When did u know?

Dscott,

I know exactly when I decided to start my nursing epic. As I to am still a NS, I can relate to your draw.

I had an ACDR between C5 and C6 a year ago. Having some medical training in the military and because said procedure was being done to me, I studied every case I could get my hands on. I studied until the wee hours some nights and this perked my curiosity. During the perioperative stage I realized this is what I want to do for the rest of my life.

What stage in the perioperative time it was, I do not know for sure. I think it was when I was high and climbing onto the operating table, layed back right before the mask was put on me.

The icing was when I actually woke up and had no pain, no tingling and I knew, this is and much more, is what I wanted to share with others. My Nures at every level were the best. From Pre-op to PACU to floor staff. I loved them all.

I knew I wanted to enter the medical profession since I was 4 or 5 years old and drew a picture of myself working with my pediatrician and gave it to him. He held on to it and gave it back to me at my high school graduation to remind me. I didn't realize nursing was the field I wanted to pursue until late in my junior year of college when I learned all I could do as a masters prepared nurse working in trauma/flight and realized that was where my heart was after shadowing. That was 3+ years ago and I'm still beyond thrilled.

Everyone has their own story, I went in for the wrong reasons... $$, security, the ability to support my family on a two year degree. All the wrong reasons... and I should have failed.

Instead, although a touch crispy from personal reasons (that have no place here), over 15 years, I have had doc's yell, hang up the phone.. only for me to call back... family I've struggled with for a DNR, patients alone and dying where I've been the only one to hold their hand.. Patients that I've fought so hard to survive that I've never peed or eaten. Family I've cried with.. a hundred nurses I"ve mentored....

I became a nurse for all the wrong reasons, but I still became a nurse. It has taken years of life from me, taken me away from the most wonderful times from my family, burnt me out, spit me back... and I'm still here. Why? I wish I knew.

Family takes everything out on me, so does management at times... patients lash out... and many days I'm done. I simply pray (although I really don't pray)... that I have the strength to do it again... because when I make that TINY difference... it pulls be back to clock in the next day.

This is a crazy ramble and I'm sure it doesn't make sense now. But I hope one day it will. And that's why I nurse. It's that simple... it makes me whole. Problem is 95% of them time, it doesn't. And that's why we leave.

it seems like just yesterday when i decided to actually be a nurse. i was having my first child and was 21 years old. i was absolutely terrified and had no clue what to expect back then. this was before fetal monitors and all the epidural blocks. natural childbirth was all the rage. my ob nurse was literally an angel and put my fears to rest and was the greatest blessing. she later became my friend. i wanted to be a nurse then.

then my son was diagnosed with cancer and he went through years of chemo, radiation, and cryrotherapy. all this before the invention of hep locks, portacaths, and those wonderful devices. each chemo treatment meant hold him down, find a vein,and stick him. through all the hospitals, clinics and places he went i could count the "good" caring nurses on one hand. i wanted to be one of those caring nurses after my son died and had the opportunity. that original ob nurse/friend encouraged me and in 1985 i graduated and got my rn.

I knew I wanted to enter the medical profession since I was 4 or 5 years old and drew a picture of myself working with my pediatrician and gave it to him. He held on to it and gave it back to me at my high school graduation to remind me.

That is SO sweet! What a nice thing to do. :redpinkhe

I'd never considered nursing as a career since, like a lot of people out there, I had no idea what nurses really did. Any nurses that treated me were... less than inspiring. One actually seemed hell-bent on making me feel stupid while I was being treated for anaphylaxis.

Then one day I was sitting at home on my day off (beware, this is pretty cheesy...), half-watching a documentary on Locks of Love. The children's struggles were heartbreaking and so was their elation at receiving a ticket back to normalcy - hair. They were shown in the hospital, a nurse in the background changing the IV. No one else was in the room. I suddenly felt a strong longing to be in that room, to be the one who's there when no one else is, who had the power to do something to help. The child was curled up in a ball, with such a tired aged expression. It reminded me of a little girl with neuroblastoma, who a friend of mine knew. We would send funny cards and little gifts to her throughout the years. The girl's health continued to decline, and I remembered how overwhelmingly sad and frustrating it was to read her family's updates and to have no real understanding of what was happening and no way of helping.

When the documentary ended, I started researching what it is nurses DO. I started volunteering at the hospital. I interrogated anyone who let it slip that they were a nurse. I had no idea how challenging nursing was, the laundry list of responsibilities, the number of specialties there were to choose from. I was one of those people that had just assumed nursing was easy to learn, that nurses were low low low on the totem pole, and that there would be limited options. The more I researched, the more I saw what a great fit it would be for me.

Kind of a silly "epiphany" moment. But I also love science, have always wanted to help "fix" people, am obsessively curious, and love hard work. Hate hate hate my current day job, sitting at a desk while my brain cells self-destruct....

So here I am, applying for spring semester. :)

Everyone has their own story, I went in for the wrong reasons... $$, security, the ability to support my family on a two year degree. All the wrong reasons... and I should have failed.

Oh how I'm sorry to see you say that, you don't really believe that,..do you? Same reasons for me!

What's more is that I have been up front about my reasons right from the first interview for Nursing school through the present day. I see that you and I are on a nearly equal tenure track, so that should make you a career refugee from the Gulf War One economy as myself.

When did I know I was going to be a Nurse?......

When I found myself an out of work Airline refugee with a Degree in Aeronautics, Commercial Pilot & Mechanic Licenses, delivering PIZZA to make ends meet!

Best decision I ever made by far! I met my wife in this business, we have a beautiful little girl, and two homes.

Be strong!

I never wanted to be a nurse. I wanted to be a grade-school teacher. But one night, my (now ex) husband was in a hot tub with some young travel nurses and he decided I should be a nurse.

So I went back to college. My youngest was two months old then. During my final semester, the ICU where I was doing clinicals was really short-staffed, and at the suggestion of one of the nurses there, I put in an application. I really had no preference as far as specialty goes, since nursing wasn't my plan in the first place. I was hired at once because I had a pulse.

I've done a couple of other things outside the hospital: home health, running a care home, but I've been in ICU for most of my career. It took me a year to no longer be terrified of going to work, and it took several more years before I felt reasonably comfortable.

Now, I love my job. I work in a great hospital with great people, and I love (most of!) my patients. I get to do cool stuff that "normal" people never get to see. I get to save lives. I get to make a difference. I get to teach- a lot- although certainly not the kind of teaching I'd had in mind.

I will always regret not being a grade-school teacher, but I'm happy with what I am. My sister is a teacher, and when she tells humorous stories about her work, I can't help but think how boring and not-funny her life is. My stories are always way better.