NursingLink

We all share a common bond...our passion for nursing! Why did you want to become a nurse? What were your dreams and ambitions starting out? Have you followed through with them?

I think that this is the best place to be right now, Mamadawn! How exciting for you! Congratulations!

My grandfather got sick and went to Hospice of the Valley in Arizona. I had been a nursing school drop-out for about 5 years prior to that because I was not sure that I could handle the responsibility that comes with being a nurse...we hold people's lives in our hands! The nurses at HOV were so wonderful! They showed me a side of nursing that I did not know existed! It opened my eyes and my heart to nursing again!

I started prereqs and have not looked back! I am grateful to this experience!

Wow...that brought tears to my eyes...thanks for sharing :)

My eye opener to my calling of becoming a nurse was when my Aunt Kathy was diagnosed with terminal lung cancer at the age of 44. 

Kathy had a mild case of downs and she never, ever complained about anything!  Kathy was truly the heart and soul of our family, the angel, the pure Christian, the one member of our family who always had faith.  Kathy was diagnosed by her family physician with pneumonia.  She returned to her physician one week later.  Her family physician referred her to our local hospital where Kathy had been admitted.  She was there one week on the West, 5th floor when the test results came back as her having a rare type of lung cancer that usually smokers and the elderly get.  What a shock to the entire family!

Kathy was released to go home providing that she had hospice home care and was connected to oxygen 24/7.  Some of us in the family decided to rotate weeks to take care of her.  My week was third week after her diagnosis.  Throughout the week I had been giving Kathy morphine to help her rest, calm her, relieve her pain and at the request of her mother, my grandmother.  I now know that my grandmother couldn't stand to see her daughter in any pain and I couldn't stand the the uncomfortable look in my grandmother's eyes nor in Kathy's.  I will never forget that Wednesday morning when I awoke by her beside to see her scracthing her head.  I did everything I could to try to comfort her, get her to rest and she just looked at me and said very firmly "in a minute, just leave me alone."  One phrase nor image that will never leave my mind.  Little did I know, Kathy would pass away a few hours that morning; just three weeks after her diagnosis of lung cancer.  My Aunty Peggy, one of Kathy's sisters and I were active pallbearers during the funeral.  Since we were mainly the two family members that took Kathy places and were the closest to her.

I have always been drawn to elderly people as well as people with disabilities.  Nursing is my calling, I am drawn to it from within my heart and soul.  I just began my venture into the education of the nursing team.  Due to limited clinical spaces, the program in my area is very competetive.  I am studying very hard in hopes of getting accepted into the program next Fall.

I was working in computers, and found it very rewarding to help people in very stressful situations. Usually I only dealt with people over the phone, but could hear the relief in their voice. Computer technical problems were easy to resolve. I knew I wanted to work with people on a more personal level, to be more of a healer than just fixing a computer problem. Nursing school presented its self as an opportunity, so I pursued it. The first part of the LPN program was classroom. I knew how to study and be a good student, so that was a challenge but I got through it. When we started clinical, a light came on. Working with patients was so rewarding. Every little thing made a difference. Here I was, over 40, and for the first time in my life I felt that I was right where I was supposed to be. In my heart of hearts, I belonged.

It has not been an easy journey, but every day I try to rededicate myself as a person and as a nurse. Not sure if I think of it as changing the world. Changing me is enough of a project. But what we do as nurses does change the world for the better. Sometimes nurses get caught up in all the negativity - patients who don't really want anything other than to be able to continue their lifestyle. Well, if somebody leaves your care and goes on being a noncompliant diabetic or continues to kill their liver with bourbon then you do not have any control over that. At the end of the day, you know if you have been a good nurse. Sometimes you don't get to see just how much of an impact you have.

Reading your stories inspires me! It is awesome to be a nurse, and I am in the company of my heroes. That can only make me feel truly humble, and inspire me to try a little harder. Thank you all so much. LuciMarie, you are already a great nurse and your heart is in the right place. You have walked where angels fear to tread, and you didn't back down. The doors will open for you - don't give up!

Thanks again, all of you.

To make a long story short, I have wanted to be a nurse since I was 10 because that's the year I began to understand what they do. I'm a BKA, right leg, and that never stopped me as a child, but I needed open heart surgery to save my life and it was done when I was 10. After graduating high school, I entered the University of Pittsburg as a pre-med student, but because I was sheltered as a child, I went wild on campus, trying to attend all the Frat parties and all and dropped out in my sophomore year. That's when I became a CNA because I knew medicine was my calling, but I married and started to raise my family and didn't have time to go back to school, but I read all I could about the profession, and the more I read the more drawn to nursing I became. As a CNA, I was able to work with some of the finest nurses Western Pennsylvania has to offer, and most of them taught me procedures and talked to me about becoming one myself. I have always had so much encouragement from the staff that, despite my disability, I feel I can do it! I've been a CNA most of my adult life and a darn good one at that! I love people and helping them to get well has been at the heart of my desire to become a nurse. II don't want to be a poster child for disabled people, but I do hope some young person that has the desire to become one and may have a disability doesn't let that stop them from their dreams!

I was young, about 21 I guess.  I was in the Air Force and knew that when I got out I was going to go to college, but I didn't know what I wanted to do.  I met my husband (now ex) and got pregnant.  I wanted to learn everything I could to take the best care possible of my child, and so I looked into becoming a peditrician.  But when I found out how long the schooling was, I felt I would have cheated my child out of a mother.  So, I turned to nursing, with an interest in becoming a midwife.  However, once I got into the nursing program, I became facinated with neuro, and so I ended up spending the first 4 years of my career working neuro before transfering to cardiac.  I have been in cardiac ever since.  And that so they say, is the rest of the story...LOL!  :)  So what's this group stuff?  I am new to this friends and groups stuff.  Can someone fill me in?

The reason I wanted to become a nurse started when i was a cna for 13 years the kids were grown and gone(EMPTY NEST) then my dad came down with lung cancer and asked me what should her do? have an operation or chemo? I didn't know the answer so I asked the doctor, all he told me that the tumor was shrinking, but little to know my father would not be able to take the last treatment, for chemo burnt his lungs up even tho he had quite smoking for 3 years he had been a 50+smoker it hurt me everyday for him to ask me that question, what should i do? after his passing I promised myself to find the answers that i could't find back then, i knew nothing of computers etc,then i got hurt at work and was down for severl years and still trying to get back up, i lost my brother on my birthday this year and then sat nite i found my 24 year old son hanging in my lani, there have been alot of setbacks but i am still determined to finish nursing somehow, but now i belive i will work in psy. sincerly mary stockman

I've always been a giver, and I've always loved helping others.  What better way than to do it by joining the medical field?  I've always played the nurse when someone got hurt or sick, even when I was in Brownies/Girl Scouts.  When a friend suggested it as a career opportunity, I jumped at the challenge.  Plus I had seen my Grandma wither away in a nursing home, and I was not pleased at what I saw.  Even when I was doing clincials for my CNA course, there wasn't much compassion, something I think I have an abundance of.

Right now I'm only a CNA (though not in a CNA roll at the moment), and I was actually accepted into our nursing program at the local junior college (which has a long waiting list), but I had to drop due to having torn ligaments in my shoulder that needed surgery.  Now I have to reapply for the program for the program for Fall of '09.  I've been reading a lot of journals, studying websites, and I'm going to go and pick up some of the books and NCLEX study guides to get a jump ahead for next semester...and even if I don't make it into that program, then I'll be applying somewhere else at least.

So many beautiful and courageous stories! We have much to be thankful about!

(BTW, you are NEVER just a CNA!)

Getting into the nursing career wasnt my first choice to be honest. It was always something I had considered many times through highschool and even the start of my college career. I was studying Graphic Design for a time, while doing so, I realize that it wasnt exactly something I thought I would love for a career. 

I have a love for art but more so a love for helping people. While doing some charity work for Childrens Diabetes with my Sorority, I realize how much joy and happiness it had bought me to be able to contribute to the community. For a time now, the idea kept pulling me towards it the more I learned about it.  After I had learned everything I could possibly know about the Nursing career from talking to my relatives in Nursing to research from the internet and schools, I finally made a decision to commit to obtaining that goal. So now here I am, taking one step at a time towards my goal of being a Nurse.

I was in second grade and my class toured a local hopital. I volunteered to be the patient! It was so neat. There was a big write up in the newspaper (pics and all) I still have the newspaper. I just thought nurses were the best. They wore the white starched dress, white nylons and nursing cap back then.

Then when I was about 10, my grandmother got very ill. Every Saturday I would go and sit with her and watch t.v, play cards, or whatever she wanted. She had emphasyma and had to have oxygen on at all times. I knew then I wanted to help sick people get better. I ended up going to nursing school and when I graduated I went right into L&D, I stayed there for about 6 years and then went to NICU and have been there almost 15 years. Time flys when you're having fun!

I love my job and wouldn't trade what I do for anything!

WRONG REASON. Well, I did want to do something with science and social work and had done a bunch of PT tech, OT tech, RT tech, but I could never get anywhere with that experience. But nothing really said to go to nurisng, other than the HEY, NURSING HAS A LITTLE OF ALL OF THEM!

But thatt wasn't enough to convince me, I felt that I needed to have more a reason. I needded a "5 year plan." And that 5 year plan was to meet a man! I felt that as a nurse, I;'d meet a lot of doctors, and I wouldn't have to work. Becareful what you wish for: I met a lot of doctors; BUT NOW I CAN'T WORK (medical reasons). HOWEVER, I fell in love with a professiion and I've got to say more joys than ever in my life. More experiences and  the one aea I loved more than ever was  hospice.

It was so hard when i had to stop working. Nursing was the love I entered into "because I'll do it for a few  years until I meet a man" but I  fell in love with the profession that daily required I be disciplined, call on my knowledge of nursing science, logic and love of people.

I did meet a lot of physicians, but it was a good 15 years before I married my husband. That was the wrong reason,

I was serching my soul when deciding what to do after i got out of high school, then i worked for a diagnostic facility and it just came to me- 7 years later with a husband and two children i just got accepted into an LPN nursing school and I start in January, I am so excited:)

I wanted to be a nurse because it's what I always wanted to be.  I am the only person in my family that is in the healthcare field. My only regret is waiting til being in my 30's to start!