Career Challenges of a Registered Nurse

The registered nursing career is facing similar old problems as it was in the past. New technology is required to improve the quality of health care services for all patients and there are so many things that need to be developed and changed to make the health care services run smoothly. There are a lot of challenges covering an RN job. This includes the tiring work shifts, impossible work-life balance, continued education and advanced treatment methods.

At the nursing work station, there are many untoward incidences that may lead to injuries and other chronic hazards. An RN is prone to back injuries because of long working shift caring for the patients. It is probably one of the reasons why there is a nursing shortage since most of the nurses with back injuries leave the profession and take other careers.

registered nurseTechnologies are moving at neck-breaking speed, altering the job atmosphere and imposing new skills-training and continuing-learning within the clinical setting. Nurses feel they cannot continue to the profession because of the pressure to upgrade their skills and to keep up with the technology. Continual learning belongs to today’s world; it doesn’t mean nurses have to know everything. It entails nurses to have accessibility to update their understanding and their skills. Keeping up with trends, technology, and research might be outside of nurses’ continuing education (CE) needed to keep qualifications and satisfy state laws and regulations.

The working schedule for most nurses is unhealthy and emotionally draining. They may work 12 hours straight during their shift not including the on-calls and emergency shifts. With this schedule, nurses find it challenging to balance family and work as well as their personal life. The RN shortage added to the problem and put more pressure to nurses to work overtime. Anyone who plans to be an RN must be physically fit and emotionally ready to face the challenges along the way. However, the profession is a decent, respectable and admirable job. If you want to help others through your profession, this job is for you.

 

An Affordable Way to Become an RN

Determining to become a registered nurse or RN is only 50 percent the fight once you have chosen that this is the profession you want to engage in. The other 50 percent is getting your way through all the choices available to get you there. The first phase, in selecting the direction to get you to the field of being an RN is to choose which kind of academic system you want to engage in. Being a nurse usually just indicates that you have acquired entry-level nursing education which has prepared you and you have passed an evaluation which declares you have the primary knowledge required to be in this profession. Each of the following academic choices has its benefits and drawbacks, but in the end, all must take the same evaluation, (the NCLEX-RN exam), to be able to have the status of being an RN.

Nursing Lab 16Dec08 Photographer Danny MeyerThe earliest official knowledge to becoming a nurse is through a qualification system. These applications are non-degree applications and are usually based within, or associated with, a particular medical center. The academic factors of these applications are just like that of an ASN degree, but have a bigger scientific element. Although this type of system is dropping by the wayside, the medical nurses of these programs usually have the most hands-on scientific ability of all the nursing program graduates.

For those who decide that they prefer a nursing program which also gives them a degree, there are two main routes, one that allows an associate degree or ASN and one which allows a Bachelor’s of Science in Nursing (BSN) degree. Both of these degree programs involve the component of primary sessions followed by nursing specific classes. Schools of nursing vary greatly in exactly which and how many of each of these is needed, with bachelor degree programs usually demanding more than college degree course in chemistry and others. But by far, the ASN degree programs are the most affordable way to become an RN.