With increase in demand of medical services, studying to be a nurse can be an ideal career option. The nursing job requires both technical and practical knowledge. Studying to be a nurse may be harder but the career opportunities ahead of nursing course are tremendous. Today universities offer many programmes to study nursing. The nursing job involves helping people and is the most respectable job.
Prerequisites for Nursing
If you are planning for nursing career you should be well aware about certain points such as where to start the study, how to apply, what are the career prospects, and what are the colleges offering these courses. The minimum qualification to qualify for nursing is high school. The main subjects in your high school should be chemistry, biology, and English. Most of the colleges conduct entrance examinations for admissions in their nursing schools. Also, they consider your academic records. Since nursing career involves hard work and intelligence, the colleges offering admissions prefer to take creamy layer students. You need to have excellent high school knowledge. Thus, hard works in your high school academics will open doors for you as a nurse. When you are preparing for the entrance examinations of a particular nursing college, it would be beneficial for you to have a word with some instructor or senior student of that college about the level of the paper. This will help you to prepare for entrance exam in right way. It would be a better idea to research online for nursing entrance paper to practise for your entrance exams.
Nursing Courses
Once you have decided to be a nurse, now you have to choose the nursing course you want to pursue. Selecting a specific course for studying to be a nurse depends entirely on your goals.
As a start for studying to be a nurse, you need enrol yourself for the Certified Nursing Assistant (CNA) program. This program is of six to twelve weeks. This course will teach you basics of medical science. With this course, you can work as a nursing aide. This involves basic tasks such as taking blood of the patient and patient care assistants. A CNA works under the supervision of the nurse.
Here is the list of some of the courses available:
· Vocational Training Nurse: This course is of almost 1 year and involves both classroom training and clinical practise. In classroom training you acquire fundamental skills and in clinical training you will get a chance to train under experienced nurses and physicians. This will be a great opportunity to start your career immediately. Once you complete your vocational training, you need to obtain a licence for nursing. This licence is obtained by passing a competency test developed by the boards of nursing in your region. As a licensed vocational nurse (LVN) you will be involved in services such as take vital signs, wound care, and administer injections. After studying to be a nurse in vocational training involves basically taking care of patients, they can easily get job anywhere in the world. Moreover as per time schedule they want because nursing requires 24/7 assistance to the patients. Vocational training course is just a beginning for higher studying to be a nurse.
After studying to be a nurse as LVN you need to apply for Registered Nurse (RN) degree. There are two types of RN degrees to choose, viz, Assistant Degree Nurse (ADN) or Bachelor of Science Nurse Degree (BSN).
· ADN and BSN program: The ADN degree is of 2 years. This is also nursing career achiever but is less paid than BSN program. You can enrol yourself in bachelor’s degree in nursing, i.e. Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BSN) program. For entrance in BSN you need to have associate degree or diploma in nursing. This is a 4year program and is highly competitive. This program opens doors for big opportunities and higher salaries. Before enrolling in any of these courses, you must enrol in the colleges or universities which are accredited by Nursing Accrediting Commission.
Either of the program you opt, you need to pass National Licensing examination of your state or region. Once you are a Registered Nurse (RN), you get variety of options while working such as operating rooms and health clinic. The RN’s are highly paid and their salary increases at much higher pace with experience.
· Once you complete your BSN and want an advanced level in nursing, you can pursue Masters of Science in Nursing (MSN) program. The RN should pursue the MSN program for career growth. MSN is the advanced level of RN. With advance programs you can choose to become a specialized nurse, i.e. in specialized fields such as midwives, anaesthesiologists, nurse practitioners, and surgical nurses. Once you own get the license of nursing, you qualify for the titles of vocational nurses, registered nurses, and practical nurses.
The need for doctoral program in nursing continues to be a major concern. As more and more PhD nurses are required, their numbers remain less. The basic reasons is that the as women are involved in family care, most of the RN prefer to start their clinical practises and they don’t even think of continuing education.
Many online programs are also available for nursing career. You can get technical knowledge from online courses and you need go to practising your nursing.
When you are studying to be a nurse, the teachers teaching you are generally the experienced nurses who are trained educators. Generally the subject taught in studying to be a nurse are chemistry, nutrition, anatomy, behavioural sciences, psychology, physiology, nutrition, and microbiology.
Things to remember while studying to be a Nurse
· Once you get admission in nursing school, the first thing you require is to be prepared. You should be mentally prepared of the hard work you are going to spend. A nursing career involves their devotion of holidays, festivals, and even at times their family. If you have kids, better arrange for a baby-sitter. As of the stationary items you should have stock of highlighters, pen, and notepad. A computer is a must for your studying to be a nurse.
· You need to be organized in your study time. Be up to mark on your revision works. Keep your nursing tools well and clean in place. Always plan “To do task” list on daily basis.
· It will be a good idea and a great support for you to study in groups and consult your senior nurses for help. Study in groups will help you to find solution and even the problems of many cases which you or your group would have handled. Medical services come with experience of the people. As you come to know more about cases and their solutions, your brain will brush up for the cases you may handled in future.
· At times you may feel overwhelmed, boost up yourself and remember that the nurses on respectable post also went through this stage. You may also face some issues with your clinical instructor. The best way is to always use the clinical instructor’s words as their experience. A positive approach while studying to be a nurse will make you achieve your goal.
· Don’t always book yourself in books. Instead, read about the outside world may be the achievements and cases going on in the nursing profession.
· Connect with other nurses even with the nurses of different states and countries with help of internet. This will help you to gain knowledge of what they are learning and experiencing.
Most of the people think that nurses are just an assistant to the doctors. And thus they get themselves back from studying to be a nurse. However, this thinking needs to be changed. People studying to be a nurse have a great contribution in medical sciences. Their profession is taking care, maintaining health of individual. They play an important role in saving life. We should thanks Florence Nightingale for her tremendous contribution to the foundation of nursing. She plays a role model to the students studying to be a nurse. Every student who is studying to be a nurse should follow or even once read her theories and principles. This will be a great inspiration for them.
Studying to be a nurse should be taken seriously as it involves with the life of individual. For patients, nurses are next to GOD. They have strong belief in doctors as well as nurses. A nurse is found in every field. From taking care of employees in a company they have great contribution in taking care of soldiers in the battlefield. Your decision for studying to be a nurse can be a life safer for so many individuals.
