I have always known about Nursing through my Aunt who has been a Registered Nurse (RN) for over 25 years, but only became interested in it as a career when my sister-in-law was accepted into the ASN program and Santa Fe Community College. At the time I was only a freshman in high school, however I then began doing research on the training required for this career, and what it really meant to be a RN, such as required skills, job tasks, abilities required, and job activities.

Nurses administer care to ill, injured, convalescent, or disabled patients.  They may advise patients on health maintenance and disease prevention or provide case management. A RN is also someone who assesses a patient’s problems and needs. This can be done in a variety of settings, such as, hospitals, nursing homes, rehabilitation centers, doctor’s offices, home health care, and there are also numerous traveling nurse jobs available for those who don’t like to stay in one place for very long. Nursing in the hospital setting would be ideal for me because I plan on having a family one day and I would rather only work three or four 12 hour shifts per week, versus five eight hour shifts per week in a doctor’s office.

There is also much advancement available in this field. The training required to be an RN will lead to immediate employment, however, specialization in any field is available. Such as pediatric nurse, this is what I would like to do after a few years of working as an RN. This would give me the opportunity to experience all aspects of the hospital, before going into just pediatric nursing.  Further training could lead a career as a nurse practitioner, a clinical nurse specialist, a certified nurse midwife, or certified registered nurse anesthetist.

            As with any career, stress is definitely a factor in being an RN. As if caring for sick or injured patients isn’t enough stress you are responsible for maintaining accurate, detailed reports and records, monitoring all aspects of patient care, including diet and physical activity, administering local, inhalation, intravenous, and other anesthetics, informing physicians of patient's changes in condition among many other responsibilities.

In contrast to stress, boredom should never become a problem in a registered nursing career. Every patient you come in contact with is different, you may come across people with the same disease but every person has a different story. If you take the time to interact with your patient while treating them, not only will that give you more knowledge on how to help them, it will make their stay in the hospital, nursing home, etc. more enjoyable and your job a little more rewarding.

The base salary for an RN is $39,000 per year, and salary increases with experience and specialization. The salary for being an RN along with my future husband’s salary will be enough to maintain an adequate lifestyle, support children that we may choose to have, and own our own property.

The links on this page will provide you with more information on registered nursing, along with some schools that offer training, a few potential employers, and nurses associations. I have also listed a few books below for those who seek further knowledge.

~Amanda Futch