Career As A Registered Nurse
Registered nursing is one of the most sought after careers in the modern world. Just like other careers, it requires passion and commitment to ones career goals and objectives. The career demands for caution and extreme attention to detail even under stressing circumstances (Nemko, 2008). Nurses are mainly preoccupied with promotion of health, prevention of diseases and helping patients to manage illnesses (nursing career overview, n.d.). Among their specialties include: treatment of patients, educating patients and the general public about various medical conditions and counseling. Besides these, they also take patients medical histories and symptoms, assist in diagnosis and analysis of results, operation of medical equipment, treatment of patients and conducting rehabilitation. Among other duties the registered nurses perform is education of patients on management of illnesses and injuries, physical therapy, home care and nutrition.
Nature of the career
There are several specialization areas in nursing which include perioperative nursing who assist doctors in surgical theatres, diabetic management nursing whose duty is to help patient in management of diabetes, those who specialize in body organs or body systems such as dermatologists. However majority of nurses are general duty nurses whose specialization is the overall care of the patients as (Definition and Nature of the Work, n.d). Other work with special populations like geriatric nurses who work with old people and pediatric oncology nurses who specialize with children and adolescents suffering from cancer.
Some other professions in nursing involve little or no contact with patients but still require a registered nurse license (Occupational Outlook Handbook, 2008-09 Editions). These include case managers who monitor the attention given to patients with severe injuries and chronic illnesses. There is a field in forensic nursing that deals with scientific investigation and treatment of victims of human abuse, violence traumatic accidents. Then there are infection nurses who major in control, tracking and identification of infectious outbreaks and are also involved in development of programs to contain outbreaks. We also have specialists on legal matters whose specialist are called legal nurse consultants whom assist lawyers in medical cases through carrying interviews on the patients and witnesses, monitoring medical records, assessing medical damages and costs as well as also finding evidence.
The modern working environment for registered nurses is characterized by well lit and comfortable heath care facilities. Nurses may spend much of their working time standing, walking, bending or even stretching. Frequent travels and visits to patients’ homes, schools and community centers are expected in this career. Various time schedules will be experienced due the nature of nursing whereby the patients require all around the clock care. With this in mind, some institutions will require you to work overnight, on weekends, holidays and will also be called on short notices. With technology, the environment is constantly changing to suit the growing needs of the patients. Those nurses working in institutions that do not call for 24 hour care usually work on regular business hours. Part time jobs are also prevalent in the career with 21% working under the scheme in 2006 while 75%others held multiple jobs.
Job opportunities
Registered nursing ranks the top among the health care occupations in the United States registering about 2.5 million jobs (Occupational Outlook Handbook, 2008-09 Editions). Among those jobs 59% are to be found in hospitals spread across the country. The career continues to generate increasing number of people and is expected to create 587000 opportunities between 2006 and 2016 hence becoming one of the largest employers in the United States. Apart of hospitals, other nurses were employed in government medical related agencies, education services and socials assistance agencies. Much promising still, the profession is expected to grow by 23% between 2006 and 2016 which is higher than any other occupation. Growth is expected to accelerate more with advancement of technology in care of patients which allows a higher number of types of illnesses to be treated and also due to increased attention to preventive care. With the rapid aging of the society, the number of old in need of nursing care is expected to rise. The rapidly expanding number of the old who often require long term nursing care will continue to drive up demand for nurses.
However, growth of health care is projected to indicate slow growth in hospitals as opposed to other health care industries. Of worth noting is the rapid increase in intensity of nursing care which is likely to increase job opportunities. This will also be accelerated by growth in hospital outpatient facilities with defamatory increase the demand for nurses. The difficult financial times are pushing hospitals to discharge more and more patients early, a trend which is expected to continue buoying the demand for registered nurses. This is because most of these patients will end up in residential care facilities and home care centers that will demand for increasing number of nurses.
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