Who really wants to help people????

NurseLatteDNP, MSN, DNP, RN · May 5, 2007

I don't know about $8/hr:confused: ... I payed a lot for my education and I have to support my family. I really do want to help people. I feel good about myself when I get off work, because I know that I have done something good that day.

Soup Turtle · May 5, 2007

I want to help people, but I don't want to make $8.00 an hour. Money is never important until you don't have any!!! I want to help people without becoming a charity case, myself.

lc3 · May 5, 2007

Nursing is definitely not that high-paying for the level of stress that nurses have to deal with.

People really have to be intrinsically motivated to help people on some level! At least this is what I would like to think.

miss rochelle · May 5, 2007

well here's my situation: i'm a single parent, so until my daughter is off to college (or whatever she plans on doing post-high school...which is a long long time from now) i will not be able to do any charitable work on a monumental scale, i.e. nurses without borders for a while. i'd say 15-20 years, cos i'd like to at least save up some money to have something to fall back on (should an emergency arise) while i am abroad.

i see it like this: if i am doing charitable work, i DON'T need an expensive car. i don't need designer clothes. all i need is the basics: food, clean water, shelter, basic healthcare.

i think being able to help people who don't have things such as healthcare readily available to them is worth so much more than living in a nice house or again, having a nice car, designer clothes, etc. all the things we take for granted. being able to help people who REALLY don't have much is pretty much second to raising my daughter into becoming a sensible person.

for now i feel like i'm really in this to help. i'm a huge women's health advocate; i want to be able to offer my skills to women living in impoverished countries.

blahblah, i could go on and on but that's just a small slice of the pie in terms of what i want to do in my nursing career!

krenee · May 5, 2007

I laughed when I saw this because it's such a cliche. And not that it isn't TRUE, many of us want to help people . . . but when I sent in my personal statement applying for a nursing scholarship, I specifically avoided saying it because I thought, that's what everyone says and I wanted to stand out.

That said, I have definitely considered charity work in the future. While watching (part of) the Idol Gives Back special, I thought how great it would be to go to Africa and help some of those poor sick people. My dh is an EMT and that's something we could do together when our kids are grown. I can't give $100,000 like Ellen Degeneres but I would love to help.

Kelly

DermNP2Be · May 5, 2007

I have no problem being extremely honest. I am extremely impoverished. It is a cycle in my family. I need the money- but that has only partially influenced my decision. My mother was a single parent and my father left us with NOTHING. She decided not to accept this and went back to school earning 2 Associate and 2 Bachelor degrees. She has been working for herself as a Real Estate Appraiser as well as in the loan and mortgage business since I was 14 years old and I am now 35. My father is still a bum. She raised 4 of us alone- my sister had extreme Cerebral Palsy and my mom didn't want her in a home, so she lived with us and we all contributed to her care until she died at the age of 25. I have been around people and children that were ill and/or mentally impaired since I was 2 years old. I have often been asked how am I able to interact with the ill so well; I have no explanation for this other than it's just a part of me maybe influenced by the love for my sister and the constant involvement with those like her. I do want to help people- I love helping people. I want to be able to provide for my children, but I also want to establish scholarships for those like me, I want to go to Africa where massive genocide is happening and help those that are being attacked, that are sick, that ar being raped, and although it sounds like a cliche- I want to make a difference.

Wsmith16, ADN, BSN · May 5, 2007

Actually, I believe that nurse should be paid more for their work. Considering the amount of nonsense they put up with on the floor and the amount of work that has to be done. I know this just beacsue most of the women in my family are RNs, yes they get an ok salary but they're beyond exhausted and underappreciated.

So, of course I want to help people but its a a job and like any job we must be fully compensated. Nurses are worth alot more then they are getting paid on average.

carolinapooh, BSN, RN · May 5, 2007

Here's the thing - in my opinion, it's fantastic that this nation is wealthy enough and generous enough that we can help others around the world.

What annoys me is that no one (and yes, that's a broad term; let me rant for a second) wants to talk about what's happening HERE. We're among the richest nations in the world, a country that THROWS AWAY excess milk and grain from farms subsidized by the government, and yet there are kids right here in Durham that will go to bed tonight without anything to eat. What IS that, i ask? What's the deal with that?

What about soup kitchens here, or raising money here for free clinics? Why are people so quick to send money to Africa, but don't want to think about what's happening right down the street? We've got millions of people who are uninsured in this country, but we organize medical missions to Africa. What's up with that? What makes them any better than the folks here in homeless shelters in Durham, who could benefit from someone appearing to give a rat's butt? On the news you hear about celebrities lobbying drug companies for free drugs for African nations ravaged by AIDS, but what about people here with no insurance who don't qualify for Medicaid or Medicare who also need these drugs? (And I do not believe for one minute that Glaxo is willing to 'fess them up - I have heard too many stories and read way too much about the voluminous paperwork required for freebies from Big Pharma in this country.) I guess we can't look ourselves in the face or even in the mirror and admit we're not as fantastic nor as perfect as we'd like to believe we are as a nation.

I'll finish my RN in December, and then I'll be immediately returning to school to work on the non-clinical portions of an FNP (age is playing a part here). As soon as I finish an FNP, I want to work at the Lincoln Clinic here in Durham and do SOMETHING to help my own community. So yes, I want to help people. It's nice that in the process I'll make enough to live well on, but I have to do something that is meaningful for me at the same time.

Sorry for the rant, but the question of why we're so willing to send stuff and cash overseas when we have horrible needs right here has always perplexed me. My instructors keep telling me I need to get a JD or an MBA with my RN and then take this "passion", as they've labeled it, to Washington or even to Raleigh to try and change things, but privately I wonder if that makes any difference at all because NOTHING seems to change in this country. And then if I do that, that's one more person out of the loop who is out there actually DOING something, so I think I'd defeat my own purpose.

So YES, I want to help people, but I'd really like to do something here, in the midst of the bureaucratic BS and red tape that binds this great country together...we need to clean up our mess at home first before we start trying to solve the rest of the world's problems.

Thanks for letting me rant. :)

aerorunner80, ADN, BSN, MSN, APRN · May 5, 2007

Actually, I believe that nurse should be paid more for their work. Considering the amount of nonsense they put up with on the floor and the amount of work that has to be done. I know this just beacsue most of the women in my family are RNs, yes they get an ok salary but they're beyond exhausted and underappreciated.
So, of course I want to help people but its a a job and like any job we must be fully compensated. Nurses are worth alot more then they are getting paid on average.

Amen to that!!! I think all healthcare workers should be paid more!

I really think that if you don't have some desire to help people at all, you're in the wrong profession. That is what healthcare is about...helping people get better or die with dignity. It's all about the people.

DermNP2Be · May 5, 2007

Here's the thing - in my opinion, it's fantastic that this nation is wealthy enough and generous enough that we can help others around the world.
What annoys me is that no one (and yes, that's a broad term; let me rant for a second) wants to talk about what's happening HERE. We're among the richest nations in the world, a country that THROWS AWAY excess milk and grain from farms subsidized by the government, and yet there are kids right here in Durham that will go to bed tonight without anything to eat. What IS that, i ask? What's the deal with that?
What about soup kitchens here, or raising money here for free clinics? Why are people so quick to send money to Africa, but don't want to think about what's happening right down the street? We've got millions of people who are uninsured in this country, but we organize medical missions to Africa. What's up with that? What makes them any better than the folks here in homeless shelters in Durham, who could benefit from someone appearing to give a rat's butt? On the news you hear about celebrities lobbying drug companies for free drugs for African nations ravaged by AIDS, but what about people here with no insurance who don't qualify for Medicaid or Medicare who also need these drugs? (And I do not believe for one minute that Glaxo is willing to 'fess them up - I have heard too many stories and read way too much about the voluminous paperwork required for freebies from Big Pharma in this country.) I guess we can't look ourselves in the face or even in the mirror and admit we're not as fantastic nor as perfect as we'd like to believe we are as a nation.
I'll finish my RN in December, and then I'll be immediately returning to school to work on the non-clinical portions of an FNP (age is playing a part here). As soon as I finish an FNP, I want to work at the Lincoln Clinic here in Durham and do SOMETHING to help my own community. So yes, I want to help people. It's nice that in the process I'll make enough to live well on, but I have to do something that is meaningful for me at the same time.
Sorry for the rant, but the question of why we're so willing to send stuff and cash overseas when we have horrible needs right here has always perplexed me. My instructors keep telling me I need to get a JD or an MBA with my RN and then take this "passion", as they've labeled it, to Washington or even to Raleigh to try and change things, but privately I wonder if that makes any difference at all because NOTHING seems to change in this country. And then if I do that, that's one more person out of the loop who is out there actually DOING something, so I think I'd defeat my own purpose.
So YES, I want to help people, but I'd really like to do something here, in the midst of the bureaucratic BS and red tape that binds this great country together...we need to clean up our mess at home first before we start trying to solve the rest of the world's problems.
Thanks for letting me rant. :)

I have done the soup kitchens here, the Christmases for poor children here (even when I can only afford 1 gift per each of my 5 children), the shelters HERE, etc. Now let me have my rant- I, too, have said over the years starting from my early teens that not to sound cold, but I feel for those in other countries that do not have food to eat, but what about our children here?? I grew up with literally NO FOOD at times, my mom had to borrow potatoes to feed us- so yes, I am not one of those people that just talk about it, I am one of those people that have lived it. I used to and still do ask why are we concentrating so much on feeding the world and not enough (in my opinion) on educating these countries on birth control until we get the hunger epidemic under control. I do not say this to take away anyone's rights to bear children- don't get me wrong (as I am assured someone on this forum most definitely will). I am saying this because of it being a problem both THERE and HERE. However, let me inform you as to why the situation(s) are important to me (I don't know about anyone else) and I'm so "quick" to offer my help there in ADDITION to providing my help here: I am an African American that is very involved and knowledgeable of the horrors that are happening in Africa that have to not only deal with food- but a dire need for medical care. The horrors that have and continue to go untold unless anyone takes the time or initiative to seek them out. Do a google on it and maybe, just maybe you might understand a little more than you think you do. Beginning with the Genocide of Rawanda where over 800,000 African men, women, and so saddening- babies and children were murdered in the most horrific ways (so recent- this was just around 1994) and even now with the Genocide happening right under our noses in Darfur- I won't even go on any longer because this upsets me so. I thought that was a role of a nurse- to care about EVERYONE not just your OWN. Just do some research.

treeguy · May 5, 2007

Look, everyone has a point here. There are many problems in this country but to try and say that we need to focus on America before we focus on places like africa is not only cold but ludicrious. In America, even the poor people are rich in comparrisons to places like Africa. At least poor people in America can barrow food from other people or scrap together some money and buy food. In places like Africa, you can't just go down to the local grocery store with the little money you have because THEY DON'T EXIST!!!! You can't even find clean drinking water and yet even the poorest of the poor in this nation crap and pee into a gallon of clean water everytime they use the bathroom!!!! And we sit around and make our minor problems see more important then theirs. It's like the rich kid that complains because he hasn't got absolutely everything he wants.

Yes, there are problems in America but they absolutely pale in comparison to the worlds problems. Some people are called to help people in America and GOD BLESS THEM. But some are called to work in Africa so don't put them down. All of our problems in this nation can be solved in four words; NON-VIOLENT DIRECT ACTION!!!! We are all just to self-absorbed in our own lives to where we do not demand justice for everyone in this nation; This is something that ALL OF US are guilty of.

p.s. I don't mean to sound like I am lashing out at anyone I just am really passionate about what is happening in the world. The next time you notice a paramilitary group bust into your homes and kill your entire family let me know and I will agree that we need to solve america's problems before we can help africa with theirs. Peace sisters and brothers.