PERSONAL PHILOSOPHY OF NURSING1Personal Philosophy of Nursing Sermin Hekmaty Nu 204 Prof. Cardaci January 13, 2011PERSONAL PHILOSOPHY OF NURSING If you asked me at age five what I wanted to be when I grow up, I probably would have2said a princess. At age eleven I wanted to be a teacher, like my 5th grade teacher, Mrs. Reise. By age sixteen I wanted to be a choreographer. So by the time I was graduating from high school, I was torn between many things that I was interested in, but the top two was teaching and nursing. Even when I was in Queens College, I was still struggling between the two majors, not being able to decide if I loved the idea of teaching children more than caring for the ill or vice versa. It wasn’t until one day, during my shift at Rite Aid, that I made a decision on my career path. A nurse who worked at Queens Hospital Center, located a block away, came in to buy a bunch of balloons and toys. While inflating the balloons for her, I asked what she was buying the balloons for. She stated that she was caring for a young child who was dying of cancer and his parents did not want to be involved in the care of the child. She said that in the morning the child looked up at her and asked “am I dying?” She had to lightly tell the child that he wasn’t getting better and this caused her so much pain, that all she wanted to do was keep him happy as long as she can. She thought the balloons and toys can help her do that. Hearing this story definitely broke my heart. But knowing that there were nursing, like the one I met that day, who did whatever it took to make that patient happy as long as they could, gave me satisfaction. Seeing the nurse take the time out to go buy balloons and toys for that child, using money from her own pocket made me realize that I wanted to be that nurse for someone one day. Prior to entering the nursing program, I did not have any formal education in this field. I didn’t know all the tasks that a nurse was…