I thought I hated nursing....so I did an experiment
8) .I really had had it. I was totally convinced after years of thinking about it, that I was going to leave the nursing profession once and for all. I had it all maped out. I was going to take accounting classes part-time and work full-time in an air-conditioned office where I was not so stressed out with incredible responsibility of human lives and just type the day away on a computer and work with numbers. I fantized about how terrific it was going to be to be able to actually do my hair and make-up nicely because after all I wasn't going to sweat it off during the course of a "normal" work day. I relished in the idea of being able to have 2 15min breaks and a 1/2-1hr lunch in the real world where people didn't kill themselves at their jobs. I was excited. I was "breaking the rules" and everyone thought I was nuts for leaving a job that held enormous respect from most of the general public to take a job that paid me less than half of what I was making just so I didn't have to feel the stress of it all. But that didn't matter to me because I just wanted to be happy and that was the end of that discussion. Well, it's actually kind of humorous, my little adventure that is but this is what I did and this is what happened. I went to the library and conjured up a resume for myself that was all business. It was all about my office experiences before nursing school. I didn't have any date of employment because it was so long ago and I was not in the mood to call them and ask when I actually worked there and for how long and what exactly I got paid because I know it was between 6-11 dollars an hour. So I put together a rather impressive image of myself and sold one particular employer that I could be a date entry operator (I had 10 yrs experience typing in offices). The job was so easy to get, I mean this office was not very professional, the dress code was jeans and a t-shirt or shorts! It was very casual is the least to say and I was to sit down and type for my interview. My speed....an impressive 10,000+ keystrokes per hour? They wanted 12,000 but the owner yelled, "she can try it" from the desk over after the supervisor announced my scores. So happy as can be I started the very next day. In a nut shell? I was bored as all hell! All I did was type. I thought that's what I wanted right? My butt hurt so bad from sitting so long that I got up to go to the bathroom when I didn't even have to go! My supervisor even noticed how much I was getting up. She even made a commet, "It's hard to sit all day isn't it?" I smiled and just laughed. I never told anyone that I was a nurse in reality. Well, after getting back to my seat, it's as if God decided to teach my a little lesson. All of a sudden there was a phone call to my supervisor. She announced to everyone that our main boss who just had 5 hrs of surgery was in the clear now. Everyone was happy to hear this, I didn't really know her so I just kept on typing away. Well, that just set the tone for everyone to start talking about their medical problems and hospital stories and then came the interesting part.......the part where my key strokes per hour slivered down to probaly 2 words a minute.....they started talking about the nurses. Now this was indeed juicy. They all took their turns bashing the nurses who took care of them and one girl even said, "Yeah, nurses don't know what their doing" I was sitting there in the middle of the room and getting honest feedback about what people really think about nurses. After all the bashing about nurses was over I thought, they have no idea what us nurses have to put up with. Another commet that was made was, " I had to have a tube put down my nose into my stomach and I was wondering why I couldn't breathe, here the nurse had taped my nostrils closed!" I thought to myself, "yeah, I could see that possibly happening, but hey, no one's perfect. LOL No really though, I was feeling that I didn't belong there at all, I was missing my job as a nurse and I was thinking at the end of the day when I found out I only made $20 for the entire 6 hrs I worked (it was piece rate work) how ridiculous this whole thing was. But I learned that the reason I all of a sudden didn't like working in an office anymore was because I was now a different caliber than these other people, God helped me get through nursing school for a reason, not to just throw it away, but because I am on a "progressed" level in my life now and this was just the lesson I needed. So.........to all the nurses out there who fantasize about leaving the nursing profession, do what you have to do, but don't be surprised is at the end you go back to nursing, I think that once your a nurse, your always a nurse, no one can take that away from you, even yourself.