Published On: Thu, Oct 22nd, 2020

What You Need to Know About A Career as A Nurse

Are you considering a career in nursing? Nursing is a unique profession, unlike any other, with many major benefits, such as great job satisfaction, the difference in people’s lives, and job security. It also has its drawbacks and challenges, including being incredibly demanding and seeing many distressing things. It is not a career for everyone, but those who excel tend to love their careers and see it more as a way of life than a job. As a job with both unique benefits and drawbacks, it is helpful to outline what you need to know about being a nurse to make a smart decision and know what to expect.

It Is in Demand

One of the biggest pulls for nursing in 2020 is the fact that this is a role that is highly in demand. There is a shortage often attributed to the aging population and the increasing need for healthcare for the older generations. It is expected that many registered nurses (RNs) will be retiring soon. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, RNs are listed among the top jobs in terms of growth through 2029, expanding from 3 million in 2019 to 3.3 million in 2029, which is an increase of 7%. This means that nursing could be a smart profession to enter because demand is high, and you will have good job security – this is hugely valuable in the current economic climate.

You Can Work Anywhere

Once you have qualified and have a qualification like a DNP degree, it also means that you can work just about anywhere. With a national shortage, a registered nurse with a DNP degree should find rewarding work wherever they want to live, and you could even look for work abroad. This freedom is a major perk for those that like the idea of moving around or simply want a change of scenery to where they are currently working and living.

It Is Demanding

Everyone knows that nurses and other shift workers have demanding jobs, but most do not realize just how demanding nursing is, making it quite the shock when first starting out, and no amount of study will prepare you. This is because you will be working long, antisocial hours in a high-stakes environment, which will require you to juggle patients and have a constant stream of work. Additionally, due to the work’s stressful nature, it can make it difficult to cope and feel overwhelming. This means that you need to have excellent time-management skills, prioritize your workload, and stay calm under pressure.

You Need A Strong Stomach & Thick Skin

Following this point, you also need to have a strong stomach and thick skin to succeed as a nurse. Regularly, you will be dealing with many things that might make you feel sick or queasy, and you are likely to be shouted at frequently and have patients die, and this could all be in one day. This is obviously difficult for anyone to manage, but you do develop a strong stomach and thick skin over time, and this is vital so that you do not let your work knock your confidence or interfere with your life. You will find that nurses and other healthcare professionals often use what could be considered a dark sense of humor around one another, and this is an effective coping strategy.

You Get to Save & Improve Lives

When it comes to nursing, the other side of the coin is that you will also get to save and improve lives and have an overall impact on healthcare with a DNP degree. There is nothing more rewarding in the world than this, and it can make up for everything else, especially when you connect with the patient and their family. Nurses play an incredibly important role in providing medical care and emotional support, so they often feel the greatest sense of reward and satisfaction by helping someone recover. There will be both dark days and happy times, and this is all part of the job.

You Need to Connect with Patients & Their Loved Ones

Following this, you cannot succeed in nursing without excellent communication skills and the ability to be compassionate. You need to connect with your patients, empathize with them and be willing to go above and beyond to improve their outcome and make sure that they feel supported (this also goes for their loved ones). While you need to be caring and compassionate, you must not get too attached to your patients so that your work does not follow you around and interfere with your personal life.

You Need to Have A Good Memory/Take Notes

You will be taking in an enormous amount of information each day as a nurse relating to your different patients, and you will need to be able to recall this information and pass it on to your colleagues. This is obviously challenging, which is why most nurses constantly take notes, which can be a smart way of staying on top of everything and avoiding costly mistakes. 

There Are Great Progression Opportunities

Another great aspect of nursing is that there are so many areas to specialize in and the ability to climb the ladder with qualifications like the DNP degree. This means that it is a good idea to find an area that you are interested in and to map out a career path – a few of the different areas of nursing that tend to be popular include:

  • Nurse midwife
  • Pediatric nursing
  • Critical care nursing
  • Family nurse practitioner
  • Cardiac nurse
  • Orthopedic nursing

You Can Achieve Leadership Roles Through A DNP Degree

Those who have aspirations to reach the top and become a healthcare leader can do so through the Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP degree) program. The DNP degree prepares you for leadership by leveraging and applying knowledge from the fields of ethics, health policy, information technology, and organizational management to improve healthcare policy and quality improvement. Additionally, those with a DNP degree can earn 21% more than those with a master’s degree with an average salary of $91k. You can also take an online DNP degree with online coursework combined with clinical placement so that you can start applying everything that you learn straight away.

Your Personal Life Will Suffer

As such demanding work, your personal life will inevitably suffer to a certain degree. It will become much harder to socialize, and often you will feel exhausted after a shift, so you will simply want to relax or sleep. While it will suffer to a certain degree, you can still maintain a good social life when you create a schedule and make a concerted effort even if this is just a quick catch up over a drink with a friend directly after work. 

You Must Look After Yourself

Following this, it is also essential that you look after yourself as a nurse. It is very easy to forget things like meals or drinking enough water when working so hard and dealing with difficult situations. Still, poor self-care can lead to burnout, mental health issues, and interfere with your personal life. This is why you must make good use of your time and ensure that you maintain a healthy lifestyle, which will involve getting as much sleep as possible, exercise (which can be a good stress-buster), hobbies, maintaining a healthy diet, and looking after your mental health. Crucially, do not shy away from asking for help and support if you need it, whether this is from a friend, family member, partner, colleague, or mental health professional.

You Need to Be in Good Shape

Similarly, you need to be in good shape if you are to excel as a nurse. It is extremely physically demanding as you will spend most of the day on your feet, there will be heavy lifting involved and not much time for sitting around. This means that you either need to get in shape or maintain your fitness and build strength – as above, this will involve exercise (should include some kind of weight lifting or resistance training), eating a healthy diet, and getting enough sleep.

You Will Make Mistakes

Mistakes are inevitable in a profession like nursing, where you have a huge amount on your plate, you are working in a high-pressure environment, and you work long hours. Of course, you need to take extra care when it comes to patient care, and things like medication as mistakes here can cost lives. Smaller mistakes will be inevitable with this type of work, and this can feel terrible and humiliating, but you simply need to brush yourself off, learn what you can from the experience and move on. All nurses make mistakes, especially earlier in their career, but the best nurses can put these behind them and not let it interfere with their day.

You Will Become Everyone’s Personal Nurse

As you might expect, when you are a nurse, you will suddenly find that everyone will come to you in your personal life with their health concerns and questions. It is a nice feeling to be respected, but it can be frustrating, so you may need to set some boundaries. The other side of this is that it is very difficult to “take off your nurses hat” outside of the hospital, and you might find yourself trying to diagnose your loved ones when they have any health issues. While it can be stressful to worry about your loved ones, you will also find that this is highly valuable and could even help save their lives. Additionally, it is helpful to have experience and knowledge when a loved one is going through a health issue, and you can be a great source of support for them.

Your Colleagues Become Your Second Family

Nurses often find that they make incredibly strong bonds with their colleagues, especially their fellow nurses. This is because you will spend entire days together, deal with distressing and upsetting cases, and work closely together. Nurses often form a tight-knit group as they have an understanding of how difficult and important their work is, and they will often go the extra mile for one another, so you need to be willing to provide support, whether this is help with a patient or emotional support as you would hope someone would support you. This is one of the biggest benefits to a nursing career as your colleagues often become a second family, and you can make friends for life.

Shift Work Has Its Benefits

While there certainly are drawbacks to shift work, particularly when it is so demanding and stressful, there are also a few perks to be aware of. It can feel blissful to have entire days off after a long and/or difficult shift, especially if you manage to feel well-rested so that you can make the most out of your time. Days off give you plenty of time to recharge, catch up on life admin, and enjoy your time, whether this is hobbies and/or socializing with friends. Some people who work shifts would never trade it in and once you get in the habit of shift work, you might find the same and preferable to a typical 9-5 role.

These are the main things that people need to be aware of before embarking on a nursing career. This is not a role for everyone, and there are certainly unique challenges. Still, it is also a career with many perks such as being in demand, a great chance for career progression and knowing that you are making a positive difference and saving lives. It is important to weigh up these benefits and drawbacks and speak to nurses if you are thinking about pursuing this type of career. The rewarding feeling that you get from helping others does outweigh the challenges that you face on the tougher days, so it is worth persevering and pushing through into this great career.

About the Author

Discover more from The Boca Raton Tribune

Subscribe now to keep reading and get access to the full archive.

Continue reading