I recently had someone ask me about the field of nursing as a career choice, and as they described their reasoning for wishing to join the profession I almost cringed. I wanted to make sure they understood that while nursing was indeed what they had stated, it also was not something you could continue in simply for that reason alone.
There are a lot of reasons people decide to become a nurse, but some of them should really be called reasons not to become a nurse. Because, seriously, if any of these three things are your sole reason for entering the field then you’re in for a big surprise.
1. You can finish your education quickly. One thing that makes nursing a popular field with many people is the short amount of time you can attend college and yet still have a sought after degree. Honestly, twenty years ago this was even an important factor to me. I had been attending college for two years already, and the idea of years of further education ahead of me seemed daunting. The idea of achieving a professional career within a two year program sounded wonderful to my nineteen year old self.
So what happened? Well, I was shell-shocked for sure. Once in nursing school I realized how in-depth the curriculum really was. It was like they somehow managed to cram ten years of knowledge and skills into a two year program, and trying to maintain a passing grade in that kind of demanding and stressful environment was insane!
Sure you may have an associate degree in two years (if you don’t fail), but after completion you may feel like Wesley from the Princess Bride after a lifetime is lost on Count Rugin’s Machine. Don’t worry, you’re only “mostly dead.”
2. The pay! Oh my goodness. I just knew when I became a nurse I would be rolling in the dough. I imagined all the cool decor I would buy for my apartment from Pier One. It was gonna be epic.
Imagine my disappointment when I didn’t have a Scrooge McDuck vault of gold coins to swim in.
Listen, I won’t lie to you. I make good money. No, I’m not rich, but it’s a great, reliable income for my family. I enjoy a wonderful benefit package, and the options and shifts available to nurses are fabulous. I currently work a weekend position of my choosing that is extremely family friendly for our household, and I know I wouldn’t have that available if not for my career choice.
But… I think this is something often overlooked about a nurse’s pay. Somewhere early in your career, most likely within the first couple of months, you will have a day where you feel like it’s not enough.
When you’re elbow deep in excrement, or running on ten hours with no lunch you’ll think a pay raise is in order. When you’re working short-staffed, on holidays, and even in blizzard conditions, you’ll wonder why you don’t get paid more. And when you discover that you’re responsible for the life or death of the people under your care, the legal risks you encounter, and just how much is expected of you to complete safely and efficiently in twelve hours, you’ll definitely realize you’re not doing it for the pay alone.
3. Job security. People will always be sick or seeking wellness, so if you’re concerned about landing a career with ultimate job security then healthcare is a good way to go. Especially nursing. As people begin to live longer and the baby boomers are getting older the field of nursing is always looking for new recruits. Hello?! Nursing shortage.
But here’s what’s going to happen. When you become a nurse you will wake up one day and realize the weight of responsibility that rests upon your shoulders. It’s overwhelming at times.
You will have to face a busyness like you have never known, frustration over situations beyond your control, and the realization of the fact that you cannot change how people take care of themselves.
You’ll endure psychological stress you never knew you could face successfully, physical demands you know aren’t healthy, and emotional upset that leaves you in a torrent of tears some days.
You’ll even encounter a time in your career where you don’t think you can do it anymore, and job security won’t mean a hill of beans at that point. You’ll be so fed up with the turmoil of it all that you won’t think you can be a nurse any longer, and the fact that you’ll always have a job will be irreverent. Because you won’t be sure you want it anyway!
It’s a this point that your true motivation for becoming a nurse is paramount. If it’s how quick you were able to begin your career or how fat your paycheck is then you will fizzle out fast. No amount of job security or paid time off accrued will matter if you hate your work.
No, nursing is considered a vocation for a reason. Nursing takes a special kind of person to make it long term. So while the money and reliability of employment is real awesome it cannot stack up to the calling to care.
When I decided to become a nurse my mother (also a nurse) made sure to not hold back a bit. She told me every horrible, demanding thing I would face in the field, and I still wanted it.
I spent the following year later struggling to pay my rent, work full time, and pass my clinicals with that really mean instructor. I still went back to nursing school the next year.
Knowing that it would be difficult, struggling through school, and even as student loan debt piled up I still went forth. It wasn’t the thought of pay that kept me going. It wasn’t the job security that spurred me forward. Rather it was the certainty that nursing was the field for me.
And on the bad days, cause bad days happen, it’s that certainty that carries me through. It’s the calling that keeps me constant. It’s the love for the profession that drives me on. And that, in the end, is the only reason you should become a nurse.
Stephen says
After 43 years nursing, missing so many family gatherings, working weekends, holidays, in the floods and blizzards, the one thing that kept me going was knowing that I was making a difference in the lives of my patients. I knew that what I was doing made a difference in the great global world we live in. There is nothing that can make you feel any better than having a mother and her 6 year old coming running up to you while out shopping and just begin to chatter about how much they missed you all these years. Then you realize that this child was in your unit for the first 4 months of his life because he was a 24 week premie. You know that what you do may make difference 100 years from now because of you helping save this child’s life. It is a calling that few can understand and that is what keeps you going through thick and thin and knowing you made the right choice all those years ago.
brieann.rn@gmail.com says
So true. Thanks for sharing.
Lorraine Savage says
When I started to nursing school at age 40 it was the hardest thing I’ve ever done . If you looked good the mean instructors gave you a hard. I was determined they would not make me quit. My 1st job was Neuro Intensive Care at the big Baptist hospital in Memphis. I had wanted to work CCU but God put me in Neuro for a reason. I graduated in May 1994. In July my 8 year old son passed out at my oldest sons wedding. Everybody thought I was crazy. He started having dizzy spells and nausea. I carried him to the hospital for a CT scan. He had a cyst that cover 1/2 of the right love if his brain. We took him to Lebhonner and they put a shunt in. God knew this was going to happen so he placed me in Neuro ICU. I learned a lot. Then the hospital had a crisis situation so I took a job there on the 4th floor. Better known as the floor from hell. I worked 2 weeks and slid my resignation under the nurse managers door. Then I got a job at Baptist Booneville in CCU/ICU. That’s where I met your beautiful momma. We became friends and rode to UNA to get our BSN. So hard for me but Marty made 100 on all the test. We laughed and she spoke often if you and some of the funny things that happened. I left there and did agency work at UTBowld in Memphis in the transplant unit. You had to stay on your toes making sure they didn’t crash. I worked agency but refused to work the 4th floor. You never had enough staff. I got close to my patients and their families. In 2000 my daddy died and had hospice for a few weeks. In September 2000 I started working Hospice. I saw patients , did marketing and eventually moved to the Director of Operations position. That’s when I met you. Hospice nurses are not hired they are called. God put his Angels in Heaven and His Nurses on earth. It’s a very rewarding job but you get so close to the patients and their families . I’ll never forget when I had to quit work. I gave up part of myself and still miss it so much. But I thank God for all the people I got to meet. When you become a nurse you think you will be able to make a difference but at one hospital the 2 weeks I worked there I realized I was only one person and that there was just so much one person could do. Nurses are like our veterans they don’t get the acknowledgement they deserve. Lot of people go into nursing for the money and they usually don’t last. It’s very rewarding but extremely hard. Then my oldest son married your sister, precious girl and I finally got my brown eyed granddaughter. Andrew my baby son married Olivia, a nurse at Magnolia. Just happy to have nurses in my family. My sister went to nursing school when she was 53 and is still working. She graduated in 1995. GOD BLESS OUR NURSEs?????
brieann.rn@gmail.com says
Thanks for sharing!
Michaela says
So well done,Brie. I worked as a Nurse for 30 years and encountered so many things you mentioned but I always went back to my patients . From a very young age I wanted to help people and anything else came second. Now I hear the young woman just bragging: I find me a doctor and marry him, I only work Monday to Friday, I definitely won’t work holidays, I need to be with my family and do I won’t work nights. My heart gets heavy when I hear this. Oh and no, they won’t empty bed pans. That’s what the aides are for. I was an LPN first and went back to get my RN degree. How many times did the call light come on and the patient needed to be cleaned up and the Nurse went looking for the aide. I always got up and went immediately to that room and cleaned the patient. Even though it was not my patient, that didn’t mean I couldn’t help that person. I heard that also a lot : that’s not my patient! And then when I worked L+D a 17 year old girl came to have a baby and her mother gave me a big hug and said: you delivered my daughter and now she is having a baby and you saved her life because the doctor didn’t make it and her umbilical cord was was wrapped around her neck twice. That’s why I became a Nurse. I don’t know how many babies I helped into this world or how many hands I held and how many difference I made, I am proud to be a Nurse and I hope that many of the new ones can say that.
brieann.rn@gmail.com says
Thank you for sharing.
Kim says
Thank you so much for giving a true perspective on what it is like to be a nurse. I have been a nurse for 11 years and am now a nursing instructor. I often interview perspective students and they often mention the 3 reasons above and it makes me cringe every time.
brieann.rn@gmail.com says
Thank you.
Charles del Marmol says
Yes, Brie, you nailed it! I have worked as a Nurse in a few different fields and each has it own special way of replicating all which you described. I have worked in Surgery for over ten years and find my joy in knowing that, except for church, there is probably no place where , within an hour, someone’s life has been radically changed for the good. Nursing usually changes lives on a bit slower trajectory.
brieann.rn@gmail.com says
Thanks so much for commenting.
Linda K MacPherson says
46 years of nursing and I would not trade it for any other career!! I knew in grade school that I wanted to be a nurse. I did not realize that it was a calling. I just wanted to help people feel better. The field of medicine changes and grows every day. My, how it changed in all those years!! I was interviewed for a newspaper article…the bottom line is..if you finished your shift for the day and have not learned anything, you probably should not go back the next day!! Nursing can change that fast!! I loved every minute!! The post was beautifully written and the author hit the nail right on the head!!
brieann.rn@gmail.com says
Thank you.
Jacintha Liddy says
That’s so true I was working in the hospital down here in st.thomas usvi I am retired from 2009 I Love taking care of patients but when you start saying all you came to work for is the money you don’t belong in that job but they have to remember that God hears and see everything
brieann.rn@gmail.com says
Thanks for commenting.
Audrey says
In today’s world, an ADN isn’t going to get you far in nursing. So many hospitals are only hiring BSN, or requiring you to get your BSN in a certain time frame. At least in my location in northern Illinios. Now a middled age ADN with collage age children, I have neither the money or the desire to go back for my BSN. The idea of retiring with student loan debt……And let’s be real, we never stop learning as nurses. Our education is ongoing, regardless of the number of letters we add to our signatures. Weekends, Holidays, off shifts. Oh the parties and games and family gatherings I have missed…and the pay. LoL. My friends all think I make 6 figures and believe I recieve free healthcare. They are shocked when I tell them my salary, and that my insurance actually (almost always) cost more then thiers through their employers. But 25 years in the NICU, the struggles, the tears, and wonders of true miracles…. I wouldn’t trade it for the world!
D Phillips says
As a friend of many nurses, and spending many months in the hospital with my wife when she was sick, thank you for all you do (and the many parts of the job that go unnoticed and unappreciated)!
brieann.rn@gmail.com says
Thank you.
Karen-Ann Lima says
What a nice story! I love how you saw God’s leading all the way…I will graduate an RN just a mere few weeks before I turn 50. It’s been challenging, but oh so rewarding! Be blessed each and everyday! (: Psalm 142:3b
brieann.rn@gmail.com says
Thank you.
Ruth A. Daly says
Love being a nurse, couldn’t do the job w/o that love, did CPR/chest compressions for the 1st time & brought the patient back. I’ve been in codes before but never the chest compressions, I will never forget that feeling in my hands. I’ve looked at my hands many times & have said I hold life & death in my hands, I literally did this time & am amazed.