Why I Became a Nurse
In 1981 my father became very sick. He was diagnosed with cancer, and it did not take long before he needed full time medical care. My siblings and I watched as he suffered through more than a person should have to suffer, and a lot of his suffering came from him being stubborn and refusing to be admitted to a nursing facility. He just did not want to leave the home he had worked for, and I think he mostly didn’t want to leave his family.
It was difficult to watch. At first, my mother and us children were able to easily take care of him. However, as the months moved on, he became more and more dependent on medical aid, that we simply could not provide. There were medications that needed to be given by injection, an I.V. that needed care, and communication with his doctors, all of which, none of us were trained to do. The care that he needed soon outgrew the care we were able to provide.
The day I watched my father being taken to the nursing home was one of the most difficult things I can remember. Of course we kept hopes that he would recover and could come home some day, but I think we all knew deep down that he would probably never see the inside of his home again. The cancer was spreading rapidly, and his health was fading fast.
He spent the next four months in the nursing home. We would go to see him and to take him gifts almost daily. Towards the end, I am still not sure he even knew we were there, but I like to think he did.
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I watched as the nurses came in and gave him his medications, and took care of his medical needs. I was just in awe of these ladies at the nursing home. They were such professionals, and it seemed to me they were the smartest people I had known. The things they discussed with each other were things I could not even pronounce, leave alone know the meaning. They would write in their charts, and what little bit I could sneak a peek at, just seemed like another language to me. These nurses were taking care of my father, and I admired them so much, I knew then what I wanted to do with my life.
Determined to be a nurse
Through the remainder of my school years, all I wanted to do was to finish high school so I could enroll in nursing school. Any time I had the chance, I would sign up for high school health classes, and even First Aid. Although taking these courses would not get me into nursing school, I at least felt like I was doing something to work towards being a nurse.
I still remember going to the library and looking at medical books. I would try to study anatomy, and make a feeble attempt at understanding physiology. Even though I did not understand much of it, it was still interesting. I use to read a lot about cancer, and it helped me to understand what happened to my father.
Graduating high school was a happy day. I was finally out of “regular” school, and like all teenagers, it felt like I had accomplished something big in my life. However, I knew I was not done, and I also knew that my life’s dream was now open for me to pursue. I could now go after the nursing career I had wanted for nearly all of my life.
Going to college to be a nurse
In 1992, I enrolled in two different nursing schools that were within driving distance of me. I had done some checking, and nearly every employer around me wanted to hire more nurses. This told me that if nurses were needed so badly, nursing schools would really be trying hard to get as many students in as they could.
It took me two full years to complete my nursing school. It was difficult, but I kept my focus and knew what was waiting for me at the end. The courses kept my interest, and I was so glad that I had taken the initiative to do a little of reading at the library while growing up. I think it really did help me understand things easier. Chemistry, Anatomy, Physiology, and Pharmacology all were difficult courses to me, but after each test, I would feel like I had learned something. As time went on, I would recall all of those things the nurses taking care of my father would say, and now I was able to finally understand most of them.
I graduated nursing school in 1994. I took a job at a local clinic, and learned so much from the nurses I worked with. After a year, I accepted a new position at the same nursing home that kept my father in his last years. I now work at a large hospital about 60 miles from where I live. The drive takes a while each day, but the job is well worth it. I am a nurse in the cancer research wing, and even though I did not intentionally seek out that position, I feel like I was destined to be there from the time I was a child. All of those years of work, and now I could finally offer help to patients suffering from cancer.
