Why I chose to study Nursing

Tiffany is studying Adult Nursing at ARU in Peterborough. But what led her to choose nursing as a career? Here, Tiffany blogs about her lifelong love of 'all things hospital' and celebrates the profession she's joining.

‘Why nursing?’ is a question I hear all the time.

Ever since I was little, I have always wanted to be a nurse or a midwife. I know that sounds like a cliché, but it’s true.

A career that begins with care

I’ve always enjoyed caring for people, I’ve always empathised and sympathised whenever anyone around me was ill and I’ve always wanted to grow my knowledge so that I could be more helpful. I’ve always been told that I am very caring, for as long as I can remember…

People always say you should ‘do’ what you’re best at. If I’m good at caring, then a Nursing degree was clearly the best way to channel that caring into doing. It’s safe to say, I’ve never looked back.

An interest in diagnosis and treatment

My best friend always thought I was weird for finding hospital settings fascinating. For some people, these environments are quite daunting, scary or anxiety-inducing.

But for me, whether I was going for myself or to visit others, I would find it so interesting. Most of the time, I’d be watching the staff – the nurses – going about their daily tasks and trying to get all the information that I could.

Some people will turn away when they’re getting a blood test, because needles make the best of us cringe – even me when I was younger! BUT, despite that, I wanted to watch. I couldn’t look away and waste that opportunity.

If I heard someone getting a diagnosis, I would try to listen and remember every single word so when I got home I could Google all these strange new words and work out what the treatments were.

An opportunity to specialise

As I got older and I started to research my options, I came to understand that studying Adult Nursing could give me access to a shortened midwifery course.

To know I could actually be both a nurse and a midwife (my original dream) – well, it felt like I had hit the jackpot.

Encouragement and support

Nobody was ever surprised by my behaviour, my thirst for knowledge or my dedication to all things hospital.

To me, that is the most comforting part of it all: not only have I always known I should be a nurse, but the people around me have known what I was destined to do too.

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Tiffany studies BSc (Hons) Adult Nursing at ARU in Peterborough. We also train nurses in Cambridge and Chelmsford. Find out more about nursing, and other degree courses, at one of our Open Days.