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As you grew, if you ever felt that your heart calls out
to heal wounds of the stray animals or simply felt the senses
to hold the hand of an elderly person to help him cross
the street or then the noblest of all professions nursing
as a career option could be the one where your passion is.
Nursing is a specific art that protects and prevents against
illness and injury, alleviates suffering through treatment,
is a balm to aching souls and advocates care of families,
individuals and community in a broader sense. According
to BLS (Bureau of Labor Statistics US), there are almost
2.5 million nurses, the largest workforce in the clinical
health care industry. And, with the growing health care
industry and mushrooming of health care centers, hospitals
and corporate care systems you can only expect the numbers
to rise.
Roles and responsibilities of nurses
The roles and responsibilities of nurses are manifold and
the work of a nurse depends on the qualification, skill
set, and given situation. Nurses work in tandem with the
doctors. If doctors diagnose diseases, nurses ensure that
the treatment is administered under proper care and guidance.
For a successful recuperation of a patient, nursing plays
a very vital role. Nursing encompasses a wide gamut from
providing hygiene to administering injections, from updating
medical records of the patients to setting up operating
equipments in an operation theater and several other chores
such as pre-surgical preparation to post-operative care.
There are different types of nursing career options with
unique set of responsibilities such as:
Hospital nursing: In these nurses are
assigned for specific areas such as maternity, pediatric,
surgery, intensive care, rehabilitative and others.
Public health nursing: In this field nurses
are trained to work in government health care centers and
even in private clinics to provide with basic health care
services to the local population. These nurses work mostly
in the semi-urban and rural areas; arranging for immunization,
health screening, and blood pressure checking, etc.
Industrial Nursing: This nursing is restricted
to an industrial area and the nurses are responsible for
taking care and providing with emergency services to people
working/residing in that area.
Other areas include psychiatric nursing, pediatric nursing,
armed forces nursing. Another major avenue of nursing as
a career option is also working as an educator. In this
area as a nurse one can teach as well as administer educational
programs to keep the nurses on duty abreast with modern
technology and latest innovative methods of caring. One
can also work as Nurse Administrators and Executives who
basically works and monitors safety and compliance standards
under Occupational Safety and Health Act and also assess
work place environment to determine potential risk and hazards.
The latest career opportunity in nursing that is growing
is to work as a travel nurse. The location of a travel nurse
is not restricted to hospitals and clinics settings, instead
they are contracted to travel to different locations and
work in a physician’s clinics, resorts and even in
corporate recreational travel settings.
How to get started with nursing?
Professional career in Nursing requires a 4 year degree
course in nursing. Besides these there are various institutions
that provide with diploma, graduate as well as postgraduate
courses on nursing.
To be a registered nurse, one needs to complete a diploma
in nursing, a graduate degree in nursing or an Associate’s
Degree in Nursing and one also needs to pass the nursing
certification exam as well.
To take it further you can become Advanced Practice Registered
Nurses. You can enroll for online courses to go ahead with
this career option as e-learning is the buzzword in today’s’
learning industry. At, JustColleges you can search by location
or desired course to fit your options. However, as all career
choices, nursing is another field that calls for greater
commitment as you are working towards healing a person.
You should not take it if you simply need a job you need
to love nursing to make it to the top.
View a complete list
of all Nursing Schools
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