Nurses are made, not born

Published

i'm a first year student who needs help with this statment...we have to write a 1500 word essay...any suggestions?

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in Utilization Management.

I moved your thread over to Nursing Student Assistance forum so you would get more answers. Usually if you need help with homework, those who would like to help you would also like to see how far you got before you got stuck on the question.

I suppose that the most obvious answer is that if nurses were born, they wouldn't have to go through nursing school and pass a license exam to be nurses.

Up Vote Up Vote ×

talk about how life experiences influence some people to become nurses. I'm in nursing school now because my grandfather died and I saw what a big difference the nurses made.

also talk about how important quality training/education is for nurses to be effective.

Up Vote Up Vote ×

thank you. yeah we have to discuss what are the qualities of a good nurse.

would they be communication, knowledge and skills and respect?

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in med/surg, telemetry, IV therapy, mgmt.

my local hospital used to have a nurses training program. several hallways of the hospital are devoted to commemorating the program and have photos of past classes, nurses and have several displays of uniforms including a candy stripper apron and nurses cape which i always stop to look at. poems have been painted on the walls about nursing and one always catches my eye because it is by the lab which is often where i am headed. i don't think anyone would mind if it found its way into someone's paper. it's writer is given no credit. it says this:

the reason for this little verse

is very plain to see

i thought i'd like to be a nurse

to serve humanity

see this website: http://www.nursingschools.com/guidance/nursing-top-10.html - top 10 qualities of a great nurse

some sayings about nurses you can incorporate into your paper: http://www.quotegarden.com/nurses.html

Up Vote Up Vote ×

thanks thats website is reallly healpful.

do u believe that a nurse is made not born?

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in med/surg, telemetry, IV therapy, mgmt.
do u believe that a nurse is made not born?

I do. The spark within to help our fellow man is a required element and that cannot be taught--it has to be something inside the person. Nursing is a service industry, one of many. I believe people who are good in nursing would be successful in other service related careers. We nurses do have to be taught how to be nurses. But, I think the "modeling clay" to create us must be there. We are not necessarily "born" to be nurses, but we have to start from "the right stuff" or the instructions won't work. As many find when they go into nursing programs, nursing is much more that the exercising of compassion and one's sense to nurture another human being. In fact, my instructors were constantly telling us to separate and distance ourselves from the patients and I was confused for a long time about just where compassion and nurturing fit into modern nursing. I had to make it fit into my practice as a nurse well after I graduated. It's interesting that while a good many instructors teach students to be wary of forming relationships with patients a good many of us eventually do because that is how we find the greatest satisfaction in this work. I think it goes to our sense of compassion. The definition of compassion is feeling sympathy for the suffering of others and having the urge to help them.

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in critical care, PACU.

hehe I do think nurses are made and born (as in with personality traits favoring nursing as a profession) in varying portions but that prompt has me chuckling because it is exactly the kind of thing I would expect a grumpy professor to write to impress their power upon you.

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in HCA, Physch, WC, Management.

Trust me, I wasn't born with the knowledge I have gained in nursing school. But the river runs both directions. I also couldn't have ever been taught to feel the compassion that I and fellow nursing students feel for our patients. I couldn't have been taught to give a d@mn whether someone lives or dies or what their quality of life is. Give it some thought and you'll come to some of your own conclusions.

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in Psych ICU, addictions.
hehe I do think nurses are made and born (as in with personality traits favoring nursing as a profession)

Agreed. Almost anyone can go to school to learn to be a nurse, but it's the inherent traits a person has that will determine if nursing will be a successful career for them. That's not to say inborn traits can't be improved upon and/or overcome...they can.

On the other hand, you can have those necessary traits for nursing but still bottom out when it comes to learning the necessary skills. Compassion is great, but if I'm struggling to breathe, don't sit there holding my hand going, "there there..."--instead drop my hand and see why I'm not breathing!

So it's a little of both: being born a nurse and being made.

I leave it to you to figure out what some of those traits are ;)

Up Vote Up Vote ×
+ Join the Discussion