Today there are perhaps two dozen or more nursing specialties. To begin at the beginning, registered nurses (RNs), regardless of specialty or work setting, perform basic duties that include treating patients, educating patients about various medical conditions. Often standing in for the attending physician, registered nurses will find themselves providing advice and emotional support to patients’ family members. RNs record patients’ medical histories and symptoms in a clinical or hospital setting.
They will assist physicians in various procedures such as diagnostic tests help to analyze results. The technology in medical settings today requires registered nurses to understand and operate medical machinery. Registered nurses in school and many clinical setting s will administer treatment and medications, and help with patient follow-up and rehabilitation.
Specialization Options for Registered Nurse’s Jobs
The number of specialization options for a registered nurse expands as the body of medical knowledge and complexity of treatment grows. The Canadian Nursing Association, for example, provides exams and certification for no fewer than seventeen categories of nursing specialization.
Generally, a nurse can specialize according to the type of disease, the characteristics of the patient population (e.g. pediatrics), the area of the body that is afflicted, and the physical setting where treatment is being applied.
Nurses can specialize in cancer treatment (oncology nurses), in diabetes management, or in HIV/AIDS treatment. Location specialties would include critical care nurses that work in ICU wards; emergency nurses who are found in ERs; and perioperative nurses, who work alongside surgeons in the operating room. Nurses who specialize in areas of the body include cardiovascular nurses, gastroenterology specialists, and nurses who work in the field of addiction.
Advanced Training – the Upper Level of Registered Nurse Jobs
Some nurses choose to become advanced practice nurses, developing a level of expertise that often puts them in the position of primary health care provider. These nurses often work independently, or practice out of an existing doctor’s office. For example, clinical nurse specialists provide direct patient care and expert consultations in their areas of specialty.
Nurse anesthetists administer anesthesia, handle all monitoring duties of the patient’s vital signs during surgery, and provide post-anesthesia care. Nurse midwives provide primary care to women before, during and after delivery. Their practice includes gynecological exams, family planning advice, prenatal care, assistance in labor and delivery, and neonatal care.
Nurse practitioners provide basic preventive health care to patients, and increasingly serve as primary and specialty care providers in mainly medically underserved areas. The most common areas of specialty for nurse practitioners are family practice, adult practice, women’s health, pediatrics, acute care, and gerontology; however, there are many other specialties. In most States, advanced practice nurses can prescribe medications. A nurse practitioner will usually have returned to school and gotten a master’s degree along with certification as a nurse practitioner.
The Registered Nurse Job – Write Your Own Description
These are a few of the medical and technical options that are open to a registered nurse. There is also the field of nurse management, teaching and running a mentoring program in a teaching hospital. In today’s health care professions, just as MDs do nurses should select a type of practice that appeals to them and work in that direction.
