what is the best type of nurse?

Question

my older cousin and i are interested in nursing.
i know there are different types of nurses such as head nurse and homecare nurses..but i was wondering, whats the BEST type of nurse (ex. highest pay...)
and what do they do??
thanks for answering~

Answer 1

I used to work as a RN for 22 years. There is no real answer to your question as it depends somewhat on a persons talants and interests.

I worked for 2 years as a staff nurse on medical/surgical units and didn't like that very much. All of my time was spent doing tasks and assessing patient's condition. I had no real autonomy about what I did, everything was done according to what the doctors orders were.

At the same time you often have to make several life and death decisions about your patients every day. The doctors are not in the hospital (contrary to how things are portrayed in TV and movies) and the staff nurse is responsible for assessing whether anything is wrong with the patient and if the MD needs to be called.

Many RNs love that type of work but I didn't. I worked on psych units as a staff RN for the last 20 years of my career and liked that much better. Most med/surg RNs hate working on psych.

Some RNs, especially women, love to work on pediactric units where they take care of children. I was good at that in my RN school clinicals but, for me it was too sad seeing kids that are sick. I don't just mean kids with terrible medical problems. If a kid has the measles, I feel very sad, that's just me.

There is a lot of sadness that you will see as a RN. It was easier for me to deal with the sadness I saw in the lives of psych patients than with the med/surg patients.

Some RNs love to work in OB/GYN units and in labor and delivery, some don't.

If you work as a staff nurse on any unit in a hospital, you will have to deal with working rotating shifts and working on W/Es and holidays. About the only way to get a straight day job with W/E's off, is to work as a Head Nurse.

Being a Head Nurse is a management position, so you can't just decide, that's what I want to do. You have to start out as a staff RN and then do whatever it takes to be advanced into management. You will need a bachelors degree to even be considered for this.

There are other staff RN jobs like Emergency Unit, Surgery, Intensive Care, and Post Anesthesia Recovery. Some of those require you to start out as a staff RN to get experience there and also get specialized training to be able to work in those departments.

All hospital, staff RN jobs, require you to work at a fast pace and to really know what you are doing. It used to be that hospital RN jobs paid about double what the RNs made in nursing homes. That may have changed. Working as a RN in a nursing home is a slower pace and some people like that.

The highest paid job is a nurse anesthetist. You have to work as a staff RN in a hospital for a number of years, then work in intensive care for some years, in order for you to be accepted to Nurse Anesthetist school which is a 3 yr. school.

I think that in hospitals, RNs start out at about $19.00 hr. and after 20 years make about $40.00 hr. Nurse anesthetists can make $200,000. yr.

Most RNs don't know what they want to specialize in before they go to RN school. It's when you actually work in different areas in your nursing clinicals that you get an idea of what speciality you want to go into. Even then, some RNs move to different units after they have worked on one type of unit for several years.

There are many difficulties with being a RN, one is that it is very hard on your back due to having to lift and move patients. many RNs have to leave nursing because their back got too bad. I am disabled my back got so bad.

Nursing is also very hard on your hands. Even working on psych, I still had to wash my hands for 3 minutes at a time about 60 times during a 8 hr shift.

There are also many good things about being a RN. The pay is pretty good, you get to work with some very nice people (not all though), it can be very exciting, and you know that you are doing a real service for other people and making a positive difference in the world.

My best wishes to you and your cousin.

Answer 2

I'll try and keep this short and sweet.
The highest paid nurses are either nurse practitioners or nurse anesthesiologists. They make around $100,000 but require 2 years more schooling than a RN (or is it 4 more... idk) I used to want to be a nurse as well, but then I changed my mind after job shadowing one and seeing all the people who are dying in the hospitals, and changing diapers of the elderly. I don't want to dissuade from becoming a nurse.... if anything I'd encourage you. there are a ton of scholarships for prospective nursing students and when you get a job... (if you live in an area with a nursing shortage) they will reimburse you for your education. If you plan on having kids this is also a good job choice because you can pick your hours, work nights, or even take advantage of the child care facilities at most hospitals. Go for the 4 year degree first and work in the field, then go on to specializing to be a practitioner, etc. You can even do travel nursing where you travel the country going to hospitals that have shortages and need an extra hand... they'll pay for your hotels and flights... and food etc. while you're there. Hope you follow through with it!

Answer 3

the very best nurse is the one who treats you as a person and really cares about your well being

Answer 4

type nurse

Answer 5

While surfing on the internet found this site http://mynursingprograms.com might help you