My experience of starting nursing
It’s a tough, life changing decision whether or not to get into the nursing profession.
In fact, when I first considered studying nursing, I really didn’t have any intention of following through and making it a career…!
After finishing school I wasn’t really sure what I wanted to do, but had a short list of:
- Info Tech (1st on list)
- Teaching, and
- Music
So nursing didn’t even really get a mention… I ended up doing 2 years of IT at uni before realising I wanted to keep computer stuff as a hobby rather than a profession (not enough ‘people interaction’? Maybe also because I was losing interest in computers after sitting behind one all day every day!…)
Anyway – my swing into the medical world really happened at that point because I had a vague nagging interest in blood, guts and hospitals & wanted a bit of an introduction to it all. I also thought about getting into the ambulance side of things, but was a bit put off with the idea of getting posted out to some remote country town for my first few years…
So I enrolled in a nursing degree much to the laughter and disbelief of my family and friends (males + nursing = we still have a long way to go as far as public perception goes!). I discovered that in your first year of nursing, you don’t really get into a hospital at all (well I didn’t anyway), so I really had to tackle second year to get a better idea of the job…
By the time I finished second year, I was beginning to realise the scope of the nursing profession – I had done some clinical work in aged care, community health, medical and orthopaedics ward nursing, and been in & out of theatre to watch a couple of operations… so the lure of blood & guts and that constant alco-wipe smell, coupled with the multitude of work choices that nurses have proved to be too strong. I finished out my third year and began the foray into what I was later to fully discover, was this crazy world of nursing.
(Addit: I don’t often like to admit it, but I also have a few other qualities that leant me towards this profession: I’m pretty good at staying calm when people are screaming and freaking out, I can handle juggling several tasks at once, and I have a fair degree of empathy for people who are hurt and broken – all things which I spose work well with nursing)
(Addit #2: Blood and guts and hospitals sounds way better!).
So that’s how it all began for me, anyway….
If you’re interested in nursing as a new career, check out the About Nursing page. You might also want to read should I be a nurse?
hi there, it was good being able to catch glimpses into the life of a nurse. Thanks for sharing ur experiences.. I was just wondering, you mentioned that music and teaching was on ur list,i assume, you appreciate innovation and creativity and expression. With your nursing career now, do you still have time to pursue your hobbies? (be it in IT/music..) or does this job suppress ur creative side?
p/.s:my current list of possible uni degrees is very similar to the one you had, and i’m considering nursing (all of a sudden.) probably gettin tired of all the thinking and pondering.
@eunice – Hi there, thanks for visiting…
In answer to your question “do you still have time to pursue your hobbies” well I guess it depends a lot on my current roster and how tired I am! I find it hard to get motivated and do stuff outside of work when I’m on a run of night duties, for instance. I try to make time after work (on an early shift) to get to the gym or play guitar for a bit; I also have spent a fair bit of time lately working on my websites. Sometimes this means I’m up fairly late at night and don’t get a lot of sleep, but then that catches up with me so I need my ‘break time’ to be just that – relaxing etc… sometimes I just try and chill out after work – listen to music, drink coffee etc (I’m a massive coffee fan!)
Does it suppress my creative side? Well yes and no… I guess I don’t have enough time to make a career out of my hobbies, but I can certainly find time to play around with music and website stuff outside of work… Some weeks I have more time to do this than other weeks. I don’t think nursing suppresses my creativity, just limits my time. My problem is more that my life outside of work is also pretty busy – I have a family so am constantly running around dropping my kids here and there etc!
Career choices are really hard… Visiting my kids school etc has made me fairly glad I didn’t pursue the teaching option, I don’t think I quite have the patience etc! Teachers are amazing to put up with teenagers! Nursing has certain advantages – it pays quite well (not the base rate, but shift work / weekend penalties are good), it’s pretty flexible (you can get work all over the world), you can work in many different areas (eg surgical, emergency, GP, paediatrics etc), and there’s no shortage of work (pretty good job security). On the downside you deal with dropkicks, losers and drunks (if you work emergency!) + work crazy hours… I’m pretty happy with my career choice though… You never know quite what’s going to happen on any given day! Good luck with your decision making, email me sometime if you have any more questions.
Thank you for the informative rep! =) So, I guess it’s really up to me and how I choose to invest my time…
@Eunice – Yeah, I guess you could say that! Also a lot of nurses find it a lot more ‘civil’ working part time instead of full time, like 8 or 6 or 4 shifts per fortnight…