Nursing - How did you know you wanted to become a nurse?

Author

How did you know you wanted to become a nurse?

Canada_BC_PG

2005-11-16, 12:58 am

Hi,

I'd like to ask all the people who are currently nurses on why you became a
nurse and how you knew you'd become a nurse?

I'm interested in taking up nursing but I'm unsure if it's for me. I tend
to think that people in nursing are all very personable people and having
suffered with Social Anxiety I'm in a bit of a tricky spot here…I'd like
the ability to help people and feel good about what I'm doing (without the
responsibility of a doctor) but at the same time I'm wondering if I'd be
good enough for that position knowing I'm not the greatest person to be
calming to others or personable around people…

Thanks

Canada_BC_PG

2005-11-16, 12:58 am

"Canada_BC_PG" <email@email.ca> wrote in news:Xns970FC592A3006WEEEEEEe@
198.80.55.250:

> (without the
> responsibility of a doctor)

I want to clear up what I mean by this incase people take it the wrong way

I meant that Doctors from my perspective also have a great job to do but
they have much more responsibility in their hands...and of course more
school years etc etc

I want to do something I can feel good about, it would be a great challenge
taking up nursing knowing I have a difficulty interacting with people but I
don't want to be a crappy nurse either...

Mortimer Schnerd, RN

2005-11-16, 12:58 am

Canada_BC_PG wrote:
> I'd like to ask all the people who are currently nurses on why you became a
> nurse and how you knew you'd become a nurse?

I became a nurse because the company I was flying for went bankrupt. They
called us all in to a pilot's meeting on a Thursday and told us. On Saturday I
picked up the newspaper to read that a new school of nursing was approved by the
state and they were accepting applications. On Monday I was on the phone asking
for one.

My mother was the director of two different ADN programs when I was in junior
high school and high school. I worked in a hospital as an orderly in 11th
grade, 12th grade, and the first two years of college. After that I left
hospitals behind for almost 20 years. I was in my mid 30s when I went back to
school.

FWIW, nursing school sucked. However, I persevered.

--
Mortimer Schnerd, RN

mschnerd@carolina.rr.com.REMOVE

Starlight

2005-11-16, 12:58 am

On Wed, 16 Nov 2005 03:24:26 GMT, "Canada_BC_PG" <email@email.ca>
posted:

>Hi,
>
>I'd like to ask all the people who are currently nurses on why you became a
>nurse and how you knew you'd become a nurse?
>

I've always been a very shy person, still am pretty much. Had and
still do have social anxiety to an extent. When I was around 12
years old, I noticed the nurses at the doctors' office seemed so
self-assured. That's when I decided that I wanted to be more
confident, so I would be a nurse. Never thought maybe I'd need to
have that confidence first, just assumed I'd learn how to be that way.

Thankfully, that's how it worked out!

As you go through school, you learn how to interact with people as a
nurse. Many of the courses you'll take will help
you....communication, psychology, etc.. With that knowledge will
come power....and the ability to relate. The biggest challenge for
me wasn't relating to the patients, even working in ICU with the
stress and families; it was learning to be assertive with the
doctors. But with maturity and experience that came too!

I don't regret my decision in the least. And, after 30 years, I can
walk into the home of any patient and communicate with no problem,
never feel that anxiety. But make me go to a party where I won't
know many people....sheer torture.
Do what you feel in your gut and heart.

Becky

O'Hush

2005-11-16, 12:58 am

"Canada_BC_PG" <email@email.ca> wrote in message
news:Xns970FC6317CD15WEEEEEEe@198.80.55.250...
> "Canada_BC_PG" <email@email.ca> wrote in news:Xns970FC592A3006WEEEEEEe@
> 198.80.55.250:
>
>
> I want to clear up what I mean by this incase people take it the wrong way
>
> I meant that Doctors from my perspective also have a great job to do but
> they have much more responsibility in their hands...and of course more
> school years etc etc
>
> I want to do something I can feel good about, it would be a great
challenge
> taking up nursing knowing I have a difficulty interacting with people but
I
> don't want to be a crappy nurse either...

I'm a student nurse, so I probably shouldn't comment, but oh well. Sick
people are like babies. It's really easy to connect with them emotionally.
All you have to do is look them in the eye and really listen to them, and
treat them with appropriate affection and respect, and they'll generally be
very grateful. I felt nervous about the first five times I went into a
patient's room. I felt like a fraud -- like I had nothing of value to
offer. I'm feeling relatively competent now. (Not like a competent nurse,
but relatively competent for a student.) I definitely feel I provide
valuable services to my patients, compassionately, while allowing them
privacy and dignity. I can be pretty profoundly shy and socially awkward,
but I can walk up to a gravely ill patient I've never met, and just hold
their hand and smooth back their hair, and sort of be their mom. I can't
tell if you'll love nursing, but I don't think shyness is a handicap with
patients, or it isn't for me, anyway.

--Patti

Norminn

2005-11-16, 10:57 am

Canada_BC_PG wrote:

> Hi,
>
> I'd like to ask all the people who are currently nurses on why you became a
> nurse and how you knew you'd become a nurse?
>
> I'm interested in taking up nursing but I'm unsure if it's for me. I tend
> to think that people in nursing are all very personable people and having
> suffered with Social Anxiety I'm in a bit of a tricky spot here…I'd like
> the ability to help people and feel good about what I'm doing (without the
> responsibility of a doctor) but at the same time I'm wondering if I'd be
> good enough for that position knowing I'm not the greatest person to be
> calming to others or personable around people…
>
> Thanks

Join the crowd :o) I was tremendously shy as a child. I'm retired, so
no longer active in nursing. I would, almost, rather jump off a cliff
than give a speech to a group. I love one-on-one teaching, and can boil
complicated issues down to the basics to make them understood. I have
found self doubt can be very healthy, especially in nursing. You will
often go home with a sense of not accomplishing or completing what you
want to - it is the nature of the beast our healthcare system has
become. Don't confuse nursing with playing doctor, as many nurses do.
We all hate canned nursing care plans, but assessment of your patient is
the most important thing you do, followed by acting on changes or
questions from the assessment. You don't have to diagnose a problem
before you call a doc, You don't have to be proven "right" to bring an
issue to docs or management. Assess, act, document, and stick up for
what is right. Holding hands can cure what modern medicine fails,
because understanding and caring are basic needs. All you can ever do
is your best - accepting what you see in yourself is sometimes tough. I
would like to be outgoing, sometimes, but I have an aversion to it :o)
Anxiety may always be a part of who you are, regardless the kind of work
that you do. I have happened onto courses, through employment, in
personality typing and assertive management. They can be very valuable,
and very revealing. Fascinating to go through a management seminar with
a variety of people and finding out why they do what they do. You
likely will never have enough time to do what you want to do for your
patients, but it is the wanting to that keeps us all going :o) I have
always wanted the assurance and satisfaction that some people seem to
have, the "good enough" attitude.

LEnfantduVent

2005-11-17, 10:56 am

> All you have to do is look them in the eye and really listen to them, and
> treat them with appropriate affection and respect, and they'll generally be
> very grateful.
> --Patti

Patti:You will never make head nurse with THAT attitude......but the
patients who are fortunate enough to have you caring for them will
respect and LOVE you. Your approach sounds like it came straight out
of "The Wheel of Life" by Elizabeth Kubler-Ross MD.

Allan, LPN
-Who went into private duty/homecare so he would have the time that
approach takes--and to hell with the LTC unit paperwork LOL

O'Hush

2005-11-17, 5:57 pm

LEnfantduVent wrote:

> Patti:You will never make head nurse with THAT attitude......

That's okay. I'd suck at it anyway.

> but the
> patients who are fortunate enough to have you caring for them will
> respect and LOVE you. Your approach sounds like it came straight out
> of "The Wheel of Life" by Elizabeth Kubler-Ross MD.

That's really sweet of you to say.

> Allan, LPN
> -Who went into private duty/homecare so he would have the time that
> approach takes--and to hell with the LTC unit paperwork LOL

I've been thinking about Hospice nursing. Is there a lot of that with
home care?

Anyway, I only have one patient at a time right now, so I can really
spoil them. I worry a lot about what it will be like to have five or
six patients. I imagine you have to do some ruthless prioritizing
under a heavy patient load. I worry that under those conditions, the
compassion thing will sort of wear off, which would suck. I see some
very compassionate nurses on my unit, and others who seem to treat the
patients like they're furniture. I worry about turning into one of the
latter kind.

--Patti

RuthfromMission@webtv.net

2005-11-18, 12:58 am

I wanted to work in psych and being a nurse was the quickest way to get
there. It was also a logical choice because I knew I would be able to
make enough money to support myself and would always be able to find a
job no matter where I decided to move in the USA. Becoming an RN was
one of the few smart things I did when I was young!

Mortimer Schnerd, RN

2005-11-18, 12:58 am

RuthfromMission@webtv.net wrote:
> I wanted to work in psych and being a nurse was the quickest way to get
> there. It was also a logical choice because I knew I would be able to
> make enough money to support myself and would always be able to find a
> job no matter where I decided to move in the USA. Becoming an RN was
> one of the few smart things I did when I was young!

You know, I'm a firm believer that we are socialized by the people with which we
surround ourselves. We tend to speak the same lingo, look alike, even think
alike. Nurses do it, pilots do it, even scuba divers do it.

On another plane, I've noted that people in nursing tend to collect in areas
where they identify most closely. For example, as a former multi trauma, I work
in orthopedics. Most of my coworkers have suffered some kind of horrendous
fracture as well. If you look at our colleagues down in oncology, I'm sure
you'd find that either they've had cancer themselves, or someone very near and
dear to them has.

All that being said, I'm wondering what the attraction of psych nursing is for
you. <G>

--
Mortimer Schnerd, RN

mschnerd@carolina.rr.com.REMOVE

Kurt Ullman

2005-11-18, 10:57 am

In article <gnbff.1082$q93.633600@twister.southeast.rr.com>,
"Mortimer Schnerd, RN" <mortschnerd@carolina.rr.com.remove> wrote:

>All that being said, I'm wondering what the attraction of psych nursing is for
>you. <G>
>
As a long-time Psych RN, it fit my personality better. I never
have been that technically and minuata oriented. I have never done
all that well with fine motor or mind skills (thus the wood for my
hutch eventually became a pipe rack in wood shop-g). Psych is more
gross skills both mentally and physically. Thus, it fit my
personality, abilities, and desires better.
That I spent so much of the 70s psychotic that I think I had an
affinity for schizophrenics...

--
REMEMBER: Don't Be afraid of disasters: Some people
are born to disasters, some achieve disaster status, while others
have disaster thrust upon them.
Candace Hoffmann

Natalie Smith

2005-11-19, 12:55 pm

Iv worked in both oncology and truama/elective orthopadics and i found i
loved nursing to radiotherapy so i decided to become a health care assistant
to see if i enjoyed nursing and i love it, I work in a 12bedded ward (small
i know). I love the work and I am planning on training as a nurse next year
in the British Army, and then maybe spending a few years nursing in USA,
before settling down.
"Canada_BC_PG" <email@email.ca> wrote in message
news:Xns970FC592A3006WEEEEEEe@198.80.55.250...
> Hi,
>
> I'd like to ask all the people who are currently nurses on why you became
a
> nurse and how you knew you'd become a nurse?
>
> I'm interested in taking up nursing but I'm unsure if it's for me. I tend
> to think that people in nursing are all very personable people and having
> suffered with Social Anxiety I'm in a bit of a tricky spot here.I'd like
> the ability to help people and feel good about what I'm doing (without the
> responsibility of a doctor) but at the same time I'm wondering if I'd be
> good enough for that position knowing I'm not the greatest person to be
> calming to others or personable around people.
>
> Thanks

ruthlee1951@msn.com

2005-11-21, 10:57 am

easy to answer......when I was growing up my family was totally
disfunctional. My grandfather was bipolar with psychotic features. My
mother was severely depressed. My father was an angry man who beat his
children. My youngest sister is paranoid schizophrenic. I knew that I
would feel right at home on a psych unit!

Mortimer Schnerd, RN

2005-11-21, 5:58 pm

ruthlee1951@msn.com wrote:
> easy to answer......when I was growing up my family was totally
> disfunctional. My grandfather was bipolar with psychotic features. My
> mother was severely depressed. My father was an angry man who beat his
> children. My youngest sister is paranoid schizophrenic. I knew that I
> would feel right at home on a psych unit!

No doubt. Do they let you *behind* the desk?

--
Mortimer Schnerd, RN

mschnerd@carolina.rr.com.REMOVE

Kurt Ullman

2005-11-21, 5:58 pm

In article <8Lsgf.2678$q93.981846@twister.southeast.rr.com>,
"Mortimer Schnerd, RN" <mortschnerd@carolina.rr.com.remove> wrote:
>ruthlee1951@msn.com wrote:
>
>
>No doubt. Do they let you *behind* the desk?
>
>
>
The Nurse's Station desk on a Psych Unit is a lot thinner line
than many like to acknowledge...

--
Any ideas expressed on this account should not be taken as
representing Mr. Ullman's own, for indeed he has none. If anyone
objects to any statements he makes, he is quite prepared not only to
retract them, but also to vehemently deny under oath that he made
them in the first place.