This afternoon I was at the grocery store. My cashier was a young bubbly sort who waxed rhapsodically over the brown sugar I was buying. I told them I baked cookies weekly for the operating room department that I worked for. Therefore, I need a LOT of brown sugar.
They were equally enthusiastic about the operating room. They thought that must be so cool.
I assured them that it was. And being an operating room nurse was amazing.
Even if, or because of, all the patients are under anesthesia.
They confessed that they were looking at nursing as a career.
You know, after they graduated from high school. In 2 years.
The thing about being a nurse is that we always feel the need to give back, to give advice on nursing as a possible career. Or to offer encouragement when it is needed.
They asked about my schooling, and how long it took to become a nurse.
I said that was a complicated question.
My ADN took about 2 years. Plus six months on prerequisites.
My BSN took about 18 months.
My MSN took about 2 years.
And my PhD, well, I was in the third year of the program.
They looked astonished by this outpouring of information. And a bit intimidated.
Reining it back, I encouraged them to give serious consideration to becoming a nurse. And the best way to start is with an ADN degree. And that not all nurses did all the other schooling.
The ADN is the foot in the door. Whatever they did after that was icing on their cake.
They said they had always wanted to work with kids. I smiled and said that kids need surgery too.
They grinned and told me to have a good rest of my day and that they would think about what I said.
I didn’t want to tell them that my nursing license was old enough to drink.
Dispatches from the Evening Shift 