I've wanted to be a nurse for as long as I could remember. I didn't just wake up one day and decide to major in nursing. It's been my dream, my goal. When I was younger, I was pretty much the “mom” of my siblings. I was constantly picking up after them and double-checking to make sure we had everything. My grandma would always say to me, “Shanna, you are a great kid and are always helping everyone, but you need to help yourself too”. And by becoming a nurse, I am doing just that -- helping myself while helping others.

Maybe it is just me, but when I am sitting in my classes I tend to observe my fellow classmates. Especially, being in classes with the people who are also trying to become nurses. I can’t help but question these people and their decision to major in nursing. You see, most of them are really smart, which is awesome, but they are also quite the snobs. And the others recite the phrase, “I want to help people” like it is their job. I think this phrase has become terribly overused to the point where you are constantly questioning and wondering whether that person truly means it or if they simply, just like the idea of it.

Don’t get me wrong, you do have to want to help people in order to be a nurse, and I want nothing more than that, but being a nurse is so much more than just helping people.

I want make my patients' last breath, their most peaceful one, I want to make them feel comfortable, safe. I want to make them feel wanted, to make them happy. I want to root them on, and be their biggest fan when they take their first steps after a rough surgery. I want them to know just how beautiful they are when they tell me just how awful they feel. And when they are tired of trying and feel like giving up, I want to tell them how worthy, strong, and admirable they are. I want them to know how truly incredible they are and that they can do it. I want them to know that I believe in them and that I am always there when they need a good laugh, someone to talk to, confide in, and even a shoulder to cry on. When they are hopeless, I want them to know that I have enough hope for the both of us, all of us. I want to tell their family members just how much of a fighter they were and how they never stopped talking about how lucky they were to be blessed with such a magnificent family.

Nursing is more that just a job. It is more than just helping people. Too many people are getting into it for the wrong reasons and I truly believe they don’t understand just how much of yourself you have to give to each patient. If you don’t realize the depth in which you need to go for your patients and their families, then don’t go through with the decision to become a nurse. There is no room for your impatience, your nerves, and unfriendliness.

Your job is not to make your patients feel uncomfortable, hopeless, worried, uneasy, and unworthy. You are becoming a nurse -- the one person your patients will constantly rely on. Your job is to give them their very best shot. Your job is to raise them up, not push them down.