Nursing is a profession where healthcare workers or nurses are hired to take care of sick, unhealthy, and ill people to administer them with medicines, injections, and prescribed treatments. Nursing is a very sensitive profession because the lives of physically and mentally ill patients depend on care, medicine, and emotional support provided by health care workers or a nurse.
Scope of Nursing
The health care profession is growing faster than any other profession, and the scope of nursing is expanding with time. Nurses play a very important role in health care organizations because the care related to the patient in every aspect is a responsibility of the nurse. A nurse is responsible for patient dressing, bathing, meal management, dosage administration, patient electronic record maintenance, etc. The demand for registered nurses is increasing rapidly daily because of their skills relevant to healthcare which cannot be compromised or ignored.
This profession needs perfection and has zero percent tolerance for mistakes as the patient’s life is at risk. Hence, nurses need to educate and upgrade them to attain positive patient outcomes and increase their competency and expertise. Another reason for upgrading their skills is new clinical data are being added day by day, technology advancement, use of robotic devices, so a nurse should also enhance their skills to meet the new challenges. All this can happen if nurses increase their skills to be effective nurses. There are many essential nursing skills that a good, competent, and responsible nurse must have to develop to perform several responsibilities and functions that are assigned to them.
Problem-Solving Ability
Sometimes there is an emergency, and nurses have to make quick and safe decisions to save the patient’s life. Critical thinking helped nurses assess a patient’s vital signs and determine the causes responsible for poor health conditions.
Prioritization of the Tasks
Nurses should know how to prioritize the tasks. Those nurses who have the skill on which patient and what time they have to focus more will increase their value in the hospital/healthcare system. They must have knowledge of which patient needs extra care and what task should be performed first.
Good Communication Skills
Good communication is a tool to win the heart of patients and their family members. Sometimes the quality of hospital care is very good, but just because of poor communication of healthcare workers, patients never visit that place again. A nurse can improve communication skills by becoming a good listener, avoiding non-verbal signals, focusing on the patient’s perspective, avoiding distraction, and respecting patients’ culture, opinion, literacy, values.
Passion for Growing
Passion for growing is the key to success. In nursing, two days are not always the same because there is a new challenge and new area to work on every day, so it helps nurses grow continuously. Nurses have to advance their education to fit in the space because old nurses are not aware of technology but have a good experience. If they want to pursue their career, they have to do a master’s degree in MSN after BSN. These days advanced practice registered nurses (APRNs) are in heavy demand. MSN degree is best for nurses as it gives leaders to the nursing department. This degree helps the student to excel as APR. This degree is for those willing to learn and develop new ideas and advance their job.
Patient Care
To be an effective nurse, patient care should be on priority. If a nurse is not caring for a patient properly, it does not matter how much education and experience a nurse has. A great nurse will take care of the patient like a child and show concern and compassion with every individual patient. A good nurse will be supportive and give space to patients to feel free and confident to share their problems.
A nurse must show serious concern towards how to administer medication, keep an eye on symptoms alleviation, maintain an accurate record of the patient, have a knowledge of patient history, conduct diagnostic tests carefully, do a physical examination, help patients to manage illness, know how to communicate with other staff about the patient illness.
A nurse also knows how to operate a wide variety of medical equipment in patient care like a blood pressure machine, thermometer, pulse oximeter, stethoscope, glucometer, etc.
Career Paths
There are many career pathways for nurses to provide direct or indirect patient care, from nursing school to cardiac care. There are some career pathways for nurses and salaries per year.
- Certified Nursing Assistant (CNA) or Patient Care Tech (PCTs), they work under the assistance of a nurse. The expected salary is $30,000.
- Licensed Practical Nurse (LPN) is a nurse with a certificate or diploma from an approved college. The expected salary is $48,520.
- Registered Nurse (RN) with a Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BSN) degree. The Expected salary is $75,250.
- Surgical Assistant Registered Nurse with a degree of BSN, work under the assistance of surgeons. The Expected salary is $100,500.
- Registered Nurse at Home Care with Associate’s Degree in Nursing (ADN) and BSN. The Salary expected is $52000.
- Registered Nurse in Emergency Care with a degree of BSN. The expected salary is $78,600.
- Manager Nurse with a degree of BSN who manages the nursing staff in the hospital. The salary expected is $66,000.
- A clinical Nurse supervisor with a degree of BSN and Master of Science in Nursing (MSN) supervises the nursing staff. The expected salary is $66,000.
- A Registered oncology nurse with a degree of BSN provides care to cancer patients. The expected salary is $77000.
- Nurse Specialist in Health Information with a BSN, MSN, and Health Management degree. The expected salary is $92,000.
- APRN is the degree of Advanced Practice Registered Nurse. The expected salary is $118,770.
- Nurse Educator and Nurse Practioner with a degree of MSN and doctor of nursing practice (DNP), educate other nurses and conduct training programs. The expected salary is $102,721.
In a Nutshell
In conclusion, we can say that the nursing profession is not like many other professions. It is a 24/7 job, so nurses have to think divergently. A good nurse is flexible and can adapt to changing situations. They have to assess and evaluate how the disease has affected the patient. Each patient needs extra care according to their medical condition, so nursing professionals need to excel in different career pathways to provide special care to save a patient’s life. To attain goals to be an effective nurse needs lots of effort and practice.