If you enjoy caring for patients and finding solutions to their problems, consider becoming a nurse. Becoming a nurse includes high pay, a promising career path, growth potential, and specialization options. While most people enter the field because of its rewarding aspects, they also enjoy lucrative perks along the way.
If you’re thinking about becoming a nurse, the following benefits will help you determine if it is the right career for you. This article discusses some of the top benefits of becoming a nurse and what nurses can do within the healthcare industry.
How can nurses contribute to the healthcare industry?
Nurses perform essential patient care across environments, including hospitals, outpatient clinics, private practices, rehab facilities, nursing homes, and patient residences. They achieve the overarching goal through various duties, such as examining patients, noting symptoms, diagnosing illnesses, and working with other healthcare professionals. They keep track of patients’ health, provide medications and therapies, run diagnostic tests, and counsel patients on medical topics that may contribute to their recovery and wellness.
Nursing careers have 15 advantages.
Choosing a career in nursing has many benefits. Here are fifteen ways a nursing degree benefits you throughout your career:
1. Opportunities for continuous education
Healthcare is constantly evolving, incorporating alternative approaches, innovative treatments, and new research to help nurses transform patient care. It also requires nurses to stay current with industry trends and to learn new things throughout their careers. With several online programs, they can continue to learn while working full-time.
If money is an issue, you can also complete a degree online. Get enrolled in an affordable RN to MSN program at any institution of your liking and keep climbing the career ladder.
2. Contributing to the wellness of others
One of the most rewarding aspects of becoming a nurse is taking care of others and assisting them with their health and wellness. This effort is at the core of the nursing profession; many nurses become nurses to provide compassionate, holistic care and save lives.
3. Opportunities for travel
Nursing is highly in demand all over America; from urban to rural areas, nurses are required to provide care to patients with injuries and illnesses. Because of this, nurses have the freedom to work anywhere they desire.
Furthermore, some nurses are travel nurses by trade, meaning they move around the country and work in different places every 13 weeks. Nurses who enjoy travel may find nursing an ideal career choice.
4. A highly lucrative salary
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the national average salary for a registered nurse (RN) is $78,459 per year. There is a vast difference between this figure and the average wage reported by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) for 2019.
Although most nurses are not drawn to the profession for the high pay, they tend to enter because of their interest in healthcare. Many also enjoy high salaries with excellent benefits from their employers.
5. Future job prospects
According to the BLS, RN employment will grow by 7% from 2019 to 2029 because of an increased emphasis on preventative care. Due to this growth, there will be an addition of approximately 221,900 jobs during that time. This means that the job outlook for nurses in the U.S. is quite good. As a matter of fact, the BLS predicts a faster growth rate for all occupations than the average.
6. Incentives for overtime
It is common for nurses to be able to earn overtime pay by taking on extra shifts on a regular basis. Nurses in the United States earn an average of $11,250 per year in overtime pay. Professionals driven by extrinsic motivational factors can benefit greatly from access to additional income sources.
7. Opportunities for specialization
The nursing profession offers nurses a variety of specialization opportunities. The possibilities offered by these programs allow nurses to choose a subfield that best fits their interests and needs throughout their education and training. Access to specialty options can improve your professional satisfaction due to this level of career customization.
8. Career advancement opportunities
As a nurse, you have plenty of career advancement possibilities. Depending on your strengths and goals, you could advance to floor manager, shift leader, or transition into an upper management role. Moreover, it’s common for nurses to enter other healthcare professions from nursing, such as physician assistants and nurse practitioners.
9. Honor
Undoubtedly, nurses are motivated to do their best — their work saves lives and provides patients with confidence about their treatment. In other career fields, it may not be as rewarding to play a supportive role with such influence and importance on a day-to-day basis as in the support field.
10. Reputation among professionals
Nurses tend to enjoy a certain level of professional recognition and admiration among their circles. Nurses must undergo extensive licensing processes before they can be granted a professional status that gives them the right to practice their profession. Consequently, this allows others to recognize the nurses’ professional legitimacy and are typically viewed as highly trained, competent, and trustworthy individuals.
11. Possibility of change
Nursing offers a certain degree of flexibility. Some nurses work part-time, and others work full-time. Nurses may also work on a seasonal or temporary basis to meet specific work schedules or enjoy greater flexibility. Shifting between a part-time and full-time schedule is one of the most beneficial aspects of having a part-time schedule.
12. A sense of fulfillment at work
The above benefits, along with professional recognition, fair pay, flexibility, career advancement opportunities, and others, usually lead to a high level of job satisfaction for nurses. In addition to reducing stress levels, improving productivity, appreciating colleagues, building positive workplace relationships, and being happier in your career, being satisfied with your work can have other benefits.
13. Being able to work with people from various backgrounds
In their daily lives, nurses interact with a variety of people, including their colleagues and patients. A nurse practitioner might work with a doctor, a specialist, a physician assistant, a nurse practitioner, a social worker, or another professional. Furthermore, nurses treat a wide range of racial, ethnic, cultural, gender, and age demographics.
14. Options for scheduling shifts
An average five-day, the eight-hour work week is typical for full-time employees. It is common for nurses to work a three-day, 12-hour schedule, especially in hospitals. Nurses can benefit from this schedule by having more leisure and personal time throughout the week. Alternatively, if you find the schedule unappealing, other nurses, such as those working in clinics, assume it is average.
15. Continuity in daily life
Each day, nurses work with a different set of patients daily, so their day-to-day tasks are typically varied. For professionals who prefer to tackle new challenges throughout their careers rather than repeat the same specialized tasks, this can be particularly appealing.
Conclusion
The scope of nursing is wide and diverse, with nurses working in a variety of fields and specialties. Nurses typically choose a specialty that matches their passions and career objectives when they enter the field. They can change specialties during their careers, but some choose to specialize for the duration of their careers based on their preferences and job availability. The type of work they perform may require nurses to perform specialized tasks based on the subfield they choose.
