I've been a nurse for 14 years. For me, necessity showed me my calling.
I went to nursing school when I was 27. My failing marriage prompted me to develop some marketable skills "just in case". I actually was trying to decide between physical therapy and nursing. A great counselor at the local community college helped me choose nursing. The PT program had a high demand that even the 4.0 students couldn't get into (I was a 3.8ish student). Plus it was a few hours away. I had wanted to be a nurse or a teacher as a child (don't all little girls?), so nursing it was.
I graduated from a small community college program run by the State University of New York, I left my husband, moved back to my hometown and got my first job at a doctors clinic. I couldn't get a job at the local hospital because they only hired experienced nurses (how does a nurse get experience?). A few years later I moved on to work in a sub-acute care facility. I left that job a few years later to take on a critical care residency at a hospital in a larger town an hour away. I worked as a staff nurse in the ICU/PCU for a few years, became a charge nurse and then progressed to Assistant Nurse Manager.
Life happened, my home life changed and the job stank. So, when the opportunity arose and the reasons were many, I left to take a staff nurse job at the hospital in town. No more 1 hour commute!
Since then I have continued to work in critical care and have also ventured out into clinical documentation and the IT world. I recently finished my bachelor's degree in nursing (insert applause here). Now, I am trying to figure out why (tongue in cheek).
