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 Psych, Med/Surg, Home Health, Oncology.

HiMine is also kind of a long story.

I grew up in the 50's & early 60's. My younger sister had always wanted to be a nurse, just like our older cousin. I think that Dolores graduated nursing school in 1950. I NEVER wanted to be a nurse. As I was in high school, I took all the right classes to go to college. As time marched by, I decided I wanted to be a mechanical engineer.

My Dad and my school councilers all said to be---"But Mary, women don;t become engineers". Well, at that time, women were either nurses, secretary's or teachers apparantly. I was pretty timid and of course would never buck the system. So, well, I then decided at the last moment just to go to nursing school--why buck the system. So I did that and graduated in 1966. My sister followed behind me & graduated in 1968.

Well, I have been nursing since 1966 with time off only for 2 hip replacements!! I love nursing & am so glad I "HAD" to do it. I really & truly found my niche!! Now my little sis & my cousin who both just wanted to always be nurses----neither one of them stayed with it. They each worked about a year or two, had kids & never worked again!! Go figure!!

If I had my life to live over, tho, I think I would be a Vet. Over the years I have truly fallen in love with all animals!!

Mary Ann

I guess I have wanted to be a nurse as far back as I can remember. My mom is a nurse and I always loved to hear stories from her about the patients she took care of. I've worked as a CNA in both hospitals and LTC and loved it, but I really have enjoyed being a nurse the lst 4 years and I'm sure I'll enjoy the next 30. :) :) :) :)

I like many never thought about being a nurse. I only thought that it was for the smart people. I was a ballet dancer since the age of four and always knew that is what I wanted to be. However after getting married and my feet screaming in pain I deceided I wanted to do something to make a difference in someones life. My mother in law is a live in carer for people. She is the most wonderful person I have ever met. So while my spouse was working I went to be an Health care assistant. One day I had a nurse refuse to come to a patients aid who had fallen on the floor because 'that wasn't her patient' that night I went home in tears. I deceided right then I was going to be the nurse because at least I cared. Now three years later I am. :balloons:

I became a nurse because I was sick of living in a ratty trailer, fed up with the excuses my then-husband was feeding me about why he couldn't work full-time, and in desperate need of a mental challenge. I loved nursing school, clinicals, even the nazi instructors. I am in the right profession no matter how crazy it may become. I'd like to be able to say that I initially had this heart-felt burden to help people, but that isn't what was on my mind then. It was the need to find a good wage, and a stable profession. My, how I've grown since then.

Specializes in er, pediatric er.

I first decided I wanted to be a nurse in high school. My father had lupus and was in and out of the hospital. I saw that the nurses were the people who did the most caring for him. They were there 24-7; the doctors came in for a few minutes every day and left. When my father died, it was the nurses who cried with our family.

I went to college straight out of high school for 1 1/2 semesters. I had a 4.0 G.P.A., but I lost all of my financial aid (my husband and I made $10000 that year together which was too much!!). I got frustated and quit school. I was nineteen and too dumb to see there were other options, like borrowing the money or tranferring to a cheaper school. I went to work at a card factory. Where I made a good living for almost 8 years. The company announced thier intentions of closing the factory, and I started looking into going back to school. The company changed their mind and stayed open, but I started getting my pre-reqs at night and working there during the day. I quit the factory in January of 2003 to attend nursing school. I graduated from nursing school on May 7th with a 3.953 G.P.A. I take the NCLEX on July 7th, everybody say a little prayer!!

I first decided I wanted to be a nurse in high school. My father had lupus and was in and out of the hospital. I saw that the nurses were the people who did the most caring for him. They were there 24-7; the doctors came in for a few minutes every day and left. When my father died, it was the nurses who cried with our family.

I went to college straight out of high school for 1 1/2 semesters. I had a 4.0 G.P.A., but I lost all of my financial aid (my husband and I made $10000 that year together which was too much!!). I got frustated and quit school. I was nineteen and too dumb to see there were other options, like borrowing the money or tranferring to a cheaper school. I went to work at a card factory. Where I made a good living for almost 8 years. The company announced thier intentions of closing the factory, and I started looking into going back to school. The company changed their mind and stayed open, but I started getting my pre-reqs at night and working there during the day. I quit the factory in January of 2003 to attend nursing school. I graduated from nursing school on May 7th with a 3.953 G.P.A. I take the NCLEX on July 7th, everybody say a little prayer!!

Wow! Good for you! I'll be thinking of you! :p

Keely

:rolleyes: as i said before i guess sometimes it just happens to you.....i am very proud of all those who do ..... it was one of the hardest things that i have ever done..my twin girls' are both finishing with their cna programs now , i am so proud of them... one just took her final exam yesterday an recieved an 87%..and she never thought that she could do that....she is smiling now. so remember to all of you there is joy and hope out there...so keep on keeping on... "we are what we repeatedly do..Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit" - aristotle

my mom was nurse, and she always said never be a nurse because they're all overworked and underpaid. i watched her struggle through a transition from an l&d nurse to a home health nurse, and back again, and heard time and time again what an amazing nurse she was. at her funeral in '02, i was just 16, and i heard all her coworkers talking about how great she was and how much she'd be missed.

well, that was enough for me.

i was never going to be a nurse!

i decided to become a respiratory therapist shortly after my mom died. i was dating this guy (who turned out to be a jerk!) at the time, and wanted to go to york college, in pa, and had my paperwork in when my boyfriend told me that i could "go wherever i wanted, but york was far away and we'd probably break up". so, doing the stupid teenager thing, i transferred my paperwork to pitt johnstown and started taking classes there a week after high school graduation. well, my first day there, that boyfriend broke up with me, (i later found out he'd cheated on me!), and i was so upset i finished that 7-week class and transferred home! the closest college to me had nothing but pre-med or nursing, so nursing was what i decided to do!

crazy, hm?

but let me tell you- i made it through two years of school, two years of heartbreak (after taking previously said boyfriend back over and over before finally kicking him to the curb about 5 months ago!), and boards, and i'm happier now in the icu than i have been!

i guess sometimes things happen and you don't know where you're path will lead, but let me tell you - it always leads you home.

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"i now only have good days and great days." -lance armstrong

***charity, rn***

Well, what's my story?

I never really wanted to ba a nurse, not before and not even now, I grew up in Cavite, south of Manila in the Philippines and back in 93 all my friends are out of school, I enrolled in one of the Universities in Manila but ended up envying the leisure time that my friends have and decided to quit my engineering course which brought my family into an uproar he he he.

Anyway, in 94, I told myself that I wanted to finish a degree but not away from my friends, so I decided to enroll in a college in Cavite, unfortunately, or may I say FORTUNATELY, only the Nursing Course was the best option or offer that they could give me, hence, I ended up being a nurse, kindda regretted it though before but now I certainly am thankfull for it, I met my lovely wife during my nursing school days :D

I didn't dream of becoming a nurse growing up. I was originally a nuclear medicine major. My older sister became ill with leukemia, and fought an amazing fight. She was the strongest, bravest person I will ever know. She always said that when she recovered, she was going to go back to school to be a nurse. It will be four years next month since she passed away. She was only 30. The care from that she received from her nurses was nothing short of extraordinary. When I returned to school that fall, I switched majors, and just graduated with my BSN last weekend. I am 24 years old, and so glad that switched so young, because I know that I am going to love doing this for the rest of my life. :)

Bekahlynn

wow! that's one of d great story. dont you know that burning desire is the most pwerful weapon on earth? as long as you have the desire to serve the people with your passion, commitment and dedication i'm sure you will enjoy nursing. just think about your sister but be sure you are strong enough to face what really all NURSING is all about. goodluck!!!

one thing try to have a clear definition of our life's utmost meaning when you got involved in giving nursing care. relatively, i have the same story like you when my mother died that trigger me to fail the misguided nursing students while still in the philippines and i hope you will stick with your REAL motivation why did you took up nursing. OK

I am a new Nursing Graduate from the Philippines. I was supposed to take the Nurse Licensure Examination in the Philippines last week but due to some requirement delays I was not able to join the said examination instead I would be taking the exam this December 2005. But anway, I would like to share some of my thoughts about this thread.

I am 25 years old, and in the Philippines at that age and as a fresh graduate seems to be old. Everyone would thing that you have been bad as a student that's why you were not able to graduate by the age 21 or you are a working student etc. I am a BS Computer Engineering graduate prior to earning a degree in nursing. After graduating high school, my dad didn't want me to take up nursing instead he wanted me to take up engineering. Such Parental intervention is common in our culture that most parents would tell you what course to take up in college. I followed his advice but I never tried looking for a job after graduating. While in the college of engineering, I always envy student nurses having their clinical rotations. I never found happiness and satisfaction in my course. That after graduation, though i have job offers, I never accepted them instead I went to a college of nursing seeking admission of which the dean has never doubted my capacity and interests. My dad had seen difference in me, I have been learning a lot in nursing rather than those things learned in Computer Engineering. I am so happy that last April 23, 2005, I finally marched during the graduation ceremony and got my Diploma for BS in Nursing degree and having my Nursing pin placed on my Nursing Uniform. It was indeed a good day for me and I am looking forward for the time that I'll be taking oath as a registered Nurses here in the Philippines and hopefully in the United States with God's Help!!!

hi! nice 2 hear that. it's a trend in phils. but i just hope finding the true meaning of life is a different thing, sometimes we cannot find the answer what's really the reason why we took up nursing. after all, we cannot go back and blame other people when we are already there. which i experienced so many times after my students graduated. " many are called but only few are chosen..." money can buy everything but not happiness it's only inside of your heart and no one can see that. so, good luck to your exam and to your dream.

skybirddejected

Specializes in Cardiac Telemetry/PCU, SNF.

It's along a twisty story involving youthful reluctance to do what your parents want and a whole lot of growing up.

I started out young, always interested by all things medical. And why not? Having had basically chronic otitis media since as long as I could remember adn the lasting effects of htat, plus have brother, twins who were born way to early exposed me to the medical field early in life. But as I grew older and more bitter with life I realized that going into medicine would make my parents happy, and that was not acceptable. So I chose teaching...wrong choice there, it made them happy, but I hated the thought of it, but having spent time earning credits towards a history/english specialty I continued the only course that made sense: a liberal arts degree. By now I had grown up a little and lost the teenage angst that led me to rebellion (there is more to the story there than choice of major, but suffice to say, it was not healthy), so I finished with a BA in social science.

But what does one do with a meaningless degree like that? Nothing. I loaded cargo aircraft for 4 years. After 1 year I had topped out, as far as I could go with my airline. Then 9/11 happened. Whatever future there may have been in the industry was gone. So sitting at home one day, beat from the hell that job was I had a moment of lucidity. I realized I had always wanted to help people, not just take up space. As I sat there thinking about this, a news item came on about nursing. The proverbial lightbulb went off and I started the journey. I wasn't 100% sure that it is what I really wanted to do until the first clinical of my CNA class. Then I knew. A year later I'm working as an extern and loving every minute of it. Who would've known?

Cheers,

Tom

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