Becoming a Nurse

Will you be the one individual that can look beyond the stress, liability and the unexpected turns of events of being a nurse, and seemingly realize that it is a remarkably rewarding career? Frequently, people wonder why individuals would choose nursing for their occupation, with so much stress and human suffering.

A nurse must be a very caring person, one that can accept responsibility, supervise individuals, and be able to react in a very fast pace. A nursing career has multiple vantages and disadvantages. The number advantage of becoming a nurse is getting to watch individuals day by day regain their strength back and return home to their family and friends. The median income for a registered nurse was $48,090.00 per in 2002. The middle 50 percent earned between $40,140.00 and $57,490.00. The lowest 10 percent earned less than $33,970.00 and the highest earned more than $69,670.00. (Office of occupational statistics and employment projections, 7). The salary actually depends on where you work. Many employees offer exceptionally good benefits. The best benefit is the health insurance. Many employees offer flexible work schedules, child care, and educational benefits and bonuses. (Office of occupational statistics and employment projections, 7). A vacation is a very rewarding and well deserved benefit for nurses, the reason being is when they get a break for a week or two it is a much needed one. A broad range of jog opportunities are available in the nursing field. A registered nurse can almost choose anywhere they want to work.

The disadvantages of being a nurse are much less than advantages of being a nurse. Nurses say that working in a hospital is much more stressful and a lot harder

than working for a physician’s office or working for the health department.

The most stressful and heart breaking thing a nurse has to endue is taking care of a terminally ill individual and having to explain to their family that there is nothing else that can be done, except for making the patient as comfortable as possible. There is a tremendous amount of paper work for a registered nurse in a supervisory position.

If you have a lot of trouble with your feet and legs than this is not the occupation for you, nurses are on their feet for excessively long periods of time. Anyone that choose a nursing career needs to be able to leave their troubles at home and concentrate on their job, if they make one mistake it could be vary damaging and costly to their career. A nurse is the back bone for the doctors, patients, and their families. A nurse is the one that has to actually talk with the patients and evaluate them and than relay what they have found to their doctors. The doctor than tells the nurse what to do for the patient and if thy patient and family are not satisfied with the doctors orders the nurse is the one that has to listen to the complaints and try to compromise between the doctor , patient, and the family. Some doctors can be extremely hard to work with; they work very long hours and are also extremely stressed.

Being a nurse has many different situations to handle, so you have to be able to adapt to many different situations and conditions, and do it in a timely manner. Nurses have to be able to oversee and work on many different individuals at the same time. If you’re a nurse you must posses the ability to think quickly and react very fast. Also nurses can not wear their hearts on their sleeves, because they will see lots of heart wrenching conditions.

To become a nursing student you must first take and pass a Nursing Entrance Exam or NET test. You also go through multiply interviews, and need carry above or at least a C average in all your classes. Nurses go through an extensive amount of training. They have a bunch of classroom studying and hands on training. All in all nurses are very well trained persons.

In conclusion, if you like to nurture individuals and take care of them then you would be an exceptional nurse. You need to first realize that it is going to take a lot of studying and very hard work on your part. You need to know first hand if you can handle the stress and the hard work it take to become a nurse. Anyone who wants to become a nurse needs to make sure they can handle the site of blood and needles, because a nurse encounters these on a daily basis. All jobs in today’s world have many advantages and disadvantages. There is no one job that is perfect but in the nursing career you have to try your hardest and almost always be right.

Work Cited

“U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics”. Office of Occupational Statistics and Employment Projections. 27 Feb. 2004. 26 Jan. 2005 http://stat.bls.gov/oco/ocoso83.htm

“U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics”. U.S. Department of Labor, Occupational Outlook Handbook.

Homepage 2005-2005 edition. 26 Jan 2005 http://www.science.education.nih.gov/lifeworks.nsf/alphabetical+list/nurse