It’s time to think about your new career as a nurse. That’s right, your new career as the superhero of the healthcare sector, looking after patients of all ages and in all kinds of levels of health.
Nurses are vital for a modern hospital. They look after the basics of healthcare such as cleanliness, safety, and health.
What’s So Good About Nursing?
For those who may not know, nursing is a remarkable profession to take up as a career. Nurses are culturally unique as they tend to be caring and professional all at once.
They have a high level of respect from their patients, which makes them stand out among their peers in the healthcare industry. Nursing is a medical profession that typically involves helping others take care of themselves and themselves to take care of others.
Being a nurse is a super interesting job that involves doing a number of different tasks from having your hands in soapy water to being your patient’s medical advocate by advocating for their needs.
What Education Is Needed?
You can’t just walk into a nursing career, it does take some specialist education and licensure. Before you can have your own nursing career, you have to get a degree in nursing. Nurses are required to have a four-year bachelor’s degree in nursing to get started.
A bachelor’s degree is the minimum amount of education that is needed before you can work as a nurse, but there are a huge variety of options from bachelor’s right up to a Doctor of Nursing Practice doctorate degree that will see you right through your career.
You may need an additional two years of specialized education that will enable you to work in different areas of nursing, such as pediatrics or mental health, to become certified in these fields.
What Are the Benefits of A Nursing Career?
Nursing has great benefits because nurses are given what they need for their patients by the hospital or healthcare facility they are employed at. There are perks to being a nurse, such as plenty of hours to work on your own time and having flexible schedules.
There are also multiple opportunities for growth within the nursing field. Your career can be very successful if you work hard enough, which may involve making some good contacts, networking with current nurses, and teaching other nurses.
You can choose to specialize in different areas of nursing or work at a variety of different hospitals or healthcare facilities. You can even open your own clinic if you have the desire and drive for it.
10 Things To Know Before You Go Into Nursing
Ready to jump into your new career? Not so fast! Read on for a few tips and hints of things that you should really know about becoming a nurse in today’s busy healthcare environment.
- Look At Your Options
Take into account all of your options. You might like the idea of working as a nurse for a hospital, but you might not want to be on the west coast.
You may want to work as a nurse in a nursing care facility but on an island. Are there any jobs on the east coast that have better pay?
Looking at all of your options before you make any decisions is the most important thing you can do. This is your future career, it’s worth taking the time to get it right.
- Get Your Finances In Order
You also have to consider how much you can afford to spend on your education.
It’s not always cheap to go back and get an advanced degree or specialized training, so try and think about it before you decide what’s best for you. The more time and money you spend on your education, the better your experience is going to be.
- Look For A Job That You Like
Do you have a favorite place that you would like to work? Nurses tend to find jobs within their personal preferences, so take your time and find a job that fits your likes.
You might not even have a particular field in mind, but if it’s something that intrigues you or you can picture yourself being passionate about it, it’ll be worth going for. If a nurse likes what they do for a living they’re less likely to leave their job and look for changes elsewhere. For example, if you are a traveling nurse, you might discover a passion for working in diverse healthcare settings and providing care to a variety of patients. Finding a travel nursing job with PRN can allow you to explore various healthcare environments and specialties, helping you find the perfect fit where you can thrive and develop a lasting career.
Give it some time, nursing is an incredible profession with endless opportunities.
- Be Prepared For Long Hours
Being a nurse in today’s healthcare sector is not the ideal job. It’s not often known, but there are often long periods of stressful work in nursing.
Some nurses have to work very long shifts, which can be very stressful. Nurses are regularly expected to be available for emergencies 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
You can also encounter situations that may cause you to feel under pressure without much notice, such as an unexpected patient arriving at the hospital or maybe your shift suddenly ending early because of an emergency situation.
- Focus on Work-Life Balance
You will spend plenty of time away from home for work-related reasons and will need to be able to make it home on time each night if you want to maintain family life too.
The hours that you work may also mean that you won’t get to spend a lot of time with your family and friends. It’s important to maintain a work-life balance in your life and adjust your schedule to make sure that it stays that way.
- Be Prepared For Chaos
Chaos is often part of the nature of nursing. Nurses often have to deal with chaotic situations when they occur, which can put a lot of pressure on them.
If a patient suddenly becomes ill or there is an unexpected emergency, especially at night, the nurse might be expected to treat the patient with little notice.
Being prepared for chaos is what nursing is all about.
- You’ll Need To Be Good At Teamwork
Teamwork is also a big part of nursing, you’ll often need to work in teams with doctors and other healthcare professionals. You’ll find that if you’re not very good at working in teams you’ll struggle in this profession.
What would happen if one of your team members got injured or had a family emergency? It’s these kinds of situations that can cause a lot of stress for nurses.
You will find that if you’re prepared for these kinds of problems, you’re going to be a lot more successful in your career. It’s also important to have a positive attitude when working with other healthcare professionals because most employers want to see that they have a good relationship with their colleagues.
- Be Ready To Deal With Anger And Aggression In Some Situations
Some patients can be very aggressive and violent during medical emergencies, so being ready for situations like this is something that you’ll need to be able to deal with on the job.
Being able to deal with patient aggression on the job is a skill that a lot of nurses possess, some more than others.
If you’re preparing yourself for this kind of situation, you’re going to be a lot more successful in your nursing career.
- Be Willing To Adapt To New Situations
You will find that nurses often have to move from one area of the hospital to another quite frequently.
You might be expected to find more responsibility and get asked for more work if you don’t have the right attitude towards management.
- You’re Going To Need To Be Professional
Like any career, nursing requires its employees to be professional and well-presented. You will often need to follow dress codes and rules at work and it’s important that you stay professional at all times. One slip-up could destroy your career.
You won’t make a lot of money as a nurse, but the job is worth it because it gives you a way to help people.
Nurses work in challenging conditions and need to be ready to deal with scary situations. This is the kind of profession that’s going to let you live out your dreams and help people who are sick or injured. You have a job that will allow you to use your skills and abilities every day, which is really fantastic.
There are a lot of difficult tasks that nurses have to perform on a daily basis, so being well-prepared from the moment you accept the job is going to be important for you as well as your future career as a nurse.
The Bottom Line About Becoming A Nurse
Becoming a nurse isn’t the easiest thing in the world to do, but with enough hard work and dedication, you’ll be able to do it. You might not think that this career is for you, being a part of the medical field might not be your first choice initially.
But you have to remember that being a nurse is more than just dealing with patients on a daily basis. Nurses are special people who deal with some of life’s most stressful situations on a regular basis.
If being part of your community is very important to you, then becoming a nurse is one of the best things that you can do with your life.