al: I loved this! you said"nursing is all about people, not the organisms or condition that cause them, that is the Dr. job. Doctors learn about medicines and how they work. But what nurses learn about is how the diseases affect the person and the person's family." You continue to amaze me with your insight and sensitivity.

vocation-----this word has a very different meaning especially pertaining to nursing. nurses helps people during their sickness but the amazing thing is that we extend our help in their families too. i have my ups and downs regarding nursing but it is absolutely true what al has mentioned. i never thought i will be a nurse. i was quiet, not good in math and not so intelligent.what made choose nursing as a profession is because my father wanted me too------------- but how it became my vocation? this is one of the noble way of showing that no matter the circumstances in your life is, you are still so blessed!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! sickness makes a lot of people lose hope but a nurse or any member of the medical field, with a compassionate and hopeful attitude can make a lot of difference. i am not a compassionate person but my vocation became an instrument to help me until i become
one...........regrets?????????? nope, because i learned that to be able to live life ------ help others see that their life is worth living. one of the best way is to be a nurse.....

my mom went to nursing school but dropped out to get married (back then, you couldn't be married and be in nursing school-had to live in dorm). She always regreted not finishing and talked about it alot. I guess I wanted to pick up where she left off. As long as I can remember, I've wanted to be a nurse. I had planned to go to nursing school after high school but got pregnant instead. Had a wonderful little girl who was diagnosed with leukemia at age 3 and died the next year. During that year, we were in and out of hospitals all the time and had some really great nurses. That just reinforced everything for me. Plus, I had been on the side of nursing care and I believed I could carry over some of the things I had experienced with my daughter. I was a candy stripper in high school as a GIRL SCOUT. I was a CNA first then went on to LPN school when I was a single mom with 3 kids below the age of 5. It was hard!! But well worth it! My only regret is that I did not continue on with my education to become a RN. I wouldn't want to go back now tho.

I am not quite a nurse yet, but the reason I decided to go into nursing is because I have always wanted to do it. I have compassion and love for other people, but the reason I finally decided to do it was because of my mom. She died in December 2006. She was misdiagnosed and sent home early (I think because of insurance reasons, but i could be wrong). I felt so helpless because I was not there, and I didn't have that much knowledge about the medical field as a medical assistant. I want to have that knowledge. I don't ever want to feel out of control again when it comes to the health of my loved ones. I am going to be right there fighting for their lives.

mramsey, I have full faith that you will be a great nurse. Nursing is where the heart is.

We can all have a purpose, whether it is chosen, imposed, or by coincidence. I can choose be of service to others in ways that they cannot do for themselves and serve them as I would want to be served with dignity, respect, and compassion. It will be thankless. It will be hard. In the end, it will be a choice. I made the choice; It makes me a hand of God.

christianwoman said:

vocation-----this word has a very different meaning especially pertaining to nursing. nurses helps people during their sickness but the amazing thing is that we extend our help in their families too. i have my ups and downs regarding nursing but it is absolutely true what al has mentioned. i never thought i will be a nurse. i was quiet, not good in math and not so intelligent.what made choose nursing as a profession is because my father wanted me too------------- but how it became my vocation? this is one of the noble way of showing that no matter the circumstances in your life is, you are still so blessed!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! sickness makes a lot of people lose hope but a nurse or any member of the medical field, with a compassionate and hopeful attitude can make a lot of difference. i am not a compassionate person but my vocation became an instrument to help me until i become
one...........regrets?????????? nope, because i learned that to be able to live life ------ help others see that their life is worth living. one of the best way is to be a nurse.....

lizbaby75tn said:

I am not quite a nurse yet, but the reason I decided to go into nursing is because I have always wanted to do it. I have compassion and love for other people, but the reason I finally decided to do it was because of my mom. She died in December 2006. She was misdiagnosed and sent home early (I think because of insurance reasons, but i could be wrong). I felt so helpless because I was not there, and I didn't have that much knowledge about the medical field as a medical assistant. I want to have that knowledge. I don't ever want to feel out of control again when it comes to the health of my loved ones. I am going to be right there fighting for their lives.

My point being that sometimes we cannot help the ones we love most ... they are beyond the realm of human help and we while we would like to fight for their rights and be thier voice sometimes in some circumstances, we get our hands tied in that way too... I did what I could tho and I know he felt the love behind what I tried to do for him.

You will have some control but even the most brilliant doctors and nurses have no say when its someones time to go ... other times there are miracle pull backs.. The point being we are only in as much control as we can be and no more. I have seen babies die on vents... I remember being shocked that they could... i figured the lungs kept breathing the heart kept beating.. but apparently with premies and adults whose time it is to go it is not so. even in the absensce of trauma and exsanguination. I wish for you all the best and love your dedication and commitment to helping family... be right there fighting for their lives or their dying with dignity in as much as you can! It feels better than not being able to do anything at all as opposed to doing what you can... and it just being the time for them to go. You will be a great nurse with that detemination and you have had exposure to the guts and glory of nursing.. I think you wilil do very well. Just didnt want you to get your pins knocked out from under you with the thought that we have control always and have it come as a very rude shock in an already difficult time. I hope you can feel the love. Hugs.

I could not see myself working in anyother field thatn healthcare. Healthcare is where my passion is and it is what I have been called for. The course work is hefty but it is worth it and I just do not have no interest outside of healthcare as far as occupation goes.

Wow. I've read everyone's reasons on why they love being in nursing/why they chose nursing. Can I share mine?

I've worked at a local hospital for 3 years. The first year and a half was just for a paycheck. Then, I kinda began to get interested in nursing, but not enough to actually wanna do it. I started out doing an online pharmacy tech program, then quit it. Then, one of my mom's really good friends, who was a supervisor on my shift, got diagnosed with lung cancer. Since she was my mom's friend and practically a second mom to me, I wanted to do whatever I could for her. I started out just visiting with her - she continued to work for about three weeks after she got diagnosed; we would sit back in ICU or ER (wherever she happened to be working that night) and talk, laugh, joke, whatever to keep her mind off things. Then, she had her infusaport placed and got an infection from that, so they put her in the hospital to treat that infection, when she developed pneumonia. Everything went downhill from there - she went from bad to worse, infection to pneumonia to being a patient in ICU where they were sure she only had days left. We had scheduled a benefit at a local church for her and her family to help with medical bills; the day of the benefit the doctor told her family that she only had 2-3 days left, make it good for her. Anyway, God touched her and let her come home on that 3rd day. She was still awfully weak, and ended up back in the hospital that night. She went down again and this time ended up being transferred to another hospital, where her oncologist also said she only had a few days left but he would go ahead and start radiation to see if he could shrink the tumor in her lung in hopes of trying to get rid of the pneumonia. That worked; she came home from that hospital stay within that next week. I visited her at home after that and began taking her to chemo treatments and doctor's appointments; afterward if she was up to it (and she usually was) we'd go shopping or go play Bingo (her favorite thing) or go out to eat or whatever. We got closer through that summer. Just when it looked like God was gonna leave her with us, everything broke loose. She ended up back in the hospital around the end of October with severe pain in her back, neck and arm; the doctors figured it was because of the radiation and maybe she had some nerve or tissue damage or whatever. She was getting ungodly amounts of pain medicine. One eight hour shift she got 700mg. of Demerol and it still didn't touch the pain. (One thing about our small-town hospital doctors...they try to make sure their patients don't hurt...)Anyway they got her to a pain-management doctor; the next two weeks she perked up some; then Thanksgiving morning she ended up back in the hospital with pneumonia. We went a week on the med-surg floor; then she got transferred to ICU Dec. 1st; her doctor put her on a morphine drip that night and called the family in. By that time, we knew she was going to be better off once she got called home. She hung on through the weekend; that Monday her doctor even tried to wean her off the bi-pap but it didn't work. We knew she had to be getting tired; and even began getting to the point where we were all but praying for her to go (I know that sounds horrible...). We all leaned over her and said our goodbyes...about 2:00 the next morning she passed away peacefully.  ANYWAY. My point is, through my walk with her, I decided that whatever I did with my life, it was going to be something that would help someone. And being with her; that's mostly what peaked my interest in nursing; especially oncology. So, that's my reason for being in nursing? Sorry for chasing rabbits here...

You're so right, lulu! It takes someone who is caring and willing to deal with everything that comes with the package...by that I mean the rude patients, ornery doctors, inconsolable family, etc...I heard a nurse say one time that she "didn't have to put up with that grouchy-@** doctor, she was just there for a paycheck and that was it"...that's not really a nurse to me, that's just a warm body with a title...I might be wrong about that person but if someone's in it for a few extra bucks and that's it, i think they should really consider finding something else to do...