Nurse

Nursing is one of those professions that can never go out of demand. Nurses are required in every country and as the demand for healthcare grows, nurses are going to be required in ever greater quantities.

Given the increasing importance of nurses, it is indeed a lucrative career to pursue. As such, this article will provide some very useful tips for aspiring nurses. Also, you will find out some very interesting trends that are currently going on in the nursing and healthcare industry.

What you need to do become a nurse?

Nursing can be a very fulfilling career. However, before you can embark on this exciting journey of becoming a nurse, you must know what you need to do before you can pursue nursing. So here is a step by step guide to help you decide your nursing career.

Specialization

The very first step is to choose what type of a nurse you want to become. Nursing is a very diverse career path and involves a number of specializations. As such, it is important you clearly know where you want to go.

You may want to become a staff nurse in a hospital or work as a head nurse. Perhaps, you may want to become a nurse educator.

The choice as to which career path you want to pursue, will largely depend on what kind of a work environment you are looking for. Different nurses work in different settings. For example, Registered Nurses (RN) work in hospitals, clinics or other similar institutions.

Getting a college degree

As with many other career paths, you will need a degree for nursing. Hence, you will need to select a suitable college to go to for earning your degree. The school you choose need to be flexible enough to accommodate for the time you will be spending getting actual hands-on experience.

This is because studying to become a nurse does not only involve classroom lessons. Clinical experience is also required to meet the requirements of your degree. You may therefore consider getting your degree online. This way you will be able to complete your clinical practice requirement much more effectively.

Like many other professions, nursing degrees vary significantly. You may get a nursing diploma or an Associate’s degree in nursing. However, earning these may not make you as attractive to employers as those with a bachelors or masters.

A Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in nursing may take a while to complete. However, having them increases your employability potential. If you want to study further after your Master’s, you may go for a Doctoral degree such as PhD, DNP, ND etc.

License

Once you finish your studies, the next step is to get licensed. In order to get the license, you will need to sit for another exam. These exams will differ according to the nursing specialization you want to go to.

As such, if you prefer becoming a licensed certified nursing assistant or CNA in short, you will need to give a competency based exam.

Registered Nurses (RN) are required to give the National Council Licensure Exam NCLEX-RN, to earn their license.

Emerging Trends

Now that you have an idea of what are the basic requirements for becoming a nurse, it is time that you make yourself aware of the many advances that have been going in the field of nursing.

These trends are nothing but a direct result of technology. In order to be successful in the current dynamic and competitive marketplace, it is highly recommended that nurses today know about these trends as much as possible. So what are these trends?

Remote Patient Monitoring

Remote patient monitoring, is an exciting new trend in the field of healthcare. As the name implies, remote patient monitoring technology involves the use of devices that can be provided to the patient so the device measures critical data about the patient.

This data is then transmitted back to the provider. This implies that patients who are sent home can be monitored effectively by nurses so as to assess the post-operative condition of the respective patient. For this, nurses need to be well aware of how such technologies operate.

Travel Nursing

It is only recently that nurses are being asked to travel to critical areas. Due to the ever-increasing need for nurses in areas that are almost inaccessible, travel nursing is becoming the only option to tackle the problem.

As such, nurses who are looking for something adventurous may find this trend quite appealing. You may be stationed in places that are struck with serious epidemics or disasters.

Since the nature of the work is quite dangerous, travel nurses are compensated accordingly with pay that is above the average amount.

Genetics

Technology has made it possible to understand the very building blocks of life – genes. Genetics owes a lot to technology and as such, it is no surprise that Genetics itself has evolved significantly.

Genetics provide some very vital information regarding a patient’s family history and other aspects. Therefore, nurses are being required to collect as much information as possible in terms of the patient’s genetic history.

Therefore, as a nurse, you may be benefit immensely if you know what genetics involves and what are the critical pieces of information that may be required from the patient.

Alternative Therapies

As a nurse, you are well-informed about the traditional medical therapies. However, there has been a resurgence of interest in alternative therapies. Therefore, it is highly recommended that nurses today get enough training in using alternative therapies to cure patients.

Such alternative therapies may include acupuncture, herbs and similar forms of treatments that are to be used in conjunction with the conventional medical treatments.

Conclusion

Nursing is an exciting and growing field that is to be in ever higher demand in the near future. However, like everything else, technology has not spared the field of nursing.

Therefore, nurses need to be comfortable with using technology and understanding how to effectively treat the patient through innovative means.