Hello fellow nursing student bloggers, my name is Greg and I am a first semester nursing student. I just turned 41 years old and will have just turned 43 upon our expected graduation date. If you think this is pretty late to be starting a career, your right, but it is actually my second career. I retired from the Marines after serving 21 years with no regrets, and the monthly retirement check isn’t bad either. I retired in April of 2008 and discovered that I missed the varying challenges, the camaraderie, and the diversity that is associated with work and school. That, combined with the assumption that I should live at least 50 more years, is the reason I started preparing for a second career. Being a nurse hasn’t always been a lifelong dream of mine, only recently did I decide that this was a profession that I thought would fit who I am. Over the past 2 years I have spent time in the hospital both as a patient and a visitor, on all occasions I was impressed by the professionalism, knowledge, and structure of all the nurses I encountered(All TCC Grad’s of course.) In my opinion a nurse should be an extension of the physician, the one who is there most of the time providing care and answering questions. I have learned that to be truly successful, you have to enjoy your job and look forward to doing it. I don’t know why, but as far back as I can remember I have gotten a great sense of satisfaction and enjoyment by helping others. I would sacrifice my own wants before I would fail in my responsibilities to others. It is my belief that to want to be a nurse you have to be a pretty unselfish person. So, I guess I chose nursing as a career because I like to help people, I like working with unselfish people, I like structure, and I think I would look forward going to work every day and experiencing the challenges that each shift would bring. One day I would like to work in a cardiac unit or as a surgical nurse. My father died of a heart attack, but this isn’t the only reason I want to work in a cardiac unit or as a surgical nurse, I just feel these two areas would be a good fit for me.
I have no preconceived notions of what the (Hopefully only) next five semesters might be like. As for the first week, it has been easy. That could very well be the quiet before the storm. I would have to describe the first week as being filled with the anxiety of the unexpected. We have been warned that we would be overwhelmed with bookwork and studying. I’m not too worried about the academics, what scares me is the one on one contact with future patients, performing nursing duties for the first time. I have been in and survived combat engagements, supervised hundreds of people and multi-million dollar budgets, and been responsible for millions of dollars worth of equipment and supplies. I did all of these things successfully and with supreme confidence. But right now, regardless of what I have accomplished in the past, I’m starting over and what scares me the most is a mental image of a frail old lady in her 80’s and it is my responsibility to give her an I.V. or a catheter, I don’t want to cause her any discomfort because of my inexperience, I want to give her the kind of care that I would want someone to give my own mother. I’m confident that my life’s experiences will be beneficial but I hope to always maintain some fear, because I believe fear will be what will help me prevent mistakes. I look forward to working with my fellow nursing students, learning from them and sharing some of my knowledge in return. Lastly, I am just as proud of being known as a nursing student today as I was of earning the title Marine over twenty years ago, both were tough to get.
