Career of Nursing 1

Career of Nursing 2
Description of Nursing

Nursing is the care of an individual, family, or any group of people in all communities
that may be seedy, or well in any setting. In the career of nursing, there are many different types
of nursing jobs. Some examples of jobs are Occupational Health Nurse, Nurse Manager, and
Professional Staff Nurse. All these nurses have been officially trained through education of
caring for patients, and preventing disabilities is humans. Nurses are always attempting to give
patients the best life they can live, and must give their standard of care for all patients.
Considered the most influential lady in the nursing pathway is Florence Nightingale, and she
defined nursing as "the act of utilizing the environment of the patient to assist him in his
recovery"(Nightingale, 1860). Many nurses have the mindset to always want to help people in
need. They go through years of college, and other rigorous training for the goal to learn how to
help people to the best of their ability.

Typical Nursing Job Duties

Nurses have many duties they must be able to perform, this includes teamwork,
leadership, common sense, and history examination. Nurses must always give accurate, and
always detailed records and reports. These reports give nurses the benefit to monitor, and record
different conditions in a patient. Just like any other job, being a nurse requires teamwork. As a
nurse you have to be able coordinate with your teammates every day on the worksite; you must
make plans to assess your patient, and be able to implement this to help with your patients
conditions. Also as a nurse you may even have to supervise less skilled nurses, or you may also
be assigned to lead a nursing unit. If you lead a unit or less skilled nurse you must be able to

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make the right decisions in a high stress environment. When leading a unit you must observe
their nursing procedures, and check their patients to observe if proper care is being provided.
When you are given a patient who needs your care you must take a lot of things into
consideration. You must identify how this problem occurred in your patient, and trace it back.
You must assess the patient's home and work environments to locate where the problem is
occurring. You must take all the knowledge youve learned on sight, and instruct patients on
disease prevention and health education. This means you may have to refer a patient to a
specialized medical facility. Much of nursing is reactionary; being a nurse you have to expect
anything to come your way, while putting yourself in your patients shoes and understanding
their situation no matter their looks or how they conduct themselves.

As many people already know, nurses are there to give assistants. They have to know
their surroundings, tools, and most importantly know your teammates. Nurses are made for
assistants in all situations. They must be able to hand instruments to surgeons during all
operations, and provide the most assistants possible. Some examples of assistance during an
operation would be administering proper drugs needed, performing physical examinations, and
monitor a patients condition. Nurses must be able administer inhalation, intravenous, and other
anesthetics to a patient. Theres more to just administering drugs in nursing, you must be able to
provide first aid in all settings including hospitals and schools. Community health, and safety is
the key to be a good nurse. You must teach healthy lifestyles to a community to improve the
overall wellness. Even when youre done with nursing you may actually never be done with it.
You may participate in research activities to improve nurses everywhere.

Salary Range for Nursing

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Nursing can be a very high-salary career, when moving up the ranks there can be big
salary increases. The average nurse salary in 2012 was $67,930, this means an average salary of
$32.66 per hour. To be a successful nurse you must put a lot of time into training. If you do put
the time into it you may be placed in the top 10% in salary; the top 10% make about 6 figures at
an average of $94,720. If you don't put the time into it you may be placed in the bottom 10%; the
bottom 10% make an average of $45,040 in the U.S.

The average salary in Michigan for nursing is $64,430, with an hourly wage of $30.97.
This pay of course is diverse due to the nursing career you choose. For example a neonatal nurse
makes around $74,000 a year. The highest paid nursing career which is a certified registered
nurse anesthetist makes around $135,000 a year. In hospitals there is a high-turnover of nurses,
and hospitals will need to throw some extra. To keep attracting nurses who are qualified;
hospitals may offer signing bonuses for these nurses. Nursing can be very rewarding in the
pocket most definitely, but the long feeling of accomplishment from saving lives is better than
any number that you may get on a paycheck.

Schooling Needed For Nursing

There are many colleges that offer to train individuals to be nurses. To earn an
associates degree in nursing which is a two-year program is offered by many community
colleges, and even in some hospital-based schools of nursing. To get a diploma in nursing it is
offered through many hospital-based schools of nursing. Most importantly to start a program you
must have a high-school diploma. From there you choose your path, just like what was

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discussed. You may choose to obtain a bachelors degree. You also may choose to obtain an
associates degree in your desired field. As recognized, and used in many states is the NCLEX.
The NCLEX which is the National Council Licensure Examination is an examination used to
register an upcoming nurse, and allow them to start practicing nursing depending if granted by
the state if you have the right credentials. The NCLEX is used to test the knowledge and skills of
an upcoming nurse to see if they use the safe and effective practices correctly.

There are many schools who teach nursing in the state of Michigan. One example would
be Calvin College. Calvin is based on preparing you for the NCLEX, and you receive a BSN.
BSN is a 4 year degree, and stands for Bachelors of Science in Nursing. As a BSN you have
more opportunities to move up in their career. Typically if you have a BSN you will get paid
more, but in most cases RNs and BSNs get paid the same.

Outlook of Nursing

Nursing is a career that is needed in all communities, and is always having new
openings everywhere. Nurses are projected to grow 19% from the span of 2012 to 2022. This
grow will occur due to the newly aging population. There are also two other reasons for this
growth thats occurring, and that is from the chronic conditions like arthritis, and obesity. Also
the access to health care people will have will increase due to the federal health insurance
reform. It will be easy to start a nursing career no matter where you are in the U.S. due to its
demand. Currently the most jobs in any state is California; in California there are 249,980 jobs
available. Much of all the outpatient cares such as chemotherapy, rehabilitation, and surgery will
need an increase in registered nurses. As a surprise to most people in traditional hospital settings,

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and even in non-hospital settings are expected to increase. Careers like physicians offices and
home health care service are going to experience faster than normal growth for the much needed
registered nurse. From these changes there will be a new kind of financial pressure for hospitals
due to so many patients needing long-term care. This will cause other facilities other than
hospitals needing more registered nurses.

Nursing can also be a very high stress career in their work-environment. The shortage for
nursing is due to poor working environments one might face. Nurses are most of time overloaded
with patients who they may oversee. Nurses work through physical overload, because of their
long hours, and maybe they strain of moving and performing on patients. Many nurses may be
given less work to complete, and this may cause an under-load which can cause a nurse to be
very complacent. There was a law passed in some states where the nurse to patient ratio is
limited.

In Conclusion nursing is a very good career path to get into. With nursing you have a
very broad, and open career path with many college courses around the nation. Much of nursing
has either a very average salary, or may excel in the salary range. With the now baby boomers
aging, and making hospitals expand their buildings. Nursing will always need employees its just
the matter if you decide to keep expanding your career.





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