Please tell me why you dreamed of being a nurse from a young age

[avhoney]

Hi everyone!

I love being a nurse! However, I am that nurse who did not dream of becoming a nurse as a child. Even when I worked in the nursing home (a job that I loved), I swore that I would never be a nurse!

It was not until I was older in college that I met a nurse that inspired me through her nursing philosophy of life that I knew that this was the career for me! She was absolutely right! Nursing has become my adult dream! :)

What I would like to know is your story or the reasons why you knew you wanted to be a nurse from a young age? I do not want to know that you wanted to do it for the money or that there were good adult benefits or anything like that. I hear this too often.

I also hear too often from people like me who found the calling later in life or while in school.

I am very curious to know how people knew from a young age their dreams. This is really fascinating to me.

I want to hear from people who are not like me.I want to hear the stories from the people who knew at a very young age that it was their goal to be a nurse. I am really interested in hearing your stories. Please share, my ears are open...

[Jay_LPN]

Funny last option. I can just imagine someone being handed a license and saying "I didn't ask for this."

But more realistically, probably just one of those people who thought entering nursing guaranteed them a well-paying job with benefits.

Personally I have always wanted something in health care since I was a child. Currently an LPN student who will likely return to school to become an RN.

[TheCommuter, BSN, RN]

Nursing was never a childhood dream of mine. It was not a higher 'calling,' either.

I picked nursing as a young adult, mostly for practical reasons. The flexibility in scheduling, steady income, and potential career mobility were aspects that appealed to me.

[applewhitern, BSN, RN]

Nursing was never a "dream" of mine, nor was it a "calling." There are many ways to help people, so I never saw nursing as fitting into that category. I get paid to be a nurse. If I had a dream or calling, it sure as heck wouldn't be this!

[ChristineN, BSN, RN]

Nursing was never a "dream" of mine nor was it a "calling." There are many ways to help people, so I never saw nursing as fitting into that category. I get paid to be a nurse. If I had a dream or calling, it sure as heck wouldn't be this![/quote']

This. When I was in my senior year of high school and hadn't figured out a career path, nursing just made the most sense. I had spent most of my teen years taking care of my sick and disabled mother, and people said I was good with her so I just went with it. I never looked into other options

[LadyFree28, BSN, LPN, RN]

I think a lot of people who knew they wanted to become a nurse or be involved in healthcare is either because they were ill as a child or saw someone experience a major medical illness and witnessed the role of nurses at the bedside, knew someone who had a baby or had a baby. It runs the gambit of why they want to become one; and it depends on when they decide to enter the business.

I don't call nursing my childhood "dream" per se...I was exposed to nursing because my sister had to into the emergency room, and the nurse didn't want me to be traumatized. My sister was sickly, and hated doctors and hospitals. I was with her outside of a room with a man who was in a barfight. How she handled him and giving him a needle in his bottom made me want to be a nurse

As you see, my exposure to healthcare is funny and not romantic by any means; but that's how it happened. I was five at the time; before that, I wanted to be in the New York Ballet; now THAT's my childhood dream; and being rich like the monopoly game.

I was involved in a children's hospital art contest when I was 10, volunteered as a teen in hospitals from 14-16; had a public health job 16-17, and got my first job as a unit secretary/nurse assistant at 19, and been in healthcare since; nurse assistant for 5 years, LPN for 7 (still have an active license) and an RN for 1 year. I knew that I had to position myself for a career because that was what my parents taught me; I also realized that they did not save for college, so I worked hard got scholarships; and then realized I still needed to survive; so I started working; and haven't stopped since, and have no plans on stopping anytime soon. I enjoy my career; I just found my niche early in life.

[Palliative Care, DNP]

Nursing was not my intended course. I was waitlisted for Dental Hygiene. I didn't want to wait a year so I applied to nursing. Definitely, no Florence Nightingale effect here.

[amberella123]

It wasn't exactly my dream. It was one of the thongs I wanted to do but when I was younger I also wanted to be a cook. I ended up getting a job in a nursing home as an activity aid and that was when the tide went over to nursing and it became my dream then. It's been 7 years but I'm still working to get into the nursing program. Hopefully one more year before I start!

[LVN2RNMom, ASN, BSN, LVN]

My college major was history & law right out of high school. I freaked out at the thought of leaving home & had a friend who was a medical asst. I didn't know much about it and I ended up getting a job at a Dr's office at 18. The Drs that I worked for taught me so much and from that point, I just knew I'd be a nurse. Fast forward 20 yrs, I am an LVN currently getting her RN and will eventually have an MSN. It is my calling and I wouldn't trade it for the world.

[KelRN215, BSN, RN]

I decided that I would be a nurse when I was in 8th grade. I loved the TV show "ER" and the main nurse on it, Carol Hathaway, got to make out with George Clooney.

In first grade I did want to be a school nurse so I could hand out ice packs.

[IEDave, ASN, CNA, LVN]

I think a lot of people who knew they wanted to become a nurse or be involved in healthcare is either because they were ill as a child or saw someone experience a major medical illness and witnessed the role of nurses at the bedside, knew someone who had a baby or had a baby...

I tend to agree, LadyFree28; quite a few people have some sort of a "life changing event" that makes nursing a viable career choice.

For me, it was a combination of factors which tend to revolve around the 2-week period (give or take) that my mother was in palliative care. Having had some down time to think, I came to the realization that (a) my life situation was bordering on raving mania, both professionally & personally; (b) taking care of my mom for better than 4 years was the single most meaningful & satisfying act I'd ever done; and © with 3 noteworthy exceptions, none of the nurses rendering aid & care for my mother had the slightest clue what it was like to take care of a family member under those circumstances, or really even seemed to give a rip. Technically, they were proficient - but, no interest, no caring, no passion for the work/patients/families. Very sad.

Hence, I saw nursing as a field where I could make a difference, and to bring my combination of technical proficiency and caring into a field where it could be used. Not really a "calling" so much as a realization that it was time for a change.

----- Dave

[love lilacs]

My grandmother was a nurse, she gave my sister all her old nursing textbooks hoping my sister would become a nurse. I was probably 8 years old at the time. My sister put them in her bottom drawer, she was not interested in becoming a nurse. For years when my sister wasn't home, I would go into her room and read the books. Some of the books had chapter tests, I would take the tests and check my answers and always did very well. I knew I would one day become a nurse. And I did.