Registered Nurse

If you want to practice / work as a nurse in the United States, you need to become a registered nurse. Without becoming a registered nurse, you cannot do anything in your profession. Let's have a look at what it takes to become a registered nurse and the roles and responsibilities in the career.

There are two basic educational qualifications when it comes to becoming a registered nurse; must have graduated from a nursing school or from the college in the nursing program and must have passed the national licensing exam. If you can adhere to these two requirements mentioned above, you can become a registered nurse. In the old days, there were no strict requirements to become a registered nurse. First it was just a low level entry requirement and since then, the entry bar has been raised constantly. By now, you need to have the above qualifications to become a registered nurse.

The registered nurse is the one who has a general education and experience in almost all the areas of the patient care and the one who has special knowledge in an area such as women's health, babies etc. The specialization is done as the nurse students wish and it also depends on the grades they score through the exams.

Depending on the area the registered nurses choose, their working environment varies. If they choose a hospital environment to work, they usually get to work in well-lit, air conditioned environments. These nurses should provide 24 hours healthcare service the patients, so they work in shifts. In addition to that, they are required to work during nights, weekends, and public holidays. Sometimes, if the nurses are residing in the hospital premises, they should be on-call. Should an emergency arise; they should be ready to go for work. If the registered nurse chooses to become women's or public health specialist, they will be mostly traveling and be going to the households. For this type of a registered nurse, there are no proper working hours, but they may not be working onsite during the night times.

The registered nurses attached to schools and companies usually do not provide 24 hours care and restricted to work during business hours. Sometimes, registered nurses do work part time in these places to earn some extra money, whenever they get a free time from their regular work. According to the national level statistics, about 20% of registered nurses have worked part-time in the year of 2008. Registered nurses do have a big scope for their business and their ultimate goal is to make everyone healthier.