Nursing Career Search

Archive for June, 2009

For some nurses, the daily hospital life can be too demanding and stressful. You need to provide care to your patients eight hours a day, and this means you can get caught up dealing with other people’s problems. Also, at some point in time you can make a mistake that would take away someone’s life. That’s pretty painful, right? If you’re growing sick and tired of your traditional hospital job, you better start looking for alternative nursing careers.

There are lots of career routes out there that will pave your way out of the clinic or hospital. But it doesn’t mean you have to give up your hard-earned nursing expertise; you just have to use it in a different way.

Yes, there are numerous opportunities that require your nursing skills in alternative settings. So if you are an experienced nurse who’s not happy with your job anymore, you have no reason to fret. Remember: you are capable of more than you think. You got skills and talents so you are generally well-equipped for working out of the traditional clinical setting.

Here are some interesting career alternatives for nurses:

• Clinical Research Associate

A CRA ensures that clinical trials are done properly and without compromising the patient’s wellbeing. She also ensures accuracy of the gathered data. So if you want to be a CRA, most of your time will be spent visiting clinicians who perform such trials. You can work on different companies such as biotechnology, academic medical centers, pharmaceuticals, government agencies, the list goes on.

Clinical trial is a research study of a medical device, a drug, or a biologic treatment in humans. Pharmaceutical products, for example, undergo clinical trials to find out if they are safe and effective before they will be approved. Clinical skills are so important in this job; that’s why nurses are the most ideal candidates for such.

• Telecommuting Nursing Career

It is one of the most practical options for nurses who want t stay away from the traditional nursing jobs. You can work by telecommuting for Health Information Technology Companies, Clinical Research Centers, health organizations, medical transcription centers, and freelance sites looking for writers in the medical field.

• Nurse Contractor

Unleash the entrepreneur in you by becoming an Independent Nurse Contractor or by setting up a Nursing Agency Business. This career will not only give you financial freedom but will also make you recognize your worth. You just need to know the ins and outs of such business and voila, you can be a successful nurse entrepreneur.

• Legal Nurse Consultants

Why not use your nursing expertise and be a healthcare professional? You can take Certified Legal Nurse Consultant training and after that, you can start accepting consulters on medical-related cases. You can work for attorneys who aren’t really familiar with medical records and terminologies. Also, you can provide services to government agencies, private corporations, and even for insurance companies. Among the services you can give are researching and reviewing medical records, preparing reports on the area of illness and injury, classifying standards of care and many other services.

• Travel Nurse

A travel nursing career will surely make a difference not just in your own but in your patient’s life as well. Aside from fulfilling your traveling desires, you can also serve your patient in a way that satisfies both of you. You can work at your own pace and in different places. You just have to be careful in choosing your placement agency. Pick the one that will help make your dream a reality. Go for the agency that offers a competitive hourly rate, free housing, complete insurance plans and medical coverage, retirement plans and enticing bonuses.

So what are you waiting for? It’s time to look outside your exhausting traditional role! Spread your wings for new career adventures. Alternative nursing careers are just there waiting for you.

Nursing is one of the careers which are overflowing with never-ending personal and professional rewards. Once you are in this career, it means that you have chosen to have your life spent helping others while using your skills; the skills of uniting knowledge of science and medical procedures with being compassionate for others. There are also a few professions that offer such rewarding experience; however, it is incomparable with the best nursing careers.

Being one of the largest professions, nursing needs a lot of individuals to fill in positions and many are still needed in the future. Nurses are the largest components in the hospital staff and primarily play a very significant role in managing the patients and taking care of them while being hospitalize. Also, nursing is the most versatile career since it works in a variety of settings and environment.

Every day on the job, nurses use the science they learned in nursing school. And even when they are in the field, they take continuing education so they can be updated with the latest trends in medical and nursing sciences. Science is a never-ending struggle to find new treatments, medications, and new procedures to help patients. So, keeping up with the latest in the medical and nursing sciences is essential for nurses. Best nursing careers would definitely become in demand as time goes by. With today’s population steadily growing, nurses will never find themselves jobless from now on and well into the future.

While in the field of nursing one can say that they constantly do similar tasks, however, they do them in different environment setting. Here are some of the things that nurses do:

• Assessments:

Gathering information about the physical condition, emotional state, lifestyle, family, hopes, fears, etc of a patient is among the jobs of nurses.

• Diagnoses:

This job entails nurses to recognize what specific problem or need the patient might have; this can either be spiritual, emotional, or physical.

• Planning:

Nurses find ways to solve problems and set specific goals for their improvement. They also encourage patients to participate in planning their care.

• Implementation:

Nurses automatically implement what is in their nursing plan. They are tasked to manage the proper medications and treatments needed by the patient. They can also teach their patients on how to take good care of themselves.

• Evaluation:

In this stage, the nurses need to review the results of the plan regularly and make adjustments if it is needed.

In the world today, there is a significant shortage for nurses. And in the years to come, this world would crave for the services that nurses do. This is due to several underlying reasons. One is that advances in health care help people to live longer and in the years to come there are more elderly people who will need care. Also, the current nursing workface is aging. As more nurses retire, more will be needed to replace them.

Best nursing careers have more options than ever before about the nature of work. Nurses have different kinds of work and vary where they do it. There are many other settings in the nursing career environment such as long-term-care centers, community health clinics, corporate health centers, home care, research centers, military, Peace Corps and international service organization, nursing schools and medical offices.

There are absolutely a lot of options that nurses can choose from. And for sure, in the many years to come, nursing would still be the most in demand career in the world.

With almost 2.6M registered nurses (RN) in the United States, nursing is now the largest health care profession in the country. If you think that hospitals are the only place a nurse could be found, you are certainly misled. Public health agencies, communities, ambulatory care centers and other places where health care services are rendered also commonly have nurses employed.

1. The Nursing Practice

Nursing covers a wide area of practice. It includes

- Childcare
- Elderly care
- Services for pregnant women
- Services for newborn infants
- Specialty area - injury nursing
- Specialty area - cancer nursing
- Specialty area - forensic nursing

2. Choose Your Nursing Program

The first step to be a nurse is to graduate from a nursing program. This would enable you to take a state licensure examination. In the US, more than 1500 nursing programs are offered. Three of these programs prepare you in assuming different tasks once you graduate.

A. A Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BSN)
This is a four-year curriculum offered in colleges and universities. A graduate of this course has the advantage of learning health care settings that includes leadership and management. A degree in BSN is preferred and often required in many fields of nursing.

B. Associate Degree in Nursing (ADN)
This is a 2 to 3 year program offered in community college as well as in junior collages. This program prepares the student in handling direct patient care.

C. Hospital Diploma
This is a 2 to 3 year program that is based in hospitals.

3. Nursing Positions

Now that you’ve covered the basics, let’s take a closer look on some of the nursing positions you can occupy. These positions are based on your experience and education.

A. Entry-level nursing position
This is the Staff Nurse Position. The nurse takes on making judgments based on scientific knowledge. You have to rely on procedures and standardized care plans.

B. Certified Mid-wife
This is a specialty nurse position where the nurse aids childbearing women. It starts during the preconception stage and goes through the prenatal, labor and delivery. Postpartum period care is also included in her duties. The nurse also provides family planning counseling as well as gynecological care for women.

C. Case Manager
Over time, a nurse can become a nurse case manager. In this position, the nurse will be involved in the process of organizing as well as coordinating the resources and services of an entire group of nurses, such as an entire hospital.

D. Nurse Educator
This is also a position a nurse could get involved with. Educating people about proper health care needs and procedures would be the basic tasks for this position. A Nurse Practitioner on the other hand conducts physical exams on patients, conducts diagnoses and provides treatments. A nurse practitioner could also write prescriptions and could also manage patients with chronic conditions such as diabetics and those with hypertension.

E. Nurse Anesthetist
A Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetist assists during operations. They give anesthesia to the patients before and after the operation.

There are also various specialty nursing programs that would help you specialize in a specific area. Radiology Nursing, Rehabilitation Nursing, AIDS Care Nursing, and Forensic Nursing are few of these specialty areas. Radiology Nurses are concerned with patients that undergo diagnosis in radiology imaging environments. It also includes Ultrasonography, magnetic resonance and radiation oncology. Rehabilitation Nurses or Psychiatric Nurses takes on providing physical and emotional support both to the patient and their families. They deal with patients having mental incapacities. An AIDS Care Nurse manages the physical, psychological, spiritual and social needs of a patient suffering with AIDS. A Forensic Nurse works in a different environment with other nurses. They work with the law enforcement officials to help in the investigation of crimes like sexual assault and accidental death. They also help in the treatment of the victims of these crimes.