Nursing Career Search

Posts Tagged ‘Level Nurses’

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.

Making a career of nursing is rewarding because you get to help others. Once you graduate, you get to join more than 2.5 million registered nurses all over the country and this number is still growing as there is a shortage that needs to be filled.

What makes nursing so interesting is that you get to combine science and technology with care and compassion. If you think you learned everything there is to know in school, you are wrong because you are able to learn new things when you are on the job and there are advanced courses you can take to make you better.

In general, nurses assist in bringing babies into the world and give advice to the new mothers after childbirth. They also help people recover from sicknesses and conduct physical examinations. For those that are suffering from a terminal illness, they help the family accept the fact that their loved one will soon pass and go to a better place.

The nurse does not only follow the directions given by the doctor. At times, they assess the patients emotional state, lifestyle and physical condition so they know what else needs to be done to help the person recover. They also help in the planning process because they are the ones who are in constant contact with the patient.

When the plan has been made, it is up to them to put this into effect. For patients that will be discharged from the hospital, they can teach the patient or a family member how to change the dressing or what exercises need to be done to improve their physical condition after undergoing surgery.

If the plan that was implemented doesnt work, this is the time that the nurse should review what was done in the past and make the necessary adjustments.

One of the things people think about before applying for a job is how much they can earn. According to one survey, entry level nurses earn about $45,000 annually which is much more than what accountants or teachers earn. You make more when you work overtime and as you gain experience, naturally how much you will be earning increases.

For those who take advance studies, you can expect to earn a lot more. Nurse anesthetists for instance make about $113,000 while practitioners make an average of $71,000.

If ever you get tired helping patients in hospitals, you can find work in a home care, community health clinic, outpatient surgery centers, long term care centers, corporate health centers, research facilities, schools, international service organizations like the Peace Corp and in insurance companies.

You can continue doing here what you used to do in the past or wok as educators, consultants, instructors, inspectors and researchers.

To help you get started on this career, you need to have a high school diploma with a sufficient score in your GED. Aside from the SAT, you will have to take the NLN pre-admission exam. If you happen to pass, only then will you be able to go to a nursing school and get classroom instruction on various subjects before you have the opportunity to get hands on experience with a patient.

There are three types of programs which you can choose from to jumpstart your nursing career. Choose the one that interests you the most and then make the most out of it.

Nursing is a noble profession. Without these people, no one will be able to look after the patient when the doctor is not available. It should be pointed that there is a shortage of nurses in the US. The government for its part has hired foreign nationals to fill the gap but this is not enough to solve the problem. This is why knowing some facts about a career in nursing could probably encourage students in high school or maybe even in college to make that shift.

1.Entry level nurses earn a lot more than what other professionals earn after graduating from college. One report shows that they get an average of $45,000 a year compared to accountants who only get about $41,000.

2.Unlike other courses that will require the student to get a degree in 4 years, nurses can graduate and find work after 2 years. These programs area namely an Associate Degree in Nursing or AND as well as the Hospital Diploma. Students of these two programs can go back to school later on to further their studies by getting a Bachelor of Science in Nursing or BSN.

3.Nurses may also find work in places other than the hospital. These include schools, correctional facilities, private companies, research labs and homes since only three out of five registered nurses work in a hospital.

4.For the country, majority of nursing jobs are occupied by women despite an increase of 5.4% of males that have joined the workforce. But in the U.S. military, one third of those serving are men.

5.In the US, the ratio between registered nurses and doctors is 4:1. Aside from providing the usual health care services to patients, they also teach patients about prevention and work in other fields such as cardiac, family health, gynecology, neonatal, neurology, oncology, pediatrics and other advance clinical specialties.

6.Nurses work between 8 to 10 hours per shift because the risk of an error happening are greater if they work longer than 12 hours.

7.The reason why the government has to fill the shortage of nurses is to lower the incidence of adverse outcomes with patients. For instance, one study has shown that if the number of registered nurses in a hospital is not increased, there will be a rise in the number of patients who will suffer from lung failure, pressure ulcers and urinary tract infections.

Those with higher resident nurse staffing will have lower rates of adverse patient outcomes enabling them to be discharged later on without further incident.

8.Apart from a shortage in trained nurses, there is also a shortage in nursing faculty. After years of working in a hospital setting, such individuals can apply in schools to teach what they know to the bunch of hopefuls who want to make a difference in the lives of the patients.

The facts mentioned about nursing just goes to show that nurses play a vital life saving role in the overall healthcare system of the country. Doctors which we have a lot of can only do so much and they need the help of trained professionals to follow through what they have done to treat a patient.

If you have the desire to help people, then perhaps you should see if a nursing career is right for you.