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Permalink Reply by Terry Myers on July 12, 2010 at 4:03pm

My story: I've been a RN for 33yrs w/12yrs in homecare--I love what I do very much--it's taken me alot of years & "burn-out" to reach this point of finally being able to say that! I've always known I wanted to be a nurse--I came into this lifetime w/knowing this! I started out as a nurse's aide when I was 16yrs old--went to LPN school after high school(1969) & then RN school(1977)--BS Public Health Education(1984)--MA Health Education(1985)--so from 1969-1985 I considered myself a professional college student! Once I completed my MA--I said that was it--"No More College"--So if I really sat down & did the calculation I would have to say I've been in the healthcare profession 43yrs--OUCH!! that makes me sound REALLY ancient!!LOL!!! I will say I've done alot of healing work on myself & others--believing God gives us our gifts/talents to share w/others!! Nursing has given me opportunities to touch people's lives & make a differenc in this world!! which is very fulfilling & rewarding!!

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Permalink Reply by Enid Mercado,BSN,RN,CRRN on July 12, 2010 at 9:40pm

I was planning on becoming a teacher,then I had my youngest child. He was premature in time and weight. He was in NICU for a while. The nurses at the NICU showed me so much compasion and always took the time to make sure I understood everything that was hapenning to him. They used every day words to explain to me everything that was being done to him and why. By the time he was discharged I was almost an expert in vents,tube feeds and central lines! I started collage and made a deal with God, I new nursing is a very challenging profesion and that you have peoples lives and wellbeing in your hands and thats a lot of responsability. So, God's job was to let me graduate only if I was to be a good nurse.
I really felt I needed to pay it forward. I became a nurse, 19 yrs ago, I love my career,but I can't work peds!!

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Permalink Reply by Terri Koopai, RN, CWCA on July 13, 2010 at 1:33am

Approximately 1977 or 78 I volunteered at our facilities cast-room, observation only, but I was there one to two nights a week for more than a year with administrative permission. I had been working in the Medical Transcription Department as their secretary and wanted to do more than read medical reports. I loved it. Then the Senior Tech that trained me became Supervisor. There was a posting for a Junior Tech. I applied. I was interviewed. I was told that I didn't have enough experience. WHAAAA?
After the job was re-posted and they hired a man from the Store Room, I told myself there has to be something else....I had already been going to the local Junior College in the evenings also. So I just kept going. Many years ago I ran into the man that was the Supervisor and I asked him if he knew how pivotal that was in my life. He told me he was told not to hire me and apologized. I told him that I had made up my mind to go on from there, remember what he and the Orthopedic doctors had taught me, and move on. I got accepted into an LVN program in 1980, got my RN in 1984 and have never regretted my decision. I will never forget it though. Being "run-over" by a man hurt my feelings, at a time I was getting a divorce and was already on the emotionally fragile side. It didn't take me too long to get off the pavement and take control of my own road. I will say that I had great emotional and educational support of those Medical Transcribers, many of which were single, divorced or widowed and self-supportive. They were a great group of ladies and I was proud to be their friend. I am also happily married to a great guy who is supportive of me in any endeavor.

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Permalink Reply by Nfonkwah Joshua Ngwang on July 24, 2010 at 1:17pm

I grew up in a Christian family where I was taught to be compassionate like Jesus Christ. After high school I had to choose a vocation which could best fit this and it was none other than nursing.

I then became interested in caring for diabetics of my locality where I also realised that the leading complications with them here is ulcers of varying degrees.

I further developed more attention to dealing more especially with their complications cautiously, thereby nursing a mind for wound care nursing. This led me to visting in wound care clinic in Green Bay, IL USA for better experiences,

Josh in Cameroon

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Permalink Reply by Deloris Eggleston on July 24, 2010 at 5:52pm

I feel that nurses are born and not made. I have always known that I would be in the medical profession in some way and nursing was always in the forefront of my mind. When I graduated high school I took a year before starting college and went to work in a factory. This lasted almost a year and I quickly decided that I needed to be in college. I kept thinking about the medical profession and went to work as a unit secretary at the hospital where my mother was employed. From that point on I was eat, sleep and drink nursing and have never looked back. I have gotten great satisfaction out of my profession .

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