Looking For A Great Career? Consider Registered Nursing

Distance Learning Nursing Online Degree Programs : Looking For A Great Career? Consider Registered Nursing by Ruby N.

Are you considering a career change? Trying to figure out what college major career to pursue? If you like helping people feel better and want to pursue a career where you will be greatly in demand, you might want to consider registered nursing.

There are a number of reasons that the U.S. News & World Report lists registered nursing as one of the 31 best careers of 2008.

For one thing, the demand for registered nurses is currently huge, and is only going to get bigger. Why? There are a wave of aging baby boomers who need health care, which means they need nurses. And don't forget - the nurses are aging, and getting ready to retire, too. According to a recent study by the Bernard Hodes group, 55 percent of nurses surveyed said that they plan to retire between the years 2011 - 2020.

What does this mean to you, if you go to nursing school and get a degree as a registered nurse? Job security for many years to come.

Another reason that nursing is a hot career is the flexibility that it offers - both in the hours that are worked and in the types of employment and workplace settings available to you. You can work part-time, full-time, nights, overtime, nights, weekends, and holidays. You can work at hospitals, prisons, elementary schools, colleges, prisons, clinics, doctor's offices, cruise ships, resorts, hospices, home health care, research facilities...the list is endless.

And finally, registered nursing pays quite well for a job that only requires about three years of school - about a year's worth of prerequisite courses, which will vary somewhat for each school that you apply to, and then a two year Associate's Degree in Nursing. Or, you can go to school for four years to get a bachelor's degree of science in nursing, but whether you have an ADN or a Bachelor's Degree of Science in Nursing, you are a Registered Nurse as soon as you pass your NCLEX-RN test. Beginning registered nurses make in the range of $20-$35 an hour, according to Salary.com. And that doesn't count the time and a half that can be earned working overtime or holidays, and the extra pay per hour for working nights and weekends.

Nursing is not for everyone. You must have at least some aptitude for math and science. You can't be squeamish; at some point, chances are very good you're going to get bodily fluids on you and perhaps see people with severe injuries or have to help clean up unpleasant messes. You must be patient; you are going to be dealing with people who are frightened and in pain, and with their loved ones. You must be responsible and detail-oriented; people's lives are in your hands.

But you will also know that you are helping people who are weak and vulnerable, and that you are making the lives of other people better. You will be working in a field with high demand and good pay and benefits, where you can go to work every day knowing that you are needed and appreciated.

So if you've been thinking about nursing as a career, there's no better time to start looking into your options, and contact some of your local schools to find out what you'd need to do to apply. There are literally thousands of registered nursing job vacancies out there just begging to be filled - maybe by you!

Source: Distance learning Nursing Education online degree programs information at articlesbase.com