Nursing is the kind of career that, if it suits you and you work hard, you can enjoy for life. The need for nurses will always be with society, and the need to help people will always be something that many people find they want to satisfy with their careers in becoming a nurse.
However, something that anyone who is thinking about studying to be a nurse must bear in mind is that it might not be the right career for them. There are many benefits to being a nurse, that’s true, but it also takes a certain type of person, and it’s not an easy job to take on if you’re not prepared. With that in mind, here are some of the things you should know before becoming a nurse; reading this information will mean you will be able to move forward with your plans, whether they involve nursing or not.
- Career Options
One of the things that all nurses are glad about and that makes nursing such a good choice when it comes to careers are all the different options available to anyone who wants to get involved. Once you have qualified and are a registered nurse (RN), you can broaden your career by studying more generalized areas, or you can narrow it by specializing. You can try all kinds of different career options to see what appeals, and you can experiment with new ideas when it comes to your job. This all comes from your initial qualification and the knowledge and experience you’ll gain as you go through your working life.
One thing’s for certain; you’ll never be bored when you’re a nurse because there is always a new thing to try if you want to, and because once you find the thing that you love most, you’ll enjoy every day.
- Education
Going hand in hand with what we’ve mentioned above, there are many educational opportunities for nurses as well. It begins with your first degree to become an RN through the University of Indianapolis or similar university; it doesn’t stop with gaining a University of Indianapolis online nursing degree, either, as you will need to keep learning throughout your career. As soon as you stop gaining new knowledge, you’ll fall behind in your career, and you might even start to get bored.
Luckily, there are always new skills to learn and new techniques to master when you are a nurse. There are additional qualifications you can study for (again, you can do this online, meaning that you don’t have to take any time out from your career, and you go work as and when you want to), and more than this, there are online forums, blogs, trade publications, conferences, and mentors to engage with. Education in nursing never ends, and therefore, if you’re going to become an excellent nurse who loves their job, you’ll need to love learning too.
- Working Under Pressure
Something else to consider when it comes to nursing and what you need to know about it is that you will have to work under a lot of pressure at times. You’ll need to make quick but accurate decisions, and these could even be life and death scenarios.
This is not something that everyone is able to do naturally, but it could be something you learn to do over time and with experience. It might feel overwhelming, but a nurse will need to go through this and then continue to work, ensuring all patients are taken care of no matter what. If you know you can work well under pressure and that anything you have to do won’t affect the rest of your day on the outside (although of course, if you need to talk about things, it’s crucial you do so to prevent stress and depression, as well as burnout), you’ll already be on your way to becoming a fantastic nurse.
- Long Hours
Most of what people need to know about being a nurse is positive, but it’s important to know there are some elements that may be difficult for people to deal with, and they should not be overlooked. One that is highly important to be aware of is the long hours that nurses have to work. Often their shifts will be at least 12 hours and often more, and during that time they will be moving around and dealing with different tasks for most of the hours they are working, with ideally – although not always – two breaks and a longer break for lunch.
However, having said the hours are long, it’s also important to note that nurses don’t work five days a week like many other jobs. They will work three or four days, and then have another three or four days off (this is a generalization, of course, and every healthcare facility will be different, but it’s a good measure to start with). This means that although the shifts themselves are long, there is plenty of downtime, allowing for a good work-life balance.
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