I'm sorry to say that right now we are running for his low on one of our most valuable occupations. At present, we are experiencing an alarming shortage of trained and licensed nurses to fill the positions that are critical to quality of care for the healthcare consumer. And with an aging population this is becoming a very serious problem.

On every floor in a hospital, nurses are practicing in a wide variety of nursing fields, from an emergency room nurse assessing a heart attack victim, to the nurse that provides education and skill polishing to the whole nursing and medical staff. Nurses were a variety of hats, far removed from what we are all used to seeing in those old movies. Nurses are advocates for their patients, and are greatly responsible for the level of care received by the patient, and their lasting memory of the experience.

Nurses number one priority is the care and treatment of the patient, not what the treatment as to how well they are treated. You can find nurses in so many more places than just hospitals now. The work is extended out in too many facets of everyday life. Nurses can serve in the military, work for public relations firms or health insurance companies, be a school nurse, an entrepreneur, a nurse educator, a home health nurse, a public health nurse, there is no end to how and where nurses can affect others.

Nurses can start out with an entry-level training program and progress through PhD level if so desired. An associate's degree is a two-year registered nurse (RN) program that focuses primarily on the skills that nurses will require when they go out to the field and treat patients. The next level is a four-year degree program that awards a bachelor of science in nursing (BSN). This is obviously in more time-consuming and committed way of going but the extra education is an invaluable. This type of program offers a wider range of learning experiences, in a complete array of healthcare that in both practice and in theory makes is incredibly flexible nurses a godsend. This is exactly the reason that so many registered nurses choose to continue on to receive a BSN.

The growing trend across some of the more prestigious health care institutes is to require that the nurse has a BSN. The next level is a master of science in nursing (MSN) degree. This is ideal for the nurse that has a great deal of experience in the field and like to do even more, for example, nurse anesthetists, nurse practitioners, and nurse administrators. A Ph.D. or doctorates level and nurse can pretty much to whatever is needed short of being a physician themselves.

An entry-level graduate nurse will receive a longer orientation, usually six weeks, and one particular area of the health care facility, usually a doctor's office or hospital. The nurse will work under a graduate license until he or she has studied sufficiently and passes the board test for full RN licensure. You can see this is almost a probationary period to find a house skillful the nurse is.

At the end of the orientation period, the new nurse and supervisor meet to evaluate the nurse's proficiency and to dress in the areas in which the nurse may be lacking. Once the nurse gets by this initial stage and it's really up to them how far they want to go in their new career. The student pondering a career in healthcare should should give a long hard look at the various nursing fields, a holistic approach to provide care and support in an ever changing and progressive field. There are so many nursing fields now that they're surely has to be one that is a perfect fit for you.