On the surface, nursing seems to focus on providing patient care in a clinical setting. However, many nurses perform other duties for patients. Nurses can become educators, leaders, and caregivers. They can also choose specialties to unlock more roles within the healthcare industry, adding to the motivation to become a nurse.
What Motivates You to Become a Nurse?
While helping others is at the heart of all nursing careers, there are additional reasons that you may choose this profession. Some reasons are practical; for example, many people pursue nursing because the degree can be completed more quickly than some other healthcare professions. Some of the other motivations for becoming a nurse include:
To Make a Difference in People’s Lives
Many nurses work directly with patients and provide hands-on care, which improves their quality of life. In addition to providing physical care, nursing professionals can offer mental, emotional, and even spiritual support to patients by communicating empathetically. Nurses who lend a listening ear can help patients feel heard, plus they can take requests and implement them so that patients are more comfortable with their treatment plan.
However, not all nurses work directly with patients, and many nurses make decisions and implement changes to help others on a broader level. For example, public health nurses often make a difference for their communities by advocating for better healthcare and health-related resources. Public health nurses also work to educate people to make good decisions about their health, which also improves many lives.
A Commitment to Lifelong Learning
All nurses must be lifelong learners to provide care, education, and research for the healthcare community. For nurses who work directly with patients, knowing how to use innovations in caregiving is essential. For example, new medical devices are constantly being created, and it is up to nurses to learn how to use these devices and share that knowledge with their colleagues.
Nurses work with technology every day, so those who enjoy learning about and using new technology can excel in a nursing career. Different healthcare facilities may use different technology and documentation systems, so nurses may need to learn how to use those systems. How familiar are you with medical system software?
To Be Team Players
Nurses are part of a larger healthcare team so they must know how to communicate with other team members to provide the best care for their patients. Nurses working in clinical settings may work with other nurses, doctors, surgeons, nursing assistants and other allied health providers. The nurses who become nursing educators must be able to collaborate with other educators, supervisors, and instructional assistants.
Sometimes, a nurse may act as a liaison between team members when providing patient updates during rounds. For example, a nurse can communicate with other departments of a hospital campus to address their patient’s needs or questions. Additionally, a nurse can help patients contact their other healthcare team members to obtain medical records, make post-discharge appointments, or to find a specialist.
To Have Job Security
Becoming a nurse is an excellent opportunity for those who want job security as nursing is an in-demand career. A quick internet search demonstrates the significant number of job openings across the country. Nurses can also choose from various settings and specialties, giving them many options regarding their work environment. For example, some of the top locations for nurses are hospitals, outpatient clinics, doctor’s offices, schools and universities, and the military and government facilities.
To Unlock Opportunities for Career Growth
Career advancements are available for nurses who want to pursue further education. Many certifications are available to nurses who complete additional training in a particular nursing sector, such as emergency care. By achieving certification, you can expand your opportunities for career advancements since many higher-level nursing jobs prefer or require such certifications. Pursuing a degree in health services administration or nursing education also opens new opportunities for growth and advancement.
Another way nurses can advance their careers is by becoming nurse practitioners. Nurse practitioners are in demand and becoming a nurse practitioner (NP) allows nurses to expand their practice as a primary care provider by making diagnoses, prescribing medications, and having a closer relationship with patients. To become a Nurse Practitioner, you would need to pursue higher nursing education and gain a post-graduate degree. which is offered at Florida National University (FNU).
To Have Work Flexibility
Many nurses enjoy flexible work schedules, whether they choose to work full-time or part-time. Typically, nurses work more hours a day than the average eight-hour workday but also work fewer days each week. For example, a nurse who works in a hospital may work 12-hour shifts but only work three or four days a week. In other cases, nurses can work on an on-call basis in which they do not have a set schedule and instead come to their workplaces only as needed. Travel nurses might also have varying schedules depending on their locations and what each location needs to staff the medical facility.
To Gain Specialization Opportunities
Nurses can gain many types of specialization by either getting experience in a specialized area of healthcare or getting a certificate in a specialization. However, many nurses find a specialization by taking on roles in different medical areas and then choosing the area that they enjoy working in. Nursing specialists can be consulted by other nurses for assistance in their areas of expertise, or they may lead continuing education classes for others to share their expert knowledge.
Some nursing specializations have set education and clinical hour requirements to complete, like a nurse practitioner certificate program, while others do not. In some cases, a nurse who works for many years in one area of healthcare, like pediatrics, can become a specialist simply through experience. For those wanting an official specialist title, gaining certification in a specialization is an option, and there are many certifications offered by organizations like the American Nurses Credentialing Center. Just a few of these include certifications in ambulatory care nursing care, cardiac vascular nursing, nursing professional development, pain management nursing, and psychiatric-mental health nursing.
To Hold Ever-Changing Responsibilities
Each day is different, regardless of what roles a nurse may have. For clinical nurses, every day brings new patients. For nursing educators, each day brings new lessons and new students to teach.
Nurses’ responsibilities may also regularly change. For example, a clinical nurse could work as a patient caregiver one day and then alongside a surgeon for a procedure the next. For nurses who choose to become researchers, their research topics will change frequently as new innovations in healthcare are discovered and created.
To Start Working in Healthcare Quickly
Most nurses can become licensed nurses by completing a 2-year associate degree program. After gaining licensure, nurses can begin working in their new careers immediately. There are many career possibilities for entry-level nurses, ranging from medical and surgical care nurses to intensive care nurses, occupational health nurses, school nurses, and hospice nurses.
Eager to Learn More?
The purpose of the Associate of Science in Nursing program at Florida National University is to provide quality nursing education to a culturally, socially, and ethnically diverse community. The program achieves this mission by preparing the graduates for employment at entry-level registered nursing positions. The program further achieves this mission by ensuring mastery of affective, cognitive, and psychomotor skills so that its graduates can become successful licensed registered nurses who are able to provide holistic, safe, culturally sensitive care to a wide variety of clients throughout the lifespan.
Let Florida National University answer your questions about our healthcare programs. Contact us today to learn more about our Nursing Degree and Post-Graduate Certificate programs.
