What do nurses do, exactly?

The nursing profession is as diverse and varied as the hundreds of thousands of people who call themselves nurses. The most common title among nurses is “Registered Nurse.” These are the people you meet with at a doctor’s office before seeing the actual doctor himself. They do everything form take blood pressure to cleaning up medications, fluids, or stool. Still others are responsible for bathing and assisting longer-term patients; and an entire group of nurses travel to patients’ homes and provide various types and levels of care there.

More specialized nurses sometimes work in administrative capacities, advising a hospital about its departments and looking to eliminate inefficiencies, medical errors, and lost productivity. They consult with management to ensure the hospital is operating in its best shape, using extensive graduate-level education and specialized training to improve their departments.

How do I become a nurse?

The first step toward becoming a nurse is to enroll in an accredited college or university with a nursing program. Students can opt to enroll in a two-year program and earn their Associate’s Degree in Nursing (ADN), although this degree is generally less broad and more limited than a four-year degree. That four-year degree is known as the BSN, or Bachelor’s of Science in Nursing. It covers everything from medications and diagnostics to patient care and psychology. it generally has the broadest reach and the best post-graduate employment prospects attached to it.

All ADN or BSN degree candidates will be required to take the NCLEX-RN certification exam before they are permitted to legally practice as nurses. This exam is often considered more difficult than the undergraduate coursework itself, so preparation should begin the moment a student enters their undergraduate career.

For many positions, that’s all the education required to pursue a career as a nurse. For advanced practice nurses, clinical nursing specialists, and nurse practitioners (among others), graduate education is required. These programs are an additional two or three years of study, sometimes with a second certification exam at the end. They do, however, raise both the candidate’s employment prospects as well as their lifetime earnings in the nursing field.

Where do nurses generally work?

Nurse are typically thought to be on the front lines in America’s biggest hospitals, and it’s true that hospitals employ scores of nurses that work 24 hours a day. But the nursing profession is far to broad to be contained simply in hospitals. Many nurses opt to work for family health clinics or smaller, private practices with just a few doctors. Not everyone is cut out for the fast-paced life of an emergency room nurse, so these private practices provide a more more manageable alternative.

Still other nurses work in assisted living facilities and nursing home. These nurses are responsible for ensuring the wellbeing of their aging patients, through administering medications, bathing and cleaning the patients, and simply checking up on them and greeting them with a smile. It is, again, a slower-paced environment, but one that is increasing in size and scope as America’s population ages.

Finally, home health nurses don’t work in one place at all; these nurses travel to disabled or long-term recovering patients’ homes and provide care on location. They patch wounds, assist with physical therapy and injury recovery, and do most of their other business while on the road between locations. It’s a demanding job that covers many miles, but it, too, is a fast-growing part of the profession.

What is the job outlook like within the nursing field?

It’s no secret that America’s health insurance and medical industries are booming, and that means that the number of jobs available for nursing professionals is constantly on the increase. Depending on a nurse’s exact education, title, speciality, and the type of environment they wish to work in, the profession is expected to grow by between 25 and nearly 50 percent over the next ten years.

Registered nurses alone make up a staggering 560,000 people nationwide, with their numbers expected to grow the fastest — by up to 48 percent through the rest of the current decade. That means roughy 500,000 new positions over the course of ten years, and that’s just one facet of a very diverse field. In short, the job outlook is remarkably good, even in a shaky economy.

While entry level registered nurses can expect to start their career with a respectable salary of $54,000 per year in the United States, the earning potential for advanced nurses and those with extensive graduate-level education can easily exceed $150,000 per year and even head toward $200,000 annually. The nursing profession, like so many others, is what you make of it. More education and hard work will result in appropriately higher salaries over the course of a typical career in the nursing field.