Program Spotlight: Nursing School and Nursing Careers

1) What Does a Career in Nursing Entail?

A nursing school degree program trains students to provide health care treatment and services to critically ill, chronically ill, and injured patients as part of a clinical team. As a nurse, you could also work to keep healthy individuals in good physical shape through proper education and guidance.

Truly the core of today's health care system, nurses offer medical expertise, but also counsel and comfort the patients and families during difficult illnesses and emergencies. After becoming a nurse you'd have the opportunity to work in a wide variety of settings and specialties, such as:

• Hospitals
• Long-term Care Facilities
• Private Homes
• Assisted Living Residences
• Specialty Clinics
• Schools and Colleges
• Administrative Offices

You can enter nursing as either a registered nurse (RN) or a licensed practical nurse/licensed vocational nurse (LPN/LVN). Typically LPN/LVN programs can be completed within a shorter period of time, but RNs typically have better career opportunities moving forward.

2) On-Campus and Online Nursing School Programs

Once you decide to pursue a nursing school program, you still need to decide which nursing degree to complete. To get started you should obtain either an associate's degree in nursing, a diploma from an approved nursing school, or a bachelor's degree in nursing. Later on you can also work toward a master's degree in nursing for additional specialization or new career opportunities.

Practical Nurse Programs. To get started as a licensed practical nurse or licensed vocational nurse, you can complete a one-year program at a local vocational school or community college. Today, there are more than 1,500 LPN/LVN training programs throughout the country and online education opportunities have grown significantly in recent years.

Associate's Degrees in Nursing. Many nurses complete an associate's degree in nursing (ADN) as a first step into the registered nursing field. Some students obtain an entry-level RN position once they complete an associate's degree and then take advantage of their company's tuition reimbursement benefit to help pay for a bachelor's degree. A typical ADN program takes about two or three years to finish.

Nursing Diploma Programs. RN diploma programs were much more common in years' past, but such programs still exist in about 70 colleges across the country. You can complete a diploma program in approximately three years in most cases.

Bachelor's Degrees in Nursing. If your interests lie in nursing management or any specific specialization, you should carefully consider working toward a bachelor's degree. Many management positions and specializations require a bachelor's degree, particularly higher-level administrative roles. You can find four-year bachelor's degree in nursing programs at more than 700 colleges and universities nationwide.

Because career opportunities increase significantly with a bachelor's degree in nursing, an increasing number of colleges now offer RN-to-BSN programs designed for working nurses. Online education options, in particular, have made this career growth process easier than ever.

Master's Degrees in Nursing. If you would like to move toward a highly specialized nursing field or push your career up the ladder, a master's degree in nursing can be an important step in that direction. The four advanced practice nursing specialties require about two years of graduate study and a master's degree for licensure. These specialties include: nurse practitioners, clinical nurse specialists, nurse anesthetists, and nurse midwives. You traditionally need a BSN for admittance into a master's degree program.

3) Career Paths with Your Nursing College Degree

Pursuing a career as a nurse means options. Whether you want to work the day shift at a school, the night shift at a hospital, or get really crazy and travel the world, nursing provides a way. In general, there are four different options if you choose to specialize. You can focus on:

• a specific work setting (e.g. operating room or perioperative nursing)
• a particular health condition (e.g. cancer medicine or oncology nursing)
• an individual organ or body system (e.g. skin treatment or dermatology nursing)
• a defined population (e.g. elderly patients or geriatric nursing)

A day in the life of a nurse can include eight hours on your feet helping sick patients, days spent at a desk in front of your computer, or driving from home to home visiting the bedridden. The work and the settings couldn't be more different but one thing always stays the same: nurses work to help people.

Staff Nurse. A staff nurse provides hands-on care to patients and families in a hospital setting. You'd be in good company in this role--the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) reports that 59 percent of all nurses work in hospitals. Staff nurses administer patient medication, answer questions, document their observations, and respond to clinical emergencies.

Pediatric Nurse. If you enjoy working with children, consider a career in pediatric nursing. You could provide care for children all the way from newborn babies through the teen years, while offering guidance and information to parents and family members. Pediatric nurses usually have specialized training and can work in settings ranging from neonatal intensive care units to public health clinics.

School Nurse. Work as a school nurse requires a love for children and a huge amount of patience. In this role you would act as a health resource to students for day-to-day medical issues that arise and communicate with parents and teachers as necessary. You would also maintain school medical records and coordinate any health-related programs at the school.

Travel Nurse. Regional nursing shortages and unfilled openings have led to great opportunities for travel nurses. These health care professionals accept short-term assignments to complete specific projects or fill positions temporarily until more long-term solutions can be found. Travel nurses receive good pay and maintain significant flexibility, but obviously need to travel extensively and start from scratch on a regular basis.

Long-term Care Nurse. While staff nurses at hospitals may assist and interact with patients for days at a time, long-term care nurses offer support and care for their patients over a much longer period. Nurses at skilled nursing facilities and long-term care facilities establish relationships with patients and families over weeks and months while providing day-to-day medical services and education.

Certified Nurse Midwife. Nurse midwives serve as the primary medical support for managing low-risk deliveries, often in a home or other non-traditional settings where the patient wants to avoid unnecessary medical interventions. A certified nurse midwife completes advanced study in this area of specialty before practicing.

Medical Editor/Writer. Nurses with a flair for the written word can find career success as a medical editor or writer. With the proliferation of medical Internet sites, magazines, health journals, and health care education and technical training books, nurses can serve as a valuable resource for information in a non-traditional nursing career.

Nurse Manager/Administrator. Nurses who spend time in the trenches and possess good leadership skills can grow into manager and administrator roles at many levels. Hospitals and nursing homes require unit managers to supervise shifts and most health care institutions and companies include nurses in leadership positions, for example as Director of Nursing or Chief Nursing Officer. A nurse manager could assume responsibility for tasks including day-to-day staffing, budgeting, patient care, and strategic development.

Nurse Educator. Nurse educators work in many settings to encourage wellness, prevent disease, or train patients regarding specific health practices or conditions. These nurses can focus on overall wellness and prevention in a corporate setting or provide specific hands-on training regarding topics such as prenatal care or nutrition for diabetics. Nurse educators can also play in important role as instructors in college or university nursing school programs.

Nurse Practitioner A nurse practitioner performs a role similar to a doctor in many settings, often seeing patients in a medical office. Under the supervision of a physician, nurse practitioners discuss symptoms with patients, perform exams, prescribe medications, and order diagnostics to determine the best treatment for symptoms. Nurse practitioners must complete master's degree level study and obtain licensure to practice.

4) Nursing Career Trends

The demand for nurses continues to be high and the possibility of a nursing shortage looms over the next couple of decades. Although registered nurses make up the largest job group in health care with 2.5 million individuals, significant numbers of nurses should be retiring in the near future while a huge wave of Baby Boomers grows older and has a greater need for heath care.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics expects registered nurses to generate nearly 600,000 new jobs over the course of a decade (2006-2016)--a number among the largest of all careers. You should find this a great time to pursue a career in nursing, although opportunities vary by specialty, setting, and geographic location.

5) Salary Information for Careers in Nursing

Salaries for nurses vary widely based on level of education and expertise, specialty and management responsibilities. Following are BLS mean annual salaries for common nursing careers as of 2008:

• Health Educator: $48,590
• Licensed Practical Nurse: $40,110
• Registered Nurse: $65,130
• Health Services Managers: $88,750 

6) Nursing Career Skills

During their degree programs, nursing majors develop a set of core skills that help them succeed at any job in their field. These core competencies allow nurses to work in a variety of roles in the health care industry.

People skills: If you don't enjoy working with people, do not pursue a nursing career. Nursing is all about people: caring for them, educating them, and helping them live the best possible lives. You should also be able to communicate effectively and work well with people of all different personalities, cultures, and age groups.

Medical knowledge: This is not a field where you can forget everything you learned in college and still do well. You traditionally pull from your nursing school education on a daily basis, and continuing education is essential to staying up-to-date on recent studies and newly discovered medical information. You should be able to remember detailed data about human anatomy, symptoms, diseases, and research.

Critical thinking skills: Providing excellent patient care isn't always a simple process. Figuring out how best to manage symptoms, communicate with a family and motivate healthy behavior may not be the same in each situation. You should have the ability to analyze people and information appropriately and trust your ability to make critical decisions.

Documentation skills: Patient medical records are a key component of the health care system. Not only does good documentation promote essential communication between members of a medical team, it also ensures that the hospital or other health care institution you work for gets paid appropriately for the care you deliver.

7) Nursing Licensure and Certification

In order to practice in their chosen field, nurses must graduate from an approved on-campus or online nursing school and then pass a licensure examination. Nurses may receive licensure in more than one state and some states allow already licensed nurses to practice there without obtaining a new state-specific license.

In all 50 states and the District of Columbia, registered nurses must pass the NCLEX-RN exam to receive a license and licensed practical nurses must complete the NCLEX-PN. Nurses who pursue one of the advanced practice nursing specialties are required to obtain certification in their area of specialty following completion of a focused graduate program.