Dear future nurses,
Congratulations, you have chosen one of the most exciting, exhausting and rewarding careers in the world. Hopefully, you didn’t choose this career without knowing what you are signing up for.
As a nurse, you are not only going to be a caregiver, you are also going to be a waitress, a maid, a teacher, an advocate, a messenger, a friend, a person for the patient to yell at, a shoulder to cry on, and so much more.
I'm not going to lie, learning how to become a nurse is exhausting. It's not something that you can do halfway. Once you decide to pursue a career in nursing, you are making a commitment to learn how to care for other people's lives and give them the best you have to offer. You will have to dedicate much of your time and energy (and sometimes sleep) to learning the material. But once you become a nurse, you'll realize that all of the work was worth it.
No matter what area of nursing you go into, there will be days that leave you exhausted and beaten down. There will be days when you question why you became a nurse. There will be days when you feel like you are not good enough or smart enough to do this job.
However, for every difficult day, there will be moments when you truly make a difference.
When a patient is feeling scared and alone, you will be there to hold their hand and give them strength. When a patient is diagnosed with a life-altering disease, you’ll be the one to coach them and give them hope. When a patient finds out that they are finally well enough to go back home, you’ll be there smiling and celebrating how far they have come.
Remember those moments and how they make you feel. They will be what gets you through the hardest days.
By choosing nursing, you must remember that you will not always get a ‘thank you’ for everything you do. All the work you put into caring for a patient, all the calls you will make to ensure your patient gets the care they need and all the time you spend doing tasks that are not necessarily in a nurse’s job description, will largely go unnoticed. But even though not all of your efforts will be acknowledged, remember that going the extra mile will always make a difference to your patient.
After a patient leaves, they may not remember your name or everything you did for them, but they will remember the nurse who was there for them during one of the most difficult times in their life.
I’m not saying all of this to scare you away from being a nurse. I’m saying this to encourage you to be the best possible nurse you can be. You can either be the person that scrapes by in nursing school and does the bare minimum. Or you can be the person who takes every opportunity to learn and grow both as a student and as a nurse.
The nursing profession is a beautiful thing, driven by knowledge, patience, and compassion. Take pride in the fact that you will someday be a part of it. Strive to be the best you can be, put your heart and soul into it and I promise that no matter what you will succeed.
Sincerely,
Your fellow future nurse
“To know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived. This is to have succeeded.”
-Ralph Waldo Emerson
