I have been a nursing assistant for 25 years and have been told by many nurses and supervisors that I should go back to school to become a nurse. I have always been the aide that wants to learn more, if the nurses needed an extra set of hands or help of any kind I was always the first one to volunteer. I probably drove many nurses’ nuts always asking questions. When I was younger I had no desire to become a nurse and then kept putting off going back to school. I would say someday but never do it. It was not until my children were out of the house that I said to myself now what? And a voice in my head said, “Go back to school” in which I replied “for what” “nurse” was all I could hear. In 25 years of working alongside nurses I have been able
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Dorothy or Dotty as she likes to be called has been a registered nurse for almost 45 years. She has worked in many different nursing occupations; in hospitals, home health, nursing homes, assisted livings and at one time she worked as a state surveyor for the state of Wyoming making sure different health faculties were up to state standards. Dotty has been my supervisor for the last five years at two different companies. I asked her why she became a nurse; she stated that she wanted to be a veterinarian even got her associates degree in animal science but her husband passed away leaving her with three small children to raise on her own. She could not afford the time it took to become a vet and she had been a nursing assistant when was a teenager and enjoyed helping people. With the help of her family she decided to become a nurse since a lot of her courses she took for her animal science degree could transfer towards her nursing degree. A decision she has never regretted. When her children got a little older she worked on getting her bachelor’s degree. I asked her if she had any advice for someone just entering the nursing field. She replied that you need to remember that sometimes the job is a thankless one. That you cannot please everyone and if you are going into the field just for the money to not bother, people like that usually make bad nurses. Also to have fun and if you’re having a bad day, remember tomorrow is a new day. I asked her if there were things she now knows that she wishes she had known when she started out as a nurse and she referred back to her answers about her advice to new nurses. She stated that she had to learn quickly that not all patients, families, doctors and employers do not say thank you and not to take offense to it. She also wished that she knew more about DNA and genetic diseases because they are no around back when she was in school. Dotty is a great
Dorothy or Dotty as she likes to be called has been a registered nurse for almost 45 years. She has worked in many different nursing occupations; in hospitals, home health, nursing homes, assisted livings and at one time she worked as a state surveyor for the state of Wyoming making sure different health faculties were up to state standards. Dotty has been my supervisor for the last five years at two different companies. I asked her why she became a nurse; she stated that she wanted to be a veterinarian even got her associates degree in animal science but her husband passed away leaving her with three small children to raise on her own. She could not afford the time it took to become a vet and she had been a nursing assistant when was a teenager and enjoyed helping people. With the help of her family she decided to become a nurse since a lot of her courses she took for her animal science degree could transfer towards her nursing degree. A decision she has never regretted. When her children got a little older she worked on getting her bachelor’s degree. I asked her if she had any advice for someone just entering the nursing field. She replied that you need to remember that sometimes the job is a thankless one. That you cannot please everyone and if you are going into the field just for the money to not bother, people like that usually make bad nurses. Also to have fun and if you’re having a bad day, remember tomorrow is a new day. I asked her if there were things she now knows that she wishes she had known when she started out as a nurse and she referred back to her answers about her advice to new nurses. She stated that she had to learn quickly that not all patients, families, doctors and employers do not say thank you and not to take offense to it. She also wished that she knew more about DNA and genetic diseases because they are no around back when she was in school. Dotty is a great