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Ever wondered what the day in the life of a nurse looks like? Nurses are a vital position in the healthcare system. While they may not be the highest paid or receive the same honour as surgeons, they’re pivotal. They ensure the medical centre or hospital operates smoothly. But what exactly do they do that makes them such a key component of the medical system?
That’s exactly what we’re going to deal with today! Stay tuned as we take a look at the day & life of a nurse.
What responsibilities do nurses have?
Nursing is a pretty broad term. The idea of a nurse fed to most of us is a young lady who cares for patients by conducting basic exams, ensuring their comfort, and monitoring treatment. However, this is the most basic description of what nurses do. These days, the field of nursing is large, with various different avenues those with a nursing career go follow. For instance, you could practice as a nurse in a general ward at a hospital or work alongside a neurosurgeon. Both options require a nursing degree but have different requirements.
There are some basic day-to-day tasks that nurse do that can give you an idea of what their average shift would be like. These tasks are:
- Taking vitals, measures, and medical histories
- Asking about the patient’s symptoms
- Examining bodies
- Blood sampling
- Requesting and performing diagnostics
- Advising doctors on care
- Medication administration
- Keeping precise records
- Talking to other doctors
- Teaching patients to control their diseases
- Supporting patients and families emotionally
- Implementing and evaluating care plans
- Patient support recommendations
- Share patient information upon shift change, including admissions, discharges, and condition changes.
- Creating treatment rooms
- Sanitising and assembling medical devices
- Medication counting
- Complete patient evaluations
- Administering wound care
- Change dressings
How responsibilities vary in different facilities
As we mentioned above, the field of nursing is quite broad, with multiple facilities utilising nurses to perform essential tasks in their organisations. So, it’s difficult to provide you with a one-size-fits-all answer on what a nurse’s day looks like, so we’d rather give you examples of how nurses’ responsibilities differ in various settings:
Training
An important part of nursing is training and educating other nurses. Even when qualified, the medical industry is always changing and improving, forcing all medical staff to continue learning. Some nurses are responsible for ensuring their staff or students learn updated methods. A common day in the life of these nurses would involve giving lessons, creating lesson plans, completing student assessments, and establishing a healthy learning program for nurses. You might find nurses in these positions at nursing schools or education facilities within a hospital.
Emergency Transport
Emergency transport is also an avenue nurses can work in. With emergency transport, nurses would provide care for patients in transit from car accidents or any other accident that requires immediate transportation. They would provide all the basic care functions as a nurse in a hospital, just while travelling. Shifts for these nurses often change because the job requires 24-hour availability for emergencies. So, a nurse might work through the night or during the day. Depends on their shift.
Corporate Offices
Certain corporate organisations have nurses contract to train their staff on basic medical aid practices to ensure they’re all trained if the need arrives. As “health coaches”, they’d work normal office hours, preparing courses and helping their fellow employees improve their lifestyles and reduce the risk of missing work.
Hospitals
When you think of nurses, hospitals come to mind first. Nurses in hospitals offer patients 24-hour care. These are patients who are suffering from severe to standard illnesses. Their average day always starts with starting or handing over the shift to the next person on the team. However, when there are emergencies like the Covid 19 pandemic in 2020, the hospital would call for all hands on deck, meaning that all the nurses would be on shift.
Walk-in and Surgical Clinics
Surgical clinics operate during normal work hours. Nurses at Surgical clinics often assist surgeons in procedures; whether they’re preparing the rooms or taking down patient information, they are there to assist. Their shifts will often coincide with the clinic hours. In busy seasons, they may be longer.
Military Bases
Nurses can also be found on military bases. These nurses offer military personal healthcare, whether it be in their country or abroad. They’ll often be equipped with military knowledge for their own safety and they’re working hours will be very similar to that of a hospital nurse.
At-Home Care
There are many people all around the world who are unable to care for themselves but can’t afford to go into a frail care facility. These people will hire at-home nurses to care for them. These nurses usually stay at the residence of the individual and provide them with 24-hour care until relieved by a family member or another nurse. Their jobs would be to assist with giving medication and treating and monitoring symptoms.
Schools
We all know how accident-prone children are. That’s why schools will often hire a trained nurse to deal with kids’ injuries. They’ll often care for kids, diagnose basic health problems, contact parents to pick up their kids, or provide educational content for students on basic health standards and practices.
Telephone nurses
Yes, this is actually a thing. This kind of nursing is very similar to contacting a “helpline”. In essence, you’d work at a call centre and take calls from patients who have questions regarding their health. You’d usually assist them with advice and treatment plans over the phone call or a video call if need be. One bonus of this nurse setting is that you can do it remotely, which means it can be done from anywhere in the world.
Final Thoughts
Being a nurse is an incredibly rewarding job. Nurses are at the frontlines of the healthcare system. They deal with patients when they’re at their lowest and often have the opportunity to brighten up their day. Consider the day-to-day activities of the nurses above and see where you might fit in. For some of them, you might need to study further than a bachelor’s degree. In that case, consider taking a master of nursing online. This will allow you to keep working while you study.