulfilling part of my job was when I truly helped a customer, but unfortunately in my current career being compassionate and doing the right thing is "nice", but your performance is measured only by quotas and the bottom line. I know nursing will be difficult and challenging, but at least I won't have to come home feeling like I have to be unethical and manipulative to succeed.
I started tossing around the idea of doing an Accelerated BSN program and talked to a couple of friends who had already started the process and loved it. The catalyst for me was when my grandmother passed away a year ago. The hospice facility was wonderful and treated her with dignity. It really did feel like a lightbulb went off in my head and I thought, "This is it, this is what I'm going to do and I WILL do it!". The more I researched nursing as a career, the more excited I became. I signed up the next semester for my pre-reqs and now I only have 2 classes left! I guess it just took a little bit of time in the real world and the confidence that comes with getting older and seeing it's okay to change your path.
Did I ever think I would be a nurse??? Absolutely not!!! I hate needles, blood, and memorizing facts!!!
In the back of my mind, though, I have always been facinated by medical issues, and I have a distinct memory of being a sophmore in HS trying to convince my counselor to change my class schedule to include Chemistry because, "What if I decide to be a nurse someday?!" The arguement worked, but I quickly forgot about what I had said.
I went to a private college for 3 years, then I got married and pregnant, dropped out 18 credit hours short of an Eng. Lit. degree (who knows what I was going to do with that!!), and my husband and I moved back to live w/ his mom while we looked for a cheaper place to live. Anyway, my son was born 6 weeks premature, and he spent 2 weeks in the NICU. I was there w/ him 12 hours a day, 7 days a week, and watching those women work with my son and the other babies was a life-changing experience for me. I have never seen people care that much for others, work so hard, and yet enjoy it so much. I was hooked, even though it took a few months for me to say anything to anyone. I was afraid that the magic would disappear if I spoke my new dream aloud!!! Now my son is 4 and I have 4 days until I start the nursing program, and I can't wait!!
In fact I always preferred animals to people even when I was little, I remember playing "hospital" but my patients were the stuffed animals...not the dolls...for one I didn't have many (didn't like dolls) and two, the animals were waaaay cuter! I didn't have a lot of compassion either...preferring to hold people at arm's length until I got to know them etc... I can still hear my mom growing up if someone was hurt etc... she'd say "don't be a nurse!"
So now after 23 unfulfilling years in the travel industry, I've been burn out for a long, long time. I actually always believed there was a purpose for my life...but had no clue what that was.
During 9/11 my catalyst was being laid off from my job I had to take care of my Golden Retriever who couldn't urinate on his own, I had to insert a catheter 4x day for 3 mos...sadly we still had to put him down 2 days after Christmas that year, however I always felt during that time that I was "doing something" and it felt really good to try to help him, however nursing still didn't exactly "bite" me...but a seed was planted....that silly Golden taught me more about compassion than I ever thought possible...and his loss opened the door for us to adopt an adorable Siberian Husky who was scheduled to be euthanized, b/c she was found running the fields...so I guess we helped each other heal b/c it was obvious she was abused. (ducking when you'd go to pet her etc...)
Two years later when my dad passed, that's when I started to question what was really important in life..I did the book study "purpose driven life" and actually for the first time felt content in my job (a little) after all it didn't matter what you did, as long as you did it with a 'servant's heart' and after a reconnecting trip to the Outer Banks, when I came back my heart was really heavy...actually I didn't want to be back home...I wanted to be there(OBX)...and I felt even more restless with my career so I started to research options, but it seemed many were self serving and I had a new awareness and new compassion.
One day I was on e how or something and "nursing" popped up..then I read about the shortage and I finally had that lightbulb moment.
It's been 2 years since I started my pre reqs. I took a break and got remarried to a wonderful man. My original plan would have been juggling nursing school somehow with my job, but however since I have a very supportive husband in all of this, I will be able to quit, hopefully next fall and go full time. I just applied to my preferred school, and I'm taking my last pre req of Chemistry starting in one week!!!!! I'm SO excited. Everything that I've been discovering has made me more and more excited about this journey. God does indeed work in mysterious ways.
Oh gosh no! I never considered careers that involved science. I let one bad high school science teacher turn me off all things science.
Even when I announced to family/friends that I was considering going back to school for nursing, I received some subtle negativity. The responses were "you shouldn't go into it just for the money" and "you have to have a passion for it." Well if I had to choose something I had a passion for it'd be sitting around all day eating bon bons. But that doesn't pay the bills.
Seriously though, one of my interests is childbirth. I toyed with the idea of becoming a homebirth midwife but couldn't resign myself to that life. I want good pay, flexibility, job stability and don't feel I could get that doing licensed midwifery. Nursing is a close enough fit, especially if I can get into L&D and later, go on for my CNM.
Eventually I ignored everyone and plugged on ahead. Stumbled upon this site completely by accident. The ONE THREAD that completely encouraged me was the one in which half the respondents said that yes, money and job security was a good enough reason to go into nursing. It doesn't mean you're not a caring person and won't be competent.
Nope, never in my LIFE did I think or want to be a nurse. I always wanted to be an MD.
It wasn't until my MIL was dying and we had such great hospice RNs working with us, realizing what they did and how much patient interaction they got that I decided to go into nursing and I haven't looked back since!
Always knew i wanted to be a nurse but never actually thought i'd get there.We'll that is until now.See i left high school with one certificate and little self esteem.That's a long story.Anyway the school here requires 4 or more and i had no money to pay to resit them as i came from a poor family so that was out of the question.So for me it was a dream that seemed impossible to reach.Then i met my husband a year later,Started a home care class and began working in a nursing home as a nurse aide.That rekindled the passion in me for nursing and made me determined more than ever that i was going to become a nurse no matter how long it took me.I quit my job and went back to school all thanks to my wonderful Dh.God bless his soul.Well i applied for this year but they cancelled the programme so now i'll have to apply for next year and hopefully i'll get in.Miracles really do happen.Best of luck to all you.
Of course, a tiny part of me is also scared that I'm WRONG and that nursing isn't for me. Time will tell. At the moment I'm just thrilled to be on the road.
:yeahthat:
I start nursing school on Monday....had my last day at my pretty-well paying IT job on the 11th...I hated the job, but loved my friends and co-workers...managed to find a part-time position in another department in the company that will work with my school schedule for now. That made "leaving" so much easier....
However, I also keep wondering if I've lost my mind; am having a mid-life crisis (would that last the 3 years it took me to complete pre-reqs and co-reqs and for my name to come up on the list?!?!); or am making the most positive choice for my life ever!!
I NEVER dreamed I chose this path, but like so many others, was sick of doing nothing that felt like it made a difference at the end of a day/week/month/year. I hope that I will be successful in this new career and be able to have those moments of fulfillment.
Best wishes to you and all of us who are starting down this path!
Ever since I was 6, when my mom took me to see a play, I wanted to be in theatre. Fast forward twenty years, had my bachelors, worked doing plays for three years, my son was born, and I got offered the job of my dreams halfway across the country at a top theatre, job with benefits, wouldn't have to worry about where our next meal was coming from, great! Within one month of getting there everyone thought hurricane rita was coming our way, this was right after katrina, and we evacuated with my son, 3 mos. old at the time. During the evacuation, my son had at least a dozen seizures, and they found out later, what was probably a stroke. He was diagnosed with a really rare genetic disease. I had to leave the "job of my dreams" to take care of my son, who we were told would live to be three. I had no nursing experience of any kind, but all of a sudden I had to learn how to give him all his meds, shots, nebulizer treatments, 20 hr. feeds, and deal with his seizures every day. It was that or put him in long term care, which thanks to a lot of family support, I didn't have to do. He had nurses at the hospital, doctor's offices, hospice, and nurses that came to the house weekly, and I started realizing why people become nurses. He started recognizing their voices, even though he couldn't focus on anybody, and couldn't reach or hold his head up, I could tell they had become his friends. What they did for my son, despite his prognosis, was give him a GOOD quality of life. He only lived fourteen months, but I know his life would have been a lot different without them helping us and guiding us. Like his pediatrician told me the night he passed, "He had more good days than bad days, and a lot of babies with this don't have that." Now, here I am, about to start my prereqs, today! I'm also working toward an assoicates in disability services, and biology, my goals before nursing school. I know it will be a very long and often hard road, but all I have to think about is my son, and everything the nurses did for him, and I know that it will happen.
I do have an interesting story when I graduated from high school back in 1987 I went to college for Business Management degree. After college I worked in a Juvenile Court System office. After several yrs. I landed a great job in a General Surgeons office and Medical office manager. I loved this job but the surgeon retired and I had to persue something else, I went to the local hosp. as insurance clerk, to a handicapp workshop as administrative assistant. In Jan. 2001 my grandfather died from emphysema, the family did alot of taking care of him. This was when I knew I should go back to school and become a nurse so I can help people all the time. My family was supportive and encouraging. My mother gave me a clipping from a newspaper article that was dated back in 1972, I was around 4 yrs. old they had my picture and what questions they had asked me that day. One of the questions was What do you want to be when you grow up? my reply a nurse. Maybe it just took me this long to realize that maybe I have a gift of helping and supporting others that need help. I am in the prenursing stage, I have taken all my prerequisites, I am just waiting to pass the pre-entrance exam, that I have taken 4 times and did not pass, by 8/10 of a point. This is very discouraging, I beginning to wonder know if this is the right path for me. I am a christian and pray alot for this to happen, but maybe God has other plans for me, maybe it is not nursing. In this time of not passing the entrance exam, I started CNA classes and passed with flying colors and avg. 98 and got my license May 2006, this is what I am doing now, sitting with a lady that had a stroke. I think sometime that maybe this is as far as I am to go with my career, maybe God wants me to stay where I am at now. But I take the exam again in OCt. I am not giving up. Sorry to bore you, but it's nice to tell someone of my journey. God Bless and good luck to you.
I never thought I'd be trying to get into nursing school. Hospitals always gave me the creeps and I'm a bit of a germaphobe lol. But I got a new job working in a lab at a clinic doing data entry, and its kinda gone from there. :)
I was sickly as a kid with asthma, and I practically lived in the doctor's office. I remember that as a kid I always asked a lot of questions about everything that they were doing, and they went out of their way to answer my questions. Ok, that didn't tip me off, though. I was a teacher for twelve years and when I worked in a really rural county I got handed a book by a fellow teacher and was told 'EMT class starts tonight at 7:00." The rest is history.
I never thought about it until this year. When I went to college, all I thought about was what degree would make me some good money? All my friends were taking business, so I did the same. I worked full time to go to college and took classes at night, so it took me seven years to get my Bachelors. Now, in my mid thirties I am in a job I hate, and have all sorts of stress related problems. It caused me to get pretty depressed, and that's when I started considering changing careers. I started thinking about my strong points, and the things that interest me, and decided nursing would give me the mental and physical stimulation I need in a job, and would allow my compassionate side to come out more, which I hope will let me become a better, more satisfied person. I think I feel better about myself when I'm helping others. Also, I love the hospital environment - its always so busy, and people are coming and going all the time. I won't mind shift work or working weekends instead of working 9 to 5 Monday - Friday (which is rare for me anyway because my job is so demanding). And looking at the big picture, it will provide a secure career because there will always be a big need for nurses, and the pay is comparable to what I would be making by staying where I'm at.
I have a long way to go, but I hope I can accomplish this goal, which starts this fall when I return to college to get some pre-reqs done. I'm hoping to actually get into the nursing classes in Fall '07. I just wish I had figured out what I wanted to be about 10 years ago!!!
Galore
234 Posts
I first entertained the thought of being a nurse when I was thinking about switching majors in college. I was only a few semesters short of my business degree though, and the thought of having to stay in school and incur more debt worried me. I talked myself out of it, remembering how I never really liked science courses in high school and felt I wouldn't have the stomach for it.
Fast forward a couple of years later, and I'm in a finance job that I hate. I realized that the most fulfilling part of my job was when I truly helped a customer, but unfortunately in my current career being compassionate and doing the right thing is "nice", but your performance is measured only by quotas and the bottom line. I know nursing will be difficult and challenging, but at least I won't have to come home feeling like I have to be unethical and manipulative to succeed.
I started tossing around the idea of doing an Accelerated BSN program and talked to a couple of friends who had already started the process and loved it. The catalyst for me was when my grandmother passed away a year ago. The hospice facility was wonderful and treated her with dignity. It really did feel like a lightbulb went off in my head and I thought, "This is it, this is what I'm going to do and I WILL do it!". The more I researched nursing as a career, the more excited I became. I signed up the next semester for my pre-reqs and now I only have 2 classes left! I guess it just took a little bit of time in the real world and the confidence that comes with getting older and seeing it's okay to change your path.