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Nursing

3 Things You Can Do to Progress in the Field of Nursing

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If you work hard and dedicate enough of yourself to the field, there’s no telling how far you could go as a nurse. There are always ways to progress in this industry; it’s just down to you to devote your time to the profession in order to pull yourself up the career ladder. More importantly, it’s down to you to take every opportunity for growth that comes your way.

Nothing is going to be handed to you as a nurse — the rewards that you get will be all down to you, and the effort that you put in. This doesn’t mean that you can’t accept a bit of help along the way, though. Rest assured, such assistance can be found below in the form of guidance.

To find three things you can do to progress in the field of nursing, make sure to read on.

Earn an advanced degree

To become a nurse in the first place, you had to devote years of your life to education. If you truly want to progress in the field, you’re going to have to seriously consider devoting a few more going forward. When it comes to climbing the nursing career ladder, having an advanced degree on your resume will open up so many more doors for you in comparison to not having one. Going back to college or university and enrolling on such a course should, then, be one of your main priorities in the foreseeable future.

When it comes to choosing the advanced degree that is right for you, it’s important to take your schedule into account and how much of your time you can realistically devote to studying. As a working nurse, what with the number of hours you work each week, time is likely to be at a premium for you, which is why you have to consider taking a remote degree in this instance. By going down this route and taking an ADN to BSN online course, you will be able to fit your learning into your schedule. You’ll be able to learn and revise in your own time and at your own pace, simply because you won’t have to go out of your way to head to a classroom — whenever you get some free time away from the hospital or surgery that you work at, all you need do is simply connect to the web and take your lessons. The end result? You can better your tomorrow without having to fall behind with regards to today’s responsibilities.

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5 Stages of How Nurses Deliver Care to Patients

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Nurses are at the forefront of the care delivery system. Moreover, unlike other healthcare fields, the role of a nurse is much more challenging and demanding as well. From providing hands-on care to educating patients, spreading public awareness, and monitoring medical equipment, nurses do it all with dedication and sincerity. In the U.S., there are more than 4 million registered nurses adhering to growing care demands.

With their top-notch judgemental and critical thinking skills, nurses ensure that patients receive the best possible healthcare services. To better understand how the nursing process work, let us have a look into the five stages of nursing:

Stage 1: Data Collection through Assessment

The nursing process begins with the assessment process. Before delivering care to the patient, it is essential for a nurse to assess the situation using their critical thinking capabilities. This helps in fetching valuable information and data about the patient and their health condition. 

All the registered nurses (RNs) begin with a detailed assessment of the patient, taking note of every necessary health data that can help further in the diagnosis and treatment. The assessment process that nurses perform in hospitals in the USA or any other region involves physical examination of the patient including measuring blood pressure, height, weight, temperature, and other vital signs. These data either comes from the patient or may come from family and friends and in most of the cases from primary caregivers. Even electronic health records (EHR) data may also assist in understanding the patient’s health history and present health records.

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4 Ways You Can Help Your Nurses Advance Through Their Careers

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Nursing is a very competitive field. There is no shortage of nursing graduates out there, so anything a nurse can do to distinguish themselves is invaluable. Investing in the training and development of your nurses brings a number of benefits to them and to you and your business.

Why You Should Invest in Your Nurses’ Futures

Businesses are often wary about investing money in training their employees when there’s the potential for the employee to take those skills to another employer. After training and development, your nurses will be more valuable and able to leverage better jobs than they otherwise could. There isn’t a whole lot you can do to prevent this, but you shouldn’t be too afraid of it.

Investing in the development and career advancement of individual nurses on your staff does more good than harm. Even after you factor in the relative few who will just take the money, or training, and run to a higher paying job, the remaining nurses will be better trained and more loyal to your business. 

Nursing is a competitive field in the United States. While the market varies from state to state, there are a large number of applicants on a national level and a steady stream of graduates transitioning straight from college to industry. Nurses are therefore always eager to expand their knowledge. There’s an endless array of potential courses, certificates, degrees and other training units for nurses to undertake.

As an employer, you have the potential to facilitate the development of your nurses. The end result will be a staff of more competent, more qualified, more valuable and more loyal nurses. Here are four ways that you can make a real difference to your nurses’ advancement through the ranks.

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How to Hire and Retain Nurses in a Tight Labor Market

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By Jim Thomas, Ph.D.

As the largest single component of the hospital workforce, nothing has a greater impact on the quality of care than nursing. But many organizations are finding it increasingly difficult to keep nursing jobs filled. Many parts of the US are already experiencing a nursing shortage as the industry grows faster than schools can produce qualified graduates. Today’s healthcare organizations must have highly efficient and effective talent acquisition processes to get their fair share of this scarce talent.

But the talent shortage isn’t just a recruitment and hiring concern. The problem is exacerbated by poor retention. Turnover for all nurses averaged 16.9 percent in 2017, second only to hospitality workers. The picture is even worse for new nursing grads – about one in five quit within the first 12 months. This frightening scenario will only get worse as organizations compete more aggressively for an increasingly limited supply of nurses.

Thriving in this tight labor market requires a combination of talent acquisition and retention excellence. Consider the three-pronged approach some of the most successful organizations take when selecting and on-boarding nurses and nursing managers:

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Why More Nurses Are Required In the Health Care Industry

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The first person who will greet you when you go to an emergency room or the hospital is a nurse, aside from other attendants. You expect each nurse to attend to your needs immediately and promptly. This may not always be the case as there is an issue with the proportion of the number of nurses to the number of patients.

That being said, if you’re currently contemplating which course to take, then taking the nursing profession path may be a good option for you. With the advent of technology, you no longer need to enroll in an old-school setting as institutions like Bradley University enable you to get a degree by studying online. 

The following are some of the reasons why more nurses are needed in the healthcare industry:

1. The system has paved the way for the need for more medical practitioners.

Since the passage of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act in 2010, it has extended medical coverage to millions of people. The increase in the number of people that require medical attention means a relative increase in the required professionals to meet their needs. 

Most of the states have passed some regulations in terms of a nurse to patient ratio. For instance, a nurse in the operating room can’t handle more than one patient while the one in the emergency room may have up to four patients depending on the state. Some hospitals haven’t followed this setting before so upon the passage of the law, they are required to make the necessary changes or else they will be penalized.

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Tips to Help You Become a Fully-Qualified Nurse 

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There can be few careers that compare to the sheer diversity and excitement that you experience in nursing. Many aspects of the job are deeply rewarding – whether that’s working alongside some of the best medical professionals in the business, applying your scientific and medical knowledge to improve the health of your patients, or simply that warm fuzzy feeling that accompanies a career that values caring and thoughtful individuals.

Whatever your motivations for becoming a nurse, this article aims to fully instruct you on how you’ll be able to make it in the world of nursing, providing tips and advice to help you get qualified, get a job, and make the most out of this endlessly interesting career. 

It Starts at School

If you’re young enough to still be studying at school, you’ll find that the better grades you get, the more likely you are to be accepted onto a nursing program that’ll develop your knowledge in the medical arena. If you’ve been out of school for some time, this in no means excludes you from applying for a job in nursing – you may simply have to complete some additional studies to be eligible to go to university or college to study nursing. 

Of course, nursing requires a specific skill set that you will want to develop sooner rather than later in your educational life. These include:

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A Force to Be Reckoned With: Millennial Nurses Bring Growing Numbers and Higher Expectations to the Work Environment

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By Marcia Faller, PhD, RN, Chief Clinical Officer, AMN Healthcare

Millennial nurses place a higher premium on professional development, quality measure transparency and other factors than their older peers. They’re also more likely to change jobs to get what they want. 

These were among the key takeaways from a new report by AMN Healthcare, Survey of Millennial Nurses: A Dynamic Influence on the Profession, which offers many insights about millennial nurse expectations for the work environment.

Millennials (ages 19-36) are now the largest generation in the U.S. labor force, making up 35% of American workers.  This trend takes on particular significance in the healthcare industry where unprecedented workforce shortages have created recruitment challenges, particularly for qualified nurses.

The new report provides millennial nurse opinions based on data gathered in the AMN 2017 Survey of Registered Nurses, completed by 3,347 RNs. The millennial nurse responses were extracted and compared to those from Generation X, or Gen Xers, (ages 37-53) and baby boomer nurses (ages 54-71). 

The following are some highlights from the survey: [Read more…] about A Force to Be Reckoned With: Millennial Nurses Bring Growing Numbers and Higher Expectations to the Work Environment