The Joys of Being a Nurse
For many who enter the nursing profession, their job is more than a job, more than a career even.
Nursing is a calling; you can’t imagine spending your days (and nights, and early mornings—a nurse’s shift is anything but typical) doing anything else. While it’s great to have your profession be something you feel called to do, it’s even better when there are true joys that come with your workday. Nurses deal with pain, difficult patients, and death often, but there are so many highlights and bright silver linings that the rest often seems to fade away at the end of the day.
Meeting People from All Walks of Life
In many professions and in life in general, people often find themselves in somewhat of a bubble. Despite characteristic differences, in school and at the workplace, it’s common to find yourself surrounded by people like you in many ways. The nature of nursing work, however, opens a window to a broader sampling of the population. Nurses working in settings like hospitals, clinics, and physician offices tend to meet people young and old, from different backgrounds and professions, with stories as different as they are. It offers something of a survey of the human race, where you can speak to, learn from, laugh with, and enjoy company with people with so much that is different and worth sharing.
Make a Living Saving Lives
Nurses provide medical care to those in need, sometimes (or often, depending on the workplace) critical, life-saving care. For those who deeply desire for their work and their lives to make a profound impact on the world around them, it’s hard to beat nursing as a way to do that. Not everyone can go home from work thinking about the ways they’ve helped make someone’s life better, but nurses definitely can.
Learn Life Skills on the Job
Aside from helpful tips that come from their nursing education and experience, like how to best treat a scraped knee or when stitches are needed for a wound, nurses come away from their work with all sorts of life skills. These may be the result of observing and assisting with best practices to make a major business like a hospital run efficiently, or the result of a conversation with a patient with a unique background or profession. Chances are, if you want a quick tip for something that relates to the general human experience, a nurse you know has an idea to help.
