Nurses Healthcare Affected By Technological Advances
Nurses make up the largest component of medical staff within most western healthcare facilities and organizations. The need for well trained nurses has always existed, and due to the vast new medical procedures in the last few years, increased vacancies for nurses have arisen.
Technological advances in medical diagnostic equipment such as x-ray machines, cat scans, ultra sound equipment now mean that today's Registered Nurses need more training than ever in order to best serve a patients needs. At the turn of this century, nurses throughout the world participated in on the job training in order to work along side doctors. The hospitals where they did their training usually hired them immediately. Today a Registered Nurse has to undergo at least two years of College or University followed by Certification from their State or governing authority in order to work as a Nurse.
Within the USA there are over 3000 nursing programs designed to produce qualified working nurses for both specialized and non specialized areas of nursing. While nursing programs vary from state to state and indeed country to country, various principles remain the same. There must be an academic component encompassing medical technology, physiology, body care basics, along with technological skills. These technological skills include basic skills such as learning to use blood pressure equipment and inserting catheters and performing blood tests.
All nursing programs whether designed to produce an LPN or Licensed Practical Nurse to a Registered Nurse must have a clinical component. Like a doctor, nurses get on the job experience within a hospital or other clinical setting where they determine which area of nursing they would like to concentrate in. In the USA no Registered Nurse may complete the clinical part of her training before becoming state certified as a Registered Nurse. Due to the USA's private for profit healthcare system, more legalities surround student nurses than countries in Europe. After completing her clinical training a new nurse is often hired by the hospital she interned in. Hospitals see the benefit of hiring staff they have helped train, and a well trained general or Staff Nurse is able to put her nursing skills to use in various hospital departments such as Gynaecology, Cardiology and Paediatrics just to name a few. Nurses can find employment in many different areas of healthcare. Although hospitals continue to have the largest demand for nurses, long term care facilities, old age homes, community clinics and outreach centres all have a need for qualified nurses. There are over fifty six sub specialities of nursing. At the lower end of the scale is the Licensed Practical Nurse or the LPN. This quasi professional medical career trains people to work directly under Registered Nurses supervision. This one year diploma based college program, often leads to a job of at least $35,000 per year. Licensed Practical Nurses are often successful in finding employment through private nurse recruiters and the demand for travelling LPN's across the USA and Europe continues to grow. For Registered Nurses with a minimum of two years training, there exists the opportunity to work as a Staff Nurse both locally and regionally, Should an RN seek to have more diverse skills, they must often convert their associates degree or two year diploma to a Bachelor's degree in Nursing. The recruitment of nurses is fierce amongst specialty recruitment agencies, home health care providers and both government and private medical centres. The need for more nurses is expected to continue through 2008, so anyone considering this well paid career would be advised to get some good solid training, especially if they wish to work internationally.
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