The Duties Required of Nurses
With all of the different types of nursing positions available, how do you choose which field to specialize in? The job description nursing that is usually offered is fairly generic in terms of the duties expected of nurses regardless of their specialties. These duties usually include direct patient care, along with care and communication given to their family members. Nurses will be expected to give repeated evaluations, constant monitoring and tracking of the patient’s vital signs. Reports will need to be made to keep the doctors aware of the patient’s progress. Procedures such as starting an IV, administering medicine and gathering specimens or blood samples must be performed. Nurses are also required to deliver messages to their patients, serve meals, clean patient rooms and make beds, help their patients eat, get dressed, showered, groomed and get daily exercise. Nurses also help maintain and inventory the hospital medical supplies.
They are responsible for sterilizing, storing, preparing, and issuing the necessary supplies for patient treatments and surgeries. They may also set up hospital equipment such as X ray machines, oxygen tents, or monitors to their patients. These are just a few parts of a nurses job description.
Once you have entered the nursing field, however there are dozens of opportunities to branch out in your field of expertise. You may choose to specialize and become a Nurse Anesthetist, Geriatric Care Manager, Pediatric Nurse, Occupational Nurse, Operating Room Nurse, a Nurse Educator, Forensic Nurse, a School Nurse, or a Clinical Surgery Nurse to name a few of the many positions. Specializing may also put you higher up on the pay scale, and give you more job opportunities.