I spent 2 years practicing as a Registered nurse in a variety of roles, right across Canada. I eve spent 2 1/2 years in different locations in California. I worked in large hospitals, community settings, and even small isolated communities that had no doctors. I gave bed baths, delivered medications, delivered babies, sutured wounds, immunized hundreds (if not many thousands) of adults and children, was a volunteer ambulance attendant, and even served a short time as a coroner, in and for the province of Saskatchewan
My experiences were not all positive but those 24 years truly opened my eyes to how this profession was, and still is, so misunderstood, even by the medical profession ... and nurses themselves. It is a wickedly difficult profession to practice, it has seen some use their powers to do wicked things to other human beings (an unfortunate truth), but it is also a truly powerful profession to be a part of. Many life saving inventions were created by... you guessed it ... nurses