When you ask someone "why did you want to be a nurse?" and someone says....

[Holly.G]

"Well my mother was a nurse..." what exactly is the meaning behind that? They wanted to be a nurse because of family pressure, or...? I really don't get it because they also go off to say the typical "I wanted to care for people"

So correct me if I'm wrong but they wanted to care for people becasue they were pressured into it?

[BVP910]

I dont really get that, what i think they mean is seeing as their mother is a nurse they realized it was something they would like to do.

[betty67]

Well I could be wrong but I would assume that their mother was a good roll model, and seeing her as a nurse they looked up to her and saw how she liked to take care of people and wanted to follow in her footsteps. If you are raised a certain way & exposed to an environment like nursing you tend to gravitate to that.(everyone doesn't do that but a lot of people do.) I myself was more inspired to go back to school and be a nurse because of how compassionate the nurses were when I was very sick and in the hospital for a long time. I was especially touched by a student nurse and I want to do for others what she did for me! Why did you decide to be a nurse? Sorry if this was a really long answer.......

[Lovely_RN, MSN]

"Well my mother was a nurse..."

Really she was..actually she still is but she's a retired nurse as of last year.

I think that statement sums it up for those of us with nurse parents because we learned about the profession through our parents. I think a lot of nurse parents whose offspring become nurses don't even want their children to become nurses.

Little do they know that our interest gets sparked by hearing the "war stories" I know that is how I became interested in nursing.

I LOVED my mom's "war stories" growing up and my sibs were either bored or grossed out by them. Mom's job sounded so fascinating to me when I was a kid and I thought her all white uniform and cap were so cool. I wanted to be like her until I became a rebellious teen and that phase lasted into my early twenties. During that time I was adamant about NOT being a nurse. Looking back I think it was because I used to worry about turning into her and I wanted to have my own identity and not be known as Nurse Jr.

Anyway I think it may be a way of saying that nursing "runs" in some families. I've seen the same thing with other professions...there are plenty of professions where at least one child follows the footsteps of the parent.

A funny thing though, now that I think of it, is that I can think of 6 nurses I currently know who have a sibling, parent, aunt/uncle nurse in the family. I know one lady whose mom, grandmom, and all of her aunts are nurses so maybe it does run in some families?

[Nepenthe Sea]

Alot of people I know have a mother or other realtive that was a nurse, and they end up going to NS themselves, just because they got a good look at it and thought they would like it. However, a couple of people I have known had mothers that were nurses, and they were forced to go into nursing. Like, the parents wouldn't pay for school if they did anything else. Doesn't seem like a good thing to me!

My own mother started LVN and RN school at two different times and never finished either one. I used to love to look at the pictures in her nursing books, and that is one reason I am in NS now.

[HyperSaurus, RN, BSN]

How about this: My dad is a nurse. :)

He didn't become a nurse until I was probably 15 or 16. He spent 22 years in the marines, raising 3 girls on his own. After he retired, we moved and he prompty remarried and went to nursing school. I was old enough to have an idea of what it takes to get there and just be fascinated with what he does. He pulled some strings and got me to visit the hospital to shadow a couple times. In addition to that, but I have a very nurturing personality. It just seems like a goo dfit.