THE NURSING PROFESSION 101
Nursing as a profession has been accurately described as the part of health care service provider that provides a mesh that threads together, the multidisciplinary contributions that make up a patient’s health care experience. From the time of Florence Nightingale until the present, modern nurses have been at the fore in the provision of healthcare services. During the peak of the global pandemic as the world battled the scourge of the COVID 19 infection, alongside others, the 4 million nurses in America were seen to be in the front of the fight, stretched thin by the sheer volume of patients they had to take care of and leaving no doubts in all minds that the nursing profession is indeed invaluable and indispensable to health care as we know it.
Becoming a nurse is no easy task, working as one is even more challenging. Over time, the nursing profession has been on a constant evolutionary path, continuously branching out and playing more specialized roles.
WHAT NURSES DO
The scope of responsibilities that a nurse is usually saddled with is very wide, ranging from taking vital information from patients and monitoring their recovery process to providing rehabilitation services and even making diagnoses and treatments in some cases.
But before the specific duties of nurses are discussed, it must first be noted that nurses are classified into different categories. In the United States of America, for example, nurses are placed into three broad groups:
REGISTERED NURSES (RN)
To become a registered nurse, one would have to first complete a nursing program and get a bachelor’s degree. After that, they would need to sit for and pass the National Council Licensure Exam. Finally, a state-issued license will be required before they can get employment to practice. A greater percentage of the nurses in health centers are of this category. The responsibility of a registered nurse includes the following:
• Perform physical exam of patients and take a history of their condition
• Health promotion services to the public as well as provision of health education
• Counseling services to patients and the public
• Registered nurses can administer medication to patients in and out of the health facility
• They help in coordinating the care of the patient placed in their keep
ADVANCED PRACTICE REGISTERED NURSE (APRN)
Advanced practice registered nurses, in addition to having a basic degree in nursing and a license to practice, also have successfully completed a higher learning curriculum and have obtained a master’s degree at least. Due to their advancement in training and knowledge, they are capable of providing a more in-depth and specialized type of care. Advanced practice registered nurses can do the following:
• Provide primary as well as preventive health care services
• Request for investigative tests to be run on the patients
• They are at liberty to make diagnoses as well as treat certain illnesses in patients and write prescriptions
• They can advise the public and individuals on health issues
• When specialized as midwives, advanced practice registered nurses provide gynecological services
• Certified nurse anesthetists administer over 65% of the anesthetics a patient would require for a surgical procedure
• Advanced practice registered nurses can branch out into specialties like pediatric nursing, orthopedic nursing, acute care /emergency nursing, or family nursing practice
LICENSED PRACTICAL NURSE (LPN)
In some areas, this category of nurses is sometimes referred to as Licensed Vocational Nurses. They are not permitted to work on their own without any supervision, usually required to work under the supervision of either a medical doctor, an advanced practice registered nurse, or a registered nurse. The services provided by the licensed practical nurse is limited in comparison to the other categories:
• They monitor the vital signs of patients under the care and look out for signs of improvement in health or deterioration in the same
• The general comfort of a patient under monitoring or treatment is largely overseen by the licensed practical nurse
• They can also administer medication to patients as requested by the doctor
STEPS TO BECOMING A NURSE
As mentioned above, a degree in nursing is the first step in the journey into the profession. Afterward, passing the National Council Licensure Exam and getting licensed by the state you wish to work in follows. . For more advanced options such as Advanced Practice Registered Nurse, a graduate degree will have to be obtained. With this, one may then choose to go into other specialty areas. However, as we will come to find, not all nursing pathways will require this process. Asides from the above classes, there are other categories of nurses or aides that require other types of certification.
For convenience purposes, nurses can also be described based on where they choose to work. In that case, advanced practice registered nurses can also be referred to as Nursing Practitioners. For example, a nurse specializing in orthopedics is an Orthopedic Nursing practitioner. Nurses can sometimes choose to provide their services on a one-to-one basis for patients in the comfort of their homes or other places of residence. These nurses are Home care nurses or Home health nurses. They mostly work with patients who are advanced in age, disabled, chronically or terminally ill. Their patients could also be new mothers who are still recuperating. Home care nurses provide the following services:
• They evaluate the patient regularly to determine whether more advanced hospital care is required
• They keep track of the vital signs of the patient and are involved in their general well-being and condition
• They provide information and guidance to the patient and their family about their health conditions and how to cope with it
PERSONAL SUPPORT WORKERS
This is a largely unregulated category of caregivers. There is no emphatic body of rules that stipulate the services that are provided by personal support workers and some of their duties tend to overlap with that of registered nurses. In different regions, personal support workers go by different names eg healthcare aide, personal care aide, nursing attendant, etc. Personal support workers routinely provide assistance to aged and ill individuals by helping out with daily tasks such as climbing the stairs, changing clothes and beddings, monitoring their lifestyle habits, and handling their general grooming. In order to become a personal support worker, a nursing degree is not required. Schools offer certificate programs in Personal support work which can be earned in a couple of months. These certification programs cover a wide array of subjects, providing the necessary knowledge for household management, first aid, recognition of medical conditions, and even care for people with cognitive and mental impairments.
For every 100 persons in the United States of America, there is just one nurse. As the baby boomer generation continues to live into older ages, many thanks to the advancement in medical science that number is expected to be stretched even more. It is predicted that by the year 2028, there will be a shortage of nurses in America to the tune of 12% and globally, the shortage will rise to 24.8%. It is evident, therefore, that the services which nurses provide will always be in increasing demand and indeed, there is no better time for that demand than now as the world struggles to regain its feet post the Covid-19 pandemic.
