5 Reasons Why Nursing is the Ultimate Career Choice

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For anyone who has considered a career in nursing, for even a millisecond – Why didn’t you go for it? I’d really like to know because there are a million reasons why you should become a nurse.

Yea sure, you can argue that there are just as many reasons why NOT to become a nurse (LPN or RN. Both are nurses and don’t let anyone tell you otherwise). But there are also a million reasons why you shouldn’t jump out of an airplane, but that doesn’t stop people from doing it and having the time of their lives.

1. Limitless Job Opportunities

When I say “limitless job opportunities”, I don’t mean infinite open positions due to the nursing shortage. (That’s a conversation for another day.) I’m talking about 8 million different career paths that you could take as a registered nurse.

You may be surprised by the different avenues that you can go down as a registered nurse. Avenues that aren’t just different specialty floors at the hospital, or various nursing facilities.

When I learned about the different nursing specialties I could go into, I was honestly shocked and overwhelmed with the information. To learn that there were specialties for nursing that I had never even imagined existed.

Some of these specialty positions require further education of course. However, keep in mind that if you do work as a bedside nurse in a hospital, there are often tuition reimbursement programs that you could tap into while continuing your education in a nursing specialty.

A few of the nursing specialties that I find to be incredibly interesting include…

• Nurse Midwife
• Lactation specialist
• Forensic Nurse
• Nurse Anesthetist
• Legal Nurse Consultant
• Nurse Writer
• Informatics Nurse
• Health Policy Nurse
• Nurse Attorney
• Pain Management Nurse
• Nurse Researcher
  

I’ve considered a few of these for myself, if I ever decide that I want to get away from the bedside on a busy medical surgical floor. Particularly forensic nursing or nurse anesthetist.

2. Life-Long Job Security

There will ALWAYS be job opportunities for nurses out there. Yes, there are plenty of open positions due to the lack of nurses in the field. However, the fact of the matter is people are always going to get sick.

This is especially true for nursing as of 2020 after the COVID-19 pandemic went into full swing. Working conditions certainly aren’t ideal right now, but nurses certainly have the opportunity to be making some serious bank right now.

The two ingredients needed to sustain the career field of nursing:

1. People (patients) – Check!
   
2. Illnesses – Check 🙁
   

It’s unfortunate that we haven’t found the cure to many of the major disease processes out there like cancer, diabetes, and aging. But, while these diseases and many others are still out there nurses will always have a job.

With all of the different career paths that you can take as a registered nurse, there is never any reason to worry about being out of a job. Nurses are notorious for switching jobs quickly for one reasons or another. Because they know they can land a new nursing job just as fast as they left the old one.

3. Paid Education

This isn’t always a guaranteed perk if becoming a nurse, but it’s definitely not unusual for a hospital to reimburse education fees in one way or another.

If you aren’t a nurse yet, I highly recommend becoming a CNA first. I say this for many reasons. But right now, I say be a CNA first so that you can secure a job in a hospital and ride their educational benefits through nursing school and beyond.

Each hospital is going to be different in the way that they do this, but from my personal experience, they all work relatively the same. Educational loans through a hospital are generally contingent. Meaning, you will only get out scot-free if you pass your program and get your degree.

The repayment methods may vary, but generally, it’s a better option than high-interest loans from the government or bank.

The way my hospital does their tuition reimbursement program is awesome in my opinion. They grant me X amount of money per semester with a reasonable cap of $10,000. The way that I repay it is through “service” or time worked.

For every one year that I work, I am repaying $5,000. it doesn’t come out of my paycheck, just my time spent working the floor. I was pleased to find out that all of what I borrowed for my ADN program was repaid after just my first year of working as a nurse.

In addition, I had also received some scholarships during my ADN program that really helped with the process as well. Hospitals will also pay for other educational needs, like BLS, ACLS, and PALs certifications if they are required for the department that you work in.

4. Nursing has Been Rated the Most Trusted Profession

According to a number of sources, surveys have told us that nurses have been rated the most trusted professionals for 19 years in a row now. The Gallup Poll is what has been responsible for gathering this data and concluding that 89% of Americans consider nurses to be the most trustworthy.

As a result of these results, plus a little support from the ANA (American Nurses Society) and the WHO (World Health Organization), 2020 was named “The Year of the Nurse”. However, the year of the nurse, unfortunately, wasn’t celebrated as cheerfully as hoped due to the pandemic.

Becoming a nurse means becoming a part of something bigger. Nurses may not always get the respect that we deserve, but at least we can cary this title. And the integrity and compassion that goes along with it.In my opinion, becoming a nurse is like joining an elite club of cool kids who get to run around in professional pajamas all day long.

5. Hello, who wouldn’t want to be a Superhero every day??

Working in the medical field, whether you’re a Doctor, RN, CNA, you name it. Every single day that you go into work you are putting yourself in the position of taking care of every single life on that floor. And I’m not just referring to performing CPR during a code or administering medications.

I’m talking about being there for those patients and family members who are scared and don’t know how to cope with what’s going on there. I’m talking about being the one reason that a person who was just recently told they have cancer, smiles that day.

Being the one person they look forward to seeing every day when they’re stuck in the hospital for an ungodly amount of time, and all family members are too far away to be there daily or at all for that matter.

Advocating for an old, confused patient who doesn’t understand what’s going on with them and you see that things could be going better for them, is what it means to be a superhero.

I couldn’t be happier with my career choice, but nursing definitely isn’t for everyone. I endorse joining the field, not to recruit, but because I feel so passionately about nursing and its place in the world. Nursing is also such a diverse field full of opportunities for anyone.