Back in the time during wars, the most challenging task was the recovery of injured from the battlefield, Professional Nursing was initiated by Florence Nightingale during Crimean War to help soldiers on the battlefield, from that day since today this profession is on the way of development. Nursing is said to be the noblest profession in the world, the very philosophy of this profession revolves around serving suffering humanity and ease the pain of ailments the patients are going through. Talking about modern times, today nursing is not only about taking care of patients, checking their blood and sugar levels, keeping check of the medications, but it has also now grown into a vast profession that broadly includes advocacy, supervision, compliance, and R&D. It might sound strange to all of you but nursing has outgrown almost all the professions in Health Industry due to the prospects of development and area of researches that are still left to explore. People are choosing it as their full-time profession not only because of the noble causes but for the good money they are getting for their services as professional nurses.
If reading out all this has compelled you to think about taking nursing as your profession and you are interested to learn more about how to pursue it then this is your complete guide, and if you are already working in this profession and you are eager to know how you can take your career towards the right growth path you are at the right place. There are educational degrees you can pursue to add value to your professional development, there are associate degrees for RN, professional degrees for RN to BSN and BSN to MSN online degree programs.
Table of Contents
Make up your mind:
The first step towards choosing to become a nurse as your profession is making up your mind. Nursing as a profession is unlike a 9 to 5 job, it requires your undivided attention, dedication, and passion for the work you do as a nurse. Empathy is the most valued virtue in the field of nursing, only if you can feel what your patients are going through, you will be able to help them better, in your career you will have to deal with the patients who are on their death-bed, the immense pain they experience needs to be dealt with great empathy. You have to make your mind very clear about the possible challenges you will face as a Nursing Professional.
Get the right education:
Once you are clear with your decision, the next step you have to take is to select the right degree program, if you are on the initial stage you must start from an associate degree program, it is a 2 years program with minimum requirement of High-school graduation, for a more precise start you can opt for BSN that is a bachelor’s degree in nursing, it is a 4 years program and once you are working in the field the best option to pursue is an MSN degree for comprehensive professional education.
Look out for jobs & internships:
It is very obvious, isn’t it? The final motive that we all work towards is securing a good job for ourselves. The worst way to go about it is sitting idle during the completion of your degree and start searching for a professional role right after the completion. In professional roles, you are expected to be trained at least to some extent. So how you will be going to deal with it? The easiest way is to do frequent internships preferably in hospitals not in clinical set-ups due to the broad focus of experience hospitals have to offer. Once you have experience of internships in hand you will likely get a job easily in the field.
Do Specialization:
Once you are in the field of Nursing sky is the limit for your specialization choices, starting from the basics you can be a Clinical Nurse, Critical Care Specialist Nurse, Nurse Midwife, Cardiac Care Nurse, Corporate Nurse, Nurse Anesthetic and so on. If we talk about leadership roles in nursing, there is Nursing Informatics, Nursing Supervisor/Manager, Case Management nurse and many more, the advanced roles in nursing are expected to be more dynamic, for these roles you do not only require basic procedural knowledge but you have to be exceptionally well in leadership, problem-solving, decision making, presentation skills, and communication skills, to train, debrief, lead the teams and handle critical situations that need proficient nursing skills and strong leadership skills.
Conclusion
Choosing nursing as a profession is the most difficult decision of one’s life, nursing requires your hard work and dedication to an unprecedented level because in nursing you work with humans and for humans, people who are going through probably the most difficult time of their life, doctors come and pay visit to the patients for an hour hardly, it is you as nurse who has to stay back with the patients 24/7, console them, deal with the attendants and communicate them every single detail about what the patient is going through.
