T-minus 2 weeks

For the first time in this long journey called nursing school, I can begin to see the end of the tunnel... and it looks awesome! I can't believe it will soon be coming to an end. No more clinical days doing patient care for free, no more instructors hovering over my shoulders expecting me to recite every single step needed to change a foley catheter, no more silly weekly write-ups of self-evaluation because someone thought that it would make for a better nurse...

I read in another nursing blog recently "I didn't chose nursing. It chose me", and this quote I could really relate to. I always remember growing up wanting to be a doctor, but in hindsight I think it was more because my parents kept telling not to be a nurse; to be something more. But what if being a nurse is all I was ever meant to be? My family could contribute to proof that nursing runs in families. I don't think it's a lack of ambition, but that our personalities and work ethics make for a good nurse. Not that doctors don't "care" about their patients, but not everyone can sit beside a dying person and hold their hand or clean an elderly lady after a "code brown" without shriveling up their face from the stench.

Working as a nursing assistant in a busy hospital, I constantly hear nurses complain about their jobs. Yes most are over-worked and sure most probably consider themselves underpaid, but in reality, nurses make good money. Better than most entry-level jobs. But money aside because satisfaction in paychecks is different for each individual and then lifestyle, there is always the constant complaint about the job in general, which worries me about my future occupation. I've been so excited to graduate and finally join the workforce that this ever-present complaining is killing my happy-buzz. Am I really in for a rude awakening when I start working as an RN?

Well, I guess only experience will reveal the truth. I know there are a lot of people who go into nursing for all the wrong reasons and maybe these are the unhappy folk. And there are a lot of elderly nurses who really just need to retire because the job has lost that special meaning to them. I'm hoping that I don't become burnt out in my first year and that 20+ years from now I still love my job, provided that I don't advance in my career. Either way, I still have 2 more weeks of hurdles to jump over before I can breathe the fresh air and take a sigh of relief. The end is soo close, but still seems so far away...