Nursing means working one on one with individuals who may be bogged down will all manner of physical or mental pain and suffering or who may even be on the brink of death. Because nurses work so closely with the most delicate matters of human existence: pain, suffering, and death, ours is a difficult job. Nursing is but one of many healthcare professions and involves unique and specific work. For instance, nurses work directly with the patient by touch and voice. Nurses listen to people's complaints and address them immediately; we massage, we empty bed pans, we bandage bruises and poke people with needles and stick tubes down their throats. Not everyone wants to deal so intimately with patients but would rather remain in the lab. Nurses usually have more direct contact with patients than doctors do, for instance. Nurses must possess a full understanding of the profession and what it entails on a daily basis before they decide on nursing as a career path. A full understanding of the specific job description can be helpful, because nursing has become a specialized field. Nurses work with anesthetics, with AIDS, with abortions, with childbirth: each nurse chooses a particular field of interest and as a specialist, becomes talented and expert in that area just as doctors do.

Nursing is a physically and emotionally draining career. Nurses must physically transfer patients from gurney to bed to operating table to washroom. Nurses must cart around medical equipment and operate it safely...

Each day we come into contact with dangerous circumstances: communicable diseases like tuberculosis and AIDS; and hazardous chemicals and machinery. Nurses often suffer the brunt of patient complaints because it is we who patients talk to most, not doctors. As a result, many nurses are being sued for malpractice. Nursing salaries are average, although benefits include health care and child care services. Nevertheless, nurses are notoriously undervalued as professionals. In American society, doctors are valued much more than nurses. As nurses, we are obliged to not only offer the latest medical treatments; we are also on call to help people feel independent, confident, and safe. We are there to ease more than physical pain but also to alleviate emotional and mental trauma that comes with physical infirmity. According to Zoe Bolton of the Daily Mail, the nursing profession is in a crisis because of underpay and overwork, in spite of increased responsibility. Because nursing has been my lifelong dream, I fearlessly endeavor to undertake this admirable profession in order to fulfill not only my dreams, but my patients' dreams as well.
Works Cited

Bolton, Zoe. "Is nursing a profession in crisis?" Daily Mail. 12 May 2004. Online at http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/health/healthmain.html?in_article_id=302561&in_page_id=1774.

Virginia Avernal Henderson." Nurses.info. http://www.nurses.info/nursing_theory_person_henderson_virginia_.htm.