Dustin - Nursing wasn't my First Choice; but it was a Good Choice

Dustin -







In high school I thought I was passionate about veterinarian sciences, but through my career research and by examining my priorities, I realized I wanted a guarantee of a job regardless of the field of science and there isn’t a big call for a doctor of veterinarian science to be an employee, they usually have their own businesses. I chose nursing because nurses are in high demand, the pay is decent, it is science focused and I get to work with people. I attended school under an ROTC scholarship, so I guess you could say money is important to me, too.

During my interview for the ROTC scholarship, the questioner pointed out I would be a minority in a predominately female profession. I was 18 at the time, and I jokingly said, “Wait, so you mean I have to be around a whole bunch of women?” Of course, I had no problem with this whatsoever! As it turns out, I work in the OR, or operating room, and male nurses tend to gravitate toward that area. There are also many male nurses in the military.

Because I come from a military model, I don’t experience problems with some aspects of the power differential in health care. I know there needs to be a captain of the ship, which in the OR is usually the surgeon, and then people are needed to keep the ship afloat; that would be the rest of us. In order for the communication to flow, it needs to come from the top down.

That doesn’t mean communication needs to be impersonal. People should be treated right. I’ve seen people become pompous simply because they are the captain. Their egos get in the way of good communication. I also know men take that differently than women. Men withstand a lot more. I will take someone’s aggression and simply move on. I’m also not sensitive to the way other people treat me. A woman might get teary and hurt and be more affected by it.

I am sensitive when I have to talk with families when their loved one is dying or has died. The last year I worked on the oncology floor while I was in the military was extremely hard.“Wait, so you mean I have to be around a whole bunch of women? Of course, I had no problem with this whatsoever!” Our patients would come from intensive care where they had critical procedures done to them. Their lives were sustained with breathing tubes and the family would need to decide whether or not to continue life support. Once the family decided to discontinue the breathing tube, the patient would come to my floor to be in hospice care until they died. That’s when the job became hard, because of the sadness felt by the families. When I worked on that floor, I dealt with grieving families at least once a week.

I’ve had many loved ones die in my personal life, and I think that’s why I get emotional when delivering bad news to families. I lost my mom when I was 18, so the feelings I had when my mom died come rushing back. I even cry at Disney movies. Working in the OR has made it easier easier.

Some people think working in the OR is difficult. But when the patient has the drapes on, I focus on the part of the body that is undergoing the operation. For example, if we’re working on a heart, I don’t think about the person attached to the heart, unless something bad starts to happen. Then it’s, “Oh, goodness, this is a person.” Otherwise, it’s a heart, or a vein, or an artery that I’m working on.

It’s harder to forget about the person and focus on the body part when the person’s face can’t be covered. I actually felt sick one day when we were doing a tonsillectomy on a little girl. Seeing her face during the procedure kept me very present to the “who” behind those tonsils and I wasn’t sure I would make it through the procedure.

In my OR work I deal with families differently than I did when I worked in oncology. Now I assure them as the surgery progresses and I give them peace of mind. They are always relieved when I make contact with them. They say, “Thank you so much. Just seeing you and knowing that everything’s going okay makes us feel better.”

In the long run, that’s why I’m engaged in my profession and I know nursing is a good choice for me. It feels good to help people.


Power strategies: Security, Sensitivity, Communication
go back to main page