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Kaliah Mahafutau

Ms. Amanda Tibbitts

Language Arts 12

8 March 2019

Nurses

I’ve known I wanted to have a health related career for as long as I can remember. My

grandmother and mother have both worked in the medical field my whole life. My grandmother

is a registered nurse and has always been my inspiration to become one as well. It wasn’t until I

took Sports Medicine my junior year that I truly decided I wanted to be a nurse. Learning about

all the injuries and how they would be treated really fascinated me. I got a better understanding

of the body and it’s anatomy my senior year in my Medical Anatomy and Physiology class that

solidified my enjoyment of the human body. These classes and research have helped get one step

closer to my future career.

In this essay, I will be discussing the various types of nurses, the education and licenses needed,

the locations of these nurses and nurse burnout. There are about fifty different kinds of nurses.

Nurses can be categorized into four different groups, to start they may be categorized by their

level of education or certificates they have. Some nurses specialize in a particular part of a

population. For instance, a geriatric nurse specializes in elderly care. Nurses can also choose to

focus in a specific medical speciality such as, OB/GYN, surgery, gastroenterology, etc. Lastly,

nurses can choose a career based on the location. I’m going to focus on five that interest me most

and are a possible career for me. To be a nurse, you must be compassionate, have good critical

thinking skills, good communication, confidence and adaptability. These are all important skills
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for each kind of nurse and are important for a successful nursing career. Registered nurses

usually assist physicians and help treat patients with illnesses, injuries, and medical conditions.

Registered nurses typically work in hospitals but also work in physician offices, home healthcare

services, and nursing care facilities. Others, work in outpatient clinics, schools or in the military.

They can choose from obtaining a bachelor’s degree, associate’s degree or a diploma from an

approved nursing program. BSN programs usually take four years to complete whereas ADN and

diploma programs take two to three years to complete. In order to become licensed, nurses must

graduate from an approved nursing program and pass the National Council Licensure

Examination. Other requirements may be required but it varies by state. Nurse Practitioners

coordinate patient care, and may be able to provide primary and specialty care. The scope of

practice depends on the state.

Most Nurse practitioners work in a physician's office but similar to registered nurses they also

work in hospitals, outpatient care centers and schools. Nurse practitioners must earn a Master's

degree from an accredited program, have a registered nursing license and pass a national

certification exam. An accredited program includes both classroom education and clinical

experience. It is also said it is very helpful to have a strong background in science. It is required

for a nurse practitioner to have a registered nursing license before pursuing a higher education in

Nursing. A master's degree is the most common form of entry level education but nurse

practitioners can choose to earn a Doctor of Nursing Practice or a Phd.

I watched my older sister give birth about two years ago and it was intense but also very

fascinating. This is what leads me to my interest in a Nurse midwife. I love babies and would

love being able to help them once they begin their little lives. Nurse midwives help diagnose and
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care for the women and child during the birthing process. This can be done independently or

with a healthcare team. Nurse Midwives are very similar to nurse practitioners and require the

same type of education and licensing. Nurse practitioners and nurse midwives can also be

referred to as APRN, advanced practice registered nurse because they require master’s degrees.

APRN’s usually work full time and have the usual work hours.

I would be interested in being a operating room nurse. I never really thought about this as a

possibility until I did my research. A operating room nurse cares for a patient before, after and

during surgery. They work with surgical teams and work as a liaison between them and the

patient’s family. An operating room nurse is a registered nurse who has become certified to assist

surgeons. They must have an undergraduate degree in nursing and complete a preoperative

nursing program.

Lastly, I think I would try being a travel nurse. I do think it would be a bit nerve racking because

you would have to be in different places all the time but I also think it would be cool to be in

different environments and see how others work. A travel nurse works jobs sometimes

internationally or nationally, sometimes for weeks and maybe even years but they are able to

choose where they go and what they would be working in. They have mostly the same duties as

registered nurses. A benefit they have is, usually full furnished housing is provided because you

move around a lot. You can either be a registered nurse, nurse practitioner, or a licensed practical

nurse, it is possible to get into this occupation with no degree but things would be more

competitive for a travel nurse because schools and programs aren’t designed for travel nurses. It

is important to be aware of the licensing and education because it will determine how long it’ll
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take until you can fully get into your profession. It will help you plan and work around it to help

you reach your goal quickly and efficiently.

Now I will be talking about burnout, how it happens and how it can be prevented or helped. I

think this was very important to add in when deciding your occupation. Being away of the cons

is very important to be prepared if put in that situation. Burnout is a syndrome of emotional

exhaustion, depersonalisation and reduced personal accomplishment. In simpler words, it’s when

you are emotionally tired and give up. Burnout can cause low morale, increased absenteeism, a

decrease in effectiveness and productivity and lead to poor performance and patient care. Some

nurses work in highly pressured and constantly challenging situations which could quickly lead

to burnout. It can be caused by too much work, difficult patients or coworkers, frequent

interruptions and much more. If a nurse is exhausted they may make the wrong call for a patient

or if they are unhappy, the patient will be unhappy. Nurses may become numb and distance

toward patients. About 70% of nurses have experienced burnout and have considered leaving the

occupation permanently. Women 30-40 years old with 5 or more years of service had the highest

scores of burnout. The lack of empathy will cause a few issues but nurses may feel they aren’t

doing enough and aren’t progressing which will lead to job dissatisfaction and cause them to

quit. Burnout can begin to affect nurses physically such as sleeplessness, headaches and

gastrointestinal disturbances. Studies have shown that healthier and stable nurses tend to have

shorter patient stays and less patients in the intensive care unit. Showing, the correlation of the

involvement of nurses involvement in decision making processes and reduction in burnout.

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It has been found that in order to improve nurse burnout there must be more communication,

frequently and more structured. Nurses are given more access to help they may need and able to

work with larger groups to solve problems and care for the patients better. It is also found that

better training could be beneficial, limited training and resources lead to stress but could be

prevented if there were better training systems. It would be helpful if hospitals were given

limited amounts of time for coworkers to develop interpersonal relationships. Studies show that

positive support at causes less absenteeism. There is also an idea to make imessage tracking to

ensure messages have been received supervisors. Tracking also helps with later analysis and

enhances accountability. Having a well communicated hospital can help situational awareness

and can help reduce nurse burnout. Having a quicker response can easily help reduce the level of

tension.

This paper opened my eyes to the many opportunities and paths that I could take. I have learned

things important for my future and helped me choose what career is best for me. It was also

really beneficial to know the con side of nurses and learn now how to prevent myself from

suffering from burnout. All the research has been a great guide for me as well as my job shadow.

It was great to be able to see how things worked right in front of my eyes and what a daily

routine for me would be like. The job outlook is going to grow in years to come, right around the

time when I should begin working so I know this will be a good career for me to pursue.

Works Cited

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Review.” MEDSURG Nursing, vol. 27, no. 6, Nov. 2018, pp. 349–378. EBSCOhost,
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NurseJournal.org, 13 Feb. 2019, nursejournal.org/articles/types-of-nursing-degrees/.

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