Nursing School Admission: a Personal Perspective

Understanding the Role of a Nurse

When you were little, the main question in life was, “What do I want to be when I get older?” Well, we don’t realize how fast time goes by and how you are just around the corner from picking your career. Always have an idea of what you want to do; since I was little, I have always wanted to be a registered nurse. Most of my family has worked in the medical field, so I think that is why I want to be a nurse.

What is a nurse, you may ask? Well, a nurse is a person who helps assist patients with health problems and needs, develops and implements nursing care plans, and maintains medical records. Administer nursing care for ill, injured, convalescent, or disabled patients. May advise patients on health maintenance and disease prevention or provide case management. What do I think I will be doing ten years from now? I think I will be a nurse. I hope to be entering the workplace right after I get out of college, but I also hope to be doing work for the hospitals while I’m still in school.

Education and Preparation for a Nursing Career

The high school education that is required for being a nurse that may best prepare students for a future nursing career includes mathematics, chemistry, biology, physics, and English. To get a feel for what a nurse does daily, you should consider volunteering time at a nearby hospital to gain experience to see what being a nurse is like. This experience may help you gain admission to a nursing program offered by a school. College admission tests like the ACT, SAT, or National League for Nursing Pre-Admission Exam may be necessary, depending on which school is chosen. Your grades in high school and college also play a part in getting accepted. Nurses go through a lot of training to get where they are today, such as; communication, knowledge of medical supplies, Patient care techniques, Nursing skills, Client care, Medical terminology, and many more.

Responsibilities and Challenges in Nursing

Nurses have a lot of responsibilities. Some of these may include; planning care for different patients, monitoring patients and medications, recording records for patients, making the family and the patient understand the illness, and many more responsibilities that a nurse has on a shift. The one responsibility that surprised me the most was how the nurse should clean the patient’s rooms and take their trash out; I feel like this should be a maintenance job because nurses already have a lot to do, and they have many patients to care for. I feel like the most difficult responsibility for a nurse would be having to monitor every patient and make sure that they get the right medications at the right times. Nurses care for critical patients sometimes, so it may be hard to get around and please every patient.

Employment Outlook and Salary Prospects in Nursing

The employment outlook of nurses is said to be very good. Employment of registered nurses is projected to grow more than sixteen percent from twenty-fourteen to twenty-twenty-four; this is much faster than the average for all occupations. Employment out is defiantly getting better in the nursing field. The average salary for a registered nurse is said to be 68,450 dollars a year. Actual salary may vary based on what field you are in nursing and the years of

Experience and other factors. Nurses tend to make twenty-five to twenty-six dollars an hour, and again, this may vary. The salary for a nurse has risen by seven thousand dollars since 2009. In 2016 the average amount a nurse made was sixty-eight thousand dollars, and now, in 2018, nurses make up to seventy-nine thousand dollars.

Conclusion: Personal Motivation and Future Aspirations

I am interested in this career because ever since I was little, I have had very sickly grandparents and always loved to help take care of them. Also, most of my family works in the medical field, either as a firefighter or nurse and I even have some police officers. I think this is kind of why I want to become a nurse because it is in my blood to help others, and I enjoy doing so. I have watched movies, read books, and even had hands-on experience of what being a nurse is like, and I loved every minute of it. Helping people and making them feel better is something I love to do, so I think this job best fits me. So, when people ask me what I want to be when I get older, the answer has always been a nurse. I have never wanted to be anything else besides a nurse, and I hope to one day fulfill my dreams and become a nurse as I have always dreamed of.

References

1. Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. Department of Labor (2019). “Registered Nurses: Occupational Outlook Handbook.”
2. McEwen, M., & Wills, E. (2018). Theoretical Basis for Nursing (5th ed.). Philadelphia: Wolters Kluwer.
3. Zerwekh, J. & Garneau, A.Z. (2018). Nursing Today: Transition and Trends (10th ed.). Elsevier.

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