Understanding better Nursing

In order to be a nurse you have to be willing to put others before you. Your constantly taking care of people who are sick and they rely on you. Its a very rewarding job! It really takes a special person with compassion and love to become a nurse, well a GOOD one. I've seen many rude inconsiderate nurses that are there just for money. The responsibilities of a nurse kind of depend on where they work one in a nursing home would pass meds and do paperwork and a flight nurse would do something totally different. That's one great thing about nursing is there's several different career opportunities! In order to work in the united states as a nurse im pretty sure you need to get your papers. Alsso if you are considering going into nursing I suggest to become a CNA first.

OP, when you ask for help on a anonymous forum/message board you have no way of knowing that you'll get replies from actual nurses. Some may be nurses, some aren't.

You have many questions about nurses. Regarding the one about what kind of work nurses do, if you click on the yellow tab (top of the page) named "Specialties" you'll find useful information about a large number of areas a nurse can work in.

In order to be a nurse you have to be willing to put others before you. Your constantly taking care of people who are sick and they rely on you. Its a very rewarding job! It really takes a special person with compassion and love to become a nurse, well a GOOD one. I've seen many rude inconsiderate nurses that are there just for money. The responsibilities of a nurse kind of depend on where they work one in a nursing home would pass meds and do paperwork and a flight nurse would do something totally different. That's one great thing about nursing is there's several different career opportunities! In order to work in the united states as a nurse im pretty sure you need to get your papers. Alsso if you are considering going into nursing I suggest to become a CNA first.

Cassieann, from your description of a nurse's duties I assume you aren't a nurse?

I'd like to share my 2 cents on some of the points you brought up.

I agree that one of the advantages of the nursing profession is that it offers many different career paths/opportunities. You can work in many different capacities/contexts.

I don't think that you should put others before yourself. In order to be of any use to my patients I actually put myself first. If I don't get to take my meal and pee breaks on a regular basis, I won't function optimally. I take care of myself in order to be able to take care of others.

I'm not someone who'll sacrifice everything for my job. I work to live, I don't live to work. And I'm certainly in it for the money, I wouldn't work if I didn't get paid.

That said, I take immense pride in my profession and always strive to keep up with my continuing education so that I can provide the best care possible for my patients.

And yes, I do care about them and their wellbeing. Being a nurse I understand that it's not only how well I assess, carry out skills/duties and critically think that has a major impact on my patient's status, but also how I treat them one human being to another. Nursing is holistic.

To be a GOOD nurse you need above all to be competent. While love and compassion is nice, at the end of the day it's my knowledge and expertise that keeps my patients safe from harm.

Nursing can just as you say, be a very rewarding job. But it is also a tough job that can be both physically, intellectually and emotionally challenging at times.

To be acceoted into a nursing program you must be a high school graduate and have excellent grades. You need to aply to a college that has a nursing program. You have to take a TEAS test which I cant comment on since I never did that. You must maintain outstanding grades at all times. You can get an associate degree in 2 years ( I think) but its difficult to get a job with an associate degree. Its best to get a BSN which takes 4 years. Nursing school is difficult and requires a lot of study. Finding a job is difficult. Working as a nurse is diffic ult. But if you feel that this is your passion, then do it.salaries vary according to where you live. Your starting salary will vary between 20.00 hr to 40.00 an hour roughly.