by Sita

Created on: April 22, 2010   Last Updated: April 26, 2010

Compassion is only one aspect of a career as a Registered Nurse. While it is often said that people become nurses because they "enjoy helping people", there is far more to making a career out of nursing. If you enjoy helping people, and you also enjoy a fast-paced work environment, have the ability to think on your feet, are strong in sciences, have good communication skills, aren't disgusted by blood or body fluids, and don't mind just plain hard work, then a career in nursing may be for you.

Healthcare is a field in which there is a shortage of caregivers, which is expected to get worse over the next decade. This means that jobs are going to be readily available to the Registered Nurse, and they can be expected to bring home a decent salary. There is also a multitude of environments that they are able to practice in: hospitals, nursing homes, home care, private medical offices, and even private duty, to name a few. Also, an increase in utilizing places such as ambulatory surgery centers and outpatient care centers means the RN has more choices than ever before as to where to practice nursing.

The first step in a nursing career, however, is nursing school, and realistically speaking, nursing school is no walk in the park. If you don't like school, or you don't like to work hard, please rethink your career choice before you even apply. Most nursing schools only take a certain number of applicants after all of the prerequisites have been met, generally with a decent grade point average. Once in nursing school, most are set up into semesters with certain courses or levels to be passed before you can move on to the next. This means that if you come upon a situation where you cannot pass or finish a certain course at the time it is set to happen, you may be forced to leave the program, or at least wait a semester or a year before you can retake that course.

You will be expected to take courses such as anatomy and physiology, pharmacology, biology, microbiology, etc. If you do not like science, then think twice- especially because this cannot be done in a "memorization" type fashion. Most of what is learned in these courses will directly apply to higher level courses and be utilized daily in practice. Once you have completed these more basic science courses, you will move on to nursing courses, which will include theory, practice, skills, and clinical experiences that take place in actual healthcare environments. Most schools make arrangements to give the student

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