Seven Reasons to Pick a Career in Nursing

By Eric Hamilton

Jun 10, 2020 10:15 AM EDT

Seven Reasons to Pick a Career in Nursing(Seven Reasons to Pick a Career in Nursing) (Credit: Getty Image)

Since nursing is all about the patient, it's a career that is the perfect choice for anybody who wants fulfilling work that allows them to help others every day on their shift. It is a career in which you can save lives, bring happiness to others, and be there for them, comforting those in need and providing care to those who need it. From emergency rooms to mental health care, aged care to rehabilitation, or midwifery, there are many different areas in which nurses can make a positive impact on the people that they work with every day. 

If you are a compassionate and caring person with a desire to help others, nursing is a great career move. While working as a nurse can be a challenging experience, it's also a role with a high level of job satisfaction. 

Flexibility:

Nurses are needed twenty-four hours a day, every day of the week, so you can be sure that this career is a very flexible one in which you can find hours that suit you best. Along with work being available in a variety of geographic locations around the world, nursing can easily be adapted to your lifestyle whether you want to work:

  • 9-5 office hours 

  • night shifts 

  • full-time 

  • part-time 

  • flexible hours

Shifts can vary from 4-12 hours during all times of the day or night, so whether you want to fit nursing around raising your family or studying for a degree to boost your career, it's easily done. 

Location:

Do you want to move to another state or even start a new life abroad? The good news is nurses is that they are needed everywhere. And, nursing skills are highly transferable, meaning that you can travel the world and work not only in nursing and healthcare but in a wide range of different sectors. You can also find work as a travel nurse, which involves traveling to various different areas around the world to work for a few weeks or months at a time.

 Specialty Options:

Nursing offers several different specialty areas, and you can easily practice in more than one of them during the course of your career. You might start off working as a nurse on a ward or in the ER, and then take additional training to become a theater nurse or a nurse practitioner. If you enjoy teaching others, your nursing career could take you back to nursing school, but this time on the other side of the classroom, teaching the next generation of nursing graduates. When it comes to moving up in your career, nursing offers a wide range of opportunities to move in all directions. These doctorate nursing programs from Baylor Online can help you take your nursing career even further and since they are offered online, they provide the flexibility that you need to continue working as a nurse while you study. 

Career Mobility:

Nurses are needed in a wide variety of different places. 

  • You could be working in a hospital on the frontline of trauma care, making an impact on public health in the community 

  • Work alongside a doctor in a doctor's office 

  • If you are interested in the legal system, you might want to consider becoming a nurse consultant 

  • If teaching interests you, there's the option to become a nurse educator 

The list really is endless when it comes to what you choose to do with your nursing career, whether you'd prefer to work hands-on with patients or behind the scenes, and the types of settings that you would prefer to work in. 

Learning Opportunities:

Nursing is an exciting and fast-paced profession where no two days are the same. For people who love learning new things, nursing presents an ideal career opportunity as each day offers a variety of new challenges, allowing you to expand your knowledge and stay excited about your choice of career. Healthcare is subject to constant change and with new research and emerging technologies coming out all the time, nurses need to continue learning and growing in order to ensure that they are always providing care to the best of their ability. In fact, it's often mandatory for nurses to complete further ongoing learning programs throughout their careers in order to ensure that their knowledge is current and up to date. 

Leadership Opportunities:

Nurse leadership is a very important aspect of patient care delivery. For example, nurses often become educators who help to develop future nurses and nurse leaders, or nurses might work as administrators who provide guidance and support to healthcare staff. Or, a leadership role could be a point-of-care nurse who provides client care while sharing their professional knowledge and acting as an advocate for patients in the development of healthcare policies. If you have excellent leadership qualities and see yourself working in a career position with a lot of responsibility to take on, nurse leadership could be for you and there will be many opportunities for you to get there. 

High Demand:

A recent report by the World Health Organization outlined that around the world, we need at least six million more nurses in the next ten years. Nurses are always going to be needed, and as the demand for good healthcare rises, more nursing positions around the world are likely to become available. Nurses are absolutely vital to the healthcare system in a whole range of settings. Nurses have been shown to improve patient satisfaction, reduce the need for other health services, and enhance the quality of life for patients with chronic care conditions. And, in addition to the high standards of care and better health outcomes that they provide to their patients, nurses are a key source of emotional support and comfort to their patients and their loved ones. 

If you are looking for a career that is fast-paced, secure and exciting while allowing you to use your time to help others and really make a difference in the world, nursing could be the ideal option for you. 

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