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 OB, Med-Surg.
Where to begin.

I would say nursing was like...walking past someone and catching a whiff of their perfume, realize it is familiar, but when you turn to see who it was they are lost in the crowd behind you.

I remember being around 18 or 19 and needing to work on a paper for my heredity class (I always have been a big science geek). I was wandering into the hospital my mom was working at at the time, (as a program coordinator for health programs) looking for the medical library and I remembered feeling this odd sense of elation. I didn't really know what it was, but something about being in that hospital just made me feel...right.

As college progressed and a long term relationship appeared I was pretty much spinning my wheels. I had looked into teaching (too repetitive for me), marine biology (I don't like jelly fish lol) and just settling down and being a mom (which trust me, from that relationship would have garnered me nothing but drama and no respect from either my bf at the time or his family). This bf had mentioned once me becoming a nurse, however I only knew of 4 year programs and I just didn't feel that I could handle that. (I have never been a slouch in the intelligence department, however after years of spinning my wheels on college I was just burnt out)

So after dumping the loser I moved to a new big city. I had never moved anywhere without family so this was a big step. I got a job waitressing and after about 6 months I was bored out of my gourd. I knew this couldn't go on much longer.

So one warm spring day I trucked it over to the area technical college to check out their massage therapy program. Here a sunny, friendly counselor said "well, what else do you think you would like to do?"

"Well I have been told maybe I should be a nurse, but I don't know if I am cut out for the schooling."

Well after a little chatting and a lot of optimism I applied for the program. I was wait-listed as everyone else was, however I saw this as an opportunity to work and take prereqs at my own pace. That semester I garnered my first 99% in a class in years in chemistry. I was so stoked I just kept on going until graduation day!

I have been nursing for just over a year now, and even though there are a lot of days I am scared out of my mind at the lives I hold, I go in every work day and come home feeling accomplished. Every. Single. Day.

Nothing better for me.

Soon I will start my ADN-MSN program and become a health educator which, I believe, is the epitome of what nursing can offer to me. :)

Tait

Wow what a story!! Good for you..keep it up!!!! This is inspiring.:up:

Hey MindyG22,

I am from South of New Orleans, Where are you from and where are you now? Always great to here from a hometown girl!!

I became a nurse because I was intrigued by the notion that I would go to school for four or five years....... pay $50,000 in tuiton and board (which I have to pay back for 30 years) Get a very skilled and high education with BSN in critical care. So that I could:

Be overworked while being under paid.

BE Expected to work overtime without getting paid for it.

Be Expected to be held hostage to a beeper ( over the weekends ) without being compensated for it.

Being placed in an environment that is begging me to make a mistake because of the understaffing........... and it WORKS!!! Mistakes ARE made....... and luckily...... the entire weight of the institution comes down on the nurses head while they take no responsibility for setting up the environment in such a way that is begging for the mistake in the first place.

Work in a loving and caring environment where everyone is friends and no one stabs anyone else in the back.

Be part of a culture where people eat their own young alive.

Work in an insitution where I know the guy mopping the floor is probably making more money than I am. Boy that is a moral booster!! And maked me eager to come back to work!!

Nursing is a lovely and compassionate line of work, I am glad that I spent all that time and money so that I could earn a degree that would give me the priviage of being a volunteer.

And last but not least....... the amusment I receive by watching the leadership in nursing scratching their heads ( and they are very serious about it) wondering why in the world there is a nursing shortage.

I know why there is a nursing shortage. You want to know?

Go into your bathroom and take a good hard look in the mirror for 10 minutes........ and there's your answer!!

Who would want to work in the field that you put up with and go along with and don't do anything about the shabby treatment and lack of pay for your skills that you put up with?

Would you recommend nursing to your best friend? If not, then why do you settle for this insanity? Why do you keep silent? Why are you so passive?

I don't put up with it........ and I am enemy number one; a trouble maker.

How dare I:

Not do the work of two and not even get paid for one!!! I am supposed to keep my mouth shut and be happy I have a job at all!! Now work overtime for nothing? Not twist myself into a pretzle and kiss my behind for the amusment of my manager? Stick up for myself when I get written up for something I did not do? Work in an environment that is grossly understaffed and actually speak up about it!!??!!

HOW DARE ME!!!!

Ahhhhh........ that is why I became a nurse.

My bank, who holds my mortgage, does not care that I'm a good person who wants to help others. The warm and fuzzy feeling I get in my chest, when I help others, does not pay the mortgage. ( I always hear, when I speak out,........ that there is an exchange when you are a nurse...... and that exchange is the wonderfull feeling you get for helping others).

Really?? Tell that to my bank who has no problem taking my house away regardless of how NICE I am.

What in the world is the matter with nurses??

Without nurses there would be no health care....... just like without soldiers there would be no army or victory. Do you think that if soldiers were treated the way nurses are that thier moral would be high enough to even want to fight? Let alone win? Without us..... there is nothing.

I'll prove it.......... let's get every nurse in America to not show up for work tomorrow.

What do you think would happen to healthcare in this country? It would crumble like a house of cards. Kind a like the way nurses are now when they are looked at crooked by their managers.

Which brings up another point: the selective remembering by the nurse managers is astounding. They had it even worse than we do....... and they had all the complaints and arguments that we new nurses have now. But they have forgotten where they came from and how horrible it was for them. And who can blame them? I can understand why someone making a six figure salary.... that took 20 years to accomplish, would not badmouth the insitution providing that salary. So I must forgive them. But it is still astonishing to me........ they have forgotten where they came from. But I guess they feel we have to pay our dues like they did.

But times are different now. Nursing is not a second income occupation anymore. We cannot be satisfied with our pitiful salaries while being forced to work like dogs.

I'm stunned by the passivenes of very highly educated people who let others step all over them for a living. Nursing, Unfortunetly, IS a joke. It's about millionairs making more millions at the expense of putting our licenses at risk and the lives of the patients at risk to save a couple of pennies. ( from a millionair's perspective; a couple of hundred thousand dollars is pennies) It's pathetic.

Don't deny it fellow nurses........ you know what I'm talking about.

The last time I spoke like this they took down my thread without explanation.

I wonder if they will do it again?

Thanks for letting me exercise my right to free speech and tell it like it is.

This forum does alllow free speech; does it not?

Hey MindyG22,

I am from South of New Orleans, Where are you from and where are you now? Always great to here from a hometown girl!!

I am from Baton Rouge. I currently live in Orlando, FL but plan to move back to BR after school is over next year. I can't wait to move home!! My husband's family is from Chalmette, LA. I love talking to people that are from Louisiana too. I miss it so much!!

Specializes in Critical Care, Transport, Disaster.

I came to nursing in my mid 30s and love my career. I touch people's lives positively everyday and I make a difference everyday.

I was a paramedic for several years, got a BS in Education, taught paramedics at the community college full time for several years.... then my daughter was born... I looked at how much I was working in my full time job (60-80 hours/week) added to that my part time medic job (12-24 hours/week) and how much I was making (50 K/year)... two years later I was an ADN RN working three days/week and making more than I had been as a full time college instructor and a part time medic. My daughter is 7 next month and I am the Clinical Coordinator of a 24 bed step-down unit at a academic/magnet hospital and I have an amazing life - both professionally and family.

If I were to tell any young person a career to look at it would be Nursing. It certainly is not for everyone and I think the wrong types of people are being attracted to the profession (either not physically, mentally or emotionally capable of being a nurse) but if you have what it takes this is an amazing profession...

In Upstate NY where I live, this is the only career where jobs are readily available and starting pay is in the mid $20/hour with an Associate's Degree... There is extraordinary flexibility and diversity in this field (school nurse, flight nurse, ICU/SCU/CCU, clinic nurse, research nurse, et cetera ad infinitum) potential advancement -- NP, Clinical Nurse Specialist, CRNA and most institutions are paying for education...

My long term plan is to attend CRNA school. My institution has tuition aggreements with 5 schools AND they will pay me a living stipend while I am in school. They start CRNAs out at $140,000/year...

What other profession are jobs readily available, there are diverse opportunities available, education is paid for and pay is above average?

After graduating from high school , I didn't know what to take up in college...my first choice was to take up mass communication majoring in journalism; and 2nd choice was to take up education but, my parents are so insistent to me to take up nursing for the reason that it is so in demand ( home and abroad ). Eventually I gave in to their request with fears and questions in my mind....what if I don't pass the exams, both practical, oral and written? What's going to happen if I see an actual delivery? What if I don't know how to administer an injection? etc....

I guess all those have already been answered. I am glad that I have followed my parents request coz I am happy with my chosen career, got the chance to travel abroad, help out my family ( financially ) backhome, and of course helping patients ( such a nice feeling when you have patients who got well, and you know that you're one of the people who looked after them during their stay )...it's such a rewarding job

in all aspects :)

:redpinkhehehehe nursing is a trend here in the country but i think it is really my fate to become one coz my mother is a nurse too...

Specializes in RENAL NURSING.
:redpinkhehehehe nursing is a trend here in the country but i think it is really my fate to become one coz my mother is a nurse too...

yeah, it's a trend here... but i just happend to be influence by my clasm8s, relatives n neighbors... but i still got a connection coz my aunt's a nurse too... my uncles's a doctor....... voila! i'm a nurse.

Specializes in CNA, Surgical, Pediatrics, SDS, ER.

I would always stay with my aunt and her children for a week or two during the summer and my aunt was a nurse. She would work day shifts & noc shifts when I was there and I was always intrigued with her scrubs and her caring attitude towards everybody. I also remember my uncle going through nursing school as I was growing up and I knew that I wanted to follow in their footsteps. I however took the long route to become a nurse. I was a very wild uncontrollable child in high school and I ended up pregnant my junior year of high school so I thought I was stuck there for life. Soon I met my husband after graduating from high school and we got married and had 2 more children. I then started work as a CNA and did that for 4 years before we moved to an area that had a 2 year ADN program and I finally got up the courage and enrolled. I had always wanted to be a nurse and I wanted to provide a good life for my kids and they were really my motivation to start and complete my dream. I graduated in 06' and have been on a learning rollercoaster ever since. I started out working on surg floor and just made the move to the ED and I love every second of the madness. I for sure have one little nurse in training she has been saying she's going to be a nurse like mommy since she was 4, is now 7 and is still saying it so I think I've got a good shot of at least one of my girls becoming a nurse. Kind of a boring story but it's mine, all mine!

i have a unique story as you guys.. im a registered nurse in our country Philippines, im a fresh RN, i don't haVe plans to be a nurse, i wanted to be a pilot or a businessman. when i'm about to enter college my tita which is a nurse gave me an educational plan for my studies. so my parents decided for me to take up BSN, at first i really don't like it. til my second year, but God is really good because he let me love this profession. i realized tin my 3rd year that it was a very nice feeling to help other people.and also God is using me as his instrument in healing sick people. now i really love this profession i want to practice it until i can do so.. that is, hope you read my story, i summarize it already..

when i was in high school i want to be like my cousin, a PT, who is working in USA ever since.My only goal then is to work abroad and end more money.Then demands for nurses came from all over the world "woW" maybe I should change plan!!"

I graduated and and landed in different countries but not in America, where everybody beleives it is a land of milk and honey (hey! is it true there?)

I never regret my chosen field (well...sometimes when my stress from work is neck high.)And I am happy that my two other siblings are nurses too.

Specializes in Geri, Peds, Gastro, Cardiology, ER, NICU.

When I was 12, my aunt found out she had cancer, she eventually ended up in a nursing home towards the end. I would go everyday to see her, I wasn't happy w/ the care she was given. My family would find her in soiled linens, not bathed. I became so determined to help her. I was there the night she died, she went peacefully. After that I have always had this yearning to help people. I graduated from h.s. and went right into nursing school. I have been a nurse for almost 16 years. I've seen a lot. I have yet to feel the "burn out" as some nurses get after a while of being in the field, everyday is a new adventure. I didn't limit myself to one specialty. I am in Pediatrics right now, and in a couple of years I will give Obstetrics a go. I enjoy what I do, and knowing I am making a difference in someone's life, whether direct or indirectly. My 14 y.o. daughter plans on becoming a nurse, and has made plans to start taking college classes when she starts h.s. in fall of 2008.

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