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When I worked as an administrator on a cardiology ward I was most surprised to find out that the ward sister, or manager as some called her, had a fear of blood. She was an excellent and well experienced nurse and I just could not see how she had gone through training, and ward work, and survived. She told me that usually on the cardiology ward there was very little blood. This conversation had come about when a patient, recently back from an angioplasty, had suffered a massive bleed from an artery.

Talking further I discovered that as a child she had always known she wanted to be a nurse, despite her fear of blood. She told me that she would buy nursing magazines and gruesome anatomy books forcing herself to look at the bloodiest pictures over and over again. So, in other words, in many cases people just know that nursing is the career for them. Personally I feel that these people usually make the best nurses.

However there are others who come to nursing for a multitude of reasons. So will it be right for you?.

As a nurse you will have to:-

Be able to deal with every kind of bodily fluid.
Be prepared to see and deal with anything and everything.
Cope with distraught and or offensive relatives.
Learn to be non-judgmental.
Be flexible.
Have good 'office' skills as you will need to keep accurate legal records.
Be methodical.
Be able to empathize.
Be prepared to work bank holidays, nights and long shifts.
Be able to deal with many professions and professionals.
Keep learning constantly to keep up with never ending changes. Following on from this you will have to be adaptable and grow in your role.
Treat every patient the same, even the smelly ones or those with violence issues, for example.
Have a desire to help others.
Do anything that is asked of you such as making tea when needed.
Take responsibility for others.
Pass on knowledge to juniors.
Be accurate.
Have great listening skills.
Be easy to talk to so that patients will confide in you.
Be able to keep confidences.
and more, much more ....

As you can see the list is seemingly endless. If you are thinking of nursing as a career, because it is a good career, then you need to think seriously if you can do all of the above and more. Nursing may be rewarding financially but it is hard work and has much more to it than making beds and caring for patients.

There is lots to learn and it is an ongoing process. Medications alone are a tricky field and have the potential for disaster if not administered properly. In this day and age you may have to help un-cooperative drug addicts or prisoners, who knows. Nursing is a great career which is satisfying in many ways but it is definitely not for the faint hearted.

Learn more about this author, Ethel Smith.
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