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.

At the time I was graduating, it was either nursing or teaching. Granted, I came from a very limited background.

Took prerequisites, worked in a nursing home; realized I was good at it.

Loved nursing school, graduated top of my class, am VERY good at what I do.

Specializes in Peds/outpatient FP,derm,allergy/private duty.

(warning - The length of this story is not for the feint of heart)

When I was 12 years old, my beloved grandma was failing in health, and had been for 3years since she fell while babysitting my brothers and I during a chaotic time in our lives. My poor grandma was shuttled about from nursing home to daughter's home to nursing home and back again. All the while this lovely, dignified lady had to endure the knowledge that her children were fighting over who would be saddled with her care and the decline from doyenne of the Catholic Daughters to wheelchair bound and forcibly dependent.

For reasons I can't really explain, my little 9-12 year old self actually preferred to sit with her for hours watching Lawrence Welk and General Hospital and getting her warm cloths and fussing over her comfort level. At least once a day she would ask me why I didn't dress more like the Lennon Sisters but I really didn't mind. Though I didn't realize it at the time, the first little brick had dropped into place. A care-taking mindset and an observant nature.

My high school, a Catholic girl's school of 400 students, was snuggled up close and personal with the hospital next to it, run by the same order of nuns. This allowed me to observe some of what the life of a nurse was like. I loved science but didn't really have the focus to become a world-renowned geneticist so that nursing thing looked like a good way to work "science" into a job. I became a volunteer at the hospital and shadowed a nurse for a career exploration program sponsored by my high school. I never felt a "calling" though and really hadn't decided for sure on nursing. I really liked my part-time job in a trendy clothing shop.

Just as the last semester of my senior year began, my 4-year-old brother was diagnosed with leukemia. For anyone who has gone through this you know the feeling of your former life stripped away like that one scene in Raiders of the Lost Ark. We ate, slept and breathed Children's Hospital. Spending time there re-kindled my interest in nursing. Everyone there was phenomenal but two nurses in particular pushed the ball forward - the first was Betsy - who waltzed in with some vile concoction in a little cup with a straw - little bro was having none of that so she offered to dance for the entire time he sucked down the nasty. He accepted the offer and she was true to her word. The nurse danced around for the kid. You can do that? As a nurse? Cool!

The other was Deb the oncology patient liaison and all around smoother of feathers, easer of fears and decipherer of torrents of medical-ese. She just had that perfect combo of warmth and smarts and charm. I was very conveniently laid off from my sales job at that time and the coast being clear ahead decided to try to actually be one of those people and started nursing school about 4 months later and finally at long last this story ends.

Little Bro celebrated his 41st birthday in September. :)

Pff...I don't even know. Haha.

Wanted to be a singer, artist, doctor, teacher, geneticist, novelist, journalist, FBI agent, spy, anthropologist, crime scene investigator, interior designer, handbag designer, boutique owner, bookstore owner, coffee shop owner, lawyer, international relations specialist, blah blah blah

Finally, I decided needed some sort of career where I could be all kinds of things at once. The boy I was dating at the time's mom was a nurse as were his aunts, cousins, and grandma. I looked into it and it sounded intriguing. Changed my major the next semester and absolutely fell in love with the field. Now, I get to be a nurse and a teacher and a friend and a life-saver and an investigator and bed bath giver and a IV starter and all these other things that add up to nursing. Honestly, there aren't a lot of fields where you get to be so diverse and have so many options for your career. Its great and I'm so glad I chose it. =)

I actually never wanted to be a nurse. Always wanted to be an art teacher, and thought I had a weak stomach. After I graduated I decided to take one semester off from school. My mom ended up getting really sick. Had a hernia operation and after they did that her wounds started opening up. Ended up having 3 surgeries from July to the next April. After the second surgery 2 days later my Grandmother died. We were very very close, and it was unexpected. She died in her sleep. Mom was so sick that she could have died. I ended up taking care of her and then decided to go into nursing. So, that's how I got here! And I LOVE it!

always wanted to be a nurse. I have a very enabling personality. Wanting to make everything better. Stop the hurt, the pain, the bleeding. Always wanted to be the shoulder people could cry on, in their time of illness. Having a healing heart, I wanted to have healing hands to match. Learning all the intricate details of the human body, just fascinated me. Learning to start IV's, making hospital corners in occupied bed making 101, and the first time i heard a heart murmur. I also knew that as a nurse, I would always have a job. After 4 years as an LPN, and recently getting my RN license, This was the best decision that I have ever made.

I always knew that I wanted to be a nurse, but life just kept getting in the way. After i graduated from High School I went to college...but then my boyfriend proposed so I moved in with him and got married. He was in the Military, so we moved away from home at 18 yrs old. I kept telling myself that I could go to school wherever we ended up. Well that never happened because sleeping all day and drinking all night seemed like a better idea to my very immature self.

A few years later we had our first son, and moved to a new town. At this point I had decided that I would go back to school when my son started Kindergarten. It was not the best plan, but it worked. 18 months after the birth of my first son came the birth of my second son. We could not have been happier...or so I thought. 3 months later my husband of 8 years called me and said that he could not handle the pressure of being a father and a husband anymore.

I was completely devastated... and didn't know what to do. My first thought was that I had to go to school. So I did!

Being a mother has taught me many lessons...some were good, and some were bad! But in the end being a mother has made me a better person! I know now that I will be a great nurse someday, because I work hard, believe in myself, and have the best motivation in the world...My BOYS!

Specializes in LTAC, OR.

I was seriously obsessed with the show ER when I was in high school and I wanted to be just like Abby Lockhart. Don't know if I thought I would snag Noah Wyle or what, but here I am in nursing (but working in the OR and not about to date a doctor).

I was seriously obsessed with the show ER when I was in high school and I wanted to be just like Abby Lockhart. Don't know if I thought I would snag Noah Wyle or what, but here I am in nursing (but working in the OR and not about to date a doctor).

Gosh I miss that show!

Specializes in Med/Surg, Orthopaedics,.

I had a conversation with Mum. I said that when I leave school I'd like to help people and I can't decide between being a policewoman or becoming a nurse. She said "well you'll only wind up getting shot being a policewoman so you may as well be a nurse!" God love her and RIP Mum xx:heartbeat

im still pre-nursing (hoping to get accepted fall '11!) but here goes nothing

i never, ever gave nursing a consideration. Yet when i look back i seem pretty destined for it. When i was seven, my mom was in her Biology graduate program and had to dissect a frog, bring it home and label it, and then bring it back. In front of me and my four year old brother she dissected the frog and showed us all the organs and described them. I remember thinking how cool that was. (We also watched a lot of discovery health and i was fascinated with the shows about women giving birth)

When i was in the seventh grade, i dissected all the fetal pigs in my class (yes, ALL 26 or so of them, not sure what my teacher was up to or why he didnt stop me) because they grossed everyone else out. I proceeded to explain the different parts to my classmates as best i could.

I took human anatomy in high school as an elective and thought how cool the human body was. However, i didnt believe myself smart enough to become a doctor so i just kind of went to college not knowing what i wanted to do. Figuring i'd end up a teacher or writer or something along those lines.

I was at a friends house and her mother was yelling at us. My friend's mother was, of course, a nurse. She was grumbling about how we had no direction and needed to get our heads on straight and why didnt we become nurses like her? Why not indeed! She was (is) a traveling nurse and raved about how we could go where we wanted and specialize in almost anything.

We shrugged and changed our majors the next day

Stupid, yeah probably, i had done some research and it seemed good enough, steady income and all that jazz

it wasnt really until i took human anatomy and my science based classes that i realized that this was for me (the science teacher mostly teach as if all of us are going into nursing because most of us are) i know the pre-reqs are anything like nursing school or real life but that doesnt change how i feel

i came by the profession kind of half-heartedly but now that i'm here i cant imagine trying to become anything else

~readerwriter

wow, didnt realize i'd be that long, sorry :D

Specializes in Rehabilitation.

When I was 10 my mom was killed in a semitruck-automobile accident. My brother and I were in the vehicle he walked away unharmed and I spent several days in the hospital. The day I left the hospital was also the day of my mothers funeral. There were so many people at her funeral that not everyone fit in the building. She was a nurse. I believe I got my sense of compassion from my mother and I wanted to share that compassion the best way I could. I wanted to touch as many lives as my mother did.

Specializes in Med/Surg, DSU, Ortho, Onc, Psych.

My Mum told me from the age of 4 years old, I always told everyone I would become a nurse - and apparently I used to say it with conviction.

I got engaged, went into the 1st year of my nursing, broke up the engagement after dropping out of nursing (in those days we had to work away for our clinicals and that put a HUGE strain on my relationship, plus other things), got told I would regret it and that I was stupid, worked in hospitals for 20 odd years in non-nursing jobs (ie: theatre coordination), and gave up on my dream.

I did decide to go back after a lull in employment and b4 I got too old, finished 2 years, had to drop out because I was in a serious car accident where I was lucky I wasn't killed, failed a subject, went BACK into the external nursing course at university, passed the failed subject (after many, many hours of burning the midnight oil, determined NOT to fail this time), failed my last drug calculation test, worked all night that night to pass THAT the next day, worked and studied full time to do all my clinicals which we got no money for and finally got my parchment in the mail. That day I sat down and stared at that piece of paper in wonderment.

The day I went to register as a nurse, there was some confusion re my paperwork and whether I'd done all the requirements to pass the course!! It got sorted out and when I was handed my RN license, I just sort of smiled, the girl behind the counter said 'Congratulations', and that was that. It seemed such an anti-climax! So I took myself off shopping and bought myself some presents, and cake and coffee :)

But I knew even then that the road ahead in nursing was going to be a hard one, and would never be easy.

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