What brings non-nurses to allnurses?

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Specializes in Psych, ER, OB, M/S, teaching, FNP.

Just curious. I have seen many people from many non-nurse disciplines on allnurses. What is the draw? I think it is great because "visiting" with others with similar goals (healthcare) is always eye opening and a learning experience.

Having been a psych nurse and part of an interdisciplinary treatment team I really learned to appreciate how many different parts of the group (we had psychiatrist, psychologist, SW, LAD, RN, LPN, psych tech, OT and minister) could see a situation and a possible outcome from a different perspective.

So just curious, if you are a non-nurse what are you and what brought you to allnurses?

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I am a patient.

Originally I came because I was planning to be a nurse (I was a junior in highschool).

At the end of my freshman year of college I learned that dream would not come to fruition. Decided to be a child life specialist (one who works in the hospital and helps kids through being there). I stayed here, because I have learned alot here, and have made great friends.

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I am starting nursing school, this is probably the best way to see life through a "current" nurse's eyes and to get a very real understanding of what they go through everyday. Also nurse have a great "although" twisted sense of humor, I can say that I love reading the funny stories they make me laugh so hard. Plus every time i come on her I learn something new, medical or otherwise.

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I'm considering a career change to nursing and want to know what I'm getting myself into first. :loveya: I work in public relations right now and wish I had a resource like this before I decided on that career because it really gives a "raw" feeling of what the career is like....the good and the bad. Most classes, professors, speakers, etc. only focus on the good parts of the job.

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I'm a student who is working towards a BSN. :)

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Specializes in Psychiatry.

I'm just a stay at home mom but I'm starting my pre-nursing classes this fall (1 at a time). I originally came across this website looking for nursing students' experiences. I love how I learn something new everytime I visit. I love how this place has a feel of close friendships, though everyone is scattered across the globe.

All in all, we non-nurses think you guys rock and we keep coming back to learn more!

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I ended up in the ICU in 2003 due to a bad GI bleed from chronic overuse of aspirin to control headaches. After I got back home, I started to read everything I could in order to understand what had happened to me. This site has answered a number of questions:

1. Would more medical knowledge have allowed me to prevent the GI bleed, or to respond in a more appropriate fashion? No, probably not. I have read a number of posts from seriously ill nurses who should have called the squad instead of asking for advice. It is very difficult to objectively evaluate your own acute health problem.

2. Informed consent. I spent 2 years of sheer hard work trying to understand the informed consent process. I had exhausted my resources, and did not even know what questions to ask. Then one day, a student nurse posted to say that she had been told to get consents at the hospital. It was obvious to her that some patients did not have the necessary information. She was just a student, and did not have the knowledge to educate the patients. The hospital had just told her to get the consents. She wanted to know what she should do.

I had a flash of insight just from reading her question, before I even read the responses. It was not some sort of oversight that I had signed 3 blank consents without ever being provided with the benefits, risks, and alternatives. There was never any intention of making sure I had been informed. I had never been given a description of the procedures, or met with the doctors beforehand (I had not known that meeting with the doctor before the procedure was supposed to be part of the process). Understanding that informed consent in theory and in actual practice could be two entirely different things was kind of like finding out there is no Santa Claus (sigh).

3. This site is an invaluable reference for understanding what goes on behind the scenes in healthcare. When I interviewed the hospital pharmacy manager for my pharmacology class, I was already familiar with MARS, and computerized barcode medication administration because of this site.

4. Since joining allnurses, I have taken college courses in Addiction, Medical Terminology, Biological Aging, Gerontology, and Pharmacology, and will continue to take courses as they are being offered at the local college.

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I have recently decided to change careers. I currently work for a major airline and have done that for 15 years. I have always wanted to be a labor and delivery nurse but never had the guts to do it. I finally decided to just go for it. I went back to college this past spring to start taking my pre-req classes. I have been doing a lot of research on the nursing career and every time I would "google" something it brought me to this sight. I dont bother using "google" anymore! I just come here. I love all the stories and I love to know what REALLY happens. I think you nurses are awesome and I aspire to be one of you :bow:! :D

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I am a PN student. This is a great community to come and vent....A place to share good things, bad things, everything...I found my home when I found ALLNURSES....The environment is what attracts students and so forth...Being able to relate to others who sometimes experience what you are going through is also great...

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Like some of the others I come here for:

1. To learn more about the medical field in general

2. To contact others in the medical field not just nurses, but LVN, NAs, etc

3. To maybe bring a little info from the other points of view.

I feel it takes many people in many types of jobs to make the full "nursing" community.

A Rn would have a hard time with out the NA doing daily cares, the MLT running the labs, the ambulatory care to follow up after the hospital stay, the LTC to care for the pt for the long term, HH to visit, and PT/OT therapists to get the patient back out in to the world.

It takes a villege to make health care happen.

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I am a hospital social worker. I am tired of nurses not realizing how important they really are to healthcare. They are so beaten down by the insurance companies and medicare. I want to show them we are all on the same team. I want them to be strong and stand together for what is right. We love ourselves and others. We are in this profession because we care. Not for money, not for recogntion, but because we care about human life. Nurses are one of our greatest resourses. I wish they could come together and stop selling themselves short.

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Like some of the others I come here for:

1. To learn more about the medical field in general

2. To contact others in the medical field not just nurses, but LVN, NAs, etc

3. To maybe bring a little info from the other points of view.

I feel it takes many people in many types of jobs to make the full "nursing" community.

A Rn would have a hard time with out the NA doing daily cares, the MLT running the labs, the ambulatory care to follow up after the hospital stay, the LTC to care for the pt for the long term, HH to visit, and PT/OT therapists to get the patient back out in to the world.

It takes a villege to make health care happen.

UHM, the letter N in LPN/LVN is the word NURSE!!!. Just because I have a longer title doesn't make me less of a NURSE.

The public needs to be educated to this.

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