Registerd Nurse free essay sample

Introduction I have always been the â€Å"caretaker† in my family. If someone were hurting, he or she came to me and told me his or her symptoms, and I did my research and told them what I thought about it. Before that, when I was about three years old, I took care of my newborn baby sister. My mama was sick, and my step dad was at work, so I took care of my sister. People ask kids what they want to be when they grow up, and they always get some crazy answer like a movie star. When my mama asked me, I said a doctor. I have since learned that doctors do make a lot of money, but they spend most of it on insurance. My career goal has changed; now I want to be a nurse of some kind, but it is still in the medical field. My grandma said that I like school so much that I will not stop going until I become a doctor. She was right about many things, but I am not so sure about that one. A Registered Nurse (RN) is a good career with a wonderful history, and a nice salary, but you need specific qualities to be an RN. History Nursing, like everything else, has a history that has evolved over time. Learning the history of nursing is important because it will help you to learn what kind of traits you need to become a nurse. In 400 B. C. , there were mother-nurses who worked with priests in primitive societies (Delaune 6-8). Caregivers didn’t have any training and the only hospitals were really religious institutions. These hospitals were in monasteries and convents . The dominant caregivers were primarily men. St. Jerome and Fabiola were responsible for the first hospital in the West (Delaune 6-8). Things pretty much stayed this way with health care until 1903 when North Carolina passed the first state nursing registration law (Delaune 6-8). In 1923, Yale University School of Nursing was founded (Delaune 6-8). In the 1960’s Medicaid and Medicare was created (Delaune 6-8). Some interesting people who influenced nursing are Lillian Wald, Isabel Hampton Robb, Florence Nightingale, Annie Goodrich, and Martha Franklin. Martha Franklin was an advocate for racial equality in nursing (Delaune 13). She organized the National Association of Colored Graduate Nurses (NACGN); in 1908, the NAGCN and the American Nurses Association merged (Delaune 13). Lillian Wald founded the Children’s Bureau of the U. S. Department of Labor, and she improved conditions in tenement housing conditions (Delaune 11). Florence Nightingale’s family was wealthy so she had a good education. Her family did not want her to become a nurse, but she did anyway. She wrote several books on nursing, and she established the first school of nurses that was not religion based. The school was called Nightingale Training School for Nurses located in London (Delaune 9-10). The concepts of maintaining confidentiality, providing individualized care, and devising a systematic method for assessing clients were brought about by Nightingale and are still in use today (Delaune 9-10). Clara Barton organized the American Red Cross in 1881 (Delaune 10). Although many of these people in the early days did not receive special training it is important (Delaune 6-8, 9-10). Training and Education Education programs were invented to make sure nursing was practiced safely and correctly. To become a RN, you must first go to college. When choosing a college to attend, you need to make sure the school and the nursing program are accredited. You can go to a community college and get your RN, or you can go to a university and get your RN (BSN). The biggest difference is the time and the pay because the more training you have, the more pay you will receive. Most universities do have a program to help people go from RN to a BSN in a shorter period of time than if you had tried to pursue your BSN first. Enrollment in entry-level programs was in decline for five consecutive years (Delaune 40-41). Exams and Tests When you finish school, you have to take a test called a NCLEX-RN before you can be licensed. Before you can enter nursing school in college, you must take the Test of Essential Academic Skills (TEAS). The test measures reading, math, science, English, and language usage. You receive a score for each test subject and then sixteen sub-scores. There is no set passing score; each school makes up its own criteria for what’s passing. Some tips for a good test score are stay calm, take extra time to check your work, think about each answer before you mark an answer for the question, and take advantage of the multiple-choice format (Evangelist). Traits and Skills To become an RN, you must be strong in all academic areas especially math and science. An RN must be able to stay calm because the patient is worried, and if they are injured, they are not calm. A nurse who is not calm will cause more anxiety for the patient. They must be able to leave work business at work and home business at home. Leaving work business and emotions at work will allow you to continue working and have a personal life; leaving personal business at home allows you to have a clear mind so you are less likely to make a mistake. A mistake made by a RN could be deadly; for instance, if the doctor says give point five milliliters of a medication, and you get mixed up and give 5 milliliters, that could be an overdose. Good communication skills are important because when you talk or write, people need to understand you. Also, you do not want to be saying one thing while your actions are saying another because that can cause a patient to worry or be confused. Being in good physical shape and optimal health is very important because nursing can be long and hard; it is also very physical. Nurses need to be good listeners so when you report what the patient said, you do not report the wrong thing. Nurses need to be respectful of a patient’s beliefs and customs. It is important for an RN to know what is ethical and act in such a way for legal reasons. As you can see, being an RN is not easy (Institute for Career Research 19). Working Conditions RN’s do different things in their job depending on their job title; therefore, I will give the most general job description possible. An RN will give bedside care, administer medications, teach patients and their families how to be healthier and take care of themselves. They may offer counseling or work with certain types of victims. They may instruct other nurses practicing under them and give intravenous therapy to the patient. They may also prepare nurses for the doctor to give the examination (Institute for Career Research 10-12). Why it’s a good career choice Besides the fact that you feel good because you have helped someone else feel better, there is a great benefits package, favorable salary, respect from other people, and the possibility for lots of opportunities. There are lots of places that need nurses, and if you prefer to work with a certain type of people, you can find a place to accommodate that. For people that have families and want to be home during the day, you can work nights. If you teach nursing at school, then you will get home when the kids do, and you get weekends, holidays, and summers off work. Opportunities for continuing education and career advancement are out there for those people who get tired of doing one thing all the time. Although nursing school is not easy to get into, there are many positive aspects of the career (Institute for Career Research 20). Problems Being an RN can take a toll on someone emotionally, and for this reason, job burnout is very common; this burnout can increase the amount of stress exerted on an RN because of possible overtime and a greater workload. There is also a lot of paperwork which frustrates some people because it takes time away from patient interaction. However, the paperwork is necessary, and it is for both the nurse and the patient. In some situations, nurses can be exposed to potentially dangerous things such as compressed gases, radiation, AIDs and other diseases. If you follow protocol, which is taught on the job and at school, it is not likely that you will face harm. The job can be physically demanding and may cause back injury. Malpractice insurance may be offered and is recommended because of the rise in number of lawsuits. There are a lot of positives and negatives of the career, but you must decide if the good outweighs the bad in your mind (Institute for Career Research 20). Salary/ Outlook Nurses are paid well; the median pay in 2010 was $64,690 per year, which is thirty-one dollars and ten cents an hour (Occupational Outlook Handbook). The job is expected to grow twenty-six percent, from 2010-2020 which is faster than average(â€Å"Occupational Outlook Handbook†). The expected growth is because of technological advancement and the need for more healthcare services as the baby boom generation gets older. The number of jobs held by RNs in 2010 was 2,737,400 and is expected to increase so it would be a good career to get into (Occupational Outlook Hanbook). Conclusion In conclusion, being a bad nurse is worse than working at McDonalds because that is what you want to do. Nursing has an interesting history, good pay and benefits package, and does not take all that long to get licensed, but it takes a special type person to be a good nurse; the decision to be a nurse should not be based on the salary because you need to have the traits that it takes to be a good nurse. Being a bad nurse will churn out bad results and you will not enjoy your job as a part of life. Therefore, the best advice I can give is make sure you want the reward of feeling good because you done good before pursuing a nursing degree.