Why did you become nurses?

Guests · Mar 20, 2014

Experienced nurses:
1) Why did y'all become nurses?
Primarily because I was looking for a career path with solid earning potential, relative stability, and the possibility of good benefits. I was also looking for the chance to be a non-exempt employee in a job that requires no travel.

My decision was also influenced by how quickly I could get a nursing license and the relative ease of the training by comparison to my other alternative (engineering graduate school).

Over the years, I'd had a number of encounters with nurses as a patient or family and I had a pretty solid image of what the job entailed and figured it would suit me.
2) Is it what you thought it would be, or what you were told it would be?
It is essentially what I had expected though I did face a much more difficult time finding *good* work than I had anticipated when I first made the decision.
I am considering getting out of my current profession and going into nursing or a similar medical field. I have my own reasons, but I'm wondering what some of yours were.
thank you,
-rup

I should point out that *my* experience - finding a good job which I basically like - seems to be a less common experience than what I often read about here on AN.

Palliative Care, DNP · Mar 20, 2014

TheCommuter. Thanks for being honest. How long have you been a nurse? Mom to 4: how long have you been a nurse?

I will be a nurse 5 years in May. I earned my ADN in 2009, BSN in 2011, and God willing my DNP in 2015. That will be all the education for me! I will be 37 when I graduate and that's ok by me. I was a stay home mom for a long time. One realized I had better educate myself in case something ever happened to my husband.

motherof3sons · Mar 20, 2014

When I was little I heard stories from my Nana about nursing as she was a nurse, later on I cared for her. She encouraged me to think about nursing.....I have such fond memories of rubbing her arthritic knees...seems like something so little now but then it was what I could do to make her more comfortable. So fast forward to high school...the guidance counselor told me I wasn't smart enough to go into nursing. I decided to prove her wrong.....22 years in nursing and not one day of regret....what do I do now....work with the elderly. :yes:

Here.I.Stand, BSN, RN · Mar 20, 2014

I began college as a traditional 18 y/o high school graduate as a music major. I am a classically trained musician and was very hardcore as a teenager, and didn't think I would do anything else. But two years in it wasn't as much fun as it had been--it had always been work, but I loved every minute of it. Plus it occurred to me that employment would be, shall we say, unlikely? I didn't want to teach b/c I'm THAT terrified of public speaking. Give me a script and/or a score and I'm fine, but not speaking. :nailbiting:

Back up three years--I had taken the CNA class as a senior in high school. My school district offered it as a distance ed elective w/ us in our respective classrooms and the RN instructor teaching from a remote location, and then we had clinicals at area nursing homes and hospital one or two Saturdays a month. It was free, and I thought working as a CNA would be an honorable summer job. I was a church organist in high school which I would be resigning from to go to college, did some freelancing for weddings and such, but had never worked a "real" job. I did NOT want to work in a restaurant or a store, but thought being a CNA would be cool.

For the next two years I worked as a CNA during my breaks. And I really enjoyed it! So when I decided to give up on music as a career, becoming an RN seemed the logical choice.

So here I am. :nurse: Was it what I thought it would be? Not exactly. It's harder than I thought it would be, but I love it more than I thought I would!

NOADLS · Mar 20, 2014

From another thread I responded to:

These slips of paper that you can take to the bank q2weeks to get numerous slips of green paper that you can use to buy things with.

rupertmichaes · Mar 21, 2014

Thanks everyone for your replies - this was very helpful. I was surprised (maybe I'm naive) at some of the candor from those of you who got into nursing for the money. I do my job for the money only - I really hate it. I wouldn't continue for anything less than what I'm getting, and I don't think if I were to make 2x what I do now that I'd like it anymore.

Would you keep doing nursing if it paid more like what aides or techs get?

nursefrances, BSN, RN · Mar 21, 2014

^^^^^ That is a good (and interesting question). I feel like it could open a can of worms but here goes.....

Personally for the amount of schooling I went through and the responsibility we have for our patients (when I worked bedside), it would be difficult to stay and work that hard for a lower payscale.

This of course has nothing to do with how hard CNAs/techs work. I am talking about the 4-5 years of schooling for my BSN, qutting my job and accruing more debt while going to school (paying for school yet have no money coming in), and also having such a great responsibilty for the lives of others for 12 hours. Wow, that would be tough to do at an entry level job pay.

rupertmichaes · Mar 21, 2014

Yes. I have never been under the impression that nursing is an easy job.

What I want to do is find my gift, whether its nursing or something else, and put it to work to help those who need it the most. I am in need of a job where what I do has a direct effect. I have also considered being a paramedic, or somehow trying to do both paramedic and an RN, but I haven't seen any such program. I've also considered PT, because they too help the sick and injured during the recovery stage. I've even considered becoming a counselor - but that has become such a ridiculous field full of quack theories and methods that I've lost interest. I considered going to med school, but I have zero interest in becoming a physician. The training they go through is inhuman; maybe that's how it should be - they are the scientists who are to be cool and removed so they can think clearly. I could only be a doctor if I were able (and allowed) to be warm and caring for my patients (like a nurse should be), but also a cold, hard-nosed scientist, disinterested and objective, an physical detective so to speak. Also, I have the impression that nurses and other health professionals have a lot more freedom when they're done with school. Doctors seem to be stuck in the exclusive world of doctors, and I've no interest in that.

I need a job that will not bore me. I need a job that has a real, concrete effect. I need a job that needs me.

TheCommuter, BSN, RN · Mar 21, 2014

Would you keep doing nursing if it paid more like what aides or techs get?

Absolutely not! If a licensed nursing job compensated me about the same as what a typical CNA/tech earns in my area, I'd look for a way to live on the dole.

The level of responsibility, accountability and stress I deal with is worth more than $9 to $13 per hour. For that money, I could work as a bank teller and actually have the power to kick verbally abusive 'customers' out of the bank with the help of security.

LoveMyBugs, BSN, CNA, RN · Mar 21, 2014

Absolutely not! If a licensed nursing job compensated me about the same as what a typical CNA/tech earns in my area, I'd look for a way to live on the dole.
The level of responsibility, accountability and stress I deal with is worth more than $9 to $13 per hour. For that money, I could work as a bank teller and actually have the power to kick verbally abusive 'customers' out of the bank with the help of security.

Agree 100%

There are nights when I feel I do not get paid nearly enough for what I have to deal with.

Now if I won the lottery would I keep nursing?

No...I would volunteer on my terms maybe once a month or do relief work with doctors without borders

But this job for less pay....no ...not with the amount of schooling debt that I have put in, I have a family to support before anything else

Guttercat, ASN, RN · Mar 21, 2014

Was a CNA, and found I could stomach the blood and body fluids and cranky little old people. I also enjoyed the sciences.

Becoming an RN was a logical leap, nothing more, nothing less. No driving need or passion to be a saint.

If I had pursued the endeavors I am most passionate about, I'd be living under a bridge.

twinkerrs · Mar 21, 2014

Probably going to get flamed but I became a nurse so I could become a NP. When my twins were babies their primary care person I chose was a nurse practitioner. She wasn't afraid to approach me about post partum depression she worked hard as an advocate and I felt like I was part of a team when we were working on my babies issues lbw preemies, one ftt, one with a unknown genetic abnormality etc. high maintenance patients.

She referred me to a psych NP and when I saw what this NP did for her patients I was hooked. I was a psychology major my first go round of college and then a paralegal for years. I knew I was not going to do bedside nursing but the required amount for my program to be a PMHNP. I graduated with ASN 2009, BSN 2010 and will have my MSN in May of this year!!! My first mentor from Alabama is driving 450 miles to my graduation. My 2nd mentor passed away last year but I know she will be applauding me from heaven!!