Why did you take up nursing? What's your story?

Every nurse has their own story to tell about how or why they chose to enter the nursing profession. Some may have been inspired by a personal experience with healthcare, while others may have been drawn to the idea of caring for others. Some may have stumbled upon nursing by chance, while others knew from a young age that it was their calling. Whatever the reason, each nurse has a unique narrative that led them to become a caregiver. These stories are a testament to the diversity and passion within the nursing community and the profound impact that healthcare can have on our lives.

Please be as detailed or as short as you wish. It'll be interesting to hear everyone's stories.

Specializes in Nursing Ed, Ob/GYN, AD, LTC, Rehab.

I graduated high school and freaked out i didnt have a clue! realized how much i loved the TV show ER so i looked into nursing, bam, that was it!

Specializes in Nursing Ed, Ob/GYN, AD, LTC, Rehab.
After leaving an abusive home into a abusive marraige, I was hospitalized more occassions I would like to recall from a kid to adulthood and the nurses where very caring and compassionate ppl towards me. I remember one nurse, after confining in her about leaving this abusive marraige, but was scared to leave. She told me" Dreams can become reality, you have to choose". That was like a slap in my face. I was very scared to leave my ex-husband, here I had two small children by him and my education was not above the eigth grade. So while still in this marraige I sneaked books in and studied while my exhusband was at work. I took my GED and I passed, by then my ex-husband found out what I been doing and was furious with me for obtaining my GED. After, this eposide I finally left him for good. After, a few years down the road I just kept remembering what this nurse told me and I ended going to nursing school and graduating. I have learned two things, one: once you obtain an education this is something no one can take from a person, Two: nurse impact ppl's lives everyday and most of the time are not even aware of it, this nurse saved my life, and my children and now I get to help ppl in a good way, and very rewarding career it has been:wink2:

WOW! what an amazing story! You inspire me to study harder thanks for the lift up!

Specializes in Med/Surge, Psych, LTC, Home Health.

Wow! Well, apparently I haven't posted anything on this thread yet. :) I could have swore that I had posted my story, but I looked back through the thread and apparently I never have. Sooooooo.... here it is. :)

I wanted to be a nurse when I was just a WEEEEE, little bitty girl, because my mommy was a nurse. However, when I was in the fourth grade I read a story about a woman who was a veterinarian. Having always adored animals, I decided that that was what I wanted to be.

Once I got to high school though, my mind changed again when I got to Biology class and didn't like the class and didn't do well. Sooooooo... throughout most of high school, I wanted to be a writer/journalist... but I would actually change my mind SEVERAL times until I got to my second year of college and settled on a major in visual art. I graduated with a bachelor's degree in art and had decided on a career as a graphic designer. After graduating college at 22 and getting married, I searched ad agencies, printing houses, etc., for graphic designer jobs. My job search lasted a year and a half :o , mostly due to low availability of those types of jobs around here, and also some degree of low confidence on my part. (I worked as a convenience store cashier during my job search) So, I finally landed a job, at a company that makes graduation announcements, rings, and other accessories. The job however, was low paying, it was about an hour from where I lived, I worked by myself most of the day, and I didn't really get along with my boss. Total recipe for disaster; the job only lasted one year. :(

Sooooo, went back to the retail business for a while :), and at this next job met a guy who was getting ready to graduate from nursing school. He told me that he was going to be working at a psychiatric facility and I just thought, "How cool!". He and I became good friends, and I guess that meeting him is what made me decide that I wanted to go back to school to become a nurse. (Because my graphics career had pretty much tanked, I had been considering going back to school to learn SOMETHING else. I had been considering teaching, computer programming, and I think I had also considered nursing) Soooo, I guess the rest is history. :balloons: I worked as a CNA on a Med/Surge unit for four years while I went to school, then worked as an RN on the same unit for three years after school... then this past July, I left that job and became tah-dahhhh! A psych nurse!

Specializes in ER, ICU, Long Term, Skilled,.

Hit wrong button. Wasn't ready to submit.

I am a medical school dropout years back. I then became a housewife (a mother of three) for 16 years before I decided to enter the school of nursing. It just came to a point where everything seemed routinary.......... fetching my kids to and fro school, cleaning the house, gardening, cooking, baking, bathing my pet dogs, swimming twice a week and go scuba diving once a week and all the other tiny household jobs.

All seemed routinary until one day when my best friend dropped by and invited me to enroll to the school of nursing.

My husband gave a BIG NO for the nursing school idea and this challenged me more to insist on entering the program. I am a nurse now and I never regret joining the nursing profession. It has so many challenges and never have I found any dull moment since then.

Specializes in ER, ICU, Long Term, Skilled,.

You want the whole truth and nothing but the truth? OK

I was molested at an early age and was raped when I was 13. I went throught hell on the inside and never let anyone know what had happened. I kept this all secret until years later.

When I had dealt with what had happened to me I found that I had a warm and loving heart. I want to be in a position that I can help other women. So, after 2 marraiges, 2 children (which are now grown) I have the opportunity to fulfill my lifelong dream to become a nurse. I am now enrolled in an LPN program. Upon completion I plan to further my education.

My ultimate goal is to work in some capacity with rape victims.

Hi, I am a medical school dropout years back. I then became a housewife (a mother of three) for 16 years before I decided to enter the school of nursing. It just came to a point where everything seemed routinary.......... fetching my kids to and fro school, cleaning the house, gardening, cooking, baking, bathing my pet dogs, swimming twice a week and go scuba diving once a week and all the other tiny household jobs.

All seemed routinary until one day when my best friend dropped by and invited me to enroll to the school of nursing.

My husband gave a BIG NO for the nursing school idea and this challenged me more to insist on entering the program. I am a nurse now and I never regret joining the nursing profession. It has so many challenges and never have I found any dull moment since then.

Specializes in Med Surg.

all three of my parent's kids are nurses. i think they put something in the water.:roll :roll

Specializes in TRAUMA,TRANSPLANT,CARDIOTHORACIC.

I grew up in the 50's and 60's,wanted to be a cop or "armyman" only sissies boys became nurses...i had aunts and grandmothers that told great stories of the folks they took care of,my grandmother and a den mother both worked on people from thr coconut grove fire in boston in the 40's..it was horrible,the first use of silvadene..people sitting at thebar,cigarettes stil in their hands,facing eachother as if still talking,stone dead,slightly scorched from the flash fire that ripped thru there...taking all the o2 out.....as a youg boy I loved the gory stuff...had an aunt was a nun nurse in africa for awhile,great stories of bugs,snakes,animal and machete wounds......always has these in the back of my mind...but also knew that "real" men didn;t go into nursing....went looking for buds one very cold morning...the plan was to get a game of swamp hockey going..i got up early,put a ton of clothes on and hiked off into the woods...no kids...kinda ticked,.all dressed up and nowhere to go...then i hear some splashing and a high pitched whine...a little blond head is bobbing in the water where the water drains out of the swamp and is always free of ice...it was little terry lou spartachino..all of 4 years old....the water was about 3 feet deep i was over 5'8 at the time,about 10 years old..i jumped in..and just like the movies she collapsed...little seerssucker cotton pj's with sailboats on them..her lips were blue,like when you're in the surf too long....her clothes and hair started to freeze as soon as i had her out in the air..it was about 5 degrees...he skin got glassy...i took off my micmac coat and wrapped her up in it and headed for the neighborhood..i prayed that she wouldnt die...promised God a few things if he would let her live...all the jump and hucking thru th ewoods plus maybe the prewarmed jacket got some movement out of her...i ran into her house with her 11 brothers and sisters,,found her mom with just panties in her bedroom dressing..witha look of "what are you doing in my bedroom?" them she saw terry...i told her i pulled her out of the ice...so we proceeded to but barely warm water in the tub and rub her skin...we took off the seersucker sailboat jamas and i hung them on a towel rack wondering if she would be buried in them...but we got her back....the touch of her arms and legs was like frozen chicken...hands,feet and face white..so white...when she started talking terry lou was out of it..then started making more sense..one of the older girls got soup going from scratch with no instructions from the still half dressed mom...I went to leave,figuring all was gonna be ok..mrs sparachino,now with a t shirt on..grabbed me and kissed me on the cheek and thanked her "knight in shining armor"(hockey suit)for saving her daughter's life...no ambualnce,no follow up..terry grew up to be a lovely blond little girl..who every xmas brought me over the best cookies and brownies i ever ate.....I was a kid in a tumultuos household,the self respect of a flea..and was starting to believe all the awful things my father was saying about me(again i'm about 7-9)..and suddenly i was somebody...i have a reason for being here....that really changed me...my favorite grandmother cought hold of the story and took me out to dinner...Howard Johnson's..big to do then...she kept crying during the meal......i like this feeling...how can i capture it again?...wouldn't be a fireman...afraid of heights..i get nosebleeds with thick socks....years later....i pulled a kid out of a state pond somewhere in mass., this was the 60's and it was still the white man's world..but changing ..an hispanic family was there.very large and very loud...certainly having more fun than all the droll irish that usually inhabitated the place...so i could hear rumblings here and there about "them"..but there was no trouble...i was jealous,cuz the spanish kids were having more fun than me.....later we here an incredible scream..all in spanish....it was evident that one of the kids was missing,a 6 year old...josef..i think was his name...the whistle blew and the life guard everyone out...i yelled if i could help i'm a boyscout,and he said ok...we searched the water,with all the scurrying the bottom was kicking up mud and the sand was becoming darker...a bunch of women were crying and screaming on the shore...the noise and emotion was terrifying....i was getting scared...heading in to shore to be with my folks i bumped into something soft....it was the boy,rooled in a ball.his forearms gripping the back of his knees...i tried to pull him,to get his head out of the water,but he was stuck in that position...i yelled that i found him..help me..help me!!!.i carried him for what seemed forever until i got to shallow water and some men jumped in and took him from me..cpr was rough in 1965..but they tried..and ambulance came after a long time..the boy was still curled up...on the stretcher...his family all came around and hugged and thanked me..all crying....we later found that he had died...i think they knew that then,but they still came to me so see if i was alright and calling me a hero....bingo....2nd time...been here before........i like this feeling...once again i'm somebody...i count......many years later in the Navy another story i can tell that sealed the deal for me to go into nursing...i still have the scars...inside and out...

Specializes in Med/Surg, Geri, Ortho, Telemetry, Psych.

I was 16 and pregnant. I knew I was done partying and had to grow up real quick. I sat down and tried to figure out what I wanted to be when I grew up (which would be in 7 months). I did what we all do, tried to figure out what I like to do or what interests me. Well, the human body interested me the most. And blood and guts (you have to remember I was only 16). So I finished school and went to nursing school. And I was right. It's really the only thing I'm good at.

Hey guys! My name is Gabby and I am currently a first semester student in the nursing program at Douglas College in BC, Canada. I have been asked to find an online nurse to have a short interview with via e-mail or instant messenger. The goal of this assignment is to learn more about the profession of nursing and become more familiar with the process of interviewing.

I mainly just want to know what exactly a nurse does in her everyday work and other personal things such as:

Why did you decide to become a nurse?

What kind of nurse are you and why did you choose that specialty?

What is the stress level like at work?

Do you have a family? If so, is balancing work and family time difficult?

etc.

If anyone at all, anywhere in the world is considering to help me out with this, your willingness would be most appreciated.

I would like to have this interview done before or by the middle of November. Let me know as soon as possible.

Thanks!

Gabby C.

I was in my back yard one evening with a nice fat possum on the grill. I heard a noise and looked up to see a spacecraft directly above me. In an instant, I was transported into a dimly lit area equipped with strange equipment. Then a 3 ft tall being with a single eye in the center of his neck...or what I though was a neck, kicked me in the shins. As I jerked my leg up out of the way, several of the little critters pushed me back on an exam table. The next few hours were a blur as I went in and out of consciousness. Before I knew what was happening I was graduating from nursing school. That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

This is too funny! I feel kind of the same I still enjoy being a nurse though.

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