Why do so many cheerleaders and popular girls go into nursing?

[disneychrista]

Because the nerdy girls become doctors.

 

[Lovewinnie]

Because the nerdy girls become doctors.

Seriously? I am a nurse practitioner. Went into nursing because that was my calling, not because I wasn’t good enough or smart enough to be a doctor. I was popular in high school because I was nice. I was also valedictorian with over a 4.0.

 

[Boardwalk Jedi]

RN here who has never seen or heard that assumption before. Now, I've heard "why do so many nasty people want to be nurses?" and "there's some stupid people taking nursing pre-reqs...fortunately, a lot don't make it to RN. But nurses as former cheerleaders and popular girls? Maybe that assumption could be made back in the days when women pretty much only had teacher or nurse as their career path, I don't know

 

[Boardwalk Jedi]

Because the nerdy girls become doctors.

Nah. Nursing has the cool, nerdy girls.

 

[brockash]

I would at least like to see some diversity in this career field! Why can't the nerdy girl be caring and comforting?

Lol...do you have some kind of statistics that you're getting that info. from our are you just stating your opinion (as fact?) I've never noticed, nor do I necessarily think "so many cheerleaders and/or popular girls go into nursing." I'm not sure why that would be your assumption.

 

[JoanneAZ]

What an odd question. I AM the nerdy girl. I’ve been a nurse for over 30 years and I’ve never noticed a disproportionate number of nurses that were cheerleaders. There is a lot of diversity in nursing. I work with people of all races, all backgrounds, and aged early 20s to early 70s. As a matter of fact there is more diversity in health care workers now than there was when I started which is a great thing.

 

[mousefan73]

I think the OP got it wrong, the pretty, popular girls all became pharmaceutical reps!!

 

[indimom]

Nurse here. Not popular. Not a cheerleader.
I was in choir and worked on the yearbook. Does that mean I was a nerd?
Does that mean Im not caring or comforting?

On a side note... Why did I work so hard on Pharmacology? Apparently all I need is compassion.

 

[Boardwalk Jedi]

I think the OP got it wrong, the pretty, popular girls all became pharmaceutical reps!!

Or bitter PAs.

 

[disneychrista]

Seriously? I am a nurse practitioner.

It was a joke.

I’d guess popular cheerleaders became doctors too.

 

[dish rag]

I think the OP got it wrong, the pretty, popular girls all became pharmaceutical reps!!

You do have a point.

 

[Disney Doll]

A tally in my 36 years of nursing I don’t recall any of my colleagues touting the fact that they were cheerleaders or exceptionally popular in HS or college.

My close friends who are nurses are neither.

This sounds like a question designed to stir up a little tempest in a teapot. (Insert rolling eyes here)

 

[Kathryn Merteuil]

My step-daughter is in the nursing program in college. She was not a cheerleader.

 

[Pea-n-Me]

Another RN here. I’ve had shifts where it’s been me with all men as the rest of the RNs and aides that day. I was not a cheerleader and I’d say of the hundreds of nurses I’ve worked with over the years there might have been just a handful. We come from all walks of life, though.

 

[North of Mouse]

I would at least like to see some diversity in this career field! Why can't the nerdy girl be caring and comforting?

Have not seen this to be true in those I know - seems across the board to me. My gdau. graduates in May as an RN and she's an 'all around young lady'.

 

[sailorstitch]

My cousin graduated high school a couple years ago. She wasn't a cheerleader, but she was prom queen... so one of the popular girls. She is now in college studying radiology. And from from what she has said all here friends (other popular girls) have went into nursing or some form of health care. I thought it was odd that they all chose the same career path.

 

[HarleenQ]

I kind of see where the OP could have gotten the idea.

I went to a very small private school (200 in my senior class). A lot of girls I would never have expected to go into nursing are now nurses. They weren't cheerleaders (they weren't popular at our school) but they were popular girls, some of them kind of mean girls who would get into fights and bully.

You'll get people who go into nursing because it's their passion, but you'll also get people who go into nursing because it's a good career choice. That's any career - there's plenty of teachers that don't love what they do but love the perks, etc. Nursing is a a secure job, good pay, multiple directions you can go, etc. It's also fairly quick to get into compared to as a lot of places only require your associates to start out.

So, I could see it. A lot of the girls obviously changed from high school, but I never would have guessed this would be in a career that requires so much compassion.

 

[MrsDuck]