Career in Nursing Professions with Endless Golden opportunities

The World Health Organization, along with key partners including International Confederation of Midwives (ICM), International Council of Nurses (ICN), Nursing Now has declared 2020 as the Year of the Nurse and Midwife! As we celebrate the 200th anniversary of the birth of Florence Nightingale, the goals of the year include celebrating our contributions to improve global health; acknowledging, appreciating and addressing the challenging conditions we face; and advocating for increased investments in our workforce. 

WHO: State of the World's Nursing 2020

“One thing that has become inherently clear during the COVID-19 pandemic is the value of nurses in health care. Our contributions as care providers, patient advocates, researchers, and educators have never been more important than they are right now. The WHO’s State of the World’s Nursing 2020 provides a framework to build our profession to be strong, adaptable and innovative to meet the changing health needs of people and optimize their health.”

Key Focusing Points About Nursing Profession:

• Nursing is one of the most trusted professions in the world.
• Nurses can choose a wide range of specialties from available courses.
• Qualifications range from a 2-year diploma course to a PhD, depending on the role. Most nurses begin with a science degree.
• Training can take from 6 month to 12 months, depending on the desired course criteria.
• There is an ongoing need for nurses, resulting in good job security, a competitive salary, and a range of professional opportunities.

Importance of Nursing Profession:

Today, the public’s reassessment of the nurse’s vital role in healthcare delivery is once again making nursing an attractive and rewarding career choice. Nursing will be taken more seriously as an essential profession as our demographics change. More nurses are now entering the profession later in life, transitioning from other areas of work and bringing maturity, strength, and new perspectives.

Nursing is the kind of job where we usually don’t have to take work home with us, though we may have to stay overtime and will certainly take-home emotional baggage, at least on occasion.

To become a nurse, you must have a genuine interest in the wellness of others, and it is a career that requires giving time and attention to people.

Nursing jobs, no matter what level, involve being hands-on healthcare professionals who have an opportunity to help someone feel better. Nurses can promote good health habits, prevent disease, and teach better living for longer lives. They can lend an understanding ear and a shoulder to cry on when a devastating illness threatens the strength of a family. Nurses also are advocates of health in their own communities.

The field of nursing is booming, and there will be nursing jobs available for the foreseeable future.

Getting to the Next-level Opportunity

Once someone has been in the nursing field for a while, at any level, they may want to acquire new skills and responsibilities and opportunities for increased pay. There are always “next level” opportunities to aspire to in the nursing profession.

For instance, Registered Nurse who want to become Specialist Nurse can find a bridge program at their local college or online to help them achieve that goal. Program lengths vary, and some have minimum requirements for entering in the program of Specialist Nurse.

Nursing Specialties in Demand:

Once you are a professional nurse, you might choose to focus on a particular specialty. 

There are numerous specialty options and each have own education/certification requirements and related professional organization.

You are not restricted to working in a hospital or doctor’s office. You can work in places such as schools, University, Military bases, Colleges, Infection Control Departments, Multi-National Companies. It depends on your preferences and skills.

Some of the top specialties in demand like:

Nursing Teacher:

Nursing Academic Faculty:

Nursing teachers are in high demand as schools struggle to find enough instructors for their nursing programs. There are two components to a nursing education first is Classroom instruction focuses on academic knowledge, such as medical terminology, and second is clinical instruction focuses on putting knowledge to work in a practicum setting.

Nurse educators serve as faculty members in nursing schools and teaching hospitals, sharing their knowledge and skills to prepare the next generation of nurses for effective practice. They:

• Develop lesson plans
• Teach courses
• Evaluate educational programs
• Oversee students’ clinical practice
• Serve as role models

They may teach general courses or focus on areas of specialization, such as geriatric nursing, pediatric nursing or nursing informatics. Nurse educators must stay current with new nursing methods and technologies, which keeps them on the leading edge of clinical practice.

Nurse Administrator:

A career in nurse administration carries a great deal of responsibility but can be extremely rewarding. The role of a Nurse Administrator can mean a variety of different things depending on the healthcare institution. Most commonly, Nurse Administrator refers to a Nurse In Charge like Nursing Superintendent. Nurse Administrators create schedules for employees, give annual performance reviews, and help create policies within the unit. 

Infection Control Nurse: 

Job demand will increase in every year as Government make rules to get Accreditation for each Hospitals whether they are providing Primary Care, Secondary Care and Tertiary Care.An infection control nurse is a nurse that specializes in preventing the spread of infectious agents, such as viruses and bacteria. As an infection control nurse, you will have a hand in preventing dangerous outbreaks and epidemics.

Trauma Nurse:

Trauma nurses care for people with critical, often life-threatening injuries. These injuries include auto accidents, blunt or sharp trauma such as falls or stabbings, work accidents, electrocutions, burns, and many more. Trauma nurses are also some of the first responders of the emergency department (ED) team to care for victims of self-inflicted injuries and violent crimes.

Trauma nurses are usually assigned to the critical area of the ED where they’re prepared to care for anyone received via emergency transport. They work in tandem with emergency services crews, ED physicians, trauma surgeons, and many others. Their goal is to stabilize the patient and help them survive with the best possible outcome.

Critical Care Nurse:

Job demand will increase in every year.Critical care nursing is the field of Nursing with a focus on the utmost care of the critically ill or unstable patients following extensive injury, surgery or life-threatening diseases. Critical care nurses can be found working in a wide variety of environments and specialties, such as general in Intensive care units, medical intensive care units, surgical intensive care units, trauma intensive care units, coronary care units, Cardiothoracic intensive care units.

These specialists generally take care of critically ill patients who require mechanical ventilation by way of endotracheal intubation and intravenous medications.

Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) Nurse:

It takes a special person to become a nurse, but that's even more true for those who go on to become Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) nurses. These dedicated professionals care for the most fragile patients there are–sick and premature new born. In addition, they are on the front lines when it comes to helping scared parents through what is often a traumatic experience.

According to the National Association of Neonatal Nurses (NANN), there are approximately 40,000 low-birth-weight infants born each year in the United States. Thanks to advances in medicine, highly skilled NICU nurses, and other healthcare professionals, survival rates are improving. In fact, the survival rate is now 10 times better than it was 15 years ago.

Paediatric Nurse:

Becoming a nurse is truly taking on a career in caring, perhaps even more so for those who decide to specialize in paediatrics. These admirable nurses provide care to children from the time they are infants, through childhood, until they are adolescents. Because there are so many conditions and issues that are specific to growing and developing bodies, paediatric nursing requires specialized knowledge to provide the best patient care.

In addition, being a paediatric nurse means that you’ll have to know how to handle the sensitivities and limitations of the age of the patient you’re caring for. You’ll have to be a great communicator with a comforting bedside manner who can inform and educate worried parents. Helping children to grow up big and strong is really at the heart of what paediatric nurses do every day, making it an important career for a healthy population.

Medical-Surgical Nurse:

The growth outlook is expected to increase 30 percent through 2020. Medical-surgical nursing is the single largest nursing specialty in the world. Registered nurses in this specialty practice primarily on hospital units and care for adult patients who are acutely ill with a wide variety of medical problems and diseases or are recovering from surgery.

Recovery Room Nurse:

The demand for these nurses is expected to jump up to 48 percent as doctors open their own surgical Hospitals. Perioperative nursing is a dynamic and challenging field that offers many opportunities for learning and professional growth. Perioperative nursing spans nursing care before, during, and right after surgical and diagnostic procedures.

Perioperative nurses are also known as Surgical or Operating Room (OR) nurses. They provide pre- and post-op teaching, perform various roles in the operating room, care for patients in the recovery room (post-anesthesia care unit (PACU)), and provide post-surgical care on medical-surgical units.

Diabetes Nurse educator:   

The demand likely will jump 39 percent since the disease is one of the fastest growing.A diabetes nurse educator is a nurse who specializes in the care and management of patients with diabetes. They can be registered nurses, advanced-practice nurses, or nurses working in an expanded role. 

They can manage patients with both Type I and Type II diabetes, as well as women with gestational diabetes. Diabetes education can be one on one with patients, or via a group class.These additional responsibilities often include adjusting the type and dosage of medication, providing nutritional therapy and exercise planning, and providing behavioral and psychosocial counselling.

Psychiatric Nurse:

The demand for all types of nurse practitioners is increasing, so studying to become a psychiatric nurse practitioner is a viable option. It takes a special form of caring to be a psychiatric (psych), nurse. People with mental health issues rely on psych nurses to manage their complex physical and emotional needs. Psych nursing is a fulfilling career that offers variety and new challenges each day. Psych nurses work with children, teens, and adults of all ages. They are skilled in treating anxiety, depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, and substance abuse, to name a few.

Dermatology Nurse:

Dermatology nurses work specifically in the treatment of patients with diseases, wounds, injuries, and other skin conditions.

Labor & Delivery Nurse:

Labor and delivery (L&D) nurses are unique among the different types of nurses because they have a very specific job: to help deliver healthy babies and get moms through the process safely. In essence, they are doing what some might consider the most important nursing job of all — bringing new lives into this world.

Military Nurse:

Military nursing shares many similarities to civilian nursing, in which the common goal is to treat patients and promote their well-being. However, military nursing is a career under starkly different circumstances. Military nurses might work at military bases, military hospitals, and clinics.

Oncology Nurse:

Oncology nurses care for people of all ages who are diagnosed with cancer. Oncology is a challenging field in which nurses support patients, families, and caregivers through the stress of diagnosis and treatment, and the anxiety of many uncertainties brought on by the disease, including facing mortality.

As an oncology nurse, you’ll be on a path of career-long learning that offers challenges, financial rewards, and professional growth. If you have a desire to get to know patients and the nuances of their needs and care, oncology nursing may be a good career choice. You’ll often have the chance to develop deep relationships with people as you care for them throughout their cancer journey. 

CATH Lab. Nurse:

The cardiac catheterization lab is an examination area of the hospital that specializes in procedures that allow doctors to visualize specific aspects of the heart. Cardiac catheterizations can be used strictly for diagnostic reasons or for invasive procedures that do not require operating rooms.

The CATH Lab. nurse assists the team in the performing of the catheterizations. They will monitor and exam the patient prior to the procedure, during and after, as well as administer medications for the procedure, and assist the medical team in whatever they may need during the procedure.

Travel Nurse:

With more and more nurses wanting to travel the country and still work in a profession they love, travel nursing has become increasingly popular. It offers guaranteed shifts at a higher pay while Travelling a new city. The most important element to becoming a travel nurse is experience. Most travel agencies and hospitals require nurses to have a minimum of two years of nursing experience prior to applying for travel nursing contracts. 

School Nurse:

A school nurse works with school-aged children in a school setting. School nurses have a variety of responsibilities and are a vital part of the educational system. This career guide will take a closer look at all aspects of school nurses and help guide individuals interested in following this path of nursing.

Students experiencing illness or injury during the school day or at after-school activities will report to the school nurse for further care. School nurses are responsible for assessing these students and determining if a higher level of care is needed.

Written by:

Dr. Praveen Bajpai

Director of Ingenious Healthcare Consultants Pvt. Ltd.
Founder of Skill Sathi

MBA in Hospital administration, PG Diploma in Quality Accreditation, PG Diploma in Medico Legal System, M. Phil in Hospital Mgmt. from BITS Pilani, P.hD in Management, Certified NABH Auditor, Certified NABL Auditor, Certified Auditor for Clinical Audits, Green Belt in Six Sigma, Certified in Hospital Infection Control Practices, Certified trainer for International Patient Safety Goals, Certified Auditor for JCI 7th Edition Standards 

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