Me and and this career we have all chosen

I have often wondered what drove me (and others) into this career of nursing.

Clearly it takes a special type of person to go into the field of nursing, it takes someone with a strong stomach, a discerning nose (C-Diff anyone?), someone brave, some one who is both empathic and altruistic and someone willing to sacrifice for others.

Not to toot our own horns but its is a demanding field mentally, physically and emotionally. In the ER where I work there are several nurses who have been RN's for over 10-15 years, two of which have been ER nurses for 20!

Amazing. . . . I only hope to be that lucky to survive in this field for that long doing something that I love.

This is my second career, previously I worked in the psych field, I have my BS in psych and simply got burnt out on personality disorders and people who simply chose (in many, not all cases) to not get well.

So my wife suggested ever think about nursing? My first reaction was "Are you crazy?!?" which all but ended the conversation on that subject.

But next week it came up again and this time the conversation lasted thirty seconds, the week after it lasted about a minute and a half and by the end of the month I somehow ended up signing up for my first set of prerequisites science classes for the next semester . . . .

Fast forward ahead two years and here I am having left the psych field behind, having worked in the ER for almost a year and in my last semester of classes and still frustrated by people who "choose" to not get better, LOL, I guess you just can't get away from non-compliant diabetics with glucose over 500 and people with severe COPD alternating a pack of Marlboro's and their portable O2 tanks.

I guess I should thank her for getting me away from the 'crazy' people. :)