Old Nurses Never Die

I am in the middle of a busy weekend of nursing work. About ten years ago when I was going through one of my I can't take this any longer spells, I posed a couple of burning questions to a nurse educator who was older and wiser than I. Do nurses ever leave nursing? When do nurses quit being nurses? She accurately told me that most nurses just keep right on working. To clarify, I think she meant in the General MacArthur tradition. It wasn't what I wanted to hear and I admit, distressed me. I would have liked to have personally proved her wrong, but haven't been able to. The heart of the work seems to keep calling to me. I just hope I will know when to have the grace call it a career.