Nursing is a noble profession because you are able to help a patient recover from an injury or illness. It enables you to think about problem and how to solve it so you don’t just follow the doctor’s orders.

To become a nurse, you have to go back to school to learn about biology, chemistry and a few other subjects that will help you understand how you are able to help a patient when you get the chance to work in a clinical setting.

Given that there are more 1,500 programs all across the United States, you should do some research about the school you plan to enroll in. Some of the things you should consider are how much it costs, the curriculum they use and if they are accredited by the nursing board.

For those that cannot afford tuition, they can apply for aid, a loan or scholarship if this is offered by the school. If you still want to work while studying at the same time, you can ask if there are part time courses available or classes held at night.

Once you graduate, you will have to pass the state licensure exam and if things look good, you may now apply for work in a hospital or clinic.

If you are able to stay as a nurse for a number of years and want to advance your career further, you can do so by enrolling in advance courses. This will allow you to specialize in one field of nursing and become head of a group of nurses or work as a consultant, educator, instructor or researcher.

Shifting to a career in nursing may be frightening at first because you are stepping outside your comfort zone and moving into the unknown. But if this is really what you want, surely you will do your best to hurdle over these blocks and succeed in this endeavor.

Studies have shown that a lot of people decide to shift to nursing because of the money you can make. If this is your primary reason, you shouldn’t even bother because chances are, you won’t be staying here for the long term.

To succeed, you must have the desire to help people because you are in a life saving business where mistakes could mean the difference between life and death.

Aside from nursing, those of you who don’t want this job but still want to help patients can take on other positions. You can find work as a pharmacist, technician or lab assistant who also plays a role in the hospital as they work with doctors and nurses.

How well you are as a nurse is entirely up to you. Naturally, there will be people there to help you out but it is your decision to take their advice or to take another step forward. If you are not happy in this new career, don’t be afraid to shift to another.

After all, you did it before and you probably still haven’t found the kind of challenge that you are looking for.

[tags] nursing jobs, salaries, nursing schools [/tags]

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The nice thing about being a nurse is that wherever you work, everyday is different than the day before. Why? Because of the human factor as new patients are brought in and old ones are discharged. This means that in the field of nursing, you will never get tired because change is always constant.

Let’s take a look at the two nurses. One who is a resident nurse or RN and the other a licensed practicing nurse or LPN. Yes, they are both nurses but what makes the two different is the fact that the RN is a specialist while the LPN is a generalist.

The LPN reports to an RN. This is the person that makes the rounds and takes the patient’s blood pressure and temperature. They administer shots and monitor the catheters. The resident nurse can do the same thing but they are more concerned about other things which is why they have the opportunity to work for instance in ambulatory care, diabetes management, cardiac and vascular nurse, dermatology, HIV/AIDS, oncology, pediatrics and a lot more.

If you don’t want your career to be stagnant as an LPN, you can go to school and work at the same time until you are able to earn your degree and finally earn the title of a resident nurse.

Another career choice that can you places is by being a nurse practitioner. Being in this position allows you to perform many of the functions that doctors do that includes prescribing medication. They handle the most common illnesses as well as provide counseling and prevention. For this you need to get a master’s in nursing. A study shows that NP’s make an average of about $61,000 per annum.

Since we are talking about advanced degrees, another career choice is that of the nurse anesthesiologist. When a patient is undergoing surgery, this person is there to make sure the right dosage is given so the operation is painless. This is considered to one of the highest paying nursing jobs today.

Heart disease is one of the leading causes of death in the US. While there are steps being taken to reduce these figures, there are still patients that have to be treated and that is where cardiac care nursing comes in. Cardiac care nurses work with doctors as they perform angioplasty, bypass surgery or install pacemakers. They work in the hospital and at times conduct house calls.

Some patients require long term care. For that, you need a case manager nurse that will keep track of the patient’s condition at the same time in a cost effective matter. These individuals usually help the young and the elderly who are suffering from illnesses such as AIDS, cancer or heart disease.

There are other nursing careers aside from those mentioned. What happens after you graduate will determine how successful you will become in the future. Nurses who want to go on further are advised to take up advance courses in nursing and then specialize in a particular field.

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Because the industry is always looking for qualified nurses, it seems there’s always a big demand for such health workers, employers will even hire both registered nurses and those that are nurse practitioners. This is potentially good news for those who seek a career in nursing. You just have to be exceptionally good to have a better chance of landing a position or having an offer. Remember that even though nurses are in demand, it doesn’t mean they’re just looking to hire anyone. The more qualified you are, the better the chance you will land a job.

Now, in these kinds of fair, you will absolutely need one piece of document: your updated resume. Make sure that your resume is updated and that you know it by heart. If interviewers asked something written in your resume, be sure to answer you will be able to answer the. Fail and it might be result to a bad impression with the interviewers

Another thing that you need to consider is your present skills and experience. Having worked for a hospital’s ER will definitely get you points there. This will help you choose specific employers and increase the chance of having something to show after a job fair, an offer or a job contract maybe.

These kinds of career fairs are usually announced well in advance. You need to check the local postings in bulletin boards in and around your community. Hospital news boards can contain a note or two of upcoming nursing fairs. Clinics, community drug store, and even the convenient store can have flyers and such.

Also, don’t limit yourself on community posters, go online. A number of job fairs are being distributed through mailing lists, online communities and forums. Check things out with your other nurses’ friends just in cases they hear something happening.

Knowing in advance when and where a job fair will take place can help you prepare your credentials on paper and can help you prepare psychologically and emotionally as well. Your resume needs to be prepared, and a list of references would be ideal. In the field where you are involved in saving lives, a good set of references that will vouch for your dedication, honesty and motivation of your job will come a long way.

When you do bring your resume, be sure to have enough copies free of typographical and grammatical errors. What you write on your resume usually reflects the find of personality you have. When you write your resume, keep the most recent entries and the best entries on top. The best skills you have, the latest job you had, and the type of responsibilities you were given.

If it is possible, get a list of participating companies or employers. Organizers usually list them down and print them on posters to encourage people to go and attend the fairs.

Once you’ve given your resume to prospect employers, be sure to do some follow-ups later on. Hundreds if not thousands might have applied for the same position you did in the same nursing career fairs. It is best to show interest by giving them a call and asking or reminding them of your application. Not too much though, just in moderate amounts.

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This truth can be applied in all professions. You cannot excel and definitely you cannot last in any field if your heart is not into it. As a nurse, you are accountable not only for yourself but also for the people who need your help.

Too much stress, they say, can cause a person to gain weight. Can it be that because nursing is a stressful career, that one will gain weight once they are into it? It can actually be. If you are always on the go and you no longer have time to eat, you will definitely grab not just a bite but bigger bites once you afford that luxury.

Too much eating at once will disrupt your body’s ability to regulate your weight. This will result in additional pounds. But of course, this can be solved by being vigilant with the issue.

You already have an advantage because you are into the health industry. You will know what foods are okay and what types contain a lot of fats, calories and all those contributing factor for a person to gain weight.

Aside from watching what you eat, you must also treat yourself with regular exercises. This will not only keep the weight down but it will also keep your brain functioning well. Nursing requires you to be physically as well as mentally capable to execute your tasks.

The Tasks

Practicing nurses can be assigned to different responsibilities. Some are assigned to visit hospital in different places, visit nursing homes or orphanages. They must attend personally to the needs of the patients. This is for the reason that the patients can no longer afford to go to them. That is why the nurses are being set up to be the ones to come personally to the people who need their expertise.

Some nurses are being tasked to conduct researches on different places. They do this for some pharmaceutical companies for the development of some drugs or some forms of treatment. They act as aides to the main people who are doing the research. They lend their expertise in the field for the research to be good.

Some nurses are assigned on cruise ships and other mobile industries. They treat the people who may have incurred sudden sickness or injuries while on the road or at the sea, whatever applies on the situation presented.

Nurses can work on a temporary period like those on the travel nursing career. They can also acquire the service of agencies to get jobs for them. They can also be paid per output basis.

Nursing is a hard profession but one that is worth the hard work. People in this field must be attributed with respect for the amount of quality time they have given into the profession.

So the next time you ask yourself what is the daily responsibility of a nursing career, you must think the abovementioned. There are many tasks and all those require the person involved to be responsible.

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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 patient’s 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 doesn’t 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.

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Nurses are high in demand in the market. This is because hospitals need more staff to help patients and also to fill the gap of nurses who have and will be reaching retirement age very soon. To become a nurse, all you have to do is go back to school and get the proper training.

For those who have forgotten or have never taken up subject’s biology or chemistry in their previous course, they are required to take them because these are prerequisites and these are also things you have to know when you are helping a patient.

You are sure to find a school that offers a nursing program regardless of where you live as there are more than 1,500 programs offered in universities and colleges. You just have to find the right one that can meet your goals and objectives. Don’t forget to find out how much it will cost and also if their program is accredited by the nursing board.

Money should not be an issue when you are thinking of a career change because the school may have a grant in aid program or offer scholarship to deserving students. If you do not qualify, see if you can get a loan or do this part time so at least you are able to pay your way through college.

The most sought after position in the healthcare system is that of the resident nurse and although it will take longer to finish, you can expect to get a return on your investment later on as the starting salary for fresh graduate’s starts at around $45,000. This amount is still much higher than what other professionals make in other occupations.

But before you can start working, one more hurdle you need to pass is the state licensure exam. This varies from state to state so if you plan to work elsewhere, you will have to take another exam.

Once you gain years of experience as a nurse, you can set your sights on higher goals that will truly bring your career to another level. After getting a masters or a doctorate degree, you can find work as a consultant for the hospital, an instructor in a school or as a researcher for a private company. This is because your expertise will help train students and do a lot of good in helping researchers find cures certain illnesses.

If you are no longer with your present job, why should you push yourself to wake up in the morning? Instead of being miserable, don’t you think you should do something about it? A change in your career for nursing or any other is a gamble because you are stepping into new territory.

You should be ready to face the challenges ahead and be open-minded to the things you will learn as this could save the life of the patient.

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One job you can get as a nurse is in pediatric home health care. Here, you are able to help parents prevent their children from getting sick by informing of them of potential threats as well as giving vaccinations. You also get to work with special children by helping them try to live a normal life even if there are hindrances.

The elderly are sometimes forgotten. The sad thing about it is that some of them are no longer able to do things on their own which is why it the youth like the nurses who are still strong may make a career caring for them.

You don’t have to be a licensed nurse to work here because even a nursing assistant can do the job. Some refer to such individuals as care givers. While some stay with the patient for a few hours, others stay with them full time.

If a hospital does not have the proper facilities to treat a patient, they will have to be moved to another hospital and that is where the job of a critical care transport nurse comes in. During the journey, their job is to make sure that there are no problems during the transfer. Some hospitals transfer patients using the ambulance while those that need quicker action will have to ride a helicopter.

Nurses sometimes take blood samples from the patient. But if you work in a blood donor center, you extract blood so this can be given to others who need it. You can have a career here if you specialized in phoresis. Those who have been doing this for a long time and have taken advanced studies will no longer be the one holding the needle and instead make sure that the center is functioning smoothly.

Accidents do happen in the workplace or even in an amusement park. This is why you have nurses on hand to help the patient until the paramedics arrive. This is what is known as on-site nurses.

For those who don’t want to be stuck in the hospital and want to travel at the same time, they can also make a career as a traveling nurse. Here, the person gets to work in one place on a contractual basis before working elsewhere. The best part is that you get free housing and sometimes a sign in bonus which isn’t that bad because you will only spend money on personal expenses.

One study shows that this is expected to continue into 2014 and beyond as the baby boom generation will soon reach retirement age which means such individuals that will soon be moving into nursing homes will need more care. You should also consider the number of children and adults who get into accidents that will require therapy and treatment so they may soon recover.

You can make a career out of nursing as more professionals will be needed in the coming years. So look for employment opportunities in the paper or in the web and if you qualify for the job, then make the most out of it.

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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.

Some people start off 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 don’t need to obtain as many licenses as a doctor in order to do the job. Nurses 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 patient’s 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.

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As a neonatal nurse, you’re dealing with infants most of the time, this can really be too much stressful. You have to feed the babies. You have to clean after their messes. You have to check up on them all the time. Those tasks can eat up all your time.

At such events when you no longer have time to eat, when you already find the luxury to do it, you cannot help but do such extravagantly. As a result, gaining weight is becoming an issue for those in the field.

If you are too concerned about the weight gain that might happen to you once you are into the field, counteract those thoughts. Just think about what you can do to keep fit while staying healthy. You need all the energy that you can muster in your field. Babies are not too easy to take care of. So you have to match your skills with physical abilities.

Neo Natal

The term neo means new. And natal means birth. You need to take care of newborn infants once you are in the field of neonatal nursing. This means that the babies can be as old as 28 days.

This is such a sensitive part of their development. They are very fragile at this moment. So your responsibility as a nurse is very big. You must also have a big heart to be able to succeed in the field and last in it.

There are different levels of neonatal nursing.

Level One

When you are assigned on level one, your task is to care for healthy newborn babies. This will be easy because you won’t need to worry too much about their physical condition. Most of the time, your help won’t be necessary because the mothers themselves will take the tasks off you. All you have to do is guide them through it.

Level Two

You have to take care of ill babies who were born prematurely. You have to keep watch on them all the time. You have to provide for the babies needs. You have to give them their meds and oxygen whenever necessary. And you must also know when it is necessary through a periodic table wherein you can list your tasks to do and the accomplished ones.

Level Three

On this level, you will be assigned to work on the NICU or the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit. The babies are your patients. You have to make sure that they have all they need to survive. You need to monitor everything, from their monitors to their ventilators. Anything bad that will happen to them may be faulted to you so you need to be very careful.

A career in neonatal nursing requires a lot of patience and hard work. But if this is really your passion, you might as well go for it. Offer your services where it is needed. You will surely go a long way in life when you are always thinking about the sake of others first before you think about your own.

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Anyone who wants to start a career in nursing must at least be a high school graduate with good academic standings. He or she must also have a sufficient score in the SAT and the nursing entrance exam.

There are over 1,500 nursing programs currently available and there are three types that will enable the student to start their nursing career. There is the Bachelor of Science in Nursing that is a 4 year course, the Associate Degree in Nursing and the Hospital Diploma both of which are 2 year courses.

Aside from working in the hospital, you will have the opportunity to find work in other places such as schools, correctional facilities, research labs, private companies, health care centers and private homes.

A full time employed resident nurse makes about $46,800 annually while staff nurses make about $42,100. This isn’t that bad when you are working in an entry level position. If you decide to pursue advanced studies later on like a masters or a doctorate degree, you can expect to earn around $61,000 to $63,550.

There are approximately 2.7 million licensed registered nurses in the US and majority of them are women. Men only represent 5.4% of the total population but in the US military, 33% of them are men.

The environment where nurses work is usually well lighted and clean. Most of your time will be spent bending, stretching, standing and walking. You will work not only on the dayshift but also on a nightshift including weekends and holidays. You may be on call on short notice if there is a need for additional manpower to help out in the hospital.

You have the option to work as a full time or part time nurse. In 2006, 21% of registered nurses worked part time as some held another job.

Despite the clean environment, sometimes nurses are prone to hazards. These include coming into contact with patients that are afflicted with infectious diseases and need harmful, hazardous or toxic medication in order to recover. This can be prevented of course by wearing the proper gear and equipment.

Accidents also happen at the workplace such as accidental needle sticks, chemical spills that are used to sterilize equipment and radiation. But nurses are very vulnerable to back injuries, gases and shocks from electrical equipment.

Since nurses are only human, they may also suffer from emotional strain from caring for patients that are suffering from unrelieved intense pain, personal contact with the patient’s family, the need to make crucial decisions as well as ethical dilemmas.

This just goes to show that life as a nurse is not easy and those who can stomach the ups and downs will be the only ones to stay in this profession for a very long time. The question you have to ask yourself after reading this is whether or not you have what is takes to be a nurse.

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