Becoming a nurse is a great idea for many reasons. For starters, the field is expanding, giving those who want to become nurses more opportunities to have the career they want. It’s also a satisfying career because you can help a lot of people and ensure that they live happy, healthy lives. Additionally, there is a lot of job stability when you are a nurse; nurses are needed, and you won’t be fired unless there is a very good reason. You have a lot more power over your life and career now.
There are, however, some other things you should think about besides all the good things when deciding if nursing is the right choice for you. You should think about these other things as much as you think about the good things about becoming a nurse. If you don’t, they will surprise you, and you might decide that nursing isn’t right for you too late. So, if you want to become a nurse, keep reading for some more things to think about.
Educational Requirements
In the past, nurses could drop out of high school, apply for a job at a hospital, and learn most of what they needed to know on the job. They would also get some training somewhere else. But that’s not the case anymore; nurses need a great deal of knowledge and education, which means they need to apply for, study for, and get a college degree. This will be a bachelor’s degree, and you can start your nursing career only after you have one.
You can work in any area of nursing once you have this degree, but you can’t get it quickly. You must know how long it takes to become a nurse and what you can do while studying.
Additionally, if you want to advance in your career, you must ensure that you set aside time to study for additional qualifications, such as a DNP or FNP, in order to benefit from excellent career advancement. When you become a nurse, you will always have new things to learn. If you want to do well in this field, you will need to do a lot of studying.
Personality
No matter how much someone wants to help people, not everyone is cut out to be a nurse. This is because nurses need to have a certain kind of personality, with specific personality traits, in order to do their jobs well, be good nurses that patients like working with, and most importantly, enjoy what they do. Is nursing the right career for you? Yes, if you have the right personality and are ready to work hard.
If you want to be a nurse, what kind of personality do you need? These are some of the most important traits:
- Patience
- Respect
- Perseverance
- Compassion
- Empathy
- Quick-thinking
- Communication
- Calmness
Nursing will be hard for you if you’re the kind of person who gets frustrated or impatient easily or can’t understand why other people feel the way they do. Be honest with yourself, understand who you really are, and pick a career that will make you happy. Fortunately, there are other careers where you can help people without needing these particular personality traits.
Responsibility
No matter what level of nursing you are at, what area of nursing you choose, or even where you are working, you need to be a responsible person when you are a nurse. As soon as you start a new nursing job, you will be expected to take on a great deal of responsibility and do whatever work is required of you. Everyone will be busy, and the more you can do on your own, the better for everyone, including the patients, even though there will be people there to help you (a nurse will always have colleagues to call on when really needed; nursing is not a lonely job by any means).
As a nurse, you must give patients their medicine, keep accurate records, report to other nurses and doctors, make sure patients are ready for tests and procedures, and create or influence treatment plans.
Nursing will be an enjoyable and fulfilling career if you can hit the ground running and are sure of your skills and knowledge. Is nursing really going to work in your favor if you discover that you’re the kind of person who likes to follow rather than lead? It’s possible, but you should give it some thought to make sure.
Fitness And Health
You’ve probably given the mental demands of being a nurse a lot of thought and worked hard on them. It will be clear to you how much you need to study and learn, and you will be able to think and act quickly. You’ll understand that making decisions requires you to be good at it. You may have also considered the emotional needs of a nurse. You’ll need to be empathetic without letting your feelings get in the way of your thinking, and you’ll need to understand how important it is to let your feelings out instead of holding them in— perhaps by regularly seeing a therapist.
The amount of physical fitness required for nurses is something you might not have considered. Although it is not necessary to study to become a nurse, it will become more and more important as you start to do your nursing work. A lot of your shift, which could last up to twelve hours, will be spent on your feet. More than that, you’ll be moving around a lot and maybe carrying big things. You will need to move patients around to clean them, bandage their wounds, change their sheets, and perform other tasks. Do you think you can do this without getting hurt? If you want to be a nurse, you should get as physically fit as you can while you study and then keep up that fitness routine once you start your career. You’ll get more out of it.