There’s no arguing that nursing

is a career that thousands of nurses appreciate and cherish. As the largest segment of the healthcare workforce, nurses work in various clinical and non-clinical settings. At the same time, multiple levels of nursing education provide avenues to all sorts of accomplishments and career paths.

While some nurses may see their choice of profession from a strictly vocational, “this is my job” perspective, others may perceive their “nurseness” as a lifestyle and a way of being in the world. Neither is better than the other, and many nurses may experience a mix of both perspectives.

Considering how nursing has landed for you, is it a career, a lifestyle, or a mixture of both?

Nursing: It’s a Job

If you interviewed 100 nurses, you’d no doubt hear countless stories about what it’s like to be a nurse and how those nurses’ professional choices have affected them.

When you think about your nursing career, does it feel like it’s “just a job,” or is it something more?

You’ve probably run into nurses who treat nursing like a job. These nurses show up, do their work, and go home — and once they’re home, they go about their personal lives like anyone else.

There’s no room for judgment of this approach – or any approach — to one’s career. Work tends to define us in our culture, and some people resist this notion. If certain nurses find themselves at a party and someone asks them the all-too-common question about what they do, they may acknowledge that they’re nurses. Still, they’re much happier changing gears and talking about their garden, grandchildren, classic car collection, or an upcoming vacation.

Sometimes, nursing is just a job, and there’s no harm in wanting to keep it that way. Our identity doesn’t necessarily have to come from our work, even when the culture tells us it should, and if a nurse chooses to make their career play second fiddle to other things that fill their life with meaning, all the power to them.

Nursing: It’s a Lifestyle

On the other hand, you may fall into the nursing-as-lifestyle camp, where your identity as a nurse very much defines who you are and your place in the world.

If you’re a nurse for whom nursing truly feels like your raison d’être — your reason for being — you may love to talk about your work, and when someone at a party asks you what you do, you’ll wax poetic about nursing while also agreeing to look at a mole on their back.

And just like the “it’s a job” nurses described above, there’s no room for judgment about you choosing to make nursing a central pillar of who you are. Numerous nurses find their identities shaped by their “nurseness”, and many are probably quite comfortable with that dynamic.

Nursing: It’s Never Either/Or

Being in the “it’s a job” or “it’s a lifestyle” camp is not mutually exclusive. If you feel that being a nurse is intrinsic to who you are, that’s great — feel free to fly your nurse flag high.

At the same time, there may be moments where being a grandparent, your daughter’s upcoming wedding, or your (non-nursing) volunteer work for a local non-profit is more front-and-center in your mind and heart. There’s room for the diversity of your experience, and while nursing may be high on your list of what gives life meaning, there may also be times when it just has to take a back seat to other things.

If you graduated from nursing school inspired to be a super nurse who takes on the world, your nursing identity may have begun on solid footing. However, as the years have passed, maybe the shiny luster of your nursing career has become tarnished, and your previous enthusiasm has been tempered into a different shape and flavor. This is all fine and normal.

Whether nursing is a central core of your identity or just a job that pays the bills, there’s room for it all. And since there are no hard and fast rules in this game, you may find that sometimes you’re deeply identified as a nurse, and it’s the most meaningful thing in your world, and on other days, you might want to clock out from your shift, go home, and forget about nursing until the next time you put on your scrubs.

Remember that how nursing manifests in your life is never an either/or proposition, and you can allow each day to be what it is regarding how deeply you identify with your career.

Being a nurse is an honor and a privilege. It can also be an all-consuming lifestyle or just a job. Embrace how nursing shows up for you today, and be ready for it to show up for you entirely differently tomorrow. You can approach it however you like, and no matter how you go about it, there’s no way to do it wrong.

The post Nursing: Career or Way of Life?  first appeared on Daily Nurse.