This blog is going to be focused on what the profession of nursing can bring to you and a few reasons of why nursing is such an amazing profession. I will be talking about more than just why nursing is so amazing, I will also be talking about a few different routes you can take as a nurse.

My intended audience I am targeting are aspiring nurses and people that aren’t completely sure about becoming a nurse. Whether you have just recently became interested in nursing or have had this dream or aspiration for a while now, this blog can help you strengthen your love for nursing or help push you over the edge of becoming a nurse. Throughout high school I always thought I wanted to become a Doctor, but my senior year that started to change. I always knew ever since I was a little girl I wanted to do something in the medical field and that was because my mom was a nurse. I loved seeing her help people and I knew that I wanted to be like my mom and help people. I always told myself I wanted to become a doctor because I liked being in charge of things and being a leader, but I also realized I liked being a part of a team and doing whatever it takes to help the team. Nurses are part of a team and they are some of the biggest contributors of the team.

My purpose in writing this blog is to inform aspiring nurses about the benefits of being a nurse, along with informing my audience on a few different paths they can take in the field of nursing. I will inform my audience about the benefits and drawbacks of being a nurse and what it means to be a nurse.

With the ageing baby boomers, nursing has become one of the fastest growing healthcare professions. On tv nursing can seem quite exciting and rewarding, but is that really all that nursing can bring to you and is it always rewarding? Nursing can be very exciting and gratifying but every patient you see as a nurse is not always exciting and every patient might not be rewarding. Before entering nursing school, you should consider all the pros and drawbacks of entering the field of nursing because it could be a matter of life or death if a nurse is not doing their best while on the job.

Becoming a nurse can be one of the most fulfilling professions in the healthcare field and there could be days where you could save a life. Being able to say you helped someone can give you a warm feeling and a very satisfying feeling that makes you realize that was one of the reasons for becoming a nurse. As a nurse you have the chance to treat a variety of patients in all different types of areas. For example, as a nurse you have the ability to work with surgical patients, Intensive Care Unit patients, Emergency patients, and labor patients etc. Being able to see a variety of patients can make the job very enjoyable and not so consistent/steady. Another pro of becoming a nurse is all the opportunities in the field besides direct patient care. As a nurse you can work as an educator, a school nurse, or case management. Nurses can also get jobs outside of the hospital including being a hospice nurse, a legal consultant nurse, a public health nurse or become a nurse health coach. Becoming a nurse also gives you flexibility. As a nurse you can either work full-time, part-time, on call, or as a travel nurse. Becoming a travel nurse gives you a chance to be adventurous if you please. Another pro of becoming a nurse is that nurses are always needed, and a job is easy to find. A nursing job is easy to find if you have all of the qualifications that may include having license in the field, because nursing is a profession that will not disappear. Nurses bring comfort to patients and are a tremendous help to physicians.

There are many positive things to get out of becoming a nurse but there are also some drawbacks of being a nurse. When you think of becoming a nurse, make sure to consider the amount of work that will have to be put into earning a degree. Becoming a nurse means being put through an intense amount of schoolwork. Nursing school demands a lot from their students because of the need to have highly skilled personnel in hospitals. As a nurse you have to be sure to be very precise with all calculations because even the slightest miscalculation can be fatal to a patient; that’s the reason for the intense school load and the high demand of students in nursing school. Another drawback of becoming a nurse is the exposure to all types of viruses and germs. While on the job as a nurse you will be exposed to all types of illnesses and may even catch a few. Not only are you exposed to many types of illnesses, as a nurse you will always be dealing with bodily fluids and blood. If you are squeamish than you should probably consider another profession other than nursing because of the constant contact with bodily fluids and blood. Nursing can be very rewarding, but some patients just simply do not want the help of a nurse and some patients will not appreciate all the help given by the nurse. When patients don’t appreciate your help as a nurse it makes the day long and not very rewarding. Having patients that are not appreciative is a drawback of nursing but not the biggest because it’s not every day a nurse encounters these types of patients. Another drawback is that as a nurse you may have to work many different types of shifts as well as working weekends and holidays. Nursing is not your ordinary nine to five job, five days a week. Nurses in hospitals and nursing homes are needed at all hours of the day, every day of the year. Make sure to consider that you might not be off from work on holidays like Christmas or Thanksgiving if you are a nurse. One of the major drawbacks of becoming a nurse is all the stress you are put under. A crucial part of being a nurse is having a lot of patience and interpersonal skills. Every day is not the same and before entering nursing school make sure you take that into consideration. Some days are not as joyful and exciting as other days. As a nurse you may grow very close to some patients and one day you might lose that patients and that takes a huge toll on you and might not be very easy for you to handle as a nurse.

Nursing is in huge demand right now and the demand just keeps growing because of the huge aging baby boomer population. Nursing has many pros but just like any other profession it has many drawbacks as well. So, if you are considering going to nursing school make sure you consider all of the pros and drawbacks.

When a patient needs a surgical procedure, the patient has a whole team of medical professionals that satisfies every need the patient has. The patient’s health team is usually lead by a surgeon along with many nurses that all have certain jobs. Part of a patient’s health team is usually a medical-surgical nurse which has one of the biggest jobs aside from the surgeon.If you’re thinking about becoming a nurse, a medical- surgical nurses is the best certification to get after earning an RN and that is because they are some of the most skillful and critical thinkers in the nursing field with their ability to coordinate the care of patient as well askeeping the patient’s health care team all on the same page.

Medical-surgical nurses are in charge of coordinating care for the patient and ensures all health team members are on the same page and aware of everything that goes on with the patient. Medical-surgical nurses have an intense level of care for a patient from the moment they enter the surgical wing until they leave. Medical-surgical nurses are always in motion, whether it’s physically or intellectually in motion. Patients are positively affected by this motion of the medical-surgical nurses. The patients always have a nurse at their service and always have a familiar face in their room throughout their whole visit to the surgical room. Medical-surgical nurses make sure everything is in order for the patient throughout their whole visit to the surgical wing and that every single person within the patient’s health team is aware of what is going on with the patient and on the same page which benefits the patient.

Medical-surgical nurses have many skills that set them apart from other nurses in the field, those skills include anything from coordinating the care of many patients at a time to being a surgeons second set of hands in the operating room. All medical-surgical nurses start off as being Registered Nurses (RN), but along the way RNs have the ability to get certifications or specialize in a certain field. These certifications help build a nurse into being more skilled and gain more experience in certain medical fields. Every certification a nurse gets helps them become more knowledgeable and gains more skills. One of the best certifications to get is medical-surgical nursing because it allows you as a nurse to be more in charge and allows a nurse to use more of his or her skills that they have learned throughout the course of their experience.

When people think of a medical surgical nurse they think of the nurses that are in the operating rooms passing medical instruments to the surgeon and setting up the operating rooms, but those type of nurses are considered just surgical nurses or as they are often called, “scrub” nurses. Medical-surgical nurses are nurses that get a patient ready for surgery as well as take care of the patient after the procedure has been completed. “scrub” nurses are nurses that set up the operating rooms for the surgeons as well as clean up after the procedure. Medical-surgical nurses are also in the operating room acting as the surgeons second set of hands during the procedure. “Scrub” nurses are in the operating room with the surgeons and medical-surgical nurses as well, but scrub nurses help by passing along instruments throughout the procedure as well as making sure the surgeon has everything they need for the procedure. Medical-surgical nurses have more facetime with patients because they take care of the patient throughout the patient’s visit to the surgical room. Whereas a “scrub” nurse has hardly any facetime with the patient besides right before the procedure beings and that is because “scrub” nurses are meant to stay in the operating rooms throughout their shifts.

Medical-surgical nurses go above and beyond what the average RN does in a hospital, along with being some of the most skillful and critical thinkers within the hospital aside from the physicians. Medical-surgical nurses makes sure a patient’s health care team is aware of the health status of the patient and makes sure that the patient’s health care team is on the same page to benefit the patient’s health. Becoming a medical-surgical nurse does take some time but in the end it is all worth it.

 

Whenever you walk into a hospital or Doctors office it’s no secret that most of the nursing staff is made up of woman. However, having a man in a female dominated industry has come with many benefits, both for the patient and other nurses. Male nurses bring a comforting feeling to some patients, give the female nurses a friendly competition because males think differently than females, and males are generally physically stronger than females.

Many female patients have a great appreciation of male nurses and have a comforting feeling, as a woman, to know a male is caring for them. Both in tv shows and in real life you can hear stories about how a female patient admired their male nurses. For example, a female patient might not lift a finger but once nurse Tyler comes into the room and asks the patient to do something, they do it. Another example of how female patients admire male nurses is how some older patients are completely smitten by the male nurses taking care of them. We have all heard in one way or another the story of an older female patient taking her medication only for the male nurse that is on the night shift. As a female myself, I wouldn’t mind having a male nurse because I know they are trained to take care of people and that they are trained to be professional. Although some female patients like male nurses, some male patients would also rather have a male taking care for them because they may feel vulnerable and awkward with a female nurse. Male patients might not want a female touching them or running tests on them, so a male nurse might make the male patient feel more comfortable.

In a female dominated field, male nurses offer different perspectives and new ideas about information because their brains are wired differently than females. Males might be able to offer different views on certain situations because they see, and process information differently than females do. This is an advantage in the nursing field because all of the work that nurses do is so crucial to the patient and it is good to have different perspectives toward the situation because it could offer a different health plan for the patient that a female nurse would have never thought of.  Nurses work together when putting together a patient’s healthcare plan, so when a male nurse is able to incorporate their different views it offers a bit of a friendly competition between the female nurses and therefore helps piece together the perfect healthcare plan for the patient.  When talking to my mom that is a nurse, she says it is very helpful to have a male nurse give a different opinion on a situation because it makes you look at the situation in a different way and help with seeing things or coming up with ideas to benefit the patient that she might not have seen before.

Male nurses offer a physical strength that most females don’t because they have more muscle mass and can lift things more easily then woman. It is true that some woman are strong and some are even stronger than men, but it most cases men are stronger than woman because they have a larger muscle mass than females do. It is no secret that men can lift patients easier than woman can and that can be very beneficial in an emergency situation. As someone that is an aspiring nurse and hoping to get my license I would love to have a male nurse helping me lift patients or even do it for me throughout shifts. When I talked to female nurses about some of the benefits of having male nurses around, a lot of them said that it was really helpful when the male nurses helped them lift their patients when needed.

Nursing staff work together in hospitals and doctor’s office no matter if they are female or male. Many female nurses say that it is wonderful seeing more males becoming interested in nursing because males bring a healthy and friendly competition to them because of the different ways males process information and situations. Besides just bringing competition, male nurses bring comfort to some patients when they are in a vulnerable state. Also, as a male they are able to use their strength on the job which is very helpful to many of the female nurses. Overall having males in the nursing field benefits the patients and female nurses both.

When going to see your doctor or going to the hospital, you usually wait awhile to see the  doctor, and when you do, you won’t see him or her for long. The doctor will come and look over your chart, ask you a few questions, and then diagnose you. The doctor may or may not write you a prescription, after which you will be on your way. Even after only talking to the doctor, you will praise him or her for “curing” you, but what about the person who was the first person that saw you and did a work up on you? That person was also the reason the doctor has it so easy and quick with you. Thanks to registered nurses, your visit to the hospital or doctor’s office is more comfortable and enjoyable by giving you reassurance, making sure you understand everything to do with your health status, and by making connections with you.

Thanks to registered nurses, she makes your experience more comfortable by making sure she is with you before, during, and after treatment. An RN is the first and last person the patient sees when they visit the hospital or the doctor’s office. She sticks with you through your whole visit, and she is the one that run all the tests, takes blood, and administers medicine for you. RNs make sure everything is running smoothly for the patient and for the doctors. As soon as a patient gets called she does a quick and simple work-up, which is a complete medical examination including the patient’s medical history, physical exam, x-rays, and lab tests that will help the doctor to determine your diagnosis. The nurse will usually be in the room when the doctor comes in to see the patient, so the doctor will review the work-up and determine if more tests will need to be done to narrow down the patient’s diagnosis. After determining if more tests will need to be done the doctor will generally ask the RN to run the tests and come get him or her when the results are in. After treatment has been determined by the doctor, the nurse will make sure all directions are clear to the patient and make sure the patient does not leave with any questions.

Sometimes patients and their families will be puzzled with what the doctor had just said to them and what the next steps are or will be. That is when an RN comes and steps in. If the RNs patients and their families feel anxious because they don’t understand the health issues and what procedures they will be undergoing then it is the job of the RN to educate the patient and the family on their health issues and their status and give them a step-by-step guide on the procedures they must undergo, as well as any check-ups or other medical procedures the patient might have to go through. As far as after the procedure, the RN may educate the family of the patient on how to properly and safely take care of the ill patient. After a procedure the patient will have a follow-up check-up which the patient will see the doctor and most likely the RN that was with the patient at the time. The nurse will make sure all questions the patient may have were answered; for example, if a patient just had surgery and would like to know what he or she has to do to not get an infection at the site of the incision, the RN will inform the patient exactly what and what not to do the days following the procedure.

 

Another way in which registered nurses make patients comfortable is by spending time with the patient in between their very busy schedule. Most registered nurses try to make the patient feel comfortable and not by just sticking with the patient throughout the patient’s whole visit but, also throughout the patients visit RNs make sure to spend more personal time with the patient, by maybe reading a book or just talking to the patient about something other than why the patient is there. Even with just spending a few minutes with patients whose family or friends cannot visit will appreciate the RN and the time the RN spent with them. RNs want patients to feel comfortable with them and less anxious. RNs will do that by asking about the patient and all the interests the patient might have, so they can make some sort of a bond with patients. RNs may even share some things with their patients to make the patient more comfortable. Depending on how long the patient is in the hospital or how often a patient visits the doctor will determine how much extra time RNs spend with the patient. If you are a patient and you are in the hospital for a couple weeks, you will most likely start building a strong and close relationship with the RN that is taking care of you.

So now that you know what a Registered Nurse does for you at your doctor’s visit or at the hospital, you may be a little bit more appreciative of them the next time you get sick or injured. RNs play an important role in the hospital and doctor’s office and make sure that every patient they treat is comfortable and fully aware of their health status, procedures, and ways the family may be able to care for the patient after the visit. My purpose for writing this paper is to inform future nurses about some key components to be an RN.