Adult Nursing-why I love my job (Adult Nurse)

Member Name: Lunar13

Product:	Adult Nurse
Date:	11/04/09 (330 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Nursing is challenging, rewarding and I love being a nurse

Disadvantages: Lots of paperwork

I have been a registered nurse for almost 8 years now. I began my training at 18, qualified at 21 and have never looked back. I think I always new this was what I wanted to do, my family tell me that I told everyone I wanted to be a nurse when I got my first dressing up outfit at about 5 years old.

The academic requirements for the advanced diploma which I did were at least 5 GCSE's at C or above, and to be 17.5 years or older at the time you start studying. If you follow the link I will paste underneath this site can give people wanting to be a nurse some good information on all the options available to you.

http://www.nhscareers.nhs.uk/details/Default.aspx ?Id=1941

I stayed on at school and did my A levels in biology and chemistry, and although they are not required for training it really helped me with the course. I found the academic requirements of the course challenging as it covers such a wide range of subjects. This includes Biology, Psychology, Sociology, management, communication skills, Pharmacology and many other subjects. To be honest I think I scraped through the academic side of the course. I worked in a nursing home for 2 years part time before I applied to university. This time confirmed to me that nursing was the path for me.

If anybody asked me what was the one key requirement for any nurse it is that you have to be able to adapt to any situation, and quickly. Nurses are not the hand maidens of doctors, we don't spend much time bathing patients and changing beds. Unfortunately many jobs which were traditionally done by nurses are now done by our brilliant support workers, without who the NHS would crumble and grind to a halt.

I should start off by saying what I love about my job.

You get to meet new and different people every day. When you pass someone in the street or see them doing their shopping you have might make assumptions about them and never think twice if you are wrong or right. When you are a persons nurse you are privileged to know them in a way that their friends and possibly family never will. Its not easy to trust new people in your life when you are an adult, but as a nurse this happens every day because people have to trust that you can provide what they need.

No two days are the same, there are always new challenges, new people and new conditions to learn about. I don't think you ever stop learning as a nurse, its not a job you can walk home from and switch off for the day. If I meet a patient with a condition that I don't know much about, I like to research the condition so I can be better prepared the next day. I have had several pieces of work published since qualifying, and for a dyslexic girl who's primary school teacher told my mum I would never pass any exams, I don't think that is to bad.

I love the responsibility you have as a nurse. I am a sister now but even when I had just qualified there isn't always somebody there to tell you what to do. It takes time to call for help of other nurses or a doctor, you have to know you will be able to respond in the right way to an emergency situation. There is no way to prepare for every situation as the human body can be so unpredictable. I think some student nurses worry that the wont know what to do in an emergency, I think you only really know what you are capable of when you are tested in a real situation, being stuck in a lift with a fitting relative of my patient when I was a student taught me that I worked well under pressure.

Teaching is a huge part of nursing, there are always nursing and medical students on the wards who are eager to pick your brains. Unfortunately we now have to do lesson plans for teaching students. I absolutely love the teaching part of my job, its also really important to be able to teach patients how to look after their conditions. I don't dare think how many times I have given myself an injection to prove to patients that its not that bad and they can do it!

What I don't love about my job is all the paperwork and red tape. You have to have meetings about meetings to plan meetings to get anything done half the time. If you want to become a nurse be prepared to learn about policies and procedures you will have to follow. If you want to become a good nurse be prepared to know the policies and procedures well enough to know when you need to try something different.

My real advice if you want to be a nurse it to try and get some work experience, it really helped me prepare for my training and meant it wasn't such a shock when I first stepped on a hospital ward

Summary: I love being a nurse, but it's a tough job, give it some real thought if you are considering it.