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Just a general question...Why did you become a nurse, or want to be a nurse?
Ive had a couple RN's tell me that now it NOT the time to become a nurse, and if you work as a nurse, you will get sued!
Can you believe it>?
Well...Im interested to know WHY some of you became nurses?
One of my children died after I found out he had leukemia. At the time, I was making $20/h in a paper mill. You don't just throw away a job like that, but in 2001 the mill closed and I knew right where I was going to go...to school to be a nurse (at age 45 no less). I want to do my very best to try and make sure that no one has to feel what I felt when my son died. I graduate in May and God willing, I'll pas my NCLEX and become an LPN.
I guess it just hit me one day while i was at the ER because my baby ~just crawling~ stuck his hand over the steam vent on the rice cooker and burnt the crap out of his tiny hand,it bubbles almost immediatly, I had slapped a gob of silvadene sp? on it and wrapped it in guaze then took him into the ER, the nurse there asked me if i was a nurse, I said no but thought to myself I would like to be,~he has no scarring but it was awful when his skin came off~ I also had a wonderful OB that delivered all 4 of my kids and the labour nurses were really great,, 2 were by csec and the mother baby nurses were also sooo wonderful and caring ~~ok except the one that stole half my pain meds when the hospital tried doing the self medicate program~
I am not sure which field of nursing I am going to go into but I am really excited about becoming one,
Just a general question...Why did you become a nurse, or want to be a nurse?Ive had a couple RN's tell me that now it NOT the time to become a nurse, and if you work as a nurse, you will get sued!
Can you believe it>?
Well...Im interested to know WHY some of you became nurses?
So glad you asked, because I love to tell this story.
This story starts with a beautiful young woman in a delivery room. This woman was there to have her second child her first one was now ten and she had met a new man after a trying marriage and divorce. They had plans to marry but chose to wait until after the baby was born. Both the boyfriend and the woman were so excited and going through the pre-delivery motions like champs.
Until about three hours into it.
The young mother to be suddenly was going in and out of consciousness and the young man was screaming for a nurse which was there in seconds. The fetal monitor was doing some very odd things and loosing the baby's heart rate which was probably caused by the seizures that the mother was having. The nurse was on the phone calling the doc and the young man was at the bedside trying to keep his girlfriend conscious.
The bed with the young women was taken out of the room for an emergency c-section and the young man was left in the room by himself wondering "WHAT HE HELL IS GOING ON" "IT ISNT SUPPOSED TO BE LIKE THIS"
After what seemed like an hour or two they came in and told the young man that his girlfriend would be fine but there were some complications with the baby. It seems that the placenta abrubted and the blood got into the babies lungs and clotted and it took ten min to get O2 to the baby and she was now intubated and not doing so well.
The young man went to see his girlfriend and the docs said "I'm sorry but we can't get the bleeding to stop and we are going to have to do a hysterectomy."
The young man went to see his new daughter and the nurse, Shelly, took him in there and his daughter was connected to more tubes than he thought they could put on a baby. She was intubated and receiving blood products.
The Neo-nat physician wanted to talk to him and told him the grim prognosis that she would probably not make it through the night.
While all this was going on his girlfriend had gone into DIC or disseminated intravascular coagulation. She was bleeding to death and her chances of living were about 20%.
Four days later his daughter, Rachel, was still intubated and his girlfriend was now recovering.
28 days later they decided to remove life support from Rachel. As the brain damage was so severe that only the medulla was still working, and that probably was not going to be for long.
They asked their pasture if they were doing the right thing and if they should wait to see if God had a miracle planned and he replied "Don't you think if there was going to be a miracle that it would happen after you took her off life support"
So they did.
With all of their family there to say good bye the little baby girl was rolled into the room with the RT pumping oxygen through her little tubes and then they removed the bag and the tubes and handed the child to her mother.
The doc said it may take up to 4 hours before she stopped breathing.
4 hours came and went.
And then 4 more
The nurse came in and fed the little girl.
The couple fell asleep with their daughter next to them and awoke 2 hours later and she was still there breathing away.
They would call this "The Day of Life" for after 28 hours the doctor decided that maybe he had misjudged her and that maybe she could go home.
After a few days in the hospital to receive a J tube and a nissen wrap. Nurse Shelly was giving the couple CPR training and the little girl was in her Car seat ready to go home.
On day 40 nurse Shelly walked the couple down to the car and hugged and cried with the mother and father and they took the baby home that was not going to make it through the night.
She would only live for another ten days but those ten days were so much more than the doctors ever gave her. It was because of the tender loving care and support that the NICU Nurses, especially Nurse Shelly whom the couple still stays in touch with after two years, gave their little girl.
So not even a month after my girlfriend and I held our little girl as she took her last breaths on this earth, I registered for school to start working on my pre-recs and a year later I would be accepted into a ADN program and now I am almost half way through with that and before it is all over I will be in the NICU again.
This time as one of the best human beings on the face of the earth.
A NICU Nurse.
And here is picture of me and my baby girl on "The Day of Life".
Sorry so long and thanks for letting me share.
I became a nurse because when I was younger I didnt take the time to care for someone close to me because I was so selfish. They ended up passing away, and I swore to myself that I would devote my life caring for people less fortunate than myself. No matter what may come at me in the future...I couldnt see myself doing anything differently!:)
Lovenusringanyx, that is exactly the way I feel. The other night, I was asking myself why I want to become a nurse and it was odd that I stumbled unto this forum especially to this thread. I am currently taking my pre-reqs and hopefully transfer to S.D.S.U. in 2005. There are times I question my bachelors degree in business but like my family has said, "dont look back, just keep moving forward." I am grateful for all of you and this website, because I know that I am not the only one going through trials and tribulations. I am also grateful to the loving mother that I miss everyday for raising me and loving me with all my faults as a man and as a son.
X-Man
As my screen name implies, I am a third generation nurse in my family. My great-grandmother was a nurse that went to new mother's homes and lived with her and cared for the mother and the baby. My mother has been an RN for 22 years. It has amazed me to see one side of her at home as my mother, and then to go to Duke where she works in Dialysis and see her with her patients. She is almost a different woman. I am the first male in my family to make the choice to become a nurse.
Part of my personal decision came from childhood. When I was 12 I had a rare smooth muscle tumor in my small intestine. I spent an entire summer in the hospital with several major complications from surgery. It amazed me to see the caring and quality of the nurses that took care of me. The small things that they did for me were the best, one nurse would rent videos from Blockbuster since the unit only had movies like Barney or Sesame street. I have not forgetton those wonderful women and it has become my honor to join the ranks of people such as these.
quote by HELLLLO NURSE 'If I had known how nurses were treated, and what working conditions are generally like, I would not have become a nurse'
On my bad days i totally agree. i became a paeds nurse because i wanted to care for children. i did my NNEB and felt i wanted more so i went on to become a paeds nurse. Very rewarding!
I became a nurse because long ago when I became a CNA as my first job, I was always in trouble for talking too long to a Patient, or not getting someone up who didn't feel good at 6am, or because I couldn't stand to wake anyone up who was sound asleep, so it took me an hour of walking ina nd out of each of my Patients rooms, hoping to find one of them awake, and eventually having to make some noise in the room, like rustling through the closet, just so it wouldn't be me saying, time to get up, rise and shine, when they just wanted to sleep in a little bit. Basically, I was tired of the Nurses telling me what to do and how to do it. I had way too much compassion for these elderly people to treat them that way. I wanted to call the shots. So, that's what I did, and when I became lead nurse on my unit, I let my residents sleep in and didn't make them get up when they didn't feel good. I helped the CNA's on my floor, I loved getting people up and helping them dress, and making them feel loved. I still love it. Besides, my Grandfather said I had to either be a nurse or a teacher or he wouldn't pay for it. *W*
You know I've always wanted to be a nurse (except when I wanted to be a rock star!!). I went to nursing school at 18 and 20 years later I still love it. Making the difference for one person makes it all worthwhile. The thanks of a grateful patient or family member is a wonderful thing. i have met so many wonderful people and had so many amazing experiences that have enriched my life. Yes, there are bad days when you wonder what your'e doing and wether your'e making a difference, but for me those are few and far between and related to rules, regulations and administration. :)
I became a nurse because I chose it as my undergrad major for pre-med. I changed my mind that I wanted to stick with nursing rather than medicine. Why do I love nursing?? Because nurses care for the whole person. It is very science oriented. I love science. I enjoy counseling theories..and nursing is the blend of psychological and physical. Nurses are trusted more than any other profession. Nurses are there at the beginning of a life and at an end of a life. It is beautiful to be an advocate for someone that is trying to navigate the health care system. I want to be that voice for the ill. I want to use my knowledge for noble purposes. And, I will not turn my back on the profession when the going is at it's toughest today. If money is your priority, then don't become a nurse. But, if you want to reach out to those in need, go for it. If you want a job that is active, always different and interesting, go for it. It is definately a difficult profession, but I would not see myself doing anything else. The rewards in nursing are not in your paycheck, but in your heart. Nursing is work that matters to individual people and the community. Nursing today needs leaders that will advocate for their patients and their profession. We need nurses that will reach out to legislators and tell them how we want our profession run. In many ways, nursing is still in it's infantcy when it comes to the development of it's profession. I choose to be a nurse because I want to be in a profession that gets paid to care about people and have to use my brain to do it. I have been a nurse for three years. I am new in relation to most nurses. And, I am ready for the challenge!
I am a brand new nursing student, and I chose this field for several reasons. First of all, I LOVE any field related to the human body and how to care for it. Secondly, I like people and I like getting to know people, and I like helping people. I wanted a career that actually held meaning for me in the grand scheme of things...Nothing against other careers or anything, but I had several of those 'other careers' and, really, in the long run, the work I was doing had no real meaning...this has REAL meaning...we have the chance to help people achieve a higher state of wellbeing...We have the opportunity to make someone's life better and, by so doing, we make ourselves better...
"To the world you might be one person...but to one person, you might be the world."
traumaRUs, MSN, APRN
87 Articles; 21,288 Posts
I really enjoy helping people and feel that in this life we have to give back in order to take. KYUT nurse - what a moving post - thanks for sharing.