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I am a staff nurse. Sometimes I'm also a charge nurse, depending on which other nurse is in the building at the time. A charge nurse is the one who's responsible for making the final decisions on a particular shift.

Primarily I deal with patient and resident care. I pass medications. I do skin treatments. I help aides. I do blood pressures, vital signs, assessments, listening to lungs, calling the doctor, getting orders if someone is ill, calling the family if there's a problem.

You just come in at two o'clock and you're running until about 9 p.m., and then you can sit down and do your paperwork. It's busy.

Daily you're making sure the medications are right, the aides are doing what they're supposed to do. Weekly, we assess whether a patient can bathe themself, if they have mood problems, things like that. Every month we have to do a range-of-motion summary on certain residents to measure their flexibility.

If someone with dementia gets upset or tearful or combative, that can be a big problem. We need to diffuse that situation. I talk and listen well, and I'm kind of touchy—I give them hugs or hold their hands. I'm just calming, and I can calm them down pretty well. It doesn't always work, but usually it does.

If someone fell, and I suspected a fracture, I'd have to send them to the hospital. You have to call 911, get the ambulance. And you have to send all the copies of their paperwork to the hospital. That doesn't happen on a regular basis.

I think our home happens to be very cozy. It's an older building, but it's very clean. There are televisions, an activity room, the residents do crafts, and they have physical therapy. They don't just put a meal on the table in front of the people; they have a list of alternate meals if they don't like the main meal that's being served. Things like that make it feel really homey.

I hope most nursing homes are this way, but I don't know if that's the case.

When I graduated high school I became an aide at a hospital. I loved it. I worked the med/surg floor. I had a terrific charge nurse and coworkers. I entered the LPN (licensed practical nurse) program, which is one year. I loved that too. I became a third-shift nurse at a local nursing home, and I ended up going back to school at 39 to get my RN. I had two little kids at home, and in case something happened to my husband, nursing would always provide a good income.

I learned nursing and taking care of people and not being bashful around strangers from being an aide. In homecare, you work on your own. You don't have a staff around you. You're an independent in the person's home, so you have to assess the situation and be a charge nurse from home.

I have to be ready at 2 p.m. The first thing I do is get the report from the nurse going off duty. You have to count narcotics at the start of your shift. The report tells you what has been going on in your wing of the building. I check the fire doors, I look in on all my residents, and if someone needs something, I get it right away. I make sure all my supplies are stocked, and I pull out the treatment tray. About 3:45 I start passing meds, and that goes until about 6 p.m., when we serve dinner. We get paid for supper, which is fortunate.

Nursing homes are not boring, contrary to popular opinion. I have 28 residents, so I have 28 personalities, plus the aides.

In general, to go in to nursing you have to be a caring, giving person. If you're selfish and impatient, don't go into nursing. If you don't like to get your hands dirty, don't go in to it.

I work part time, and I made over $28,000 last year. If you go in to this full time, you make a lot more. I would almost double that if I worked full time. Some nursing homes pay better than some hospitals. They check out other businesses in the area and try to stay competitive.

Aides have to be certified. That takes about 60 hours of training and testing. In Illinois, where I work, there's a criminal background check and fingerprinting.

They're supposed to be eight hours, but there are never enough hours in the day. Some days I don't get done until 11 p.m., and I should be punching out at a quarter after 10. If the nurse due to follow you calls in sick, you have to pull a double shift, unless you can find a replacement or an agency nurse. I have done that before. Not often but I have done it.

For homecare and hospice, which I did for nine years, I traveled a lot. It was nothing to go 45 or 50 miles for a homecare or hospice visit.

Homecare is follow-up care for people who need medical care at home and aren't ready to take care of themselves alone. Hospice is terminal care in the home—comfort measures, supporting the family, making sure the dying person isn't in pain.

I felt like I checked out on my family for the three years I was in school. It's very intense. There are still scheduling conflicts. Missing a wedding or a family activity because of my schedule is normal.

No, I wouldn't punch out if I wasn't done with my work. I have to complete it there. I can't carry my charts or information home with me.

Nurses are in high demand. I feel like it's very stable.

I'm lucky. I get sick leave and accrue vacation hours. I have great benefits. Part-time nurses usually do not get those opportunities. I just took a week off to babysit my grandchildren.

My satisfactory night is: At 9 p.m. I sit down and do my charting, and everyone's safely tucked into their bed, clean, comfortable and happy—the end, a perfect day. A frustrating day is when something's out of the ordinary—somebody falls or you have an irate family member.

Another frustrating thing is that we work under strict laws that protect patients' privacy. Sometimes, those laws are good, but when you're in a nursing home and you have relatives call from far away who want to know how mom, dad, grandma, grandpa, auntie, or somebody is, you're hands are tied. You can't discuss a resident with anybody unless you know that they are responsible for care. That can be hard.

Homecare is becoming more popular. Nursing homes used to have waiting lists, and now they have empty beds. Technology is amazing.

I think as time goes on we're going to have more and more elderly who need care. Whether they'll have it at home or in a nursing home, I don't know. There are new nursing homes being built though.

You need to be a kind, giving, caring and patient person. If you're selfish and you don't like to work hard, don't do this.

I have good assessment skills. I know my residents so well; I can tell if something isn't right. You have to be able to assess them and intervene and resolve any problem. You have to be thorough. You have to be able to chart legally and accurately.

I guess the kind of person I am. I'm a really hard worker. I'm not going to call in sick unless I'm on my deathbed. I'm really devoted. I'm a team player, and I put the resident first. And I'm fast; I can take care of problems quickly.

CNAs (certified nursing assistants) need their 60 hours of work and certification. LPNs (licensed practical nurses) need a year of study, and they need to pass a board exam. To be an RN (registered nurse) you have to complete your schooling, and you have to pass the state boards. There's the BSN (bachelor of science in nursing) program, which is four years. There's also a master's, degree. You can also get a bachelor's or master's degree in healthcare administration, which would qualify you to run a hospital unit or a nursing home. You have to renew your license every three years as an RN.

Your math skills for medications. Problem solving, listening to a heart or lung, making assessments. In nursing school you learn how to feed someone or give a shot. You have to learn what to check for to give a pill, what to do for range of motion, making a bed, dressing a wound, how to get patients in and out if they're paralyzed, and things like that.

It's the one-on-one experience, actually dealing with patients in a hospital, residents in a nursing home, and clients in a healthcare setting. You can't get that anywhere else.

The best way would be to experience it. Volunteer. If you're young, be a candy striper in a hospital. Volunteer in a gift shop or work in a cafeteria in a hospital or a nursing home. Hospice and homecare organizations need volunteers to read, open letters, things like that.

Just to relax. I used to freak out with non-routine things that would come up, and I don't anymore. You have to know how to be calm and handle the situation.