Back when I was still highschool, I never actually thought that I would take nursing, in fact, I would always say, "nursing?!! (with tone of utter disbelief) I wouldn't take that. I don't want to wipe somebody else's ass." I was playing along with my studies, floating, getting my ass kicked, until suddenly I recognized my bitter predicament, that if I never do it seriously (my studies) my parents will kill me, and so I transferred to another school, that's the time when the nursing shortage began. My mother gave the idea of taking nursing because at that time, it was the most promising course (and when I say promising, I mean big bucks), and so I said, "alright, I will take nursing" and for four years my studies went well, and something unexpected changed, I began to love the course that I disgust a long time ago.
Helping people who are sick is rewarding. especially when they get well and you know that part of it was because of your hard work and dedication. A simple thank you from a patient, means a whole lot. It erases all the anxiety and all the stress of work in an instant. But then again, its not something you get everyday, there are patients who are irritable, irate, annoying, and list goes on, but a nurse should expect these, and if the nurse doesn't love what he or she does, its easy to breakdown and give up.
A while ago, I came back to my school because I need to furnish a recommendation letter for my application, and I saw nursing students. Unexpectedly I felt pity for them when I should be proud. I thought, "nursing: is it a bane or boon?"
I must be real here. Every year about more than a hundred thousand nursing students graduate, a quarter of it will become registered nurses and pass the local boards, but the thing is, how many hospitals out there can accomodate us all nurses? And whats more sad is about a small fragment of that hundred thousand can go abroad, because let's face it, there is this retrogression issue in America, a lot of countries abroad require a year or a couple of years of experience. So that means, a big percentage of that nurse pool will be stuck out there without jobs or doing jobs that are not related to nursing.
And so the choice is laid out and the truth is somewhere out there waiting to be found, I still believe that there is still hope, but until our voice lands on deaf ears, more and more nurses will suffer the same fate.
One word of advice to the weary child who wants to later become a nurse: "Choose wisely and listen to your heart, if you are compassionate and loves to care for others, then nursing is for you, but if you are thinking of big bucks, then don't do it."
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