What brought you to Nursing? #TheAccidentalNurse

Available to order from January 2025

How did you all get into Nursing? Was it something you had wanted to do since childhood? Did you have nursing role models as a child growing up that maybe put nursing on your radar? In most African households, default career paths were set to either law, doctor or maybe teaching. We didn't have career guidance counsellors in schools, so most defaulted to chosen paths by parents or kinsfolk. Looking back, I can't think of any nurses I knew. I vaguely remember as a child that one of my maternal aunties worked in a hospital, think as a nurse but it was not something that was lauded as such( years later learnt that she actually was a nurse with a glowing career). I had an aunt whose was an author, a big deal at that time I now realise but still this was not a celebrated route to take. I never heard stuff like, you can be an author like your aunt

I love nursing and being a nurse 👩🏾‍⚕️and it has brought me so much joy, but growing up, being a nurse was not part of my career or life plans. I was going to follow my two loves: Music and Books, which gave me two options as i saw it - getting married to Michael Jackson or George Michael or being an Air Hostess( as cabin crew were known back then). By marrying anyone of the two music icons, i could tick off the music option and by being an Air Hostess, i could travel the world and experience all those magical places i read about in my books. The only problem was that being a musician or dealing in anything music was considered more a hobby and not a serious job and certainly not one for a morally upright person and air travel, let alone the glamorised life of air hostesses was a dream too far and also not considered a reputable job in our African household 😱😱! It also turns out i am not a fan of flying!

During my high school final years, I was helping out at a local chemist with my mum that was co-owned by her sister. A nurse led clinic was part of the services provided and it was her that put me on my nursing path and as they say, the rest is history 😊. Part 2 coming up !

I would love to hear your nursing journey stories. Drop them in the comments ⬇️⬇️

#theaccidentalnurse