Do you
want to familiarize yourself with the basic facts about nursing profession but
couldn’t get as much information needed as possible? Then, reading this article
will give you more information about the fact you need to know to be successful while doing the job. Most
people say it is a career about caring. Others say it is a job about
professional administration of medications and cure to patients. Some say it is
the duty to work out predicaments by using critical thinking skills. However,
whatever the perceptions of the generality of the people might be towards the
profession, the fact still remains that Nursing is a profession that brings
about considerable improvement to people welfare and lifestyle.
In
whatever way you want to call it, nursing is, indeed, a conglomeration of all
these beliefs and the faculty of many other skills. Nursing merges all the
elements of professional treatment, compassion, and medical attention into one
vigorous and feasible occupation. Nurses demonstrate all the remarkable
characteristics of a person knowledgeable in patient care.
For this
reason, many people all over the world continues to find a way of entering the
job and thereby pursuing their career in nursing. So for those who want to
establish a successful career in this in-demand and exciting job, there are quite
a number of things you need to know first.
1. In the
United States, 88% of the employed registered nurses are white or Caucasians.
The remaining 12% are from non-Caucasians backgrounds; most of them came from
non-Hispanic or African-American/Black race.
2. While
most students pursue a career in nursing, the statistics show that most
hospitals, particularly in the United States, are having problems in nursing
shortage. This alarming condition is manifested by a growing number of retired
nurses while the health care arena is continuously multiplying due to an
excessive population growth in most areas. Nursing shortage is, in fact, a
worldwide phenomenon. Countries like Canada, Philippines, Australia, Western
Europe, Africa, and South America have reported significant nursing shortages.
3. The
nursing profession started out by early missionaries and primarily during the
early Christian era where members of the church provided nursing care to the
sick as well as other members of their congregations. Though not professionally
systematic at first, most of the activities of early nurses were focused on
proper hygiene and comfort needs which are still being practiced up-to-date.
4.
Historically, more women have been known to prefer nursing as a career. In
fact, nursing was known to be a career exclusively for women until today before
things changed. There have been statistical reports that show considerable
increase in the number of men that registered as professional nurses. This just
implies that men can also be passionate and caring contrary to what the society
have labeled them as strong and formidable human beings.
5. It
was in the year 1860 when Nightingale School at St. Thomas Hospital in London,
the first training school for nurses, was built. Florence Nightingale was the
one responsible in this momentous event. No wonder she was then acclaimed
"The Founder of Modern Nursing."
6. Linda
Richards was the first trained nurse in the United States. In 1873, she
graduated from New England Hospital for Women and Children in Boston. Being one
of the proponents of nursing, she opened the first training school for nurses
in Japan and started a nurse training school at the Methodist Episcopal
Hospital in Philadelphia.
7.
Nursing shortages can be a frightening cause of higher morbidity rate.
According to a 1998 research, hospitals with more registered nurses on staff
and with higher ratios of nurses to patients had smaller number of deaths
compared to those that do not have larger staff of registered nurses. With
this, nursing shortages must be resolved as soon as possible to curb a boost in
morbidity.
8.
Nowadays, most hospitals are more and more becoming large intensive care units
with cardiac monitoring, respiratory assistance and intensive treatments are
notably part of the typical patient's therapy. And so, escalated demands in
skilled and specialized nurses are in the offing.
With all
the listed points above, there is no doubt that nursing profession is not
merely a profession with greater demands in terms of workforce and
responsibilities but more of a humanitarian skill dealing with more compassion
than technicalities. Thus, the above listed facts about nursing mentioned are
not plain issues about the said profession; it is more about life itself and
how nurses are deeply valued.
