Finding Your Nursing Calling
When I was a nursing student, I thought for sure I wanted to be either a labor and delivery nurse or a pediatric nurse. During my clinicals in obstetrics, I had a patient whose baby died in utero and she delivered the baby knowing that it would not be born alive.
That was so emotionally difficult for me that I realized I could not be a labor and delivery nurse.
During my pediatrics orientation, a 3-year-old child was in an oxygen tent when his mother went into the room’s bathroom to smoke. When the baby started crying, the mother handed me her belt … and said “use this!” As much as I loved taking care of the children, I knew at that moment the parents would be a problem.
I found myself in medical-surgical nursing because I loved doing pre- and post-op teaching as well as discharge education. I liked having patients for several days and then having the excitement of wishing them farewell as I watched them going home.
One thing about nursing is that there are so many choices. Some of us may take any job we can get just to get the experience and then we wind up staying in that job. I know if I stayed in labor and delivery or pediatrics, part of my heart would be torn away when difficult things happened.
I say life is too short; what is your nursing passion?
Are you a techie person who is task oriented? Do you like the adrenaline of things constantly changing? Then the ICU may be the fit for you.
Do you like caring for the same patients day-after-day and creating relationships with the patient and family over time? Then perhaps long-term care may be environment for you.
Do you like the intimacy of being with a patient during their most vulnerable time? If so, then maybe hospice care would be your field.
Regardless what area you choose, select an area that you are passionate about because life is indeed too short to be in a working environment that you don’t love.
If you are trying to fit a square peg in a round hole, then you will not be satisfied in your career.
What is your nursing passion? How did you find the right fit?
Please leave your comments below.
