How To Become A Registered Nurse: Part 1

Nursing is a great profession. It's fulfilling, allows for independence, provides great stability, and provides a stable income - smart choice!

Before you waste your time going through nursing school, evaluate what type of person you are. To be a Registered Nurse and work in a hospital setting, you have to be very strong. Meaning you will see blood, feces, pus, wounds, sickness, and death.

You will be the center of your patients’ world. You will answer to the patient, their families, the doctors, and a whole slew of other medical professionals. You will be responsible for examining and assessing the patient and then reporting your findings to the doctors. You will evaluate vital signs and act accordingly. In addition, you will do dressing changes, blood sugar checks, and then teach the patient and their families about the diagnosis, medications, and sign/symptoms to report.

These tasks make a 12 hour shift fly by. In addition, you must document all the tasks you performed accurately. Otherwise, it will be like those tasks were never performed. If you think you can handle this high pressure, demanding job, then read on.

Education is paramount to being a successful registered nurse. Science and math are the bases of this career. However, the ability to communicate and write effectively is a necessity as well. Instead of going to an expensive University for your education, consider going to a Junior College or a Community College.

These colleges offer small size courses, which prevent you from getting lost in the crowd. You are able to ask questions and also build a relationship with your instructor. Building a relationship with your instructor, will help you learn how to communicate in a professional setting. This relationship will also come in handy when obtaining a recommendation for nursing school.

Most nursing schools have pre-requisites. For most California schools, the pre-requisites are speech, psychology, math, chemistry, microbiology, biology, anatomy, and physiology ... These are vigorous courses and require a tremendous amount of concentration and hard work.

Not only do you have to do well in these courses for the benefit of your career, but getting into a good nursing school is competitive and grades speak volumes. Grades will determine if you get in or are placed on a waiting list. Complete the pre-requisites, gain some contacts within your instructors, build friendships with other pre-nursing students, and keep reviewing anatomy and physiology. These two courses will follow you throughout your career.