3 answers
302
Questions
3 answers
Updated
Blake’s Answer
To help care for other's health and well being.
Updated
Rohit’s Answer
There are a variety of reasons. Main reasons for pursuing Nursing include:
Stability: As a career, Nursing is a job that is unlikely to disappear. Wherever you go in the world, there is always going to be a need for nursing care.
Schedule: In a hospital setting, Nurses generally have the opportunity to work 12-hour shifts. This is long and arduous, but it also means that you can work 3 days per week. I've encountered many Nurses who tell me about how they'll manipulate their schedule to take a 7-8 day vacation without using a single vacation day.
Trust: Year after year, the most trusted profession in the United States is Nursing, followed very closely by Doctors.
People (Patients): On TV, you'll often see medical dramas of Doctors spending hours per day with patients, inserting IVs and giving medications. This literally doesn't happen. Doctors are brilliant, and many of them are amazing and personable individuals, but they are far too busy to spend much time with patients. In a given day, a patient will get 10-15 minutes with their doctor. For the other 23 hours and 45 minutes of the day, YOU are the patient's link to the entire hospital. You interpret every medical term, you educate them about their plan of care, you assess them constantly to catch problems before they become problems, you support their constitution to prevent complications, and you advocate for their well-being.
The Nurse is the first contact on admission, the main educator and assessor, and the most equipped advocate. I exist to make sure you get what you need, and to ensure that your voice is heard.
Stability: As a career, Nursing is a job that is unlikely to disappear. Wherever you go in the world, there is always going to be a need for nursing care.
Schedule: In a hospital setting, Nurses generally have the opportunity to work 12-hour shifts. This is long and arduous, but it also means that you can work 3 days per week. I've encountered many Nurses who tell me about how they'll manipulate their schedule to take a 7-8 day vacation without using a single vacation day.
Trust: Year after year, the most trusted profession in the United States is Nursing, followed very closely by Doctors.
People (Patients): On TV, you'll often see medical dramas of Doctors spending hours per day with patients, inserting IVs and giving medications. This literally doesn't happen. Doctors are brilliant, and many of them are amazing and personable individuals, but they are far too busy to spend much time with patients. In a given day, a patient will get 10-15 minutes with their doctor. For the other 23 hours and 45 minutes of the day, YOU are the patient's link to the entire hospital. You interpret every medical term, you educate them about their plan of care, you assess them constantly to catch problems before they become problems, you support their constitution to prevent complications, and you advocate for their well-being.
The Nurse is the first contact on admission, the main educator and assessor, and the most equipped advocate. I exist to make sure you get what you need, and to ensure that your voice is heard.
Updated
Richard’s Answer
Nursing is a great career. They have an opportunity to make an impact on the lives of patients during their most vulnerable times in their lives. After obtaining a nursing degree, there are so many pathways open to nurses: jobs in hospitals or clinics, working with critically ill patients or providing preventative care for healthy people, working in procedure oriented specialties such as surgery or cardiology, management or clinical medicine, even pursuing advanced degrees such as becoming a nurse practitioner or CRNA.