Informational Interview With a Registered Nurse
Considered working as a Registered Nurse? This interview will take you through the ups and downs you can expect in the position, what it takes to land the job, what you can expect to earn and more.
I am a registered nurse (RN) with 35 years of experience in the field. When I got started back in the 1970s, nurses typically did their schooling at hospital-run programs, which is exactly what I did. I worked as a nurse's aide while completing my RN training. These days, the programs have mostly shifted to community colleges, and they take a lot longer to complete. Plus, most of my younger colleagues tell me they had to sit on waiting lists for years before actually getting admitted.
I became a nurse because I am compassionate. My emotional nature comes in handy because it helps my bedside manner. But it also drives me crazy sometimes, getting attached to patients and then losing them. I've had to get away from the field more than a few times, and take time off from the work because it can get so depressing. However, I'm so driven to help patients that I always come back.
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As a Caucasian female, I've probably benefited in some ways in my field because so many people automatically picture a white woman when they think "nurse". But in other senses, it's definitely hurt me in my career. Being a charge nurse in dialysis, I've run into scrapes with male administrators, for example, who sometimes seem to think that women aren't capable leaders. I try to ignore these things and do my best to make the work about the patients and nothing else.
In the end, that's really what nursing is all about for me. We get to focus more on patient care than doctors do. Physicians at the ER or clinic are so stretched out for time that they seem to be on the move all day long. I like it that I can get to know my patients a little as people and not just as charts on a clipboard. This is actually what makes my job so great. On a scale of 1 to 10, the patient care aspect makes nursing a 10 because it allows me to work on the patient's behalf in everything I do.
Of course, this is only the idealized version of the job. There's been times when I'm so overworked that I barely stay awake driving between hospitals, and by the time I arrive in the dialysis unit, the best I can do is survive my shift. The long hours and heavy responsibility definitely take away some of that enjoyment, but I understand that it's all part of the territory.
I wrestle with this job all the time. I've started out as an ER nurse, and since then I've done dialysis, ready care, and even worked a little in the ICU. But now that I'm older, I think I've realized that the biggest draw for me in this line of work is the way it can allow me to minister to people emotionally. And that makes me really want to do hospice care. It's something I'm actually working to get into right now.
It's funny: my whole life began when I was a nurse's aide caring for a patient. He was a young man that I met in the hospital and helped nurse back to health. By the time he was discharged, we decided to go on a date together. I married him less than a year later, and we had a son the following year. But my husband died before our son even turned two. The story gets even stranger for people who don't know me: the best man at our wedding later became my second husband, and we've been married now for well over 30 years, with two more children together.
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I never would've found my place in life if I hadn't gotten into nursing. Caring for that patient when I was just a young nurse's aide helped me see what I wanted to do with myself. And even through all the twists and turns, I am so blessed that I ended up with the family I have today, all because of the career path I chose. My time in nursing has taught me that whether I'm at home or at work, I can always serve people and try to help them in everything I do. That's something that all nurses should have in mind, I think.
I am 59 years old now, and still as proud of the work I do as ever. The chance to help people and bring them back to health gets me out of bed every morning. Watching patients suffer and sometimes even losing them is hard. But making a living caring for people is well worth it. These days I make around $25 an hour, though in some fields the pay for RNs is higher. My husband always teases me because I never really think about the money at all, until payday comes every couple weeks.
It's important in a job like this to maintain a sense of balance and to take some to decompress. Nurses usually get quite a bit of vacation time in comparison to other fields; I encourage anyone to take every day available to enjoy your family. Getting educated and prepared for a career in nursing is itself a challenge, but all the hard work gets you ready intellectually for the job. The emotional part is different, though. That's something I think every nurse has to do on their own. This job is beyond tough, but it couldn't possibly be more rewarding.
