By Indrani Chanda:
A nurse is often described by people as the ‘second doctor‘. A scientific definition for nursing is that a nurse “observes, assesses and records symptoms, reactions, and progress of patients, administers medications, helps rehabilitate patients, instructs patients and family members in proper health care and helps maintain a physical and emotional environment that promotes recovery“. Nursing as a profession requires lot of hard work, patience and dedication.
In the modern times people have become extremely career conscious and quite a lot of them are choosing nursing as their career option these days. Nursing has good opportunities and scopes. The main responsibility of a nurse is to take good care of patients and to give them psychological comfort by talking to them. Nursing started with Florence Nightingale in 1850’s. Although during that period, the main duty of nurses was to help a person maintain hygiene, nowadays nurses are loaded with more duties and responsibilities. Doctors and nurses together work as a team and nurses provide their services of love and care for early the recovery of patients.
Nurses are provided both theoretical and practical training to become successful professionals in this field. Students can pursue an associate degree from a nursing program or complete a four-year Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BSN) program. Associate of Science in Nursing (ASN) degree programs casually take two to three years to be completed. It provides training in nursing fundamentals, pharmacology and microbiology. BSN programs may include courses in adult health care, health assessment and community health. They can also pursue Masters of Science in Nursing (MSN) that would prepare nurses to become nurse administrators, nurse educators and family nurse practitioners. All registered nurse program graduates take the National Council Licensure Examination for Registered Nurses (NCLEX-RN). It is important for the nurses for their legal employment.
Licensed Practical Nurses (LPN), also known as Licensed Vocational Nurses (LVNs), are supervised by registered nurses. They measure and monitor patients, help in patient care and treatment and collect laboratory test samples. In hospitals, nurses are guided by some initial procedure which is described as an ‘‘orderly, systematic manner of determining the clients’ health status, specifying problems defined as alterations in human need fulfilment and making plans to solve them”.
Although today there are many opportunities to get professional help and to make a career out of several fields, but nursing as a career is gradually getting tremendous success. The work may sometimes become stressful, but at the end of the day nurses are people who command a lot of respect. They are needed in army hospitals, nursing homes etc. Nurses do not help only individuals, they also help families and groups achieve good health and prevent diseases. Nursing is nothing but a noble career.