Why Did YOu Want To Be A Nurse?

Nurses General Nursing

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How many times did you hear, " Don't Do It"? Well I heard it a lot 9 years ago when I began my coursework to become a nurse. I was determined; I followed my dreams and did it! Here I am, almost 4 years after graduation and thinking, "Now why did I do that"! lol No regrets truly but it is very different then what I though it would be like.

I first dreamed of becoming a nurse after a long hospitalization (auto accident) when I was in my 20's. Twenty years later I did it! I followed my dream of becoming a nurse because I knew I would love caring for people (and I do). I love the challenge of medicine and people interactions of patients and (yes) families.

I love getting into these amazingly personal interactions with patients and becoming a spoke in their wheel of success.

Why did you become a nurse? :)

B.

I was another one who decided to become a nurse 5 minutes before I signed up for the program. It seemed like the thing to do at the time.

Nursing represented and still represents, to me, a noble profession. A profession I could be proud to say I am a part of. Yet, it also meant job flexibility and security.

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Specializes in ICU, nutrition.

I wanted to be a teacher when I was a little girl, all the way up until my sophomore year of college, when I realized working with a bunch of little kids or teenagers with attitude problems would drive me CRAZY. I had thought about nursing briefly during my senior year of high school, but I was discouraged by my mom and my guidance counselor, who said I should be a doctor instead.

So at the end of my sophomore year of college, I changed my major to nursing. After dropping out of nursing school twice, having a child, moving to a different state, and losing about 25 credit hours, almost eight years after I decided to become a nurse, I finally am one.

So why, you ask? 1) I like working with people and explaining how things work...one of the reasons I wanted to be a teacher. What other field can you work in where you constantly have the opportunity to teach people about something they don't understand but want to. I mean, they may not want to know how to prevent future problems, especially if it involves changing habits, but they almost always want to know how the disease process works and what exactly is wrong with them. 2) I DIDN'T want to be a doctor because I didn't want to be MARRIED to my job. I understood even then that to succeed as an MD, you have to put it first, and I did not want to put off having a family until I was too old to have one, and I didn't want to have a husband and kids but not get to enjoy them or even know them. 3) Deep down, I knew that even though my mom, the nurse, was discouraging me from becoming a nurse, she knew I had what it would take to be a good one, she just didn't want me to go through the endless work, long shifts, missed lunch breaks, not getting to pee for an entire shift, mountains of paperwork, and guilt at the end of the shift that I'd not done enough for my patients because there were too many of them and not enough time. She just wanted things to be easier for me than they were for her. 4) What a rush to SAVE LIVES and MAKE A DIFFERENCE!!

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Specializes in Community Health Nurse.
Originally posted by nightngale1998

I agree micro.. in order to know where you are going, you need to evaluate where you have been and why? lol Thank for responding...

B.

"In order to know where you are going, you need to evaluate where you have been and why?"

I love that quote, Nightingale! It's one of my favorite philosophies to live by! ;)

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I became a nurse so I could get paid for what I'd been doing my whole life - caring for some living creature that's injured or ill. It's the only job in which I feel perfectly at home.

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I think I was born to be a nurse. It was a natural thing for me to do. I was always the kid in the neighborhood that everyone brought injured animals to nurse back to health. I was always the teen in the neighborhood that all the other kids and teens came to when they got hurt and needed first aide especially when they were doing something stupid and didn't want thier parents to know about it! Helping others is part of who I am and who I always will be.

When I finally was able to go to college, nursing was the only reason I was there.

The other reasons were: good benefits, better access to health care for my family, decent income, steady income, and a chance to learn, expand myself and my horizons! I did it for me and my future. :-) And it worked!

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Specializes in Community Health Nurse.

After reading your post, Huganurse, I should have become a veterinarian since I brought home every stray animal in the neighborhood and hid it in our family basement while I nursed them back to wellness. My family just got used to me doing this, and they never set one animal free until I decided it was ready to find a home. Thank God, we didn't have a slew of animals all at once. :chuckle

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for the money

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Renee, funny you should mention that, my house did become a zoo, I counted once, I had over 200 animals at one time. That included alot of fish, a few snakes, lizards, 3 rabbits, 2 kittens that became cats of course, 3 dogs, turtles, a spider, a very large fox squirrel, a skunk, birds, and no kidding, believe it or not, I had a baby alligator in a small pond (next to the squirrel habitat) that grew to the 3 foot length of the pond that we had to take back to the lake. I didn't catch it and put it there, a neighborhood boy did it, that alligator ate all my fish and then I was down to about 75 animals. I made him catch it and take it back where he found it! My mother about had a heart attack when she noticed it in the back yard LOL. She was cool though and bought all the food and I did all the care. I used to take the little kids in the neighborhood on tours of my zoo! I should have charged them!

I can't help but remembering that my snakes got out one time, went into the finch cage and helped themselves then one of them decided to get lost on our linolium kitchen floor which just happened to be the same color as the snake! Again Mom lost it when the floor moved under her bare feet!

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Specializes in Community Health Nurse.
Originally posted by Huganurse

Renee, funny you should mention that, my house did become a zoo, I counted once, I had over 200 animals at one time. That included alot of fish, a few snakes, lizards, 3 rabbits, 2 kittens that became cats of course, 3 dogs, turtles, a spider, a very large fox squirrel, a skunk, birds, and no kidding, believe it or not, I had a baby alligator in a small pond (next to the squirrel habitat) that grew to the 3 foot length of the pond that we had to take back to the lake. I didn't catch it and put it there, a neighborhood boy did it, that alligator ate all my fish and then I was down to about 75 animals. I made him catch it and take it back where he found it! My mother about had a heart attack when she noticed it in the back yard LOL. She was cool though and bought all the food and I did all the care. I used to take the little kids in the neighborhood on tours of my zoo! I should have charged them!

I can't help but remembering that my snakes got out one time, went into the finch cage and helped themselves then one of them decided to get lost on our linolium kitchen floor which just happened to be the same color as the snake! Again Mom lost it when the floor moved under her bare feet!

:chuckle :roll :chuckle I would have lost it too, Huganurse, since I'm petrified of snakes! :eek:

Just think, if you had charged a fee every time you let kids come to your "petting zoo", you could have paid your college tuition in full without owing anything once you graduated! HA! :chuckle ;)

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Specializes in Geriatrics, LTC.

I decided to go into nursing over a course of about 4 years....Each time I had a child (3) and when I had a patial hysterectomy for cervical cancer it reinforced the need/want to become one of those caring and thoughtful people. And now I am. I love my job and wouldn't want to change it!

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Dear nightingale,

rereading the initial entry you started this thread with and your match with you avatar name.......love the cat too.......

personal experience from the other side of the bed rail does lend a whole 'nother light on it........

you are right.....now that I have been out there for a bit.......it sure isn't what I expected either......but I still love it.........

personal story already told of why here.......

love the spoke in the wheel analogy.........

micro

aka: being a nut that holds just one bolt

in this thing called medicine and medical care........and if I can make one person(patient/family/coworker/and yes even dr.)relax, laugh, or feel free to let emotions out while I am being SUPERNURSE OF ALL TIME...........IT IS WORTH IT.......

micro humor

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No nurses in my family.

No "visiting grandmom in the hospital when I was little" stories.

Not big on theraputic "help me nurse" communication stuff either.

I really like machines!!! I love science!!!

Give me the sickest sicky with as many beeping gee gaws you have hooked up to 'em! Love it! ;)

But I do remember in first grade when asked to draw a picture of what I wanted to be when I grew up, drawing a picture of Nurse Dixie from Emergency!! :chuckle I think it was because of her pantsuit uniform though.

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