subject: How To Start Your Career As A Nurse [print this page] Today nursing has come out to be a great career to adopt. Those who want to become a nurse has so many tasks to do in hospitals, occupational health services, clinics, general practitioner surgeries and hospices among others. You can also find nurses in armed forces, universities, cruise ships and prison services. Nursing nowadays has become a good long-term career path as the demand for nurses has increased with the increase in population and medical units are always in search of skilled nursing staff. If you want to become a nurse, read the following points carefully to qualify as a skilled nurse.
Qualification
To qualify as a nurse, it is necessary to have at least a GED. You should have good grades in biology, chemistry, physics, and algebra. If your English is good, that will be a plus point for you. Before planning to enroll yourself for a nursing course or training, it is vital to check the qualification criteria thoroughly and make sure that you have the necessary qualification under your belt to join that particular institute.
Education
Nursing education is necessary for a person who wants to become a nurse in the future. The courses for nursing are categorized as associate degree or just degree. The degree course takes 4 years to complete, whereas associate degree program completes in 3 years. Many institutes and hospitals offer these training courses for nurses.
The course content of these courses based on 50% theory and 50% practical, where the students are taught about the basics of the nursing career in the initial years and later they are introduced to practical part of the course. Within nursing courses, there are some specialized fields like how to deal with children, adults, mental health etc. they are taught how to look after those patients, how to follow the directions of the physician regarding any patient and so on.
After the successful completion of the courses, you will be offered internships in hospitals and other community health institutes, where you further enhanced your skills by utilizing your knowledge gained from the training courses.
Getting formal training courses sometimes may not be necessary, as sometimes you learn nursing by directly working in a hospital and attaining hospital diploma after appearing in the exam.
Personality
Those who want to join nursing career need to be compassionate, as they have to deal with people with medial illness. You need to be humble, caring, loving and supportive in your behavior. This will have a good impact on the patients.
One important thing here to mention is people skills which are essential for a nurse as they have to deal with different kind of people. You need to communicate effectively, build relationships and establish bond, influence and lead people properly.
If you think that you have all the required qualification and skills mentioned above, you can apply for nursing training course and become a skilled nurse. This profession requires a lot of patience from you, as dealing people with ailment is not an easy task.