If you are thinking about a career in nursing, here are some of the questions you might want answered. What is involved in studying online nursing? What jobs are there for nurses? What are the education requirements, and how much can you expect to earn after completion? These and other questions are tackled below.
What is Nursing about? Nurses are the human face of so much health care - providing direct patient care. They are the first point of contact as regards administration of treatment and conduct of diagnostic tests, and as such, they are incredibly important in the health care profession.
An online Nursing Program will normally include: human anatomy and physiology, human nutrition, psychology, fundamentals of nursing, pharmacology, adult nursing, maternal child nursing, nursing role and scope, sociology, success strategies. But you can't necessarily learn everything about being a nurse online. Many programs also include supervised clinical experience in hospitals and other healthcare facilities.
What Nursing jobs are there? Nursing professionals are always in demand all over the world. Nurses are found in several major settings, including: Hospitals - where they provide bedside nursing care and administer medical care plans; Clinics/Centers/Healthcare Offices - caring for outpatients in doctors' offices, clinics, and emergency medical centers, where they assist with examinations, administer injections and medications, etc; Nursing Homes - caring for residents; Schools; Home Care/Hospice - providing nursing services to patients at home; Prevention/Education Programs; Public Health; And there are many other opportunities for nurses.
The U.S. Department of Labor reports that employment of registered nurses is expected to grow over 20% up to 2016. Rapid growth is expected to occur in particular in the number of nurses required for hospital outpatient facilities due to technological advances in patient care, the growing trend in discharging patients earlier and performing more procedures as outpatients. Hospital jobs for nurses will not grow as rapidly " but will grow. The aging population of the country will also lead to the need for more nurses.
What are the education requirements? Nurses most commonly enter the occupation by completing an Associate or Bachelor's degree program. Individuals must then complete a National Council Licensure Examination (NCLEX-RN) in the USA or the Canadian Registered Nurse Examination (CRNE) in Canada in order to obtain a nursing license. Licensed graduates of these programs then qualify for entry-level nursing positions.
Many existing licensed registered nurses (RNs) with an Associate degree or diploma take online nursing programs at Bachelor's level. There are several advantages to getting your Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BSN) degree if you have the time and money to do it. The BSN will give you a solid foundation in the theory behind nursing and in how nursing practice fits into the overall environment of health care. Many of the best nursing jobs - specialties like Nurse Practitioner, Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetists (CRNA), Nurse Administrator, and so on - require a BSN degree or even a Masters degree as well. And you can usually earn a higher salary with a BSN.
After taking an online nursing degree, what can you expect to earn? Your salary will obviously depend on your actual nursing job. The median expected salary for a typical Staff Nurse - RN it is over $61,000 (from Salary.com).
What is Nursing about? Nurses are the human face of so much health care - providing direct patient care. They are the first point of contact as regards administration of treatment and conduct of diagnostic tests, and as such, they are incredibly important in the health care profession.
An online Nursing Program will normally include: human anatomy and physiology, human nutrition, psychology, fundamentals of nursing, pharmacology, adult nursing, maternal child nursing, nursing role and scope, sociology, success strategies. But you can't necessarily learn everything about being a nurse online. Many programs also include supervised clinical experience in hospitals and other healthcare facilities.
What Nursing jobs are there? Nursing professionals are always in demand all over the world. Nurses are found in several major settings, including: Hospitals - where they provide bedside nursing care and administer medical care plans; Clinics/Centers/Healthcare Offices - caring for outpatients in doctors' offices, clinics, and emergency medical centers, where they assist with examinations, administer injections and medications, etc; Nursing Homes - caring for residents; Schools; Home Care/Hospice - providing nursing services to patients at home; Prevention/Education Programs; Public Health; And there are many other opportunities for nurses.
The U.S. Department of Labor reports that employment of registered nurses is expected to grow over 20% up to 2016. Rapid growth is expected to occur in particular in the number of nurses required for hospital outpatient facilities due to technological advances in patient care, the growing trend in discharging patients earlier and performing more procedures as outpatients. Hospital jobs for nurses will not grow as rapidly " but will grow. The aging population of the country will also lead to the need for more nurses.
What are the education requirements? Nurses most commonly enter the occupation by completing an Associate or Bachelor's degree program. Individuals must then complete a National Council Licensure Examination (NCLEX-RN) in the USA or the Canadian Registered Nurse Examination (CRNE) in Canada in order to obtain a nursing license. Licensed graduates of these programs then qualify for entry-level nursing positions.
Many existing licensed registered nurses (RNs) with an Associate degree or diploma take online nursing programs at Bachelor's level. There are several advantages to getting your Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BSN) degree if you have the time and money to do it. The BSN will give you a solid foundation in the theory behind nursing and in how nursing practice fits into the overall environment of health care. Many of the best nursing jobs - specialties like Nurse Practitioner, Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetists (CRNA), Nurse Administrator, and so on - require a BSN degree or even a Masters degree as well. And you can usually earn a higher salary with a BSN.
After taking an online nursing degree, what can you expect to earn? Your salary will obviously depend on your actual nursing job. The median expected salary for a typical Staff Nurse - RN it is over $61,000 (from Salary.com).
About the Author:
Sophia Peters writes for the Online and Distance Learning web site where you can get more information on online nursing programs. Visit the web site for details of online nursing and other online programs.
