JOB DESCRIPTION
Registered nurses are health professionals who bear the mandate of offering patient care services to ill and sick individuals in nursing homes and other clinical settings. As part of the larger healthcare community in a hospital environment, they take part in the administration of drugs and provision of care services. Also, they take part in the designing long-term patient care measures, use medical equipment, advising the patients and their respective families about their underlying ailments. Registered nurses are also involved in the performance of minor medical operations and the provision of continued patient care services after the patients have been discharged from the hospital amongst other health care operations. Nonetheless, it is worth to note that, the essential responsibilities of registered nurses tend to vary depending on areas of operations of the nurses. Registered nurses can assume the roles of conducting health care campaigns and education; they may be involved in making representations to various groups in the community or even working in hospitals. In retrospect to that, registered nurses can also work in private homes as well as in pharmaceutical companies amongst other healthcare environments. Thus, the roles that are played by registered nurses depend on where they work (Careers in nursing: Registered Nurse (RN), 2010).
EDUCATION/REGISTRATION/CERTIFICATION
There are various substantial educational pathways that an individual can undertake to acquire the Licensure to operate as a registered nurse (RN); a person can either decide to take Associate Degree in nursing which is a two-year course or Bachelor of Science in Nursing, which is a four-year course. In addition to that, the nurses can advance their expertise by pursuing Master’s Degree programs, Doctor of Philosophy, or Doctor of Nursing Practice (Drennan, Porter & Grant, 2013). An individual who desires to become a registered practical nurse is substantially required to sit for the National Council Licensure Examination for you to be presumed eligible to operate as a nurse. Consequently, the core objective of establishing Licensure is to protect the members of the public from undesirable harm from incompetent nursing practices. Thus, the nurses will be required to have primary education or rather operational competence and continuation of education for them to be granted Licensure (Claudette, 2014).
EMPLOYMENT
There are a lot of job opportunities that are associated with being a registered nurse because the career has diverse areas from where the registered nurses can offer their services. In fact, it is believed that the available employment opportunities of the registered nurses are expected to grow by substantially 16 percent between the years 2014 to 2024 according to researchers. That is because the people’s population is projected to grow tremendously in the coming years. Besides, there will be a pressing need for increasing employment opportunities for the nurses because the sector of healthcare is prepared to improve the quality of health services that are being offered to the patients. Most importantly, there will be more job opportunities for the nurses because one of the revolutionary objectives of healthcare community is to enhance the prevention of diseases and infections in the community (Careers in Nursing: Registered Nurse (RN), 2010).
Also, there has been a tremendous and unfortunate increase in the number of chronic diseases like diabetes and obesity in the community that require constant care and attention. Hence, not unless more opportunities are created for the registered nurses, it will be tough to attend unto such patients. The point is that there is job security in the nursing career because other than the available opportunities that are currently in place, there is still room for increasing the job vacancies in the coming years. The registered nurse profession has plenty of options that can suit your employment life depending on how you want to operate. Besides, the mobility of the registered nurses is outstanding because they can work from many places. Also, the learning opportunities that are available to the registered nurses are substantially endless. You will also find collaborative partnership in your career if you opt to choose a nursing profession. Furthermore, the orientation practice before acquiring full operation in nursing practice is relatively longer compared to other professions (Careers in nursing: Registered Nurse (RN), 2010).
PROFESSIONAL ACTIVITIES
The core professional activity of the registered nurses is to utilize their knowledge and expertise to assess the health needs of their patients and determine the most amicable healthcare solution that will assist them in restoring their health. In fact, registered nurses can also go ahead and make follow ups on their patients to ascertain whether they are improving or not. In retrospect to that, registered nurses can also operate either dependently or as a group in undertaking their various nursing activities and delegation of duties to the newly enrolled nurses. Apart from that, another professional activity that is usually handled by the registered nurses is the carrying out of comprehensive assessments to their patients to determine the underlying cause of their health complications and to align the best measure that can relieve them from their conditions (Cope & Whamond, 2010).
On that regard, the registered nurses tend to integrate all standardized medical plans and procedures that can be significant in the assessment of various ailments. Far from that, it is also worth to understand that registered nurses can conduct their activities in different contexts depending on their educational preparations. For example, registered nurses are caregivers who can attend to any patient depending on what they need. They are also decision makers who are usually compelled to ascertain the best nursing measures that are likely to give the patients the best services that they may need (Mellor & Greenhill, 2014). Furthermore, registered nurses are used as communication tools in healthcare systems. They can be managers of health systems as well as be patient advocates and teachers. Thus, whichever duties that they undertake, nurses are extremely instrumental in working towards the improvement of patient outcome. Most importantly, registered nurses can divert their professional expertise in conducting research practices that are aimed at improving patient outcome. Consequently, ensuring that consistent and standardized medical services are provided to the patients is also part of the professional duties of the registered nurses. Depending on the scope of practice that the registered nurses may have opted to undertake, there are basic standards and protocols that they are usually required to incorporate in their professional activities (Klein, 2013).
REFLECTION, PERSONAL CAREER PLAN
As far as various job opportunities are available for the registered nurses, my primary focus will be to specialize in the education of the masses. Perhaps, there are a lot of diseases and infections that affect the members of the public because of ignorance. For example, the breakout of cholera may result from carelessness and lack of enough knowledge about hygiene. Thus, I have reflected on my future and concluded that by being a registered nurse, I can create an elevated platform making significant changes in the society. By so doing, I will not only be promoting well-being in the society; I will also be necessitating economic developments and prosperity in the society because there are no better ways of enhancing developments in the society other than by ensuring that people are healthy to undertake their duties and tasks. After working primarily as a registered nurse for a couple of years, I will advance my career path and become a head nurse because I am extremely confident that by then, I would have gained the needed experience and expertise. Thus, as a head nurse, I will nurture the future nurses who are still inexperienced to ensure that they become competent and exemplary in their undertakings (Brown & Kaplan, 2012).
- Brown, M. A., & Kaplan, L. (2012). The Advanced Practice Registered Nurse as a Prescriber.
- Careers in nursing: Registered Nurse (RN). (2010). Chicago, IL: Institute for Career Research.
- Claudette, M. F. (2014). Lived Experiences of Failure on the National Council Licensure Examination – Registered Nurse (NCLEX-RN): Perceptions of Registered Nurses. International Journal of Nursing Education Inter. Jour. of Nurs. Educ., 6(1), 10.
- Cope, H. M., & Whamond, A. (2010). Hazel Mary Cope: Registered nurse. Salisbury, Qld.: 3E Innovative.
- Drennan, V. M., Porter, E. M., & Grant, R. L. (2013). Graduates from dual qualification courses, registered nurse and health visitor: A career history study. Nurse Education Today, 33(8), 925-930.
- Klein, T. (2013). Regulation of Prescriptive Authority. Brown/The Advanced Practice Registered Nurse as a Prescriber The Advanced Practice Registered Nurse as a Prescriber, 175-200.
- Mellor, P., & Greenhill, J. (2014). A patient safety focused registered nurse transition to practice program. Contemporary Nurse, 47(1-2), 51-60.
