By the year 2020, it is predicted that the United States will need 800,000 nurses in their health care industry. Registered nursing jobs involve those who work in traditional hospital settings, as well as non-traditional locations such as in home, laboratory, or school. This wide array of options and specializations for those interested to pursue a career in nursing has made the field of nursing really a promising path.
Clinical Nurse
As the term entails, clinical nurses are those that are registered who work in definite clinic settings. However, dubbed also as nurse practitioners, clinical nurses may also work in different types of clinic with various specializations. Thus, clinical nurse, though works in clinic, can be very flexible.
Clinical Nurse Subcategory
Given the huge amount of clinical nurse working in hospitals and clinics, most of nurse practitioners can be classified into different subcategories:
Clinical nurse specialist - These are the nurses who attained and completed qualifications for specific specialization. They can specialize to various fields in health care for instance midwifery, or psychiatric and/or mental health, or geriatrics, as well as pediatrics, and other health disciplines. Because of the specific fields of their specialty, they obtain titles such as mental nurse, or maternity nurse, and even theater nurse.
Staff nurse - These are the nurses who are responsible for general administrative duties in hospitals and clinics. They have no specific specialization.
Clinical nurse assigned to specific hospital sections - aside from the clinical nurse specialist and the staff nurse, a clinical nurse may also be appointed and concentrate to specific hospital sections or departments such as the surgical section, emergency room, or accidents section
Because of these diverse opportunities for nurse jobs in many of hospitals along with clinics in the United States, jobs for clinical nurse are highly in demand today.
Hierarchy of Clinical Nurses
Aside from different types of clinical nurses, there are also levels and ladder in this type of medical and health job. There are clinical nurses in general but there are also clinical support nurses, and clinical nurse specialists who specialize in specific field or area. Clinical nurses can also climb up the ladder through being a nurse advisor, clinical lead nurse, or a clinical nurse manager. Consequently, there are still other types of jobs in the nursing field.
Responsibilities of Clinical Nurse
A clinical nurse has many responsibilities depending on their specialization and area of expertise. Sometimes, the size of organization contributes to the variation of responsibilities. Accordingly, a bigger organization provides more responsibilities and duties to clinical nurse because it has more hospital sections and areas to work for, than a smaller organization. Responsibilities of a clinical nurse involve clinical practice, that is, providing optimal care to patients. However, under the practice providing care to patients, the responsibilities of a clinical nurse still constitutes many things and may divert from the general clinical practice, such as conducting research, handling consultation and management duties, and many others.
Home Health Registered Nurses
Aside from the traditional clinical setting where most nurses work, home health care has proven to be a lucrative sector for the nursing profession. Registered nurses, who chose to deliver health care services at home where most patients get and feel better because of homey ambiance and setting, provide various services like geriatric nursing, community health nursing, and visiting nurse jobs. Other nursing home health care jobs are:
Newborn Visiting Nurses - They are the nurses who phone new mothers and offer their service at home. They monitor the newborn child's conditions, gives assessment, as well as medications to the mother and her child.
Visiting Chronic Care Nurses - They offer service at home for those who need specific hours of care at specific days per week. They are the nurses who attend patients after surgery, change feeding tubes, and assess medical needs from time to time.
Early intervention nurse - They offer service to families who have young children needing medical intervention.
Occupational Health Registered Nurses
As a growing field, occupational health registered nurses have also different responsibilities. They are tasked to do initial assessments and physical examinations, assess the medical needs of the patient, and offer medical information to specific company or institution.
Public Health Registered Nurses
Unlike other nurses who are only involved in nursing and taking care of patients, public health registered nurses are engaged in policy-making affecting societies. They provide patient care in clinical settings but at the same time, they participate in community health nursing. More often, they give advices, information, and assistance to families in different communities regarding their health, nutrition, and family planning.
They can also work in conjunction with the Department of Health where they can propose policies and insights on how to control infectious disease and implement policy measures in hospitals and clinics.
School Nurses
School nurses are nurses who work on schools, universities, and colleges, where they provide students their medical needs. They may be assigned permanently in just one school, but others can be assigned from one school to another. Most of schools today have built exclusive clinics for students to have the most important health care they need. School nurses are responsible for assessing the medical needs of students, giving emergency care, advising the students about nutrition, preventive care, and first aid procedures.
Hospice Registered Nurses
Just like the clinical nurse who can work at night shift, day shift, or overtime, hospices also offer 24-hour, day and night service to patients at the setting of their own home. Hoping and believing the patients improves at home settings, a registered hospice nurse can also build personal rapport with the patients which might help them get better. Usually work under the direction of a doctor, a hospice nurse can also work independent in handling patients.
Because of many options and opportunities in the field of nursing, it has become a very profitable job nowadays. Demand for new nurses is still high and increasing in the United States, resulting to more and more students shifting into nursing courses. Another good thing is that, underneath the general broad field of nursing, students can choose specific field or area they are most concerned with depending on their skills, knowledge, and capability.
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