#sorry this is a novel KJDBGJHBD but thank u for asking ... nursing besties 🥺💖

[sungtaro]

hi eri!! i hope you’re having a good night (or day hehe) 🥰 for the ask game, i would like to know how you decided on being a nursing major! was it what you intended on doing all along, or did you enter uni with something different in mind? also WHAT TYPE OF NURSING IS YOUR JAM !! i will hopefully be working in the NICU bc it’s where i had my preceptorship during my last semester <3 if it’s not too much to ask!

ahhh mädch beloved first of all, going backwards first you are most DEFINITELY a very special person and nurse to choose the NICU. i don't know that i'd be strong enough for it and in my heart to my core know that if that's your calling, you are TRULY something incredible (not that i had a single doubt ♡). to return to your questions! this will get long so i'll put it under the cut.

i had no idea i wanted to be a nurse, it was actually theeee farthest thing from my radar growing up with no medical professionals in my family (save for my non-biological godmother who is my mom's best friend and a fabulous nurse). i have an entirely separate degree in music and thought i'd spend my life in concert production. a lot of things happened after i graduated the first time haha i was very unhappy in my job which inevitably ended up not working out and i needed to leave my home state desperately, and i tend to do things . in extremes so . i opted to do a service year and spend some time traveling, figuring out how to lead a team that i also lived with, and doing community service all at the same time. i quickly learned how closely tied community service and community health are and that spoke to me, but even still i didn't know i'd want to do nursing. after i came home from that experience i knew i wasn't done traveling and i ended up contracting for a few organizations that allowed me to keep doing that - i toured with a program run by a mental health nonprofit in the school year and led teen community service trips in the summer all over the US . i was always the most safety/health minded with my teens and met a lot of public health professors in that time, i was interested in public health but it didn't quite fit ... i knew i wanted to be on my feet, and i wanted to be working directly with the people who could tell me what they need in order to figure out ground-up change in healthcare. that's how i landed on nursing ! i took a few science classes while i continued touring before the pandemic to see if i could handle it ajdfhjb and i found it really interesting, and then once the pandemic hit i continued to take classes and applied to nursing school officially.

as for my nursing calling ... well, i'm a nanny, and i love babies but like i said i don't think something like the NICU is for me. but maternity / ultimately midwifery might be !! i've also considered that being a peds doctor's office nurse might be my speed bc i'm not entirely sure about hospitals, and i'm also interested in lgbt healthcare both from like . working for an office specifically for that but also from an advocacy perspective. i think no matter what i do i will always want to do community health and public health in some capacity, like not necessarily as my main job but definitely in my own time and network, i know i'll work hard to make change in this wonky healthcare system we have here. anyways ... thank u so much for this question bc as i'm off for the summer i'm not necessarily tuned into my 'why' right now and i think it's important that i don't forget it as the semester approaches and i'm like why am i doing this again ... NDBJHGB but ! if u read all this mwah and i'd really love to hear more about your nursing journey as well !!! pls feel free to dm me if you want to exchange non-tumblr contact info to talk more since. the messaging system here is like . u know <333