The Saga Begins

My name is Sam and I am a modern day nurse with all the modern day problems and blessings that come with being a nurse in today's society. I am new to blogging so bear with me and feel free to give me any suggestions, because like anything in life I know there will be lots of room for improvement.

I'll start with why I am writing this blog. I never intended to become a nurse, not because I thought it was below me, but it was just never in my sights as my chosen career. Nursing found me, and maybe that is exactly how things are supposed to be, but sometimes I wonder is this right for me? what if?, sometimes at the end of an extremely bad day (and I am sure there are nurses out there who will agree with me) I sit with a few too many glasses of wine saying " what the hell am I doing? I wonder if Woolworth's needs a new check-out chick?), then I have an extraordinary day where I make a difference in someones life and I think ' I have the best job in the world'. However, being a nurse is tough, the rotating shift roster is a bitch, the hours on your feet are a killer and I think I could go a whole day without going to the toilet because my bladder has stretched to the size of a Winnebago. Nursing is often a thankless task and without my amazing colleagues, it is a task that I would not want to do. So back on track... I am writing this blog to give you an insight into my world as a modern day woman who is a modern day nurse. I am writing this because I want to give all those nurses, nursing students and nursing educators a place where they can read about the good the bad the ugly and give them a platform to discuss their thoughts and ideas.

So why did I become a nurse?

 In high school I was dead set certain I was going to study medicine so I got into the preferred undergraduate degree - biomedical science and loved it, then I decided to combine my degree with a nursing degree that way I could work as a nurse while studying medicine. My first nursing prac was at a nursing home... I hated it and like many young nursing students I thought ' what the hell is this... get me out of here.' However, I pushed my way through it and in third year did a prac in a cardiac ward and fell in love with it. About the same time as this my boyfriend proposed, this through a joyous but unexpected spanner into the works.

Being a practical girl I decided that there was nothing wrong with taking a few years to work as a nurse, while I got married and settled down and then I would go back and study medicine. I have since found out that I may be very practical but I was also very naive. I started working, I moved into a house with my then fiance, then I got married and then my life got busy... very busy. I started thinking, I am too busy to study for another 4 years, how will will afford everything we need if I can't work full time? It is not fair on my husband for me to taking on such a huge commitment. Not that I am blaming my husband for me not doing medicine, nor am I playing a victim of circumstance. It is just that my priorities for what I want in life were very different at 22 then they were at 16 and the older I get the more they change, and spending time with my family, having children and making a home are more important to me then being a doctor. I am not saying I will never go study medicine, just that it is not in my foreseeable future right now.

So here I am a nurse, some days loving it other days hating it.

The things I love about my job

• My workmates
• The difference I can make
• The challenges
• Always learning something new
• The way I feel when a 3 year old at the supermarket tells me he thinks nurses are superhero's because we fixed his big brothers sore tummy.

The things I hate about my job

• Getting Noro virus from a patient
• The shift work
• Missing out on Christmas with my family
• Not being able to make someone better
• The challenges 
• Felling like I will never know enough

It makes me wonder.... What made other nurses out there choose to become a nurse or stay nursing?

What do you love or hate about being a nurse?

Stay tuned for more entries into The Nurse Diaries & feel free to post comments, questions and ideas.

Happy Nursing Sam x.