Nursing is not just a popular profession; it is diverse and rewarding. It offers a wide range of career paths and specializations for qualified professionals. Nurses play a vital role in the healthcare system, and work in different jurisdictions and settings to fulfill these roles.
With so much that can be done as a nurse, this article focuses on outlining what a qualified nurse is, what nurses do, and what career paths qualified nurses can specialize in. Lastly, we will explore how anyone can become a qualified nurse and the skills required.
Whether you are just starting your nursing career or looking to take on a new challenge, this post will help you better understand what options are available for you. It will help you identify career paths that align with your interests and goals.
What is a qualified nurse?
The industry-recognized term for a qualified nurse is a registered nurse. A registered nurse, and hence, a qualified nurse, is a nurse who has completed all the educational, examination, and licensure requirements needed to practice nursing in their location.
What is a nurse then? The International Council of Nurses defines a nurse as a person who has completed a basic, generalized nursing education program and is authorized by the appropriate regulatory authority to practice nursing in their country. The council also defines nursing as a field that encompasses autonomous and collaborative care of individuals of all ages, families, groups, and communities, sick or well, and in all settings. Nursing includes various activities such as health promotion, disease prevention, health care service delivery, advocacy, research, education, health policy, as well as health systems management.
By virtue of training and experience, a registered nurse would be able to perform most, if not all, of these roles in various settings, including healthcare and non-healthcare facilities. Later in this article, as we examine what it takes to become a nurse, we will expand on the types of training nurses are expected to undergo to become registered or qualified nurses.
Where can you work as a qualified nurse?
- Hospital and clinic settings
- Community health centers
- Nursing homes
- Other healthcare facilities
- Refugee camps
- Academic and research institutions
- Government offices
- Non-profit organizations offering health care services, advocacy, or research
- Private practice
What are the roles of qualified nurses?
Qualified nurses perform diverse roles depending on their level of education, training, licensure, specialization, experience, and work setting. Some of the common roles nurses perform are:
Providing patient care
Nurses primarily provide adequate healthcare for the patients in their care. However, this duty is diverse encompassing roles such as administering prescribed medications, performing certain medical procedures such as anesthesia, monitoring patients’ vital organs, offering bedside help to patients, and monitoring patient hygiene while they are admitted. The extent to which these roles are performed would depend on the work setting and the qualification of the nurse.
Monitoring patient health
One of the key roles of nurses is monitoring patient health all through treatment. They periodically check on patients to track their improvement, or sometimes deterioration, and readily communicate anomalies to the health care professionals they are working with.
Managing patient records
Nurses may be tasked with managing patient records and maintaining accurate and regularly updated medical records. These records are essential for monitoring patient health and provide a solid medical history that can be referred to during subsequent treatments.
Educating patients and their families
Nurses may educate patients and their family members about their health conditions, treatment options, the essence of a chosen care method, self-care techniques, and family member support mechanisms. The nurse generally works to ensure patients achieve the best health outcomes, This is often a result of collaboration by healthcare providers, the patient, and their family members. If patients and their families are not properly educated, they may not be able to collaborate fully with health professionals to achieve quality health outcomes.
Providing emotional support
Nurses are often in the best position to offer emotional support to patients and their families to help them cope with the unique challenges of their health conditions. Nurses are always in contact with patients, sometimes more than doctors and other healthcare providers. Besides, they maintain a warm and friendly attitude and are always readily available to attend to patients’ needs.
Therefore, it is no surprise that patients and their family members trust them more than other healthcare professionals who may oversee their health. This trust presents nurses with a unique and crucial platform for emotionally supporting their patients throughout health care.
Collaborating with other healthcare professionals
Nurses generally work closely with physicians to ensure patients receive the best care possible. However, nurses do not collaborate with doctors alone; they work with as many other healthcare professionals as possible, including other nurses, doctors, and specialists such as therapists, surgeons, anesthetists, and so on.
Supervising healthcare staff members
Nurses can also rise to administrative positions where they monitor the activities of staff members in the organizations they work for. Administrative nurses may be responsible for supervising other nurses or even a whole department of a particular health organization.
What are the different career paths you can specialize in as a qualified nurse?
Nursing is a vast field that leaves you with more than enough options regarding the career paths you can specialize in. Note that what we have in this article is not an exhaustive list, as there are tens of career paths you can delve into. Some of the options we have outlined here even allow for more differentiation of roles for nurses. For example, nurse practitioners can specialize in different areas such as pediatric nurse practitioners, family nurse practitioners, or adult-gerontology nurse practitioners.
- Registered Nurse
Becoming a registered nurse is one of the basic roles anyone interested in nursing can begin with. A Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BSN) and the correct licensure appropriate to your state are all you need to become a registered nurse.
Registered nurses provide primary nursing care to individuals, families, and communities. They are trained to assess patients’ health, develop treatment plans, administer medications, and educate and support patients and their families.
It is interesting to note that registered nurses are not limited to traditional bedside and hospital roles. They can work in different settings, from bedside care to performing administrative functions and specializing in roles like travel nursing.
- Nurse Practitioner
Nurse practitioners (NPs) are trained to provide comprehensive and quality care to a specified population or attend to a particular health condition. Nursing practitioners provide full-blown healthcare services in whatever aspect they focus on, from preventive care to treating and managing health conditions.
Becoming a nurse practitioner typically requires a master’s degree or higher. Such a higher degree may be specialized or the general Master of Science in Nursing (MSN).
Nurse practitioners can specialize in a variety of roles which include:
- Family Nurse Practitioner: These nurses are trained to administer primary health care services for all ages. They can attend to common illnesses, offer counseling on preventive care, prescribe treatment, and help patients manage their health conditions.
- Pediatric Nurse Practitioner: A pediatric nurse practitioner has been extensively trained to provide health care services to meet the needs of children and adolescents. They also focus on the prevention and early detection of children’s health conditions and health promotion to ensure a community of healthy children.
- Adult-Gerontology Nurse Practitioner: These nurse practitioners are trained to attend to the specific health needs of young and old adults. Becoming an adult-gerontology nurse practitioner typically requires a master’s degree in gerontology or geriatrics or a post-master’s certificate program such as the agacnp post master’s certificate online program offered by Rockhurst University.
- Nurse Midwife
A nurse midwife, professionally referred to as a certified nurse midwife (CNM), is an advanced practice registered nurse (APRN) who specializes in childbirth and general women’s reproductive health. The health care services they provide mostly include care of pregnant women, assisting in labor and delivery, prenatal and postpartum care, and other reproductive health care such as birth control and family planning.
A nurse midwife would typically need to complete a general master’s degree in nursing or a specialized higher degree in midwifery and then pass certain certificate exams, such as the National Certification Exam administered and managed by the American Midwifery Certification Board (AMCB).
Nurse midwives can work in hospitals, clinics, home healthcare settings, or private practice.
- Nurse Anesthetist
Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetists (CRNAs) specialize in administering anesthesia or other sedatives to patients so that surgical, diagnostic, or therapeutic measures can be performed. Nurse anesthetists may work with anesthesiologists to perform these roles and are required to prepare patients so that surgeons, therapists, or other physicians can work on them.
Other than anesthetizing or sedating patients, nurse anesthetists may also record patient histories and monitor patients’ vitals before, during, and after sedation. Like most other nursing roles, nurse anesthetists require a master’s degree to practice their profession.
- Nurse Researcher
Research nurses collaborate with healthcare professionals and other researchers to conduct studies, gather data, and review previous research on various medical topics to contribute to the body of knowledge already existing in the field.
A nurse researcher must have a flair for academics and research. They must be inquisitive, analytical individuals, able to make quality inferences. Becoming a nurse researcher often requires a doctorate in nursing or a closely related field such as public health, health education, or health informatics.
- Nurse Educator
Nurse educators combine their clinical expertise with their passion for teaching by working in academic settings to teach nursing students or continuing education courses for already practicing nurses. They may also design educational programs and evaluate students’ comprehension of lessons by setting examination questions.
As you may already know, nursing is a knowledgeable field. Nurse educators, therefore, play a crucial role in grooming the next generation of qualified nurses and ensuring that they are thoroughly proven to be competent at the roles they are set to perform.
As academicians, nurse educators require a master’s or even a doctorate degree in nursing. They may also earn a degree or two in relevant programs such as education, health education, clinical practice, or public health.
- Nurse Leadership
For every team of nurses working in an organization, there must be at least one leader who deeply understands what being a nurse means so they can be able to look out for challenges, lapses, and progresses. There are several leadership roles that nurses can pursue such as nursing managers and directors.
Nurses may also take up other administrative roles that aim to improve healthcare delivery through consulting, advisory, advocacy, or management.
Becoming a leader often requires years of experience and completing advanced degrees. While nurses can directly apply for certain administrative or leadership roles, they mostly get promoted to such positions as they continue in their jobs over the years.
How can you become a nurse?
Although nurses are pretty common in society, becoming one does require a significant amount of passion, dedication, and hard work. While the pathway to becoming a nurse can be demanding, the career remains gratifying as it continues to make a difference in people’s lives, one patient and one family at a time.
Below are the steps you would need to complete to become a nurse.
Obtain a nursing degree
Most nursing careers require a minimum of an associate degree in nursing (ADN) or a bachelor’s degree in nursing (BSN). Either of these degrees will qualify you to become a registered nurse and will get you set to begin your career in nursing. ADN programs typically take about two years to complete, while BSN takes four. Obtaining a BSN gives you an edge as a registered nurse as it is more accepted amongst employers and allows you to scale up your career more quickly.
Certain advanced nursing roles and specializations, such as nurse practitioners, nurse midwives, or geriatric nurses, require a master’s degree or higher. These higher degrees may be in general nursing, such as the Master of Science in Nursing (MSN) or the Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP). Others have a specific focus, such as master’s degrees in clinical health, adult gerontology, healthcare leadership, or even public health.
Having an idea of what career path or specialization you would want to focus on will surely guide you in choosing the right higher degree in nursing to go for. A general master’s degree in nursing, however, can get you ready to work in diverse roles. You might only need to obtain certifications from governing bodies for each role to be recognized as a specialist.
Obtain a nursing license
To be able to practice as a nurse, you will need to obtain a nursing license. In the US, your license would usually come from your state’s board of nursing. In other countries, the modalities for obtaining a nursing license might be different. However, in most cases, getting a nursing license requires sitting for and passing one or two examinations, such as the National Council Licensure Examination for Registered Nurses (NCLEX-RN) in the US.
Obtain necessary certifications
Many career paths in nursing require nurses to obtain certifications to be considered fit to practice their roles. The American Nurses Credentialing Center (ANCC) and the American Association of Nurse Practitioners (AANP) regulate many such certifications. Therefore several roles in nursing have the term “certified” attached to their titles.
Find a nursing job
After you have completed your education and obtained the correct licenses and certifications, the next step is to start looking for nursing jobs. You can physically look in healthcare settings around you or utilize job search platforms available online. Most nurses begin working with a basic degree like the ADN or BSN. They, therefore, take up entry-level roles as registered nurses. However, as you accumulate years of experience, enroll for higher degrees, and obtain more certifications, you will become more eligible to apply for specialized or even leadership roles in the nursing profession.
What skills do you need to be successful as a nurse?
Asides from the training and clinical experience you receive in nursing schools, universities, and other educational centers, there are certain skills you must acquire to be successful as a nurse. These skills include:
- Communication skills: Needless to say, nurses are always in communication with other people. They must communicate effectively with patients, their families, and other healthcare professionals they are working with. Nurses do not just need to pass information. They must be able to pass it simply and accurately. Moreover, they must be able to listen attentively to patients, their family members, and other acquaintances as they relate important information to them.
- Critical thinking skills: Nurses must think swiftly and make decisions on the spot. This is especially true in emergencies which are very common in the healthcare sector. They must possess the unique ability to maintain their composure and think correctly even under challenging situations, multitask, and rightly assess a patient’s condition to identify what needs to be done.
- Attention to detail: The peculiar role of nurses requires them to be highly meticulous in their work, as even a tiny mistake can cost a life or trigger serious health consequences. Given that no one is above mistakes, nurses must be highly skilled in paying attention to details, so they note down things correctly and aptly detect anomalies.
- Organizational skills: Nurses should be able to juggle multiple tasks, including attending to multiple patients at once. While doing this, they must be well organized, so as not to mix up patient details, and not get overwhelmed with the many tasks they must perform.
- Empathy: This is one skill that has long been associated with nurses. Above other health professionals, nurses must be highly empathetic, understanding, and compassionate in their dealings with patients and their families. This empathy is also required for nurses to provide adequate emotional support to their patients.
Other skills nurses must be highly proficient in include:
- Adaptability
- Physical stamina
- Time management
- Teamwork
- Leadership
- Interpersonal skills
- Education and continuous learning
Conclusion
Nursing is a dynamic and fulfilling profession offering a wide range of career paths to specialize in. No matter what career path you choose, you can be confident that you are making a meaningful contribution to healthcare and that you are helping to improve the lives of others.