Why Be a Nurse?

One of the reasons I became a nurse was to build a relationship with patients and their families. I wanted a profession where I would go home, feeling rewarded. Where I knew I would make a difference in someone’s life every day.

I really wanted to help people. I didn’t know a lot of other professions where you could be hands-on and help people physically, mentally, and be able to have some knowledge to be able to maybe get them over hurdle.

It starts off with my mother. She’s been a nurse for almost 30 years and just growing up as a child with my siblings, I remember the ways that she used to care for us whenever we got hurt or sick and she always knew what to do... So when I got to college and I was just considering what majors, and trying to figure out what I wanted to do, I thought about how my mom was always just cool in those emergency situations for me.

I was influenced by an uncle that lived with my family, and he had lost his leg in World War II. He was an amputee who had a disability, but didn’t really act like he did, and told me a lot of stories about his time in the hospital, and that had an impact on me.

When I was in high school my grandma got really sick and my mom and I would visit her multiple times a week. I got to see the quality of the care that she was getting there, which wasn’t necessarily because of the nurses themselves but because there was such a shortage of them. So I ultimately just kind of saw tha things could be better. Things have to be better so that people can really be well taken care of.