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You need a burning, passionate desire to nurse. If you want to help people, you can work at McDonald's. (Hi! Can I help you?) Sound harsh? Not AT ALL meant to. If taken that way, I apologize.
Nursing is a life long career of learning. It never stops. It takes dedication, devotion, and determination. It's long hours, exhaustion, day after day. It's coming in early, staying late, cleaning up poop and puke, its every other weekend and every other holiday of your life. It's doctor's yelling at you, co-workers talking about you behind your back, and families wanting the exact spelling of your last name so they can "get it right when I talk to my lawyer"
Nursing is SO rewarding and enriching!!! It's all about the patient and has nothing to do with you. You get back 10-fold what you put into it.
For me, it's seeing that rhythm convert after the drugs I gave, it's seeing the patient who was crying and frightened asleep after I sat and held their hand, listened and gave hope and encouragement and then a backrub. It's about the hug I received from a family member who thanked me for not letting their mother die in pain and for respecting her wishes for a dignified death.
It's so very hard to tell you what is required to be a Nurse, the rules change minute to minute.
Please note that I said "what is required to be a Nurse". Going to nursing school and being a Nurse are two different things. Some people graduate from nursing school, pass boards, receive a license, wear a name badge that says RN, but they aren't Nurses. They clock in, go through the motions, do what's legally required of themselves, and clock out. We Nurses call those nurses "Warm Bodies" (or nurses with a little "n")
If you don't know whether you want to be a Nurse, or a nurse, why don't you try volunteering for a while? Please don't enroll in nursing school until you know exactly what you are getting yourself into!!!
