Introduction

Nurses responsibilities vary by specialization or unit, but most share more

similarities than differences. Nurses provide and monitor patient care, educate
patients and family members about health conditions, provide medications and
treatments, give emotional support and advice to patients and their family
members, and more. They also work with healthy people by providing preventative
health care and wellness information.
The tasks nurses perform and the settings in which they perform them are at
least partly driven by specialty, work experience and education. Although most
nurses work in hospitals, some work for schools, private clinics, nursing homes,
placement agencies, businesses, prisons, military bases or other employers. Nurses
with associate and bachelors degrees often provide hands-on care, though the
scope of this care varies by state and employer. Those with more experience and
graduate degrees might supervise other nurses, teach nursing, become nurse
practitioners or do research.
Many nurses spend long hours on their feet. Although nurses working in physicians
offices, schools, corporate settings or other places with traditional hours may work
regular shifts with set schedules, those working in nursing facilities and hospitals
providing round-the-clock care often have to work long weekend and holiday shifts.
It is not unusual for some nurses to work 10 to 12 hours a day, three to four days
each week.

NURSE
Submitted by: Abigail C. Galang
Grade&Section:10-Diligence
Submitted by: Mrs.Datu

Nature of work
Registered nurses (RNs), regardless of specialty or work setting, treat patients,
educate patients and the public about various medical conditions, and provide
advice and emotional support to patients' family members. RNs record patients'
medical histories and symptoms, help perform diagnostic tests and analyze results,
operate medical machinery, administer treatment and medications, and help with
patient follow-up and rehabilitation.
RNs teach patients and their families how to manage their illnesses or injuries,
explaining post-treatment home care needs; diet, nutrition, and exercise programs;
and self-administration of medication and physical therapy. Some RNs may work to
promote general health by educating the public on warning signs and symptoms of
disease. RNs also might run general health screening or immunization clinics, blood
drives, and public seminars on various conditions.
When caring for patients, RNs establish a care plan or contribute to an existing plan.
Plans may include numerous activities, such as administering medication, including
careful checking of dosages and avoiding interactions; starting, maintaining, and
discontinuing intravenous (IV) lines for fluid, medication, blood, and blood products;
administering therapies and treatments; observing the patient and recording those
observations; and consulting with physicians and other healthcare clinicians. Some
RNs provide direction to licensed practical nurses and nursing aides regarding
patient care. RNs with advanced educational preparation and training may perform
diagnostic and therapeutic procedures and may have prescriptive authority. Specific
work responsibilities will vary from one RN to the next. An RN's duties and title are
often determined by their work setting or patient population served. RNs can
specialize in one or more areas of patient care. There generally are four ways to
specialize. RNs may work a particular setting or type of treatment, such
as perioperative nurses, who work in operating rooms and assist surgeons. RNs may
specialize in specific health conditions, as do diabetes management nurses, who
assist patients to manage diabetes. Other RNs specialize in working with one or
more organs or body system types, such as dermatology nurses, who work with
patients who have skin disorders. RNs may also specialize with a well-defined
population, such as geriatric nurses, who work with the elderly. Some RNs may
combine specialties. For example, pediatric oncology nurses deal with children and
adolescents who have cancer. The opportunities for specialization in registered
nursing are extensive and are often determined on the job.

Duties & Responsibilities

Registered nurses often work in hospitals or outpatient facilities, where they provide
hands-on care to patients by administering medications, managing intravenous
lines, observing and monitoring patients' conditions, maintaining records and
communicating with doctors. They are also relied upon to give direction and
supervision to nurse aides and home health aides.
Beyond the physical support and care they provide, registered nurses provide
emotional support to patients and patients' family members. They may educate
patients and the general public on disease management, special diet plans and
medical conditions. They help patients and their families understand how to
manage their diseases or health issues and provide information on home care after
their treatment. They may also teach individuals how to self-administer medication
or complete other self-care tasks.
Nurses employed by physician offices and other types of facilities may have
different duties depending on the level and type of care being offered. Education
and Licensure
An aspiring nurse's first responsibility is to look ahead in this broad profession and
decide on the right educational track. An associate degree takes two years to
complete, whereas a bachelor's degree takes four years and includes additional
clinical training experience in non-hospital settings. Nurses who wish to enter into
administration, research, consulting or teaching positions may wish to pursue
accelerated master's degrees in nursing, which can be combined with the pursuit of
the BSN credential.
Once they are have earned the desired degree, individuals must pass the NCLEXRN, a national licensing exam. From there, RNs can proactively manage their path
through this profession by pursuing subspecialties based on a certain type of
patient, a certain category of illnesses, or a specific type of facility, such as an
imaging facility, an emergency room or a cancer treatment center. While all nurses
are responsible in some form for the care, comfort and well-being of patients, their
overall responsibilities will differ widely depending on the direction they choose.

Working Conditions
Staffing patterns and nurses' working conditions are risk factors for healthcareassociated infections as well as occupational injuries and infections. Staffing
shortages, especially of nurses, have been identified as one of the major factors
expected to constrain hospitals' ability to deal with future outbreaks of emerging
infections. These problems are compounded by a global nursing shortage.
Understanding and improving nurses' working conditions can potentially decrease
the incidence of many infectious diseases. Relevant research is reviewed, and policy
options are discussed.
The Institute of Medicine's report, To Err is Human, which spotlighted the problem of
patient safety, reported that tens of thousands of Americans die each year as a
result of human error in the delivery of health care (1). Authors of a more recent
Institute of Medicine report, Keeping Patients Safe, Transforming the Work
Environment of Nurses, concluded that nursing is inseparably linked to patient
safety and emphasized that poor working conditions for nurses and inadequate
nurse staffing levels increase the risk for errors (2). Nurse working conditions are
related to patients' risk of healthcare-associated infections and occupational injuries
and infections among staff (3). We discuss the nurse workforce, review research
examining nursing as it relates to infectious disease, identify gaps in the literature,
and discuss potential policy options. Although our focus is on the nursing workforce
in the United States, international trends and comparisons are also discussed.early
3 million registered nurses (RNs) work in the United States. Ninety-five percent of
these nurses are women, as are most of the 700,000 licensed practical nurses and
>2 million unlicensed nurse assistants. Internationally, occupational distributions
are similar.
More than 1 million RNs work in hospitals, which makes nursing the largest hospital
workforce. In 60% of U.S. hospitals, vacancy rates for RNs have increased since
1999; 14% of hospitals now report a severe nurse shortage (i.e., >20% of positions

vacant). The American Hospital Association has reported that hospitals have up to
168,000 vacant positions; 126,000 (75%) of the available positions in these
hospitals are for RNs (4). The current nursing shortage is related to an aging
workforce, problems with retaining licensed personnel, and difficulty recruiting
young people into the nursing workforce. The demand for RNs is projected to grow
by 22% by 2008, and unless market corrections are made, the nursing shortage
may reach 800,000 vacant positions by 2020 (5). Recent reports document that the
nursing shortage is a severe and growing global problem (4).
Historically, the turnover rate among nurses is more than double that for other
professionals of comparable education and sex (6). Recent estimates in U.S.
hospitals of RN turnover and intention to quit have ranged from 17% to 36% (6,7),
figures that compare to an overall turnover rate of 2.2% for those employed in
health services and social services and 1.2% for those employed in educational
services. In an investigation of the effects of various nurse working conditions in
intensive care units, researchers found >17% of RNs indicated their intentions to
quit within 1 year (P.W. Stone, unpub. data). This finding was disconcerting because
this national U.S. sample of 2,324 RNs was highly qualified; their average
experience in health care was 15.6 years (SD = 9.20).

Job Outlook
Jobs in the education and the health services industry in Saginaw County are at a
10-year high, according to the state of Michigan's latest jobs report.
An increase of 300 jobs in the two fields brought payroll jobs to 17,200, a 10-year
high. This also represents a gain of 900 payroll jobs over the year, according to the
Michigan Department of Technology, Management & Budget Bureau of Labor Market
Information & Strategic Initiatives December 2015 report, the most recent
available.
Gains also were seen that month in Saginaw County's financial activities and other
services sector, the report states.
Health care professionals are in demand in the Great Lakes Bay Region.
A Great Lakes Bay Michigan Works! job outlook through 2020 ranks registered nurse
No. 1 among 29 high-demand, high-wage careers, based on the number of
projected annual job openings in Saginaw, Bay and Midland counties.
Other careers in health care that made it onto the list include health care social
workers, licensed practical and licensed vocational nurses, medical assistants and
nursing assistants.

Employment
According to Saginaw Future Inc., Covenant HealthCare is Saginaw County's second
largest employer with about 4,512 employees.
Nexteer Automotive is the county's largest employer with about 5,000 area
residents on its payroll.
A Great Lakes Bay Michigan Works! job outlook through 2020 ranks registered nurse
No. 1 among 29 high-demand, high-wage careers, based on the number of
projected annual job openings in Saginaw, Bay and Midland counties.
But nursing isn't the only career in the region rated as a good opportunity by
Michigan Works! Other careers in health care to make it onto the list include health
care social workers, licensed practical and licensed vocational nurses, medical
assistants and nursing assistants.
Skilled trades also are expected to be among the region's high-demand, high-wage
careers in the next five years.

Earnings
The median salary for Nurse Practitioners in the United States is approximately
$88K per year, but employers pay the most in San Francisco, offering around $109K
on average. Nurse Practitioners will also find cushy salaries in New York (+18
percent), Los Angeles
Nurse Practitioners sometimes move into a Adult Nurse Practitioner role, where the
salary is similar. Nurse Practitioners most often move into positions as Family Nurse
Practitioners or Advanced Registered Nurse Practitioners. Family Nurse Practitioners
actually earn $9K less on average, however, and Advanced Registered Nurse
Practitioners earn $13K less per year than Nurse Practitioners do. For Nurse
Practitioners, level of experience appears to be a somewhat less important part of
the salary calculation more experience does not correlate to noticeably higher
pay. Salaries for the relatively untried average out to around $86K, but survey
participants with five to 10 years of experience earn a significantly higher median of
$94K. On average, Nurse Practitioners make $99K following one to two decades on
the job. More than 20 years of experience mean a somewhat bigger median

paycheck of $102K, but it's not much more than what less experienced people
make.

Training:Job
outlook,Qualifications
and advancement
1.Completing a Bachelors Degree in Nursing (BSN),
2. Completing an Associate Degree in Nursing (ADN), or
3. Completing a Diploma Program in a hospital.
All registered nursing programs include classroom instruction and block
experience in hospitals or clinics. Typical subjects studied by student nurses
include:
Chemistry, Nutrition, Psychology, Anatomy, Physiology, Microbiology,
Behavioral Sciences, and Nursing.
During the practical block of a nurses education, student nurses are
supervised in a hospital department, and usually rotate around such
departments as pediatrics, psychiatry, maternity, and surgery. Nurses with an
Associate Degree can later choose to enter a Bachelors program, this will
allow for more career and educational opportunities in the future.

Related occupations
A career in nursingisnt the only job in high demand. Health care jobs in general are
also increasing in demand across the country, especially in rural areas where
primary healthcare is lacking. You could spend years in school tobecome a
registered nurse, or you could only need a couple months of training. Before you
decide which path to take, you need to know what kinds of jobs you have to choose
from. Thats why weve put together a list of the top 50 nursing related health care
jobs, ranked according to the number of employed workers in the country in May
2013. The employment level, pay rates, and other information on this list are
courtesy of the Bureau of Labor Statistics National Occupational Employment and
Wage Estimates.

Source used
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