Benefits of Being an RN
If you want to help others in a fast-paced and rewarding environment, being an RN could be the career of your dreams. As an RN, you are part of a team of physicians and other healthcare professionals who provide patient care, promote healthy behavior, and save lives. What you give to others is often priceless to patients and their loved ones, but the career also provides you with numerous benefits.
You Help Others as an RN
At the top of the list of reasons to become an RN is that you get to help others. Every day, you work with patients who need your care. When they need food, medication, or a wound to be dressed, you are there for them. You provide your medical expertise, while also calming nerves and cheering souls. When no one else is there, you are. You also get to be part of a healthcare team, lending your services to doctors, specialists, and other nurses and staff.
Your Nursing Skills Will Be in Demand
Even before the pandemic, the demand for nurses was expected to grow over the next decade. Now, as more nurses consider leaving the profession, there are even more openings. When nurses opt out or retire, they leave behind open positions that need to be filled. And as the large Baby Boomer generation ages, the need for nurses to care for those patients will increase. The need will be especially prevalent in outpatient and long-term care facilities such as nursing homes and rehabilitation centers.
You Can Work in a Variety of Locations as an RN
While nurses are especially in demand in states like California, Texas, and Alaska, the skills you learn in one state may be transferrable to another. Nurses are needed everywhere. But you will need to meet the license and qualification requirements for each state. With the right credentials, you could even become a travelling nurse, exploring the country while you build your career.
There are also a variety of settings where you might choose to work. Whether you want the fast pace of an emergency room or the day-to-day routine of a nursing home, you have options. Most nurses work in hospitals, but there are also opportunities in ambulatory care, long-term care, at-home care, schools, government agencies, and insurance companies.
You Have Schedule Options as a Registered Nurse
As a registered nurse, you might work for a doctor’s office and have a set five-day schedule of 8:00 to 5:00. Or you might work at a hospital on the 7:00 to 3:00 shift. Depending on your facility, you could also work 10-hour shifts over four days a week or 12-hour shifts over three days a week. Your shifts could start early in the morning or end late in the evening. The compact schedule means you have more days off in a row and time for family, friends, and travel.
You Can Choose a Nursing Specialty
Just like doctors who specialize in a particular field of medicine, so do some nurses. Depending on where you settle, you could work with newborns as a neonatal nurse or as a critical care nurse in an emergency room. If you want to work with elderly patients, you’d be a geriatric nurse. These specializations allow you to choose the groups that you want to care for the most.
Nursing Is a Trusted Profession
For the past 20 years, nursing has been ranked as the most trusted profession in the U.S. Patients connect with their nurses. When you are a nurse, families appreciate your compassion, kindness, and knowledge. Coworkers come to rely on you. And people out in the community look at you with respect.
Do you want to help others in a profession that’s as valued as it is valuable? Train to become an RN at Charter College. We offer an Associate of Applied Science in Nursing at our Anchorage campus that will prepare you for an entry level job in the field. Fill out the form today to learn more.