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.

Reading almost all of the responses here gives me an insight that helps me to pause and understand people better which is unusual in this fast-paced society since most of us are preoccupied .

Thanks to this site and to everyone who has taken time to share his/her story!

Why I became a nurse?

I started college right out of high school and spent the first 1 1/2 years making bad decisions and having fun. All I have from that is a ugly transcript.

During college I thought I wanted to be an elementary school teacher.

I had friends in the nursing program. I applied for the nursing program at the university, but didn't get in (I was crazy to apply,my grades sucked.) My boyfriend was going to a community college about an hour away. I applied to the LPN program there and got in. It was the best thing that ever could have happened. I straitend up and finished the program with an "A" average and passed boards the first try. The boyfriend didn't last. I did meet someone new,and got married about 6

months after grad. Been married for 13 years. I belive everything happens for a reason. God ment for me to be a nurse, and I learned may lessons on the road there. Most of which help me be a better nurse. I'm in the process of becoming a RN now.

Specializes in Neuroscience ICU.

Actually I failed at being a serial killer, I kept resuscitating them. A light went off in my head, "study nursing, your a natural"

So here I am.

Hope this helps.

Eeka End game RN

Specializes in ER then CVICU now.

My mother had a stroke a couple of days after I was born and had spent a month or so in the hospital. She told me that one day during her hospital stay, she had to use the bedpan and told the CNA this. The CNA gave her a dirty look and walked out of her room without putting my mom on the pan. That made me cry. How dare someone in the medical field do that to a patient at a time the patient was unable to care for herself. I then vowed at that time that I was going to be a nurse and I would never treat any human being the way that CNA treated my mother.

While I was 9 or so, my father started going to the doctors alot and I knew something was wrong. That's when I first heard of leukemia. My father was strong and provided for his family, but as years went by, I saw him become weaker and weaker, his memory faded little by little and multiple times, I was awaken at night with my mother by my room door saying that my father needed to go to the hospital, again. Throughout all this, I was determined to become a nurse, all I wanted to do was care for people and hold their hand and provide comfort for the hardest time in their lives, and I did just that. :)

Specializes in OB, Med-Surg.

I became a nurse for two main reasons. One was I wanted to help. The second was I watched my mom struggle from day to day while I grew up in poor conditions. I wanted to be able to stand on my own two feet and support my own children even if I were all they had.

Specializes in IM/Critical Care/Cardiology.

Go Sisiter! I'm trying to make it through my RN as well! Good Luck

salam brain ,

i dont have that interset story , i enter nursing college just because i didnt have any thing to do and my uncle is a doctor and he asked me to do it . but now i dont want to leave it , cuz i like it so much i knew that it is really a great major and great experience and benefit alot even in ur social life.so for me the story of being a nurse came after i studied it not before cuz before it i used to hate it and all my friend were surprised that i will go in such major but now i adivce my freind to come to my major

Specializes in Med/Surg < 1yr.

When I was 13, I was diagnosed with scoliosis. By age 14 I had to wear the horrid back brace. I couldn't bend to tie shoes or anything. One day one of the girls at school (high school) was helping me to take off my brace so I could use the bathroom. While I was using the bathroom, she had put on my brace and ran down the halls (at lunch time). I left the brace at school and never wore it again. By the time I was 16, I was visibly deformed. Very deformed and of course still in high school. The only recourse was to have back surgery to where they had to hook a medal rod on each side of my spine. My mom dropped me off at the hospital on a Wednesday and picked me up that following Wednesday. No one came to visit me. I was scared out of my mind and alone. Except for the nurses. They took good care of me and comforted me at that time. I then decided to be a nurse. Later when I graduated from high school I went to try to be a nurse but my aunt was going to school at community college and had been going for 4 yrs for a 2 yr degree. Being that I had a child and was on welfare, I said no thank you. My welfare worker said they would pay for me to go to school for what I wanted and I decided to go 2 yrs for accounting. She said I wasn't made for accounting so that's what I enrolled in. Graduated and was an accountant for 8 1/2 yrs. I hated the entire 8 yrs. I asked God to help me decide what to do with my life, he said you are meant for nursing. One day while cleaning my drawers I found a folder with some nursing school information in it. I took the nursing school entrance test and scored high and am in my second semester of nursing school! Hopefully I will finish and be an L & D nurse, I love seeing babies being born!

Specializes in IM/Critical Care/Cardiology.

God Bless Ya! Your'e story really touched my heart. My brother went through that operation and one cousin. Sounds like all your nurses were angels!

I went with my step sister to the local 25 bed hospital as a support person while she intervied for a nurses aide job. The Sister liked me better and hired me. That was in 1968. I wanted to go to acting school and told my mother so one day while driving to the city to shop. Unfortunatly, I mentioned this goal of mine at the begining of the 1 hr drive. She had me trapped in the car and proceeded to instruct me in my lifes mission and that I would become a nurse because they are respectable people. O.K. So, I went to nurses training and became an ER nurse (did that for 25 years) and now am a nursing supervisor and an ER nurse. Was it worth it? Yea, it's been a good journey. My children are raised. I still have time to act. We'll see.

Specializes in IM/Critical Care/Cardiology.
I went with my step sister to the local 25 bed hospital as a support person while she intervied for a nurses aide job. The Sister liked me better and hired me. That was in 1968. I wanted to go to acting school and told my mother so one day while driving to the city to shop. Unfortunatly, I mentioned this goal of mine at the begining of the 1 hr drive. She had me trapped in the car and proceeded to instruct me in my lifes mission and that I would become a nurse because they are respectable people. O.K. So, I went to nurses training and became an ER nurse (did that for 25 years) and now am a nursing supervisor and an ER nurse. Was it worth it? Yea, it's been a good journey. My children are raised. I still have time to act. We'll see.

GREAT STORY!

eanah, your story seems familiar... but it's nice to know that you learned to love nursing...

+ Join the Discussion