I just wanted to say that I've noticed that a lot of these posts are just b****ing and moaning. I get it; believe me! I'm not a nurse, but I am currently in school. As you all know, nursing and nursing school is NOT a walk in the park. But, I'd like to say something.
I just want everyone to reflect on all of the great times we get to have as nurses/nursing students, along with the bad. Yes, sometimes our days are total crap, but in our profession, we have the ability to help people when they're at their worst and not many (if any) other people in other professions can say the same. Take a look at how lucky we are and don't forget the reason that you went into nursing in the first place.
The reason that I'm going into nursing has a lot to do with my dad and my aunt. Both of them acquired AIDS from blood transfusions due to their hemophilia. My dad spent 6 weeks in the ICU with feeding tubes and anything else you can think of before he passed away. My aunt died 6 weeks after my father. Her death was speedy and I'm eternally thankful that it was. I have yet to meet someone that was as caring as my aunt. She always told my grandparents that when she died she didn't want us to put flowers on her grave, but to spend the money on a toy for a kid that couldn't get it otherwise.
When I was little, my mom always told me that she was sure that "Aunt Sally was taking care of all of the babies in heaven that didn't have their mommies around".
Being an only child and only grandchild, I spent most of my childhood in hospitals and spending the day watching my grandma give injections to my dad and aunt at the kitchen table. I read a ridiculous amount of Highlights magazines.
Every time I look at a patient in a hospital bed, I think of my dad and my aunt. I don't look at them and reflect with grief; rather I look at them as someone else's dad or aunt. I want the best care for them.
In a few months, I will start working in the same hospital that my father died in 18 years ago. The thing I will be thinking about the most isn't the memories of my father's death, but the care I will be giving to my patients.
I hope you all will think of patient care the same way. Remember, no matter how crappy your day is and no matter how much you hate nursing for a split second or longer, think of those people in the beds. Think of why you became a nurse.
Love you all. Thank you for all of the advice that you give me on a DAILY basis. I respect you all so much!
Oh no, another student who is never going to have to vent because she poops sunshine and vomits rainbows. And she will never, ever be like one of us. Why is it that some people think they're so unique and special? Just because I don't go spewing out ridiculous fluff about how grateful I am to be a nurse DOESN'T mean I don't remember my reasons I started nursing.The OP has to be very naive to think that nursing school and being a paid nurse can EVEN be compared to one another. Us haggard, crabby nurses have all been through NS and knows exactly what it's all about. So please step down from your pedestal and think long and hard about what those uncaring nurses may have been going through on their shift.
My mommy said be a nurses. I was studying acting in the late early Seventies. At one local audition the director said if you study hard the next time you come here it will be for a part on Broadway. Three of my friends made it and one won the Tony for a ' Chorus Line'. But mommy said to be a nurse. You must pardon me now it is head banging time here in 'The College'. Has anyone seen my straight jacket?
My mommy said be a nurses. I was studying acting in the late early Seventies. At one local audition the director said if you study hard the next time you come here it will be for a part on Broadway. Three of my friends made it and one won the Tony for a ' Chorus Line'. But mommy said to be a nurse. You must pardon me now it is head banging time here in 'The College'. Has anyone seen my straight jacket?
Ouch! Ouch! Ouch!
And my mommy told me not to do it!
She freaked out when I told her I was going to work in a nursing home.
"You'll catch weird a weird disease and you have to touch dead people!"
She wanted me to take advantage of my natural artistic ability, dammit!
Pppth!
Kiddies, sometimes you want to listen to your mothers...
She freaked out when I told her I was going to work in a nursing home.
"You'll catch weird a weird disease and you have to touch dead people!"
She wanted me to take advantage of my natural artistic ability, dammit!
Pppth!
Kiddies, sometimes you want to listen to your mothers...
But only sometimes, right Merlyn?
Ouch!
My father wanted me to be an actor. He hit the ceiling when I said that I'm going to be a nurse. I come from a long, long (Dating back to the 16th century) line of stone masons. He said,"What! You turn f..g..t all of a sudden?" I got down to his level. I said," Dad, do you know how many naked women I see in one day?" Then it was," Hey, I want to show you my smart son. He sees naked women for a living." You did find my straight jacket yet?
I just re read the OP post. because we ***** and moan we don't remember why we went into nursing? For those of you that are kind enough to follow my post, it would seem at times that I was the nurse from hell. Let me tell the OP.what I do before I go to work. When I am ready to get into the car. I take my nurse's pin and pin it on while I recite the Florence Nightingale Pledge that I took some 41 years ago. It sounds corny, but I've done this everyday for the last 41 years. Not because I'm so great, but to reminded me who is really important-the patient. This little ritual might sound crazy. But don't you have to be a little nuts to be a nurse.
Lots of us have stories of family heartbreak that brought us to nursing. Mine is because my oldest son died at the age of 13 from cancer.
I don't need anyone to remind me why I got into nursing. Believe me, I think about it every minute of every day. I carry it with me every hour, every minute, every second and I admit, I resent anyone even implying I might forget it. I recognize I am not alone in this - my story is just one in a sea of tragedies that brought many of us to nursing. Our idealism does not carry us past our humanity and often it is the inspiring reasons that we first pursued nursing that makes the realities of nursing very hard to swallow. You just aren't there yet. Any implication that the need to vent means we have forgotten or are somehow failing to honor our personal journey is just plain unkind and misguided.
I admire you for trying to inspire people and I have no doubt your life experiences are going to help you as an RN. But until you get there, you can't dismiss people's need to air things out. Its okay not to read them if it isn't your time in life to relate yet. You are idealistic right now, which is right where you are supposed to be. And when your honeymoon period is over, you'll be glad this place is here, because friends, family, spouses who are not nurses or in the medical field lack the perspective needed to relate when the Code Brown hits the fan (or the floor or the shoes or the scrubs). And the higher your noble reason for doing this, the more difficult it is when things like budgets, greed and indifference get in the way of best nursing practice.
I wish you luck in your studies.
I had a tear, or two, or three or four for you just now. Apparently I still have my empathy. We all have our stories and I absolutely unequivocably could not have written a response that mirrors what I think the way you have. I cannot and would not dare to presume the devastation of losing a child. I became a nurse for want of anything better to do, honestly. Does that mean I am a crap nurse devoid of inspiration? Apparently this might be so. But I have watched hundreds of people die horribly over the years and still hold myself partially responsible for the death of my close friend (an "if I had seen him I would have known" scenario) my idealism about nursing and my skills ended that day but it all came down to timing. Nothing gives me the right to tell others that they've lost sight of something just because of my loss. To do so would be presumptious, patronising and condescending. The implication that I ever forget how "lucky" I am to be a nurse or why I do it fills me with some serious righteous indignation. I occasionally vent (*****, moan) and make no apologies about it, and am extremely grateful that largely, I don't get scolded for it. I agree, not quite the time to relate yet.
I'm starving, anyone got any recipes for a freshly prepared/cleaned 165lb nursing student?
Lol! Jussss kidin'
Wow, I wonder if after a reeeeeaaaaaalllllll sucky day at school, the student gets home, pops on allnurses.com for support/reassurance, and realize that NOTHING changes after school in the overwhelming/overworked/sleep deprived life of a Nurse/Nursing Student, and then resents the hell out of us for it? Lol!
Then, as a last ditch effort, they write one of these passionate and idealistic toe steppers to bleed us for the amazing and fulfilling aspects of nursing (the big lie of Nursing), like its a best-kept-secret. The truth is, yes, sometimes someone breaks the stony exterior of our hearts, and it wobbles a little, but most weeks the best part is the check and the off days!
Now that said, I don't want to plumb, work with electricity, be a cop, work on the highway, work at wal*mart, or drive a cab, so maybe I like some other things too- but, you can bet I am going to gripe about the rest of it!!! Boston can't afford decent therapy, and Allnurses is free (If you don't overtly ask for medical/law advice- we can sometimes get away with a little pissANDvinegar!
DookieMeisterRN
315 Posts
Oh no, another student who is never going to have to vent because she poops sunshine and vomits rainbows. And she will never, ever be like one of us. Why is it that some people think they're so unique and special? Just because I don't go spewing out ridiculous fluff about how grateful I am to be a nurse DOESN'T mean I don't remember my reasons I started nursing.The OP has to be very naive to think that nursing school and being a paid nurse can EVEN be compared to one another. Us haggard, crabby nurses have all been through NS and knows exactly what it's all about. So please step down from your pedestal and think long and hard about what those uncaring nurses may have been going through on their shift.