Posted by Jennifer on June 16, 2000, at 2:33:19
In reply to Following your calling...., posted by Lynn B on June 15, 2000, at 17:11:38
Lynn, Nursing is wonderful, caring and stressful.
But if it is what you want to do, you need to reach for that goal. Nursing school in itself requires determination and focus, but as you have a wonderful career at the end, you will find the strength to meet the challenge. There are many excellent nurses out there with difficulties of their own. You make a choice whether it hinders or helps both you, and your patients. I choose to let it help us both. There is no more special time then when you help someone else in their time of need. This web site is proof of that. Look at all the strangers that have come together to help each other out. It's obvious that many use their experience and education (self or professional) to help others, without regard to whether their own needs will be met. Nursing is the same.
In addition, there are many types of nursing available, all requiring different tolerances and abilities. In fourteen years I have gone from Pediatrics to Neonatal Intensive Care to Pediatric Home Care - then the other RN's wanted me to do the "young" cancer patient's too (ie: those with children) because I was more oriented to the needs of young families. After that was Hospital Mgmt, Outpatient Surgery Center Director, then development of a Pediatric Mildly Ill Center. I worked there for almost no pay because I felt so needed by these families who often could not afford medical care. It wanted to make you cry when you could see how giving them just a little information could change so much of their life.
I am blessed to not HAVE to work now. I spend my time educating my children and I do all my nursing for free. Nothing can replace helping at an office where the staff really need your experience, or getting a call from a child care center in town that someone is hurt, and providing urgent care, or going on the ambulance with them to the hospital. I've held children in the ER for hours waiting for their parents to come from work. In one way it's sad, but in another, I know they would be there alone without me. It's great to go to the bank or store and someone says "Thanks" I heard what you did yesterday. Others just call me their "gaurdian angel". To me, that's making an impact on people's lives in a way that I could not do otherwise. Seek out the nursing, it's the BEST. Jennifer RN-C> This board seems to be a beacon for those in need of support and encouragement. I find myself reading the posts here and wanting to extend my empathy and become a part of this caring network. Depression is such a distorting disease. We need to be reminded by others that what we feel is not who we are. Our brains our not our souls. (It took me a while before I got over that particular stigma)
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> So, I hope that a few of you fine souls can share some wisdom with me. I am in my mid-thirties, and after important years of being home with my kids, I feel another pull at my heart. Maybe its because of the depression and how it makes you so aware of suffering, but I feel that we do not go through things for nothing. This human experience has given me understanding. I thought that I could become a Nurse and give back mercy to others. The problem is that I am also aware that I have limitations. This is a very stressul job and I wonder if I have what it takes to walk away and not let what I do consume me, or cause a relapse in my depression.
> Being a mother is my primary role in life. But I took on this role very young, before I had developed myself. What you leave undone you are destined to revisit. I don't want to ignore what feels like a calling. I just want to be realistic in what I'm emotionally capable of taking on. I'm just starting college. Any advise? Lynn
poster:Jennifer
thread:37436
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20000610/msgs/37484.html