Nursing Does More Than Pay the Bills
Nursing does more than pay the bills. Nursing is a career that provides fulfilling work, lots of opportunities for your growing skills, and the opportunity to touch lives. This article discusses ten facets of nursing: why you should choose this career track and how it will affect your life!
The first aspect discussed is how people in nursing can make a difference in society, which can increase self-esteem and lead to increased self-confidence. The next two sections discuss how understanding one health system or patient population can help you understand other patients or healthcare teams better and increase empathy for them as well. The next section talks about how education is constantly occurring in nursing, leading to increased knowledge and a higher self-esteem. The article also discusses how nursing is a personally fulfilling career due to the broad range of patients you can affect and the broad range of areas you can work in. Another way that nursing affects your life is by giving you networking opportunities. Nursing leads to multiple career paths, giving you new challenges and different areas to work in while remaining interested in the same field. Lastly, this article goes over why a nurse should stay interested in new advances within their field.
According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics predicts that employment for registered nurses will grow by 22% from 2014-2024, faster than the average for all occupations. The median annual wage for registered nurses was $75,920 in May 2008 and $88,070 in May 2017 according to the BLS (Bureau of Labor Statistics).
Nursing utilizes a wide variety of skills, allowing a nurse to work in any specialty area within their field. There is no one best path or career path to take when choosing a nursing career. A licensed practical nurse (LPN) can choose to get their BSN or jump right into nursing practice as a nurse practitioner (NP). The options are nearly endless.
The first aspect of nursing that affects a nurse's life and from which the entire care team benefits is the ability to make a difference in society by bettering our environment or health. According to the Nursing School Graduates (NSG) survey, 92% of surveyed RNs strongly agree or agree that their job makes a difference in people's lives, an increase from 84% in 2009. The survey also showed an increase in agreement with many other nursing related statements: 87% agreed that the work they do is important to improving people's quality of life; 86% agreed that they advanced their career through education; and 82% felt they were constantly learning while working as a nurse (NSG, 2011).
The second aspect of nursing that has an impact on the nurse is the ability to understand many subspecialties and gain industry knowledge, or how a nurse can benefit from learning about a particular healthcare system. Understanding one health system, such as how a surgery department works, can help you understand other patient populations and healthcare teams better. Understanding how different health systems work together also helps you work with others better as part of a care team. According to the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH), there are over 3 million nurses in the United States. With such a large number of nurses, it is recommended that all nurses should get continuing education so they are aware of new trends within their field (NIOSH, 2012).
The third aspect of nursing that has an impact on a nurse's life is the ability to constantly seek out education and knowledge. When nurses reach the higher levels of education, they are constantly learning more in their field. Knowing exactly what you want out of a career can help some nurses seek out fields that will advance their careers, while others may choose not to do so. For example, if a nurse wants to advance their career by getting additional education, then they should seek out training programs throughout their career to learn new skills and areas of expertise (NIOSH).
The fourth aspect of nursing that affects the nurse is the ability to understand how one health system translates into other systems and patient populations. According to the NSG survey, 95% of nurses reported that they worked in at least one other area of healthcare beside their original nursing role in the past year (NSG, 2011). Understanding one health system can help a nurse understand other patient populations and healthcare teams better. Nurses also benefit because they have increased empathy for patients who have to deal with different health conditions and systems.
The fifth aspect of nursing that affects the nurse is the ability to have networking opportunities with other nurses through different organizations and groups. Nurses can learn new ideas from those around them and grow both personally and professionally by gaining knowledge from others in their field. Community organizations and groups also provide nurses with ways to get involved outside of their jobs. Through community work, nurses can teach others about healthcare or learn what issues are important to their communities.
The final aspect of nursing that has an impact on the nurse is the ability to have multiple career paths within one field. In order to be successful in nursing, a nurse should stay interested in how new advances affect the field they practice in. New technology and new treatments may affect patient care or how a nurse functions in their job, so staying interested is a good way for a nurse to find new areas of practice.
According to the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE), nursing care is provided by nurses in all types of healthcare settings and is needed in every area of healthcare. There are many subspecialties and specialties within nursing, including specialty or subspecialty nursing, as well as nurse practitioner or registered nurse, certified nurse midwife or clinical nurse specialist. Specialty nurses are focused on specific areas of health care such as pain management, neurosurgery or cardiac care. Sub-specialty nurses have training that allows them to do multiple things within one specialty such as incorporating a blend of medicine and nursing care, nursing research and complex intervention. Nurse practitioners can treat patients with illnesses and injuries, as well as educate patients about their illnesses, refer them to specialists, manage their treatment and teach them how to manage their condition at home. Nurse practitioners are able to diagnose patients and perform physical examinations, but they are not able to prescribe medication. A registered nurse is trained in the delivery of direct patient care and oversees cases for other nursing team members. A certified nurse midwife has extensive experience in women's health care and can provide prenatal care, obstetric care, medical diagnosis/treatment/referral of complications as well as a variety of gynecological procedures (NICE).
Nurses are also able to take charge of patient management strategies, manage clinical problems and handle health care tasks. Nurses need to keep current on new advances in health care and must be able to adapt to changes in healthcare. In order for nurses to be successful, they need strong communication skills. Communication is necessary in order for nurses to work well with others and each other as a team. They need the ability to quickly learn new technologies and find out how they can apply them in their positions or on the floor. Communication involves using verbal and non-verbal communication skills so that nurses can work together as a team or interact with patients in an efficient way.
Conclusion
The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) states that "nurses are the cornerstone of the UK's health and social care delivery system" (NICE, 2015). Nurses are responsible for providing direct care to patients and educating them about their illness or injury. They also need to be able to communicate with physicians, other nurses and patients as well as complete administrative tasks like charting notes in patient records. Nurses are able to advance their careers through education and training so that they can become specialists or advance their knowledge in a certain area of nursing. By choosing a specialty or sub-specialty, nures can focus on specific areas of healthcare or research specific topics that interest them.