A Career: Why I Want To Become A Nurse

An influential man in my life once told me, “It doesn’t matter what profession you choose, if you love what you do the job will not matter.” This man was my father. Of all the life lessons he taught me while growing up, this is one that really stuck with me. Ever since I can remember, I have wanted to become a nurse. I do not have a particular reason why nursing drew me in. I love helping people and I love that this profession is always evolving. Of course, like most jobs, there are times that make me think why I chose to become a nurse. Fortunately, there are many situations that confirm I did choose the right profession and that I do make a difference in some patients’ lives. If someone were to ask a nurse, “tell me a time in your

We all have those situations, whether positive or negative at the time, which has taught us how strong we can be, how we impact those we care for, and how we constantly are students to the profession. My days, like many others in this profession, started early. There were long work days ahead, twelve hours that normally ended up being thirteen or fourteen hours. I worked on a very busy medical/surgical unit within a local hospital. A 4:30 a.m. wake up call was blaring to my left, another morning came too early. Walking into 1 Center, the unit I worked in, I could tell the night shift was happy to see their replacements were arriving. Each day I came to work started off with a silent prayer for a good day, and to be lucky to follow a thorough nurse so at least I knew the shift would start off half way decent. This particular morning, I was coming on shift following a nurse that was notorious for reports that were not the most accurate. General information is normally given, and even then it may not be

Both patients to the eye, and with my assessments, seemed fine. I decided to call the surgeon for the man who just had an exploratory lap. I made my decision based upon the reasoning that this gentleman could potentially be bleeding within his belly, something I could not see. The other gentleman was a dialysis patient, and they can get lower blood pressures at times, something I would look further into after I took care of the other patient. As I was paging the surgeon, I was reviewing information from the previous shift. I noticed that around midnight, the man’s blood pressure had started to trend down. The blood pressure had been slowly getting lower and lower throughout the night, something that was not mentioned in the report I received from the night nurse. At this moment the surgeon returned my call. I reviewed the situation and was immediately faced with a very angry doctor on the other end of the phone yelling. He asked a question that I did not have the answer to, “Why was I not called at midnight when his BP started to go down?” I responded with the only answer I knew, “Doctor I do not know why you were not informed then, I just came on shift and was made aware of the low blood pressure by my aid. I did not get any information in my report about low blood pressure. The patient is alert and oriented, and is not reporting any issues. The dressings are dry,