What are my Career Options with a Nursing Degree?

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When looking into nursing career options, you want to keep your sights wider than you are told. The options in nursing can be vast. Nurses are in high demand and with chronic disease conditions, obesity and the population getting older, the demand for nurses is expected to grow about 19% from 2012 to 2022, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

When many people think of nurses, they might think primarily of hospital settings. The hospital is not the only environment that needs nurses. Nursing career options cannot only be in hospitals, but can also be found in doctor’s offices, home healthcare, nursing care facilities, correctional facilities, schools or they can even serve in the military.

What Does a Nurse do?

Nurses will deal and communicate with many different types of people and their families. They deal with their healthcare team and work together to provide healthcare in their places of employment, whether it is a hospital or specialized facility.

A nurse duties are to record the history and symptoms of the patients, administer treatment and medicines, observe the patient, consult with doctors and other healthcare professionals, teach patients and their family members how to manage and prevent conditions, and communicate how to perform at home after care once they leave the facility.

Some Registered Nurses will combine their education and skills for specialized fields such as oncology, pediatrics, critical care, neonatal, rehabilitation and more. They may have to extend their education and experience levels to work in a specialized area of nursing.

Some of the courses that a new student will take include fundamentals of nursing, anatomy, medical terminology, physiology, chemistry, nutrition, biology, critical thinking, communication, medical law, practicum, labs and videos and lectures on conditions and procedures. There may also be behavioral health and psychology classes. Once the education required is completed, the student will be able to take examinations for licensing and certification. There are scores that must be acquired in order to pass and become licensed. There is a national examination and a state board examination that must be passed in order to become licensed as a nurse. A student will want to check into the requirements to ensure readiness at education completion.

Education

While an associate’s degree is required for entry-level positions for a nursing career, a bachelor’s degree will open many more doors in nursing career options. The median salary range for a nurse is $64,000 per year and can go up to $94,000 per year or more. This depends on region, level of education, experience and employer. A nurse can also get better healthcare medical plans to cover their own medical needs.

A nursing career is physically demanding with many long hours on their feet, lots of walking, bending, stooping and heavy lifting and working 12-hour shifts or more. It is also mentally demanding having critical thinking skills and impeccable communication skills. A nurse must know medical terminology very well and work with extreme accuracy. You have plenty of opportunity, if you have the patience and the talent to keep on going.