Why did you become nurses?

Published

Experienced nurses:

1) Why did y'all become nurses?

2) Is it what you thought it would be, or what you were told it would be?

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 am surprised because most of the nurses I grew up around including my mother went into it for better reasons than you did.

You sound a bit insulting.

I'm sure your mother is a wonderful nurse, but if her place of employment stopped giving her a paycheck, would she still come into work?

I am glad there are some people who went into it because they have compassion for the injured, sick, and dying.

You cannot assume that someone who has pursued nursing to earn a living is a person who has no compassion.

Why do you believe this?

Do you believe nurses who got into nursing to earn a decent wage don't care about the injured, sick and dying?

If that's the case, I can assure you there would be a lot of patients lying dead from neglect because there are a lot of nurses who do it for the paycheck.

I know not one nurse-- not one-- who doesn't bust their rump to make sure they keep their pts comfortable, safe and alive... and half of those nurses will honestly tell you they do it for the paycheck.

Chances are, you probably could not tell the "calling" nurses from the "paycheck" nurses.

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Specializes in Critical Care.

I was working as a secretary feeling bored and unchallenged, not able to use my brain to my full potential. I was taking college classes but realizing a bachelors degree really wouldn't help me get a decent paying professional job and was actually a dead end mirage. I wanted to use my brain and also help others and make a difference and had worked in a emergency dept and seen how much the actual nurses did vs the drs.

I had a friend that was already a nurse for several years who discouraged me because of the stress and poor working conditions. I didn't listen to her. She found her niche in case management working for insurance companies and has an easy and pleasant job with good working conditions.

Although I was warned, I had no idea how hard nursing would be and have found it to be very stressful and difficult. I have stayed at the bedside and it has become harder over the years due to the extreme obesity of patients, the many altered mental status patients, the micromanagement via the computer, the scripting, the endless alarms etc. This is the hardest job I've ever done. I'm challenged and sometimes feel I make a difference and have met many wonderful people. That said it has been very unhealthy for me personally and I struggle with the stress, have HTN and have been injured on several occasions. A bad night will end with a migraine. On a bad night I want to flee, or scream or cry, but feel trapped and just count the hours down to freedom!

I don't know how I'm going to make it to retirement. It is a dilemma. I don't want to sell out and work for an insurance company even though I know the working conditions would be better. I personally don't want to be part of the insurance companies that make their money by denying patient's care! Also while homecare has been touted as being less stressful, I'm not sure I would be willing to give up the pay I make now to work even longer hours because of the endless charting!

I don't have my BSN so I feel my options are limited, yet the thought of taking out more student loans is the worst thing I could do. I wish I had been smarter and accepted that bedside nursing is brutal and not meant to be a long term job. I wish I had been one of the smart nurses that realized it is a dead end and got their NP! They are the smart ones, not that their job isn't without it's stresses. I feel it is too late for me to go back to school and take out student debt when I need to be saving for retirement. In my old age, I've lost my competitive nature and don't want to risk going to school and then being unable to get an NP job as the competition is fierce and I don't want to relocate to a rural area. I feel it would be worse if I spent all that money and found myself poorer off, still working in the hospital and paying off student loans ending up the stereotypical poor old lady.

So for now I'm just taking it one day at a time, saving as much money as I can for now and retirement. Sometimes I miss those easy days when I was a secretary. I never knew I had it so good! If only it paid a living wage!

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Quote from rupertmichaes

I am surprised because
most
of the nurses I grew up around including my mother went into it for better reasons than you did.

You sound a bit insulting.

I'm sure your mother is a wonderful nurse, but if her place of employment stopped giving her a paycheck, would she still come into work?

I'll have to ask her again why she became a nurse, but I seem to remember it being something she got on her knees to ask God to help her do because she wanted it so bad, and didn't have much money. This was a long time ago, late 50s, early 60s I think. She always had compassion for the patients, even the jerks. What she couldn't stand was the politics, vindictiveness, and how nursing (like most professions) moved away from its core principals towards corporate ones. She made good money, yes, but never lived lavishly, and the money she stashed seems to have gotten less important to her the older she's gotten while in retirement.

What I said above about her becoming a nurse "for better reasons than you did" - you here is singular, addressed to user "♪♫ in my" whom I was quoting. Not (necessarily) everyone else. I don't aim to give a offense but if I do so be it. That is how I feel, wholeheartedly; a hundred more pages of forum bicker won't change my mind. The only reason I even began to consider nursing, paramedics, or any other health profession, is to help people in crisis, thinking about when I've been in crisis and needed help. That's always gonna be a better reason to me than "good pay? flexible hours? okay". If it makes you feel better, there's no chance I'd go through the schooling and expenses, then the toil of the job itself, if it didn't pay well . . . . enough. I live an unbelievably cheap life as it is, so current nursing salaries are bound to make me feel rich.

I got into my current business mostly for the money, hoping that I would come to love it. I've come to hate it instead, and my coworkers and supervisors can see right through my shoddy acting. Yet, I've had many people tell me how much they appreciate how well I do my job. So I guess this character I play has begotten some happy customers.

And so with some of you nurses! ChristineN said above:

If you are good at your job what does it matter if you went into it for the money.

I agree - as long as you are good at your job. But as a patient given a choice between a good nurse who does it for the perks, or a good nurse who does it for love of the job, I'll take the latter.

My sister-in-law became a nurse because she was a single mother working at a video store and needed a career and nursing seemed to fit the bill. She's sharp as a wit although I've never seen an ounce of compassion from her. Naturally, she moved into administration and now makes the big bucks.

Honestly guys, for those of you hardliners who say it wasn't a calling, a spiritual need, I just can't believe that there's no part of you that is a born caretaker. Maybe it is so that many of you got into nursing for the perks not expecting to like it any more than an assembly job line, but later found that there is some spiritual satisfaction to it, the kind that VintagePN gets:

It's more than a job for me...I'm one of those "calling" people. I truly think that nursing is what I was meant to do...and I really do get so much satisfaction from it. It isn't about the money at all, but that's certainly a nice perk. I could never do anything unless my heart was in it and I was truly passionate about it. That's just me though...I know a lot of nurses who don't feel that way and went into it for the money and are great nurses. I don't think your motivations dictate how great of a nurse you are. I'm also a great cook but I can't say I'm really passionate about it....(eating food on the other hand...;))

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Really, what I was going for here is not to start a forum bicker for the bored.

What I wanna know is whether I, as one of the "calling" people, will be able to find an answer to that calling in nursing (or any other health profession) in this day and age.

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Specializes in LTC, med/surg, hospice.
Really, what I was going for here is not to start a forum bicker for the bored.

What I wanna know is whether I, as one of the "calling" people, will be able to find an answer to that calling in nursing (or any other health profession) in this day and age.

You may find nursing fits the bill for you. You may become disenchanted with the realities of it. Or a mix of the two or neither. Nobody can assure of that. I did not go into nursing with specific expecations and I'm glad.

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I am surprised because most of the nurses I grew up around including my mother went into it for better reasons than you did.
Better reasons?

The reason why someone became a nurse has no value for me compared to the quality of the nursing care that they provide.

I am glad there are some people who went into it because they have compassion for the injured, sick, and dying.
I am glad that there are people in nursing who "have compassion for the injured, sick, and dying" -- regardless of why they do the job.

I DO the job because I'm well compensated to do so; I do the job well because I have a strong work ethic; I offer kindness and compassion because I am a decent human being.

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What I said above about her becoming a nurse "for better reasons than you did" - you here is singular, addressed to user "♪♫ in my" whom I was quoting.

I know plenty of nurses who go into it for much better reasons than your mother did...

specifically, they're high-quality, hard-working professionals who want to best leverage their talents and resources to create for themselves the lives that they want and nursing provides that.

I've had many opportunities over the last 35 years to be a consumer of nursing care and, while I don't think there's any causation, some of the lamest nurses I've had were dripping with compassion and caring... they also happened to be lazy, stupid, or inattentive.

If you're all about "wanting to help people," by all means, nursing provides that in spades. Beware, though, that you're going to be working side-by-side with a lot of people who chose the career for 'lesser' reasons than you so be prepared... if your attitude of "betterness" manifests, you'll be in for a tough ride.

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Specializes in Dialysis.

At the risk of sounding cliche nursing was my calling. From a small child I always said I wanted to be a pediatrician. As I got older I realized I didn't want to go to college for the length of time becoming a doctor would take (although I should mention that going from LPN-RN-BSN has taken just as long) so I decided to be a nurse which as it turns out is even better because it is the nurse who actually spends all the time with the patients and has to carry out the orders to get the desired results. It's even better than I imagined. I have a job that I love, my kids are so proud to tell people their mommy is a nurse, and the money isn't half bad either. I wouldn't be happy doing anything else.

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Specializes in Hem/Onc/BMT.
Really, what I was going for here is not to start a forum bicker for the bored.

What I wanna know is whether I, as one of the "calling" people, will be able to find an answer to that calling in nursing (or any other health profession) in this day and age.

Unfortunately, you insulted a poster who answered your question with honesty and with bluntness that perhaps disturbed your sensitivities.

While I applaud your motivations and determination, you must understand nursing is no longer about holding hands, wrapping wounds, cleaning up vomits and feces. It has become extremely advanced and technical so much so that a nurse with highly intellectual aptitude is safer for a patient than a nurse with altruism and compassion. A person may enter nursing with good intentions, but if that person cannot do simple math to administer drugs safely, or does not have observational skills with critical thinking abilities to catch a patient about to go downhill, nursing is better without that person to begin with. Of course, a there could be a person highly intelligent but with complete lack of ethical sensibilities, nursing is also better without them as well.

Another thing you should keep in mind is that you will find yourself in situations where you may be doing more harm than helping -- that's the reality of healthcare right now, and the source of many burn-outs. Not to mention, there are patients who absolutely do not want your help and insult you for your compassion, throwing obscenities in your face because they don't get the shot they want, hurling urinals because you won't do their bidding.

You probably know a lot about nursing than most, since your mother is a nurse. Still, do your research, shadow nurses maybe, get a feel of what day-to-day operation is like. Also, it won't do any good to hold on to the stereotype of "the caring, compassionate nurse" vs "cold, scientific physicians." It just simply isn't true.

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Specializes in Pediatrics, Emergency, Trauma.
Unfortunately, you insulted a poster who answered your question with honesty and with bluntness that perhaps disturbed your sensitivities.

While I applaud your motivations and determination, you must understand nursing is no longer about holding hands, wrapping wounds, cleaning up vomits and feces. It has become extremely advanced and technical so much so that a nurse with highly intellectual aptitude is safer for a patient than a nurse with altruism and compassion. A person may enter nursing with good intentions, but if that person cannot do simple math to administer drugs safely, or does not have observational skills with critical thinking abilities to catch a patient about to go downhill, nursing is better without that person to begin with. Of course, a there could be a person highly intelligent but with complete lack of ethical sensibilities, nursing is also better without them as well.

Another thing you should keep in mind is that you will find yourself in situations where you may be doing more harm than helping -- that's the reality of healthcare right now, and the source of many burn-outs. Not to mention, there are patients who absolutely do not want your help and insult you for your compassion, throwing obscenities in your face because they don't get the shot they want, hurling urinals because you won't do their bidding.

You probably know a lot about nursing than most, since your mother is a nurse. Still, do your research, shadow nurses maybe, get a feel of what day-to-day operation is like. Also, it won't do any good to hold on to the stereotype of "the caring, compassionate nurse" vs "cold, scientific physicians." It just simply isn't true.

I LOVE this a times infinity! :inlove:

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Specializes in Anesthesia, ICU, PCU.

Music in my heart and tokebi have summed it all up. Reject their wisdom at your own peril.

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Unfortunately, you insulted a poster who answered your question with honesty and with bluntness that perhaps disturbed your sensitivities.

Again, so be it. My aim wasn't to offend. She got her bluntness, I got mine, and I appreciate hers - I know where she stands.

Your point though is well taken about nursing being more technical - but the same could be said of any of the medical professions, as could it about advanced car mechanics. But I've been and will again be a patient, as will y'all, and although I want medical professionals that know their business, I'd like to know where the human side will come from if not from nurses. Do we need to create a new profession that will fill the nurse-shaped hole in the medical experience?

This business about abusive patients . . . . I've heard nurses say they often have to just take it, often because of liability reasons. That is most unfortunate if it is true. A friend who's a nurse told me that nurses just don't have the right to fight back on that, 'cuz we need to understand that patients are in pain, are scared, etc. Well, if you can take it without throwing the urinal back to you, and still do the technical part of the job discussed above by user Tokebi, then I applaud you. Sounds like you have the human side after all.

As a patient, I tend to love the nurses. It's the doctor I usually wanna tear into. Then, when I'm over that, it's the insurance industry I'm ready to gas.

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