To be a nurse you have to get educated for a few years. In The Netherlands, were I live, that’s 4 years of education either at full time at school or as an employee in a hospital with avery month 2 days of school.
For me it was being an employee for 2 years in one hospital and another 3 years in a different hospital.
In The Netherlands if you are an employee you have first to do a 9 month teaching program to learn the basics and after that you do several internships at different wards in the hospital you work for.

For me that was something a bit different. I did the 9 months and passed that. I did my first internship at the Neurology Department and past that with flying colors, but then it started…..

I was moved to the General Surgery Department (Department G….. as in G stands for Goofy Goons) and then it went ALL wrong…..

…..One day i was working with a registered nurse and we had to do rounds. The rule was and still is: As a first year you are not allowed to do rounds on your own. So i told my assigned nurse that the doctors were there to do their rounds. But she was on the phone.

After 5 minutes she was still on the phone (i learned then that she was having a private conversation with someone)  and I walked to her again to tell here that the doctors were here to do rounds. But she still refused to come. So i decided to start with an easy patient to stall time. And this she saw and walked over. Yanked everything out of my hands and said in front of everyone that i wasn’t allowed to do rounds as a first year alone.
Before I knew it i told here that she wasn’t allowed to make private calls in the bosses time. And that was the end of my internship on that ward because after 2 weeks i was transferred to the Geriatrics Ward and i knew i was done for it.

And did you know what reason they gave me…. Well the told me that this ward had ONE student too many, and this other ward was in need of one…. Yeah Right!!…

This whole event got me started to think what i want to do in my life and i decided to quit my job after 364 days working in this hospital.
I told the staf of my last ward that they needed to pay more attention to the person they were teaching instead of trying to dictate THEIR view (in some way i found myself a new Patch Adams!!) and i also told them that I have an education as a sports instructor and i went back to being that.
To this day I still don’t have one ounce of regret of my decision and started to see life better and with more humour.
But after a few months it started to itch and i still wanted to be a nurse. So i phone a different hospital and explained what kind of education i already had done and i wanted to start being a student nurse again and start right away with my internships instead of the 9 month of education. They had to talk about it and after 2 weeks i finally got a phone call that the had excepted me and that i could start to become a nurse in 2 month time.
Finally i became a nurse in 3 years and passed every ward with flying colours and i could be myself. The humorous person i am, and still am today.

Please tell me your story how YOU became a nurse…..