Nursing Career Search

Posts Tagged ‘Registered Nurse’

According to the Occupational Outlook guide, the nursing profession is among the fastest growing of all career paths. Within nursing, the single specialty expected to grow by leaps and bounds is gerontology. The aging of the baby boomers has increased the average age of the typical patient. According to one survey, patients over 65 make up 60 percent of adult primary visits, 48 percent of inpatient hospital admissions and 85 percent of nursing home residents. By the year 2020 – less than 15 years from now – a study from Occupational Health and Safety Administration predicts that the need for registered nurses in nursing homes will increase 66%, for licensed practical and vocational nurses by 72% and the need for certified nursing assistants will increase by 69%. For nurses working in home health settings – which include ‘managed care’ nursing home settings – those numbers are even higher – well above 250% increase in nurses needed at every level of licensing.

In other words, if you’re planning a career in nursing or are already a nurse, there are thousands of jobs available for you in nursing homes and chronic care facilities. The face of geriatric nursing has also changed considerably over the past decades. If your image of a nursing home is one of bleak halls and hopeless, helpless patients, then a visit to many of today’s nursing homes will offer an unexpected and pleasant surprise.

Nursing Home Jobs In the New Millennium

This generation of seniors is more active and more determined than any other that has come before them. It’s led to major changes in the practice of long term elder care. If you decide that a nursing home job is for you, here are some of the options that you can explore.

On Site Nurse in Senior Housing

Many seniors don’t need round the clock nursing care, but do need some nursing supervision. Senior housing communities often have an on-site nurse who is available to help residents with medication problems, take care of routine medical care and be available in case of an emergency. The nurse on site will also often consult with doctors who work with individual residents to help manage any medical care that they need. The pay scale is generally quite good, and the hours closer to a regular work week than in many other geriatric nursing jobs.

Continuing Care Retirement Community Nursing Jobs

Unlike traditional nursing homes, residents of CCRCs have and maintain their own apartments with whatever support they require to remain as independent as possible. Nursing job opportunities in CCRCs range from managed care nursing similar to the duties of a head nurse in a hospital to providing personal care to individual residents. CCRCs offer opportunities for skilled nursing care, medical case management and licensed practical nursing.

Rehabilitation Facilities

Not all nursing homes cater to long-term geriatric patients. As hospital costs have risen, the trend has been to discharge patients to rehab facilities and convalescent homes rather than keep them in the hospital until they’re ready to go home. Nurses in rehab facilities and convalescent homes get to be part of the recovery process, and many take great pride and joy in watching a patient advance and recover. Convalescent home jobs include charge nurses, floor nurses and nursing assistants as well as physical and occupational therapy specialists.

Traditional Nursing Home Jobs

Even traditional nursing homes are far different than they were a few decades ago. A nurse specializing in gerontology in a nursing home can expect to work with patients in the long term. The jobs available range from head nurses for an entire facility through floor charge nurses who are responsible for overseeing the care and medical needs of one wing or floor and certified nursing assistants who do much of the hands on nursing care.

There is a shortage of nurses in the United States. While this has allowed foreign workers to apply for jobs, this is not sufficient to fill the gap as some states are still understaffed.

For people who want job security, to earn a decent wage and the satisfaction knowing that they have helped somebody, perhaps a nursing career is the right thing to do. To give you an idea, here are some of types of nursing jobs you can get into.

One of the most common jobs to get into is that of a registered nurse or RN. Their job is to assess the needs of the patient, develop and implement the plan and maintain medical records. In some cases, they also inform the patient and others about disease prevention.

For those that want this job, they have to graduate from nursing school and pass the state licensure exam. This is different for each state so if you plan to work in another state, you have to check if your current license allows you to work there.

Another job is that of the licensed practical nurse. This person works under the direction of a registered nurse or a doctor. If you have ever been confined in the hospital, they are the ones that come in your room and check on your blood pressure, temperature. At times, they may even get a blood sample from you.

The licensed practical nurse is also the one that greets you when you arrive at the doctors office. They make sure everything is running smoothly as well as take care of paperwork and the filing of the patients medical records.

The nurse practitioner is another and their primary function is to act as a care giver. These professionals are the first ones that diagnose a patient and treat their illness or injury. They can prescribe certain medications but this varies per state.

They also have secondary responsibilities that include anesthesiology, midwifery and other clinical responsibilities.

You dont become a head nurse overnight. This happens after years of experience which will enable you to set up work schedules, assign different duties to the staff and make sure that each member of your team is trained to do their job. They are the ones in charge of a hospital wing that make sure all the files are updated and there is sufficient stock of equipment and other supplies on hand.

The nursing aide otherwise known as nursing assistants are the ones who clean the room when the patient has left, serve meals, deliver messages, bathe, feed and dress the patient. They also do some of the work done by a nurse practitioner and escort the patient to the operating room, recovery room until they are sent back to their own room. This person may also be called upon to assist in some procedures.

Apart from helping around in the hospital, they should keep an eye on the patient so any emotional or physical conditions can be reported to the nurse of the doctor.

The kind of nursing career you choose depends on what type of nursing education you get. You can go for a two to a four year program then obtain your license. For those that want to go farther, they should take further studies like a masters or a doctorate degree so they can work as educators, consultants or instructors.

The type of nursing course you take will determine your career because of the kind of training you get. For instance, those who graduate with a Bachelor of Science in Nursing will automatically become resident nurses once they also pass the state licensure exam or NCLEX.

Resident nurses straight out of college will report to a resident nurse preceptor. This person is the one that will give them their respective assignments and the RNs in turn will show them their skills in assessing the needs of the patient so a plan can be developed and implemented.

After years working as an RN, you can go back to school and attain a higher degree so you too can become a resident nurse preceptor in charge of a wing or find work elsewhere like working as an instructor in nursing school or as a researcher for a private company.

Students who dont want to study for four years can earn a degree in half the time by getting an Associate Degree in Nursing also known as AND or a hospital diploma.

For the associate degree, you can soon find work in a health facility as a licensed practical nurse or as a licensed vocational nurse. In the chain of command, this person reports to the registered nurse whos task is to do the rounds and check on the patients blood pressure and temperature. They may also be called upon to get a blood sample.

Depending where you decide to work, you may also be employed as the personal assistant of a physician. At this job, you welcome patients that visit the clinic, handle clerical duties and other things that may be ask of you by the doctor.

The salary difference between an RN and a LPN is quite big. If you want to earn more, you can go back to school part time or full time so you can graduate with a BSN.

Those who take the hospital diploma can find work as a nursing aide. Your job is to escort the patient when he or she needs to be examined by the doctor, serve the meals, bathe and dress the patient as well as clean the room. You dont need a license to do that kind of work but if you want to earn more, perhaps after a few years you can go back to school and work for a BSN or AND.

When you get your nursing degree, you can either work full time or part time. Full time nurses work 40 hours a week while part timers work 20 hours a week. Resident nurses who have a lot of opportunity may even find employment on a contractual basis which allows them to travel at the same.

Nursing is high demand for a lot of reasons and one of them happens to be due to the shortage of qualified personnel. If you think that nursing will be good for you in the long term, get into it for the right reason and money is shouldnt be one of the motivators as this will come in later.

You must have the desire to help those who are in need because if you are happy with what you are doing, you will be successful regardless of your position in the healthcare system.

Nursing is a diverse field. If you want to succeed in this profession, you have to specialize and there are different types of opportunities. Lets talk about them.

There was a time that nurses only worked in the hospital. But now, such professionals are also needed at the home of a patient and this is known as home health nursing. The nice thing about this career is that you can make your own schedule and you get to work with only one patient instead of so many that happens in the hospital.

Some of the things that you will be doing as a home health nurse include bathing, changing the dressing of the wound, general health assessments as well as other needs of the patient. These individuals need to be friendly and in exchange are well compensated.

You can also find work as a nursing assistant. This job requires you to bathe and feed patients who cannot do it themselves. They assist the doctor or nurse by escorting the patient from their room to the examination room or recovery room after they have undergone surgery.

The best part about being a registered nurse is that you dont need to obtain a license in order to do the job. They just have to be helpful to the patient that they are assigned to and as the baby boom population is nearing the senior age, such professionals will be needed in the future.

When the paramedics brings a patient in , doctors need the assistance of emergency room nurses to make sure everything goes smoothly. Their job is to assess the patients condition and follow the lead of the doctor on what should be done next.

To have a career here, you have to be able to think fast on your feet because accidents do happen and the minutes that pass may be the life or death of the person.

Floor nursing is something else you can explore. Here, you may find yourself working in the surgical unit, intensive care, maternity, telemetry, geriatrics or pediatrics. Being able to move from one department to the next will allow you to gain a lot of experience so you can choose what you want to specialize in the future.

Close to emergency room nurses are operating room nurses. Professionals who want to pursue this may find work as a circulating nurse in the operating room suite, as an assistant to the surgeon during the operation or administer anesthesia care. This job is perhaps the most toxic because they monitor both the doctor and the patient.

Given the different types of nursing careers mentioned, it is up to you to decide which one you want to take. Unlike other jobs that you apply to regardless of what course you took up in college, this one requires you to enroll in nursing school and pass the state licensure exam that varies from one state to the next.

For those who want to advance their careers further, they can take masters or a doctorate degree to make them become better than they were before. This will enable the person to handle people or take on more responsibility in the future. Given that there is a shortage of nurses now, the opportunity is endless.