Nursing is one of the most important and well-respected professions in our society. Nurses enjoy good pay and greater job security than most professionals, but they also have a better sense of fulfillment because of their daily work. Why is nursing a rewarding career?
Why choose a career in nursing?
There are many reasons to choose nursing as a career, including:
- Competent nurses are in high demand due to the aging baby-boomers population and a substantial portion of the nursing profession about to retire. It allows you to enjoy greater job security.
- You can make a real difference in your patients’ lives and the lives of their families. After a terrible diagnosis, you can offer hope, counsel patients and families, and even celebrate occasions with them.
- Some degrees allow you to enter the workforce quicker than most industries. You can go back to school to earn your bachelor’s degree and work simultaneously as a nurse.
- You will be delighted with your career as a nurse because you will help take care of people. Why? Because helping someone in need is one of the most satisfying experiences in life.
- As a nurse, society will respect you as nursing is one of the most well-respected fields.
How to become a nurse?
The first step is to become a registered nurse. That requires you to enroll in a nursing program commonly known as an associate nursing degree or an ADN. As a registered nurse, you can make an average of over $70k per year.
To further influence career growth, you can complete your bachelor of science in nursing or a BSN as you work. Upon entering the field, junior nurses might wonder How Long It Takes to Go from an ADN to BSN; ADN programs last for two years.
After completing your ADN program, you can advance to the BSN program, which lasts at least ten months, and seek more advanced education to qualify for and apply for higher roles in nursing.
What makes nursing a rewarding career?
You’ve likely heard before that this career path is one that helps others and provides self-fulfillment too. Here is why nursing is rewarding for so many people:
1. You impact many lives
Nursing is one of the noblest professions. The most rewarding emotional experience for many nurses is taking care of their patients.
As a nurse, you will be taking care of people who are at their weakest emotionally and physically. And you will be treating them with the utmost compassion and respect.
You will also be building meaningful relationships with your patients and their families. Lastly, you will be saving people’s lives, healing them and their families, and genuinely impacting their lives.
It is one of the many reasons why people respect nurses.
2. Nursing has many career growth opportunities
Nursing is an ever-changing field that provides constant growth that catapults your career to newer heights.
Established nurses can choose a different job at any point in their career. They have at their disposal multiple options to choose from, including:
- pediatrics
- intensive care
- aged patients care
- neonatal
- home care
- informatics
- management
- clinical practice
- ambulatory care
- case management
- administration
3. Collaboration and practical experience
As a nurse, you will be working with other medical professionals, usually nurses, patient care associates, social workers, patient care managers, and doctors. This collaboration is extremely fulfilling as you will learn from professionals with different specialties than yours.
Lastly, the nursing field allows you to practice the skills you learned in school and gain practical experience daily. You might find that you want to pursue a specialty area of nursing in the future.
4. Room for flexibility
As a nurse, you can choose to work part-time, full-time, or even as a temp. You can also work in various job settings like hospitals, nursing homes, home care, schools, or even as a lecturer at a university. In addition, you can work in a variety of roles, including:
- a bedside nurse
- nursing professor
- nursing scientist
- nursing educator
- nursing consultant
- wellness practitioner
Lastly, due to an increase in demand for nurses, you can choose to work in shifts, forgoing the traditional 9-5 Mon-Fri routine. That allows you to choose shifts that fit your lifestyle well.
5. Lucrative pay
As a nurse, you will be paid well because of your knowledge, experience, and the increase in demand for nurses. Some nurses travel the world in their careers or open up a private practice as a nurse practitioner. The competitive salary helps you have a comfortable lifestyle.
6. A rewarding nursing career: Every day is different
As a nurse, you will rarely have days where you’re bored at work. Most days, you will be dealing with new patients and new situations at work that provides learning opportunities for you to grow.
7. Variety of perks
Healthcare organizations provide several benefits that their hardworking nurses can enjoy. As a nurse, you will enjoy many benefits, such as health insurance, paid leave, paid vacations, retirement, pension plans, and discounted gym memberships.
8. Job security
Nurses are in demand in almost all US states and across Canada. Jobs are available in urban areas, small cities, suburban areas, rural communities, resort towns, and abroad.
As a nurse, you can likely find work in locations where you want to settle down. With higher job security than most professions, a nursing career means you do not have to worry about uprooting your life because of work.
Conclusion on courage in nursing
Nursing is a rewarding profession. It will allow you to become part of a healthcare community of like-minded individuals who share your vision to provide the best care to patients and improve their lives.
Becoming a nurse is by no means a walk in the park. It requires focus, dedication, mental toughness, and discipline to achieve. But, all the challenges of being a nurse are worth it to provide care to patients for life.
Knowing that you made a real difference in a patient’s life and their family members is one of the most amazing experiences. Lastly, the job security, salary package, and perks provided are great too.
Hi Christy, this is a lovely post about nursing which is a very worthy profession.