Once I had decided to go back to college, I knew immediately that I wanted to work in healthcare. Initially, I had pursued physical therapy. After talking about school on the phone with a cousin of mine who works in the E.R. at a local hospital, he had suggested I come do a walk along with him on one of his night shifts. It was a great opportunity to see first hand what kind of career I’d have if I decided to change my mind and apply to nursing school. The events that I remember most was an old woman with stomach pains that the doctors could not diagnose properly, a man that passed out at work from low blood sugar, getting to watch a man with broken ribs get a chest tube inserted into him, then five minutes later a beat up non cooperative inmate from a nearby jail was rolled in shackled to his bed. Needless to say, I thought working in the E.R. would be very exciting and that’s why I want to be a nurse.
However, excitement would just be one of the perks to the job. I think there is a certain satisfaction felt when you can aid the sick back to full health, when you can stabilize a dying patient, or when all you can do is make a sick person more comfortable because there is nothing else you can do. I think a nurse should want to care for and help patients not because it’s there job but because they would do it anyway. When I was at the hospital that night I wanted to do my part and help out, I just did not know how.
