4 Nursing Career Facts

Think a career in nursing is right for you? Are you excited to begin your schooling or continue your path toward being a nurse?  

Before you are fully ready to enter the field, here are a few nursing career facts that are important to consider:

1. There’s no single way to be a nurse. Nursing is a vast and varied career field, with a number of different things differentiating each nurse you meet from the last. You can earn varying types of credentials and licenses, from those that let you work as a nursing assistant and others that have you delivering a rather significant amount of medical care and attention to patients. And beyond that, there are countless specialities within medicine that you can choose to narrow your focus onto. For example, you could be a nursing assistant working in cardiology, or a licensed practical nurse (LPN) with a specialization in pediatrics. From anesthesia to endocrinology, a home health aide to a triage and emergency care nurse, there’s a type of care and a location for each and every nurse’s strengths, passion and personality.
2. One thing that varies very little, though, is the fact that most nurses work long shifts and non-traditional hours. People don’t simply stop feeling sick, getting into car accidents, or requiring medication after dark. Nurses and other healthcare professionals work around the clock to make sure the people relying on them are able to receive their care. It’s not uncommon for a nurse to sleep during the day and work a nightly rotation, or be on his or her feet for 10 to 12 hours at a time. It all depends on the need of the patients and the setting you choose to work in.
3. Many images of nurses include a patient in a doctor’s office or hospital bed and a stethoscope. And while nurses do spend quite a bit of time with patients, they are also often tasked with procedure and policy-related responsibilities, which can include insurance and payment paperwork and follow-ups, patient contact and familial education, scheduling and organizing subordinates, and other administrative tasks that require focus and professionalism.
4. Registered nurses made, according to a 2015 Bureau of Labor Statistics survey, an average of $67,490 annually.