Career in Nursing
A career can be defined as an occupation or profession undertaken for a distinct portion of a person’s life and with opportunities for progress. It is a person’s course or progress through life, therefore relating a career to a number of aspects of a person’s life, learning and work. Career is also usually understood to relate to the working aspects of an individual’s life that usually involves special training or formal education. In this case a career is viewed as a sequence of related jobs, usually pursued within a single industry or sector for example of “a career in education, or a career in the building trade. A career has been defined by organizational behavior researchers as an individual’s work-related and other relevant experiences, both inside and outside of organizations that form a unique pattern over the individual’s life span.
Career choice on the other hand, is the process of selecting a career path which can involve choices regarding education and training for a given career. Most individuals have an interest in certain career occupations. Such aspirations and preferences are formed early in life and are a prod uct of genetics, socioeconomic status, gender, person ality, and learning history. These early hopes and dreams are modified either positively and/or negatively by forces in society that act upon individuals as they make career-related decisions. A choice implies the completion of some actions or successful steps, and the attainment of a career is the final out come of the career choice process. Thus ca reer choices and career attainments are affected sub stantially by the limits and pressures of a limited labor market, as well as by other barriers and constraints that society imposes.
Every person has a reason why they decide to pursue a particular career option. Choosing to engage in the nursing career was out of two motivating factors: first, is the demand and market of the course with the need for professional nurses rising with the rising global population, this means that nurses are in order worldwide thus one can find work virtually in every part of the word. Secondly, is the feeling that it is an inner calling to help recovering patients have a comfortable life during their time of recover.
The family nursing program offers a wide range of skills. Caring of family members and friends when they got sick brought an inner satisfaction that led to choosing nursing as a career and also practice nursing in various medical institutions. While still young, taking care of grandmother whenever she was hospitalized several times, gave an insight as to what takes to care for the sick and even light a fire of admiration to the practitioners in the profession.
The family nursing career will also enable me to take good care of my aging parents since nurses are capable of providing sufficient care at home as private nurses to patients and old people. Nursing as a career involves dealing with people. This knowledge drives a lot of emotional satisfaction in knowing that you are there for people when they need you the most. The health sector is a field where motivated people can derive more emotional gratification since their work is evident in recovered patients and also the happy family members and friends who really appreciate the care accorded to their relatives and friends.
The countries population is rising rapidly, and thus in ten or more years to come, the rising population will require more people to take care of their sick people. The demand for nurses is also projected to increase due to the improved health care whose direct effect is the rise in the number of the aging population and hence increased demand for nurses taking care of our old people.
The choice of career opportunities offered by nursing has no limits as one can decide to work on a full-time basis, part-time basis or even on temporary employment basis anywhere in the world. The choice for career paths is also large and above all the remuneration in the nursing field is considerably good.
While formal training offers nurses with the technical knowhow needed to perform their duties, there are skills, known as soft skills that play a huge role in their success. Before deciding on whether to undertake this occupation, it is also a good idea to check whether one possess these personal characteristics. Nurses need service orientation, which means that they are willing to actively look for ways to help people. Nurses should also be socially aware of others’ reactions. Nurses must have good listening skills as well as speaking skills, be detail-oriented and have good organizational and critical thinking skills. Nurses should also be patient and emotionally stable. Nurses rely on a broad set of tools to do their jobs effectively, including: Thermometers, stethoscopes, blood pressure cuffs and other basic health monitoring tools, acute care monitoring units like scalp electrodes, fetal care monitors and bolometers, medical suction and vacuum appliances, including nasal-, oral- and tracheal-suctioning equipment, gastrointestinal, colonoscopy and other endoscopes, catheters and related intravenous tools Nurses must also be computer savvy and familiar with several software programs, among them: Medical software (IDX Systems), database programs (Epic, Misys Healthcare Systems, QuadraMed Affinity Healthcare Information Systems and Siemens SIENET Sky), office suites (Microsoft Office), Spreadsheets (Microsoft Excel), time accounting software (Kronos Workforce Timekeeper).
Being a nurse is not without its own challenges. It is a demanding profession requiring lots of dedication and commitment. One of the big issues facing nurses today is compensation. Regional differences are to be expected based on cost of living when it comes to nursing compensation. Nurses living in certain regions of the U.S. make much more than nurses in other regions, according to the Association of perioperative Registered Nurses organization. Nurses in the Pacific region earn about $18,000 more than the average staff nurse, for example. Next is the Mid-Atlantic region, where nurses make $14,800 more than average. Nurses in the East South Central region, however, make $4,300 less than average. Beyond regional differences in pay, nurse pay gaps also persist between genders. Male registered nurses earn, on average, upwards of $5,000 more than their female counterparts. The gender pay gap is present in all specialties except orthopedics, according to a study published in JAMA. Among nurse specialties, chronic care had the smallest gender pay gap, at $3,792, and cardiology had the highest gap, at $6,034.
Another major challenge nurses face is violent behavior while on the job, be it from patients or coworkers. Between 2012 and 2014, workplace violence injury rates increased for all healthcare job classifications and nearly doubled for nurse assistants and nurses, according to data from the Occupational Health Safety Network. A total of 112 U.S. facilities in 19 states reported 10,680 Occupational Safety and Health Administration-recordable injuries occurring from January 1, 2012, to September 30, 2014. There were 4,674 patient handling and movement injuries; 3,972 slips, trips and falls; and 2,034 workplace violence injuries.
Staffing is an issue of both professional and personal concern for nurses. In fact, issues related to staffing levels, unit organization or inequitable assignments are one of the top reasons nurses leave a hospital job, according to Karlene Kerfoot, PhD, RN, and vice president of nursing for API Healthcare. Back in June, the Health Policy Commission unanimously approved a mandate on nurse staffing in intensive care units throughout Massachusetts. The regulations require that nurses in intensive care units in hospitals, including hospitals operated by the Massachusetts Department of Public Health, be assigned only up to two patients at a given time. The regulations apply to all ICUs, including special units for burn patients, children and premature babies. If staffing is inadequate, nurses contend it threatens patient health and safety, results in greater complexity of care, and impacts their health and safety by increasing fatigue and rate of injury.
Nurses face a number of workplace hazards daily while doing their jobs. These hazards include exposure to blood borne pathogens, injuries, hand washing-related dermatitis and cold and flu germs. OSHA estimates 5.6 million out of roughly 12.2 million workers in the healthcare industry and related occupations are at risk of occupational exposure to blood borne pathogens. The rates of workplace injury are higher in healthcare than other industries. Nurses experience more than 35,000 injuries involving the back, hands, shoulders and feet each year, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Many things influence the chances of injury, including age of the nurse and environment. Apart from acute injury, nurses are also likely to suffer harm to their hands. Recent study from the University of Manchester revealed healthcare workers following hand hygiene protocols are 4.5 times more likely to suffer moderate to severe skin damage. In the same study, researchers found healthcare workers made up roughly 25 percent of reported cases of irritant contact dermatitis.
In conclusion, an individual’s career path should not be determined by the benefits of the work but instead one should focus on the value they can impact on the lives of others and theirs. The career choice should be able to offer job satisfaction and also offer excitement to do work. Relationships make life meaningful, and careers need to provide opportunities to living with significant connections. Individuals can bond with other coworkers about the work they do daily.
Reference
Broadbent, M. (2014). Nursing theories and conceptual frameworks. In Fundamentals of Nursing, 3rd Australian Edition (pp. 40-56). Pearson Education Australia.
Occupational Health Safety Network (OHSN), 2012‐2015, American Journal of Industrial Medicine, 61, 2, (157-166), (2017).
Jacob, S. R. (2018). Theories of Nursing Practice. Contemporary Nursing E-Book: Issues, Trends, & Management, 75.