crna2be

Hi. My two cents, if you please. I am so glad you are proud to be a nurse. The way to hold on to that feeling (I have held it now for four years) is to find the clinical area you love and become an expert practitioner. You will continuously reap satisfaction knowing that you were able to help someone and maybe save their life. THere are challenges--days will come when you will wish you listened to your buddy and went into computer programming (no offense to any programmers ). But, nursing has made me a better person. I work with some of the gutsiest and most knowledgeable nurses--it's helped me tremendously. Good luck to you, Robert. Tell everyone you can about our profession--it's the way to break stereotypes and it is a foundation for change. Leni

Hi. Nursing is complex discipline that is grounded in psychology, sociology, pharmacy, physiology, pathology, biochemistry, mathematics and medicine. So, nurses use a variety of skills (not just technical) to help patients. You will need and will learn technical skills (how to do IVs, etc). You will also need and learn physical assessment skills and must be able to use them to help patients (for example, it's not enough to know that someone's heart rate became faster; you should anticipate why that is occuring (lack of hydration, heart attack, etc). You will need an understanding of how not only to work with people, but people who are sick and their families. There is a difference. That is why you take psych and sociology. Nurses need to familiar with certain technologies, and the clinical area you work in will dictate the level of technology. For example, I work in the Medical Intensive Care Unit, and I am responible for knowing how to use and troubleshoot certain machines (ventilators, invasive monitoring devices, defibrillator,etc). In a general sense, many hospitals are going computerized, and nurses may do their charting on computer. Hope this helps. Lenore