Informative speech on nursing as a career
Overview
The web page titled ‘Penn Nursing’ provided by the University Of Pennsylvania School Of Nursing, reveals that during the 19th and 20th century, health care was provided through the private duty registry system. This type of healthcare system provided individualized care since families could hire a nurse and receive quality individualized care. Later, professional schools were established to provide students with knowledge and skills and prepare them to work as private nurses. During the 19th and 20th centuries, hospitals were unwilling to employ the graduates. Later, the training institutions created a student-centered learning environment that could offer students’ nurses the opportunity to offer patient care and also perform non-clinical jobs (Penn Nursing, n.d).During this period, the number of graduate nurses was small, and thus, the majority of nurses were students' nurses who worked in the private-duty market. However, during the Great Depression, the nursing field was greatly affected. The rate of unemployment was high and many nurses could no longer work as private nurses. However, the students' nurses were employed temporarily in hospitals as general nurses. Between 1930 and 1933, public health nursing had developed and new roles and responsibilities such as preventive health services, maternal and child welfare were established (Penn Nursing, n.d). Employment also increased and the public hospitals controlled the nursing practice. By the 1950s, few nurses could work in private hospitals. Today, public health nursing has developed. Nurses are collaborating with communities to provide preventive health care in different settings including community nursing centers, and state health departments (Penn Nursing, n.d). Nurses have knowledge and competencies that enable them to identify the community's needs and propose solutions.
Current opportunities
The website ‘REGISTERETED NURSING. ORG’ states that Nurses have many career opportunities in different work settings. Today, the world is experiencing a burden of chronic diseases such as stroke, diabetes, heart diseases, and more. Specialists are required to work with patients to provide comprehensive medical care and to manage the patients' condition. Also, older adults develop chronic conditions and this means that the nursing field is offering the opportunity to work in nursing homes and nursing facilities to provide morbidity care and medication management to the elderly. Other career opportunities include pediatric settings to provide special care to children with conditions such as juvenile diabetes. Another common setting in the nursing field where nurses can get opportunities is the palliative care unit where nurses provide care and emotional support to patients with terminal illnesses. Nurses also work in pain management units where they prescribe pain medication to the patient.
How much the field is growing (or shrinking)?
The website titled ‘AMERCAN NURSES ASSOCIATION’ reveals that since the world is facing many health problems, the nursing field is growing not only to meet the patients' needs but also to provide evinced-based patient care. By 2020 to 2022, 1.1 million registered nurses are needed to fill the gap of 500, 000 nurses who will leave the job. Between 2000 and 2010, the nursing field has addressed the issue of nursing shortage by increasing employment by 44.6% from 42.6% (AMERCAN NURSES ASSOCIATION, n.d). As a result of the demographic changes, specialized nurses are needed in areas such as chronic disease management, community-based care, and geriatric. In talking about the future of nursing, Shalala et al (2011) say that nursing is a unique field and BSN-prepared Nurses are needed to address the complexity in the hospitals. Patients care is sophisticated and for this reason, BSN nurses are needed to use life-saving technology and coordinate with clinicians and community agencies to develop a preventive plan toward managing chronic illness. There is a shortage of BSN nurses and therefore health care facilities are struggling to deliver quality care. By 2020, the health care institution wants to achieve a goal of employment 80% of BSN by 2020 (AMERCAN NURSES ASSOCIATION, n.d). However there are challenges in achieving this goal. The health care organizations should collaborate with region schools and develop a strategic alignment of achieving this goal. For example, funding opportunities are needed to offset the cost and pay for grants and scholarships. Note that the formal education toward achieving BSN will help the nurses gain basic knowledge, gain evidence-based knowledge, develop competencies and provide patient-center care to patients and families.
What kind of salary you could expect as a professional in this field?
In the June 3, 2020 issue of career and salary outlook, the nursejournal, authors Staff Writers provide a salary statement of entry-level salary - $53,580 salary and a late-career salary of $72, 470 yearly.
What kind of education is necessary?
In a website page ‘REGISTERETED NURSING. ORG’, registered nurses need knowledge and skills in providing quality care, respect the rights of patients, and create a professional relationship with patients and colleagues. They should also be accountable for decisions and actions. Nurses also require communication skills since they are expected to deliver verbal and non-verbal information to patients, and also use facial expressions and other forms of communication. Thus, for the nurse to provide quality patient care, communication is important. On the same note, nurses need cultural knowledge since cultural issues can hinder effective communication with patients (Shalala et al, 2011). It is important to understand that the major problem facing the hospitals is a medial error. Nurses who have poor numeracy skills are involved in serious issues such as wrong administration of drugs, which contributes to patient harm (REGISTERETED NURSING. ORG, n.d). Thus, nurses need numeracy skills to avoid drug calculation errors and improve quality care. Nurses also need empathetic skills. This means that nurses should identify the patients' needs, and the patient's feelings. It is important to identify the patients' non-superficial feelings and establish a meaningful interaction (REGISTERETED NURSING. ORG, n.d).. Another kind of education that is needed in the nursing profession is collaborative skills. Nurses should collaborate with all care providers to provide the highest quality of care. Collaborations help the nurses understand other roles or other disciplines and make health care decisions from multiple viewpoints. Lastly, nurses require health and safety skills. Nurses should care for the patients and also for themselves. Note that nurses work in a hazardous environment where they become exposed to musculoskeletal injuries, infections, neoplastic diseases, and more (REGISTERETED NURSING. ORG, n.d). Thus, nurses should understand the care processes and ensure that work in a safer environment and patients receive safe care.
Where the best opportunities are in this field
The website ‘EveryNurse’ reveals that in the nursing field, the best job opportunities are found in public health facilities such as health-related government facilities and community health centers. Note that there are other areas a nurse can work such as occupational health nurse, nurse midwife, home health nurse, and others. However, working as a public health nurse is the best opportunity since the nurse is able to address the needs of low-income populations, and work with community members to serve the local community. Public health facility is the only place where a nurse can get the opportunity to understand the health and safety issues facing the community and develop intervention plans to address the multiple health issues.
References
Penn Nursing. (n.d). Private Duty Nursing. https://www.nursing.upenn.edu/nhhc/workforce-issues/private-duty-nursing/
REGISTERETED NURSING. ORG. https://www.registerednursing.org/
EveryNurse. Community Health Nurse. https://everynurse.org/careers/community-health-nurse/
NurseJournal.org. (2020). Registered Nurse Careers and Salary Outlook 2020. https://nursejournal.org/registered-nursing/rn-careers-salary-outlook/
ANA. AMERCAN NURSES ASSOCIATION. Workforce. https://www.nursingworld.org/practice-policy/workforce/
REGISTERETED NURSING. ORG . Nursing Careers & Specialties for RNs. https://www.registerednursing.org/nursing-careers/
Shalala, D., Bolton, L. B., Bleich, M. R., Brennan, T. A., Campbell, R. E., & Devlin, L. (2011). The future of nursing: Leading change, advancing health. Washington DC: The National Academy Press. doi, 10, 12956.
