Do you want a career in nursing? If so then you will need to know the answers to a few questions such as: What is studied in an online Nursing Program? What jobs are there and what are the prospects? What are the education requirements. How much can you expect to earn after completion? This article seeks to give the answers.
What is Nursing about? Nurses are the human face of so much health care – providing direct patient care. They are the first point of contact as regards administration of treatment and conduct of diagnostic tests, and as such, they are incredibly important in the health care profession.
An online Nursing Program usually includes courses in anatomy, biological sciences, chemistry, microbiology, nutrition, physiology, psychology, pharmacology, sociology, statistics, occupational health, and the liberal arts. Programs may also include supervised clinical experience in hospitals and other healthcare facilities.
Nursing professionals are always in demand all over the world. There are opportunities for nurses in several major settings, including: Hospitals; Clinics/Centers/Healthcare Offices in doctors’ offices, clinics, and emergency medical centers; Nursing Homes; Schools; Home Care/Hospice – providing nursing services to patients at home; Public Health Prevention/Education Programs.
Rapid growth is expected in nurses for hospital outpatient facilities due to the growing trend in discharging patients earlier and performing more procedures as outpatients. Hospital jobs for nurses will not grow as rapidly. The aging population of the country will also lead to the need for more nurses over the next seven years. The U.S. Department of Labor reports that employment of registered nurses is expected to grow over 20% up to 2016.
What are the education requirements? Nurses most commonly enter the occupation by completing an Associate or Bachelor’s degree program. Individuals must then complete a National Council Licensure Examination (NCLEX-RN) in the USA or the Canadian Registered Nurse Examination (CRNE) in Canada in order to obtain a nursing license. Licensed graduates of these programs then qualify for entry-level nursing positions.
Further training or education online for nursing can qualify you to work in specialty areas, and help advance your career. Many existing licensed registered nurses (RNs) with an Associate degree or diploma take online nursing programs at Bachelor’s level, to enable them to assume positions of responsibility in a variety of health care settings. These can be administrative positions in nursing, but could also be other positions in home health, nursing education, or health care case management.
Your salary will obviously depend on your experience, qualifications and which job you have. But in the US, the median salary range for an RN with 1 to 4 years experience is $40,550 – $59.069 whilst in Canada it is C$38.744 – C$55,887 (source: PayScale).
Sophia Peters writes for the Online and Distance Learning web site where you can get more information on online health care and nursing programs. Visit the web site for details of online nursing and other online programs.
