I am not one who had a 'calling' to become a nurse. I've dreamed about becoming many different things growing up, and I think because of this, I never passionately followed one path. I was passionate about every dream I had. Police Officer, Forensic Detective, Doctor, Lawyer, Vet, Scientific Researcher, Scientific Researcher in the Army... These are all dreams I have had over the years.
When I was in Year 12 completing my V.C.E, we were required to decide our future... were we going to study at university, and what were we going to study? These decisions, at the time, I thought were going to rule my life for evermore. I know now that it is not the case. But when you're 18 and deciding your career, it's an incredibly daunting decision. I was in love with Biology. Heck, I was top of the class! So with this decision alone, I decided that a Bachelor of Science was the way to follow my academic love. A lot of my friends gave me weird looks when I told them I was going to study science. I am not sure if they understood what it entailed, or the fact that I didn't fit the typical 'nerd' description, but it didn't alter my decision.
Throughout my science degree, I learned so much. So much of it has become applicable to my nursing. However, in my 2nd year of study, we were introduced to Human Anatomy and Physiology. This was the 'OMG' moment, and I fell in love. Immediately, I knew that my Science degree had lead me in a completely different direction. I started looking into transferring into other courses, specifically Biomedical Sciences, in an attempt to study medicine. Once the glitz and glam wore off, and the harsh reality that transferring was going to cost me an extra year and a half of study, I decided against it. I looked into other options... Nursing and Post-graduate medicine. Nursing was soooooo much easier to get accepted into. And I think that's why I chose it. It fulfilled my love of learning about Human Anatomy and Physiology, while engaging in the hands on medical practice. I love helping people. It is truly rewarding.
Maybe I have a 'calling' to nursing and I haven't realised it, or maybe I have experienced enough of it to understand the joys. Either way, I am glad I chose nursing.
Medicine is always in the back of my mind. And because of this, I am giving my self 4 years to decide if I will follow this career path. Admittedly, it has it's pros and cons.... But I figure in 4 years, I will have had time to reflect and decide if it's what I really want to do.
Nurse KC
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