The Benefits of Pursuing a Nursing Degree

Most people will have come into contact with a nurse at some point – this might be when they had to go into hospital themselves, when they needed to attend a clinic appointment, when a friend or family member needed medical care, or perhaps it’s simply that you know a nurse. So even if you don’t have all the details about what it is they do for their patients and in the medical world in general, you’ll be aware of what a nurse is and how much help they can offer in a variety of different ways.

It could be that coming into contact with these nurses in your life has made you consider becoming one yourself. This is a wonderful thing; nursing is a rewarding career that is full of joy, excitement, and potential successes. The more you research exactly what it is a nurse can and will do, the more your passions and goals around the job will come into focus. You’ll understand that it’s as demanding as it is rewarding, and that there is a lot of hard work you’ll need to undertake when it comes to your studying. However, if you are truly dedicated to becoming a nurse, you won’t mind this – in fact, it will all be part of the process and something you might even enjoy.

The Benefits of Pursuing a Nursing Degree

Taking all this into account, here are some of the reasons why taking a nursing degree could be the best thing you do, and why becoming a nurse is worth the hard work.

Nursing is Rewarding and Fulfilling:

What feelings do you get when you think about nurses in general? It is highly likely to be a positive feeling, one that is full of respect and admiration. This should certainly be the case if a nurse has ever helped you or a loved one in the past, but equally, even those who have not had close contact with a nurse will understand that the job they do is not one that everyone is capable of, and it’s important that they are there to do it. Therefore, it’s usual for people to respect nurses.

This is something that can make the role of a nurse highly rewarding. Imagine doing your job each day and feeling as though all those around you, from your colleague to your patients to the general public, respected what you were doing and admired your expertise and skills. Of course, nursing is not the only job that garners these kinds of feelings but compared to some others where there is very little respect or thought at all, it certainly comes out as a positive.

Plus, there are other ways that a nursing career is rewarding and satisfying. To begin with, it is very varied. You’ll be helping a variety of different people every day in many different ways. You might be dressing wounds, comforting someone, giving medication, performing life-saving feats, talking through options for care, and so much more. In all that you do, you’ll be helping someone in a big way or a small, which is such a rewarding thing to be able to do.

Job Security and Stability:

Nurses are a hugely important part of the healthcare system, and they are needed in every place you go. No matter what town, city, state, or even country you care to look at, when it comes to nurses, there just never seems to be enough of them. This can lead to issues in terms of patient care, and it’s why there is often a lot of talk about how to find and fund more nurses. Although in general a lack of nurses is not something to think of as a positive thing, when it comes to allowing you to find a job, and one that has plenty of stability as well, it can be seen as something that works in your favor.

When you graduate with a degree in a lot of subjects, even if you were top of your class, it can still be hard to find a job. Certainly, finding one that could potentially last you until you choose to retire is no longer something that people can or should assume will be the case. That is, unless you take a nursing degree. If you do this, you are much more likely to be able to apply to fill one of the many open positions that will be available.

It’s important to note that just because there are many openings, that doesn’t mean you’ll simply have your pick of jobs. There might not be any available where you live or in the healthcare facility you most want to work in, for example – the finances may be lacking, or the budget is used up. In other words, although there will always be good, long-term jobs, you might have to compromise on where you work and the location you live in to ensure you can enjoy those jobs. However, when you offset this possible inconvenience against the positives of always being able to find work, you’ll see it’s not such an issue after all.

You Can Travel:

Following on from the idea that you might need to change your location to get a good nursing job, for some people, this will actually be a big benefit, and it might encourage them to apply for nursing school. After all, the chance to see other places and move around as they want to (because they’ll find work no matter where they go) is appealing to some. These are the people who don’t like the idea of being ‘tied down’ to one place and want the freedom to move wherever they want until such time as they choose to settle down (if that time ever comes).

To live this kind of life, you need to have money. You can’t travel around and find new places to live without some kind of budget to work to. One option is to become a nurse, assuming this is something that you would find interesting. As we said, nurses are desperately wanted in every place in the world, so it could even be that if you wanted to live in another country, you could do so and still earn money as a nurse. In some cases, this will need additional certifications or qualifications, but this is something you could look into further if it was of interest to you.

Medical Knowledge is Useful Outside of Work:

No matter how you choose to study to become a nurse (and there are a number of different options), you can gain your degree. You might opt for a traditional nursing school that you attend full-time. Perhaps you would prefer a part-time course. Or something that is proving both beneficial and popular is to take an online nursing degree, and Holy Family Online is a great place to start looking at ways to go about this.

Whatever route you choose to get your nursing qualifications, one thing is for sure; those skills and that knowledge you gain will be useful in situations other than your studies or your future job. You can use your specialist knowledge in everyday life in a variety of different ways to help not just other people, but yourself as well. You just never know what you’ll come across as you go about your tasks for the day, and if there was an accident or someone became unwell, you would be able to help – you might even save a life.

Other than the medical side of things, though, you’ll be learning a lot more as you study to become a nurse. You’ll learn patience, organizational skills, good communication, teamwork, diagnostics, focus, and dedication. You’ll know how to keep a clear head no matter what is happening around you. You’ll understand how to prioritize things in life that could otherwise become overwhelming. All in all, gaining a nursing degree – and getting a lot of experience working as a nurse – is something that will help you in many different ways in all kinds of situations.

Every Day is Different:

Even if you’ve never worked in a boring job (or any job – it could be that studying to become a nurse means you are studying for your very first position), you’ll know that they exist. There are people who go to work every day feeling bored and they finish their day feeling bored. There is no excitement and nothing interesting to do while they are in the office or sitting in front of their computer screens. Of course, a boring job is not the same as a routine one, and many people thrive on routine, but not many people thrive on boring, and that’s the problem. If you have a genuinely boring job, you won’t feel inspired to do your best and you won’t push yourself to try and do more. You may even become depressed about having to go to work (although feeling this way is not good, the actions you take, such as looking for a new job, could be very positive).

If you choose to pursue a nursing degree and go on to be a nurse full-time, you’ll realize that there is nothing boring about nursing. This is mainly due to the fact that every day is entirely different from the day before. Although there are routines in nursing, they are not as strict and easy to adhere to as in other professionals. This means that if you are uncomfortable with being flexible and having to do what is needed when you need to do it, nursing might not work for you. However, for those who love the challenge of each day – and each hour, come to that – being different with new patients to help and new puzzles to solve, nursing can work out very well indeed.

Nursing Degrees Are Open to All:

Nursing degrees are not easy to obtain, and they are not something that everyone will have the ability to undertake. However, this is something you should know in advance, and speaking to a career advisor or being entirely honest with yourself about what you can and can’t do (and what you enjoy doing as well, as this is very important) is crucial. Once you have determined these things and you feel that nursing is right for you, however, you will be able to apply for nursing school. That’s because these days, it is something that is open to all, thanks to the many new options available.

In the past, nursing was still open to everyone, but not everyone could take advantage of this fact. There was only one option, and that was to attend college in a full-time capacity. You would not have had time to work as well as study, and if you had a family or other responsibilities, it would have been almost out of the question unless you had a great deal of support around you to help you out.

This is no longer such an issue, which is why you can now go to nursing school no matter what personal circumstances might have prevented you from doing so before. There are online degrees, for example, which we briefly mentioned above. The benefit of studying online is that the entire course will be flexible, and you can work at times that suit you – even if this is just a little here and there to begin with (you may need to come up with a better routine as the work gets harder and there is more of it, of course), this is a good start.

If nursing was something you always wanted to do but never thought would happen for you because of the fact that you couldn’t go to a traditional college, you no longer have to worry about this. Today, nursing really is open to everyone, and you can follow your dreams to become an excellent nurse in any way that suits you.

Even better, once you have obtained your primary nursing degree and got some experience, you can go on to specialize, again working online to get the qualifications you need. For those who have ambitions to become nurse leaders, it’s all possible if you work hard enough.