Are you thinking about pursuing a career in nursing?
Have you gone to nursing schools to inquire about there courses and found out that there are so many to choose from? Now you realize that perhaps the nursing profession is very difficult to get into. Well, if you got a lot of these kind of thoughts in your mind, it is but normal. There is one way though for you to test the waters without going through all those four years of studying nursing - then sadly realize that this career path isn’t for you.
Before you waste much time, effort, and money in studying four years in nursing - why don’t you test drive this type of work environment first.
Try getting the CNA or Certified Nursing Assistant Course to know if you would really enjoy the nursing life. Here in the CNA profession you’d work being supervised by RNs (Registered Nurses), LPNs (Licensed Practical Nurses), or LVNs (Licensed Vocational Nurses) on a real nursing environment and attend to some patients medical needs.
Depending on what area you want to focus your work on. Developing skills as a Certified Nursing Assistant can be done in many different ways since you are able to work in different settings like private homes, assisted living facilities, adult nursing homes or day care centers and not just the traditional hospital setting.
Now getting a certification as a Certified Nursing Assistant can be completed in a CNA training course that usually takes around 75 hours. But the requirements may vary depending on the state you’re in, so it would definitely help to check on the programs or training courses being offered in accordance to the requirements of the institution your planning to apply for.
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So watch out for my next posts, I will be giving you some information from good schools where you can jump start your career in nursing…
This is more like a survey on your different opinions regarding the best ways to landing a nursing job or career.
Please post some tips you would like to give to nursing fresh graduates, practicing nurses who want to explore new opportunities, and those who are considering the nursing job industry.
Sample information would be:
1.) Locations which you know that has high demand for nurses this time.
2.) Type of nursing job to choose. If you would like to share pros and cons for RN, LPN, Nurse Practitioners, etc.
3.) Schools to attain a nursing degree or qualification.
4.) Self preparation in terms of attitude and mindset, habits, lifestyle, etc.
We will highly appreciate your responses and let’s work together in nurturing the nursing industry and our hard working NURSES.
According to New York (CNNMoney.com) there is an escalating problem in America - due to the possibility of the nursing shortage becoming worse as the so-called Baby Boomers are growing older and older, they demand more care and assistance from professional nurses. This will definitely give more stress and much pressure on the US nursing system.
Peter Buerhaus, a workforce analyst at Vanderbilt University School of Nursing in Nashville, Tennessee stated that “America has had a nursing shortage for years and that the country will be facing a shortfall of 260,000 RNs”.
Buerhaus also stated: “In a few short years, just under four out of 10 nurses will be over the age of 50,” and “They’ll be retiring out in a decade. And we’re not replacing these nurses even as the demand for them will be growing.”
That is due to fact that nursing schools are already filled to the brim.
According to experts, there will be a nurse shortage even if nursing schools worked to their limits because there have been a rise of people interested in getting into the nursing profession especially those who were affected by recession that started in 2007.
Actually the recession had positive impact on the nursing profession since it attracted more registered nurses to join or comeback due to financial reasons. It also encouraged new sign ups in nursing schools and postponed retirements for veteran nurses.
Despite the rise of people who are interested in serving in the nursing industry, still the availability of qualified and well trained nurses is scarce due to the lack of nursing instructors in schools to accommodate the rise of students. Some even take years of waiting just to get into a nursing course.
The difficulty of nursing schools retaining their instructors is due to the fact that nurses earn way more when they work in hospitals than in learning institutions. So this factor would really drive them to prefer a hospital duty than teaching.
According to American Nurses Association, RNs earn around $56,000 or may go up to as much as $90,000 for really hard working and ambitious nurses that would go for long hours work including night shifts, weekends and some even holidays, in big city hospitals.
There is a need to provide attractive salaries for nurses who choose to work in schools and teach to be able to cater to the huge number of enrollees.
Now for the meantime it is still an option for the US to accommodate foreign workers to bridge the gap while the nursing schools work on training more qualified registered nurses. Well, it’s not about foreign workers taking over American jobs but it’s more on providing the need of society especially in the health care sector.
Based on actual survey on primary doctors’ salaries, it showed that nurse specialists are getting higher pay and benefits compared to primary care doctors. This is despite the shortage in the United States of primary care doctors.
According to Merritt Hawkins & Associates, a physician recruiting and consulting firm: In 2009, CRNAs, or the Certified Nurse Anesthetists were getting an average wage of $189,000 - a lot higher compared to that of primary care doctors who were getting just around $173,000. And it will maintain that same difference in 2010.
Why get high pay for being a Certified Nurse Anesthetist or CRNA?
Well, Certified Nurse Anesthetists are specialist nurses who had advance training and can act or perform similar practice with anesthesiologists, which is administering anesthesia to patients. The difference though is when CRNAs do the administering; it still falls under nursing practice while it falls under medicine practice when anesthesiologists do it.
Also the demand for Certified Nurse Anesthetists rose due to the increase of surgical procedures in the past years, though it has brought about some negative reaction from medical doctors and is considered a hindrance in encouraging medical students to choose to pursue primary care medicine to solve the shortage of primary care doctors. CRNAs could still proudly contest that in saying, that they are able to help keep the smooth running of hospital ORs by administering anesthesia to patients and keeping them safe and comfortable when undergoing surgery.
April 15 2008 (Tax Day).Taking a quick scan of the Google Nursing Headlines I am looking at the quality health care job news. Nursing seems to be a good career if you are located in the USA.
THE WSJ reports that between 1998 and 2007, the Bangor metropolitan area (pop. 150,000) lost about 3,700 jobs in manufacturing, but gained 3,500 jobs in health care.
Yet in Canada
Toronto - Seventy-two nursing jobs will be cut from Ajax and Pickering Hospital and Centenary Hospital, in an effort to slash $25 million over the next three years.
At the present time I have several Canadian friends that are currently enrolled in nursing programs. They all plan on moving to the US.Any thoughts? I promise to research the topic more as I look for material.
We are looking for Nurses and Nurse Job Recruiters to contribute to our post and website. Contact us if interested
Here in Canada and The USA I have several friends that are graduating Nursing programs very soon. Anyone is grad school will tell you that the best part is finishing and actually having a paycheck (much harder for adults who went to school). So in an effort to help my friends and you my loyal readers I am posting a few links on where the best possible jobs might me. For younger more mobile nurses here is a link on Travel Nursing Here is another government site on NursingFeel free to add to the list Kris