Nursing as a Potential Career

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Table of Contents

Introduction
History of Nursing
Requirements: Education and Experience
Certification
Application in Healthcare Organizations
Personal reflection on nursing as a potential career
References

Introduction

Nursing presents one of the most significant professional caregiving services, due to the sensitivity of recovery from a disease. As a profession, nursing ranks among the healthcare disciplines that demand high organization and regulation. In terms of the input needed to maintain delivery of accurate and quality nursing services, the discipline experiences tight demands of human resource management. As discussed below, some pertinent human resource topics of debate determine the strategies to adopt inefficient nursing management.

History of Nursing

From time immemorial, humans have grappled with healthcare conditions demanding specialist attention for their resolution. As Halstead and Roux (2009) observe, even the most primitive man had to develop skills to overcome health issues such as giving birth and dressing of wounds.

The authors reckon that women as maternal caregivers during nurturing of infants gave them an advantage in attending to most health conditions. Perhaps that explains the natural attraction of female professionals taking up nursing as their careers. The authors also note that the difficulty of healthcare conditions gave rise to several caregivers ranging from simple care to complex interpretation demanding medicine men expertise.

Advancement of man’s culture produced nursing as a specialized trade using oral traditions as the tool to pass the trade to future generations. Further details after prehistoric nursing illustrate professional nursing organizations appeared around the Christian era (Halstead and Roux, 2009).

From home-based to the institutionalized nursing setting, the trade kept on changing from 600s AD onwards, with European nurses making massive contributions. Prominent names such as Florence Nightingale produced invaluable professionalization contributions in the mid 19^th century. American reception of professional nursing experienced mixed fortunes, partly due to the American Civil War and thrived under the social changes of the 19^th century.

Requirements: Education and Experience

Various jurisdictions have different requirements for one to obtain authorization to practice nursing. To gain authorization to practice nursing, the United States healthcare system recognizes three types of education qualifications. These qualifications include Nursing Assistants, Licensed Practical Nurses, and Registered Nurses, with the latter occupying the highest status. One qualifies as a Registered Nurse after graduating with a registered nursing degree.

Different institutions across the United States offer the degree in varied programs aiming at the highest possible qualification as a nurse. Some of the programs totaling to Registered Nurse threshold include Associate Degree in Nursing, Bachelors of Science in Nursing as well as a Diploma in Nursing. To begin practicing, nurses must attain significant practical skills but does not compel an Associate Degree in Nursing graduates to attain extra practical training (AllNursingSchools, 2012).

Certification

As mentioned, various universities and medical schools offer nursing certification for entry into the profession. Nursing standards require maintenance at the highest professional level, which necessitates professional accreditation and regulatory bodies. Nurses must acquire accreditation by the various specialized nursing organization, to ascertain their competence in various nursing specialties upon graduation.

The most prominent general certification organization for nurses in the US, the American Nurses Credentialing Center (ANCC), accredits the largest proportion of nurses. In terms of accrediting critical caregivers, the American Association of Critical Care Nurses (AACN) takes charge of the specialty, which authorizes all nurses handling critical care.

Several other specialty areas expand the scope of practice to include certification groups such as Diabetes Educators, Oncology Nursing Certification, School Nursing, Pain Management, and Infusion Nursing among many others (NurseZone, 2013).

Application in Healthcare Organizations

Nursing as a labor-intensive service requires elaborate human resource management to maximize nursing quality. In hospital settings, the role of the nurse affects the delivery of results by senior doctors and other healthcare workers (Armola, Bradenburg, and Tucker, 2010). The human resource concept must always provide a suitable environment for flawless productivity among nurses. As an illustration, the human resource functionality must ensure appropriate qualification among the nursing staff, for quality service to prevail.

Additionally, nurses must derive satisfaction and motivation in their work, which must extend beyond remuneration (MTD Training, 2010). Positive appraisal and constant motivation can dramatically improve the welfare value of a practicing nurse. Hospitals’ role in the maintenance of support programs for nurses must always facilitate the reduction of pressure, by enhancing work-life balance for sustainable productivity.

Personal reflection on nursing as a potential career

Whereas nursing is a highly demanding career, the contribution it makes in the improvement of humanity makes it attractive to me. Equally, in terms of the impressive labor market that the American nursing sector offers, it appears as an ideal career for me. Within the constraints of economic uncertainty, nursing work security ranks higher than many other jobs. In this respect, I would easily consider taking up a career in nursing after my studies.

However, the decision of taking nursing will depend on other personal and career development plans that appear with time. From a human resource perspective, motivation and commitment to work will depend on other available options for me. This implies that I will leave the door open for a career in nursing, but with reservations on other time-dependent factors.

References

AllNursingSchools. (2012). Guide to Becoming A Registered Nurse (RN).

Armola, R. R., Bradenburg, J., & Tucker, D. (2010). A guide to developing nursing grand rounds. Critical Care Nurse, 30, 55-62.

Halstead, J., & Roux, G. (2009). Issues and trends in nursing: Essential knowledge for today and tomorrow. Sadbury, MA: Jones and Barlett Publishers.

MTD Training. (2010). Motivation skills. Frederiksberg, Denmark: Ventus Publishing ApS.

NurseZone. (2013). Nursing certification.

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