By Richard Freedberg, RN, MSN, MPA

I teach in a community college that offers four different nursing programs designed to build on the past experiences and accommodate the busy lives of our diverse students. There are differences among the entry and upper levels of students in all of the programs, but there are also some striking similarities. One common thread shared by all is the question: “When will I feel like a nurse?” This seems to bother nursing students, so let’s ponder it for a minute.

Asking that question presupposes that nurses actually feel like nurses. That could be true, but what most of us seem to feel is a growing sense of competency and effectiveness. We can further define that competency and effectiveness by identifying some specific characteristics: acquiring a set of technical skills, developing therapeutic communication ability, an acquisition of nursing knowledge, and developing the ability to choose and implement effective nursing interventions. Oh, and one last item, we tend to feel we’ve “arrived” when others recognize us as nurses. Now let’s reframe the discussion . . .

How about if we ask this question: “Is it possible to feel like a nurse at certain times?” Then, let’s ask: “Do ‘real’ nurses transition to feeling like nurses most of the time?” The truth is kind of there, but we need some illustrations to show the way.

Let me share two nursing school baby stories:

The first occurred during a male student’s maternity class rotation. He was assigned to a young mother-to-be in labor and delivery who was frightened about having her first child. She had no one from her family there to support her. As it happened, this student and his wife had just birthed a baby of their own. So, the empathy evoked by his personal experience and the skills he was learning in class gave him a certain comfort level in his present situation. He was able to connect with his patient, nurse and coach her through the experience, and helped her hold her first child. For the first time in nursing school, he actually felt like a nurse. The next day he found out the new mom had named her son after him. (Apparently she felt he was a good nurse, too!)

The second nurse applied to nursing school after earning a PhD in another scientific discipline. She had decided she wanted more interaction with people who needed the skills she could offer. But her initial clinical experiences gave her some anxiety. She was in an unfamiliar setting and not performing up to her own expectations. During her first days in the hospital, she found herself assigned to a very ill older woman who had just undergone surgery. The student was attentive and skillfully employed the very basic nursing skills she found in her repertoire. At the end of the two days, she knew she had done her best and the patient seemed to appreciate it. Some time later, the college received a thank you note from this patient and her family who congratulated the college on educating such great nurses! They also wanted the faculty to tell the student the new grandchild in their rural Michigan family now bore the very exotic and unusual Asian first name of the student.

Now we come to the bottom line and the truth of the matter. It is possible and very likely to have moments in nursing school when you profoundly and wondrously feel like a nurse (you may even have children named after you). After you graduate, perhaps find your way through graduate school, and enter clinical practice, the only thing that changes is that those blissful moments come more often.

Not a bad way to make a living, touching the lives of others . . .

Editor’s note: Freedberg is a professor of mental health nursing at Lansing (MI) Community College and the author of Stressed Out About Pharmacology. Email your questions or comments to him at editor@stressedoutnurses.com.