Nursing Is The Hardest Job You’ll Ever Love
Since I was old enough to write my name, I knew what I wanted to be when I grew up. My mother kept memory books that documented every year of elementary school. Class pictures, report cards, standardized testing results, etc. Each page has questions for you to fill in: best friends, favorite foods, activities, and what you want to be when you grow up.
Over the years I see that my answers didn’t change remarkable. Best friend: Andrea. Favorite foods: Pizza. What do you want to be when you grow up? : Doctor, nurse, artist. I wanted to be a doctor to deliver babies, a nurse to give shots and an artist because I loved to paint and draw. As a child, you have very simplistic reasons for your choices in life. Income was never one of the things I stunned about.
In high school I began to prepare for medical school. I took the hard classes that would prepare me for the long educational haul ahead. I even took a full load of academics my senior year, when my friends were playing in electives. I really wanted to go to an Ivy League medical school and specialize in Obstetrics.
You fair never know when life is going to throw you a curve ball though. I became pregnant that senior year and married after graduation. No longer did I consider of my dreams or plans, I had a little human who counted on me for everything. She became my life.
The aspirations of medical school slowly faded into the background as my life was consumed with first words, first steps, and other wonderful milestones. I continued to work at the bank job that I had in high school. We were a tiny, young family, just trying to pay the bills and give our daughter everything that we could.
I moved up quickly at the bank. I was honorable at my job and enjoyed what I did. There was still something missing in my life, my dreams began to rear their heads. My best friend, Andrea, had moved in with us and was making plans to transfer to a college in our town. I will never forget the day she asked me, “So are you going to go to college, or what? ” At this point in my life, I was now a single parent raising a 5-year-old. Not bright how I was going to fit classes into my busy life or pay for them for that matter, I looked through the book she had about course offerings.
It was now or never. There was never going to be a good time, and if I waited, I may never get the chance. Our local college had a nursing program. I read the course descriptions, looked at the schedule and applied.
I began to take the pre-requisites that were required in order for you to apply to the program. I took classes on Saturday mornings and at night. This was before the day of online courses. I took one to two classes at a time. I worked so hard, up late at night, on my lunch break from work, anytime I had free time. Anything less than straight A’s was not an option.
Finally I was able to apply for the Nursing Program. My lab partner, Jen, from Microbiology and I applied at the same time. We both had great GPA’s, but no one was guaranteed acceptance their first round. I hoped my GPA was enough to get me in. Then one day in the mail, a large envelope from the college was in my mail box. I was celebrated into the next term. Jen also was accepted, and so began 18 of the hardest months of my life.
Nursing school is not for the faint of heart. There is a saying that goes, “If you want a break from life, go to nursing school”. Truer words were never spoken. My daughter lived amongst mammoth piles of books in the office and living room of our house. Jen was a constant guest, she should’ve just moved in for the time we spent together studying. This was something I took very seriously. You can’t just study the heart and forget it after the test. Lives would one day depend on me; patients don’t want a nurse who failed a class. Promises were made to my daughter of a big trip to Disney after graduation. That would be her gift for putting up with not having an attentive mother for a few years.
Jen and I stayed up late writing care plans and practicing IV insertion on each other for many months. That hard work paid off. We graduated at the top of our class and were ready for the world of medicine.
I had never lost my dream of delivering babies though. As a nurse, I knew that I could go back to school again and become a Nurse Midwife. That was always the opinion. I knew what I needed to do to pick up there and was determined to make it happen. Sometimes you just don’t know what life has in store for you though. Now eleven years into my nursing career, I’m not where I thought I would be. I’m so grateful for that.
My first year as a graduate nurse was spent floating around to different areas of the hospital. I worked in post-partum, mother-baby nursery, trauma, post-surgical, and transplant. Then I joined Jen in the Intensive Care Unit. This was truly high-impact nursing. You were saving lives on a daily basis. Watching patients die and bringing them back. There was grief, celebration, healing and humanity at its best. There is something addictive about this type of high adrenaline nursing. If it is a fit for you, you never want to leave it. I would spend the next five years of my nursing career in the ICU. Now my aspirations were to become an Advanced Nurse Practitioner in Adult Critical Care.
In the ICU we care for patients that deteriorate to brain death after severe brain injuries. Once diagnosed with brain death, the families are given the option of making their loved one and organ donor. The Organ Procurement Coordinator would advance in and talk to families about their options and if they consented, begin to treat the patient and locate recipients. I loved caring for these patients. They were difficult and busy patients, but the outcome of saving so many lives with the organs of someone that didn’t survive was an amazing thing to be a part of.
The OPC was a nurse. They wrote the orders and managed the patients as the doctors had done before they had suffered brain death. This was very appealing to me. The critical thinking and diversity involved in their job was something I craved.
Just when you think you know what you want in life, it changes. I applied for an opening as an OPC and was hired. This is a high stress, multi-faceted job with a high burn out rate. Then again, so is ICU nursing. The documented burn out rate for an OPC is 18-months. That didn’t deter me from wanting to give it a try. These nurses walked into the unit and were viewed as Rock Stars. Everyone wanted to know what they were doing and asking questions, everything short of an autograph. Even the physicians were interested in what we did and how we did it.
Now, five years later, I’m still talking with families and caring for organ donors. I fancy what I do and sometimes can’t believe they pay me for it. Nursing is a career with so many options. You aren’t just giving injections and charting anymore. The possibilities are endless. You can go into any field, change specialties, and find what works for you and your personality. You will never ‘want’ for a job in any city. The nursing shortage that my instructors spoke prophetically about is upon us and nurses are reaping the benefits.
I have no regrets about not going to medical school. I maintain I am where I was meant to be. I love school and can’t wait to go relieve. I am unsure now though, as to what I want to be when I grow up. Maybe one day I’ll figure that out. Whatever it is though, I’m sure it will end with “R.N.”
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Filed under Nurse Practitioner Classes by on Nov 13th, 2010. 