Why do you like being a nurse?

Nurses General Nursing

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Why do you like being a nurse? What drives you to do better? What motivates you to keep pressing on?

I'm working on an inspiration board to carry me through nursing school. I'm gonna have Bible verses, quotes, reasons I want to be a nurse, and hopefully, some words from experienced nurses!

Will you guys help me with my little project?

Thanks!

Specializes in LTC.

Through nursing school I constantly had bible versus and quotes in my binder. I had the student nurse prayer in my binder and read it daily. On every exam I wrote" Lord please bless me to pass and do well" Well, He did! I never failed an exam. One time an instructor saw this on my exam and sent me an email stating " The Lord answered your prayer, you passed your exam today".

In nursing school you have to keep motivating yourself. It will all pay off in the end.

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Specializes in Trauma, ER, ICU, CCU, PACU, GI, Cardiology, OR.

needless to say, my passion for nursing is just as strong as my own survival, after having a motorcycle accident that left me in a coma for 3mo. and thereafter a year of therapy i pulled through. during my time in the hospital as a pt. i encountered several amazing nurses, which inspired me to become one. moreover, once i was through with my bsn,and my military serve time; i engaged in the world of travel nurse, which open a multitude of opportunities not to mention excitement and experiences, which has taken me to experience work in madrid,spain, portugal, italy, france, london, brazil, puerto rico, venezuela, colombia, costa rica, new york, and hawaii. unquestionably, my love for being a nurse exposed me to fellow nurses around the world not to mention, their customs and languages at first hand. in addition, nursing has allowed me to work in many specialties units, which i'm grateful for the exposure. undoubtedly, there are no words to express the feeling one gets when, you're responsible for another human beings welfare. having said that, by having this passion or desire to take care of the sick or needy is a clear choice why i love being a nurse. no one can deny, the feeling one gets when you're rewarded with smiles and hugs from knowing that you helped an individual or family through a hardship or sickness. lastly, nursing is a demanding profession, which in turn demands a determine, dedicated, and dependable, person which i wouldn't settled for nothing less. therefore, these are a few reasons why i love being a nurse...aloha:cool:

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Wow! Thank you for all these great responses! SO EXCITED (I'm one of those peppy people...so everything excites me)!

By the way, I wanted to this to be a seperate thread so that I could post pictures of the finished project :-) so it could come full circle.

Thank you all! Keep the inspiration coming!

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Specializes in OB (with a history of cardiac).

Honestly? This sounds terrible, but it makes me feel smart. I've never been one to have outstanding talents, I was never on the presidents list in high school, I didn't have that magical 3.75 cumulative GPA in high school that granted me one of those gold tassel thingys. In grade school and middle school I was kind of lumped in and labeled as one of the "slow" ones. I guess you could say that perhaps I was a real life Ralph Wiggum (from the Simpsons). It's not like I was in my own little happy land like Ralphie was though. I knew people thought I was stupid. I was only really "good" at creative artsy fartsy things, and that's ok too.

But one day I got it in my head that I was going to be a nurse. The human body and how it worked fascinated me. I was sick as a child all the time and so in the clinic I was around all this "stuff". Tubes, doodads, needles, and medications. What was that thick pink gooey crap good for anyhow? What did it do? Why did my tonsils need to go? What were they doing in there anyway besides apparently who*ing themselves out to strep?

Oddly enough, the prerequisites which everyone predicted I would have a really hard time with, came really easy to me. Even O-Chem and Bio Chem. Who says the Krebs Cycle and Visual art can't be odd bedfellows for a week, right? Once I got into nursing school- I just picked it up. I don't know...people thought I had a crazy photographic memory because I just..."got it".

After a somewhat rough start at my first and current RN job (I was actually an LPN first for 5 years almost) I'm finding I'm just...having fun with it. I like people too. Big people and little people (I have a soft spot for wee little people, actually despite working with people mostly over 40). I like teaching people. I like talking to people. I like waking them up and making a sarcastic response about how we're going to be..like.. BFF's until 0730 because I just can't quit the Diet Coke. I like it when I'm leaving my BFF in the morning and they ask if I'm going to be back that night, and I can joke- "if you say nice things about me to my manager I will be..."

When i was an LPN I loved it when a parent or child would ask the LPN they had if "the girl with the bright red hair" could do the throat culture, or the shots. It makes me feel like I'm doing something right.

Don't get me wrong, it's not all about me. I beleive in a way it's a calling (a calling that had a lot of prayer thrown at it, NOT a "DREEEEAAAMMM") I believe that my ministry, my spiritual gift (as they speak of in the Bible, I'm a Christian) is being a healer. Whether it is physical or mental or spiritual. So that's my happy little justification of several grand in student loans.

Wanna hear why I DON'T like being a nurse? You probably would do well to hear some reality before your institution starts in on the "nursing shortage" brainwarshing.

I HATE how competitive it has become. From getting into a program to finding a job, it's become like theater was- it's all in who you know and whose hiney you're smooching.

I don't appreciate my hard earned Associates degree being poo pooed as useless and sub-par compared to the almighty BSN/MSN. I'm completing my BSN, but honestly I wanted it to be on my time, not someone else's and I had to bend- guess how fast I got a job after "currently completing BSN" showed up on my resume?

I REALLY don't like (see #1) the internal suck ups. The students/new grads who think they're so dang smart. Who question (not for learning purposes) their preceptors or instructors.

I don't like how I feel like sometimes I'm working at a McDonalds drive thru, reciting a script contrived by some person on high who hasn't ever set one foot on the unit, and probably won't either. I don't like having the feeling that if I patient wigged out on me smacked me around, and I defended myself, they'd probably side with the patient and give the patient first class treatment in the name of a good PICKAR (?) score. How politically correct we've become.

And I don't like how working nights has made it so that on my nights off, I can't sleep when I'm supposed to, and instead write speeches on allnurses.com. :bugeyes:

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PeepnBiscuitsRn that was awesome!

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PeepnBiscuitsRN

Bravo!!! Well Said!!

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Specializes in ICU, Telemetry.

One night, I had a patient that was dying; not uncommon in an ICU setting. I spent a huge part of the night with the family, showing them what I was seeing, how the patient's BP was slowly dropping, how the respirations were becoming shallower and more infrequent. I made up a bed in the room so that the wife could spend one last night hearing her husband breathing. I got her warmed blankets from the OR, made her tea, tried to do everything I could for her on what was probably the worst night of her life. I told her that sometimes, people want to wait for sun up ... they don't want to pass away in the dark. Sure enough, just as the sun came up, my patient passed away.

Some six months go by. I come in to work, and there's a letter for me at work. It's from the wife. I keep it in my wallet to this day, and it's torn on the fold lines from being pulled out, read, and put back on those bad nights. In part, here's what the letter says..

I don't expect you to remember us. You were with us the night of of xxxxxx, when when my husband passed away. You were in and out all night, explained just what we should expect, and were tending him when he died as the sun came up, just as you had thought. My family wants to express to you just how much you were a blessing to us. Forgive me for taking this long to tell you we all believe you to be one of God's angels.

I'm not an angel. Trust me on that one. But every once in a while, I get to stand in their shadow, and make a difference.

Life is short, nurse-to-be. Fight for the chance to make a difference.

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Specializes in Ortho Med\Surg.
One night, I had a patient that was dying; not uncommon in an ICU setting. I spent a huge part of the night with the family, showing them what I was seeing, how the patient's BP was slowly dropping, how the respirations were becoming shallower and more infrequent. I made up a bed in the room so that the wife could spend one last night hearing her husband breathing. I got her warmed blankets from the OR, made her tea, tried to do everything I could for her on what was probably the worst night of her life. I told her that sometimes, people want to wait for sun up ... they don't want to pass away in the dark. Sure enough, just as the sun came up, my patient passed away.

Some six months go by. I come in to work, and there's a letter for me at work. It's from the wife. I keep it in my wallet to this day, and it's torn on the fold lines from being pulled out, read, and put back on those bad nights. In part, here's what the letter says..

I don't expect you to remember us. You were with us the night of of xxxxxx, when when my husband passed away. You were in and out all night, explained just what we should expect, and were tending him when he died as the sun came up, just as you had thought. My family wants to express to you just how much you were a blessing to us. Forgive me for taking this long to tell you we all believe you to be one of God's angels.

I'm not an angel. Trust me on that one. But every once in a while, I get to stand in their shadow, and make a difference.

Life is short, nurse-to-be. Fight for the chance to make a difference.

Ok, Nerd, that needs a tissue alert! You just made me cry! :sniff:

OP, one thing that kept me going throughout nursing school was this quote:

"When you are going through something hard and wonder where God is...

Remember that the teacher is always quiet during a test."

Also, a good RN friend of mine told me on the first day of 1st semester "I'm not telling you it's going to be easy, I'm telling you it's going to be worth it"

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Specializes in Rehab, critical care.

I love leaving work everyday knowing that I am making a difference in someone else's life. Sounds corny, but it's true. That's why I go to work every day (well that, and bills to pay). Very few professions can actually say that, though there are others that do obviously.

The nursing interventions I perform make my patient more comfortable (I work in ICU, so suctioning them, titrating drips, even just PRN meds, pain/nausea, etc, repositioning them, bathing them (we do total care), talking with them, comforting family members, comforting grieving family members, explaining what is happening to the patient and explaining it to the family, as well, decreases their anxiety, and I always tell them that I will always call them if there are any changes, so they can try to go back to the waiting room and really sleep. Seeing the relief on the family member's face when I say that and them thanking me for the care I'm providing.

My nursing assessment makes a huge difference in my patient outcomes. The physicians rely on my assessment for their treatment decisions. I catch things early that could be worse later.....temp trending up, ask doc for blood cultures; new onset rhythm change: get EKG stat and cardiac enzymes; patient's pain is unrelieved with current regimen, get new one ordered from doc or look into cause if I suspect it's more than just pain, call with lab results to get electrolyte replacements ordered (to prevent rhythm changes). These are things I do every single day; not many professions can say that.

I love working with my co-workers. They are a great group of nurses, very good teamwork, and we work together to provide good care. Like "hey, what do you think of this dressing? is that worth calling about, something to worry about?" etc. You will love your job if you work with a good team. If your unit is toxic, you can still love your job, but that will sap the joy from you if everyone gossips, etc, all of the time. I've been so lucky that I have worked with a great group of nurses, no cattiness :).

Is nursing perfect? No...the hours are terrible, there's a lot of paperwork (some of it necessary, some of it not), but I love my job.

Found this random quote since you requested one lol: "Nurses may not be angels, but they're the next best thing." Yes, this is definitely true. Our patience is definitely saintly lol.

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Specializes in Med Surg - Renal.

I like taking care of people. I like learning and I like the challenge.

The pay ain't bad either.

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Specializes in LTC, assisted living, med-surg, psych.
One night, I had a patient that was dying; not uncommon in an ICU setting. I spent a huge part of the night with the family, showing them what I was seeing, how the patient's BP was slowly dropping, how the respirations were becoming shallower and more infrequent. I made up a bed in the room so that the wife could spend one last night hearing her husband breathing. I got her warmed blankets from the OR, made her tea, tried to do everything I could for her on what was probably the worst night of her life. I told her that sometimes, people want to wait for sun up ... they don't want to pass away in the dark. Sure enough, just as the sun came up, my patient passed away.

Some six months go by. I come in to work, and there's a letter for me at work. It's from the wife. I keep it in my wallet to this day, and it's torn on the fold lines from being pulled out, read, and put back on those bad nights. In part, here's what the letter says..

I don't expect you to remember us. You were with us the night of of xxxxxx, when when my husband passed away. You were in and out all night, explained just what we should expect, and were tending him when he died as the sun came up, just as you had thought. My family wants to express to you just how much you were a blessing to us. Forgive me for taking this long to tell you we all believe you to be one of God's angels.

I'm not an angel. Trust me on that one. But every once in a while, I get to stand in their shadow, and make a difference.

Life is short, nurse-to-be. Fight for the chance to make a difference.

That is one of the most awesome nursing stories I've ever read. You should submit this for publication!! :yeah:

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