We hear much about the challenges of nursing – the long hours, the lack of respect for the profession, the thankless days and nights, and the emotional toll, to name a few. It makes us wonder why nurses choose this profession and more importantly, why they embrace it for years and years.  In our Nurses Stories we hear answers from nurses of all ages, in all specialties, and even in various stages of their careers. Recently we came across a list of reasons on the Memorial Hospital & Health System’s website that we felt were worth sharing. While we couldn’t include them all, here are some of those that touched us most.
~Michael and Frida Donner

“I love being a nurse because I love my patients and the people I work with. I feel like I can make a difference in a person’s life at a time when they feel helpless. I can say that I truly care!”

“I, like many older baby boomers, didn’t have a lot of options when I graduated from high school, so I listened to my mom like a ‘good’ girl and decided to try nursing. It wasn’t my first choice, but the full scholarship I was granted was a major deciding factor.
My first year in school was the standard for most nurses: being totally terrified at times, grossed out at others, and wondering what I was doing the rest of the time. Then I spent my first day in the operating room. My first case was something very minor and then I was told I was to scrub in with Dr. O’Brien, our heart surgeon. Talk about being terrified. Fortunately, he was one of the true gentlemen and the next thing I knew he had me up next to him with my hand on a beating heart. That was the start of my true calling and still is one of my best memories of my life. Life and career took me in many directions, but I always came back to nursing and my work has given back to me tenfold what I have given to it—friends, travel, experience, compensation and rewards beyond my wildest dreams.”
“In today’s health care environment, which requires nurses to do more work in less time, it’s easy to forget why becoming a nurse was so appealing. When I reflect back on the choice I made over 30 years ago, I think of my dad. Dad was a medic in the Army and was very interested in the science of medicine. He talked positively with me many times about the benefit of a nursing career— any career in medicine sounded good to dad, but I remember him talking most about the advantages of nursing.
When I went into nursing school, he was so proud—not to mention helpful! Still today, I teach new unit clerks how my dad would help me with my abbreviations during those first few months of training, and how he would say, ‘If you remember that pc is post chow, you will always remember the abbreviation for after meals.’ That was just one of his gems; he had tons of them. I am glad that I am a nurse and I am proud to say so.
Dad has been gone for four years now, and I think of him every day. My best memory is of a day when he called me at work and asked me if he was speaking to Barb R.N.—I had passed boards and the letter had come to my parents’ home and he was calling me with the good news. He knew that I would want to know that I had passed and he was so proud. Thanks, Dad, I owe it all to you!”
“Nursing is a career in which not all goals are attainable, not all successes measurable, and not all outcomes predictable, but each small step toward these achievements brings new hope and healing. In the end, a small child grinning from ear to ear or the soft gentle touch of the hand is priceless.”