Career Path as a Nurse Essays

Career Path as a Nurse Essays Career Path as a Nurse Essay Career Path as a Nurse Essay Nursing has become one of the most respected professions in the world. Nursing has combined science and technology with people skills like: communication, problem solving, teaching, and compassion. I has found lots of benefits of professional nursing like personal satisfaction, career mobility, job security, scheduling flexibility and competitive salaries. The variety of opportunities for nurses is endless. A nurse can work in a different fields like hospitals, corporations, research labs, health insurance companies, rehabilitation centers etc. A nurse can earn a competitive salary and work anywhere in the world. Nurses can specialize in the same way doctors do in areas such as pediatrics, geriatrics (caring for the elderly), emergency medicine, etc. With advanced education, nurses can become independent clinical specialists like nurse midwives, nurse anesthetists or nurse practitioners. All of the above factors have affected my decision to choose nursing as a professional career. Nursing has become one of the better paying occupations in America over the last several years. LPNs have no trouble earning $35,000 to $40,000 a year, not including overtime. For registered nurses, wages are even higher. Newly minted registered nurses can make between $40,000 and $60,000 right out of nursing school, depending on their location or willingness to relocate. In 2004, the media income for all registered nurses was over $52,000. These figures are very likely to continue to increase, given the coming surge in baby boomers coming into their golden years. There arent nearly enough nurses now to fill all the available nursing jobs, and the shortage is going to be severe in 10 or 15 years. Experts believe that well be almost a million nurses short of what we need by 2020. And since wages are set by supply and demand, that means that wages will continue to go up, probably sharply. Hospitals and retirement homes will be forced to offer more and more money and benefits to attract and retain quality nurses. In addition to money, opportunity, and job security, there are lots of other benefits to becoming a nurse. First, there is the universal respect nurses enjoy from virtually everyone. According to the Gallup Company, which does polling, Americans consider nursing to be the number one profession when it comes to onesty and ethics. Not only are nurses paid well, but they actually do good deeds for a living, and, unlike some recent corporate officers in the news, can hold their head up with pride. The nurses have the pride to help people to get relief from life threatning situation. Being a caregiver for a living brings intangible rewards far beyond the monetary. Beyond respect, theres also flexibility- a nurse can choose where to work, which hospital depa rtment to work in, whether to work in a hospital at all, part time or full time. More and more nurse staffing agencies are popping up all over America, and many nurses choose to work exclusively through one or more of these agencies, which affords them the opportunity to work with lots of different people in various settings. Some use these agencies to sample a job at a particular hospital or other workplace, and if they like it, to apply for a full time position with the firm directly. Others dont want to be tied down, and like new and different experiences, and choose to work for agencies for years at a time. However nursing profession has benefit to design career in a way person wish.