Nanda Books

Becoming a Registered Nurse (RN)

Registered Nurses (RNs) formed the largest segment of healthcare professionals. Registered Nurses is an abbreviation for registered nurse in the US. It is a status given to a professional nurse who has earned either an on-campus or online nursing degree and has cleared the NCLEX-RN.

Becoming a Registered Nurse (RN) in the states is not only a highly profitable career, but one that is an in-demand profession. Nursing salaries are very lucrative because of the increasing demand.

Before ever becoming a registered nurse, you will need to receive an associate nursing degree by finishing a two year associate degree. Alternatively, you may also register for four year baccalaureate program in a university so as to achieve your BSN. Never the less, for those who are employed as LPN or LVN, there often are chances for them to work as a RN. BSN programs have both nursing and general education courses while shorter programs only have nursing courses.

Are you choosing between becoming a registered nurse or an LPN? If so, you probably want to know about the different degrees available to you. Graduating from a basic nursing degree is key to becoming a licensed practical nurse (LPN). If you are interested in becoming a registered nurse, then you will have to graduate from an RN program and also complete licensing requirements.

A licensed practical nurse can also be called a licensed vocational nurse (LVN). LPNs are nurses who work under physicians and registered nurses. RNs on the other hand are able to directly work with patients and are tasked with supervising LPNs.

The duty of a RN is usually to educate people about different diseases and treat individuals suffering from them. They also see to the needs of patients in different settings such as in clinics, intensive care units, physician offices etc. The general duty of every RN regardless of the place where they work includes:

• Offering emotional support to patients along with consultancy.
• Keeping track of patients medical history and also observing growing symptoms
• Observing and assigning tasks to LPN's and nurse assistants.
• Organizing a patient care plan.

The needed educational credentials to become a RN can be acquired through the completions of any of these programs which then qualify you to appear for the NCLEX-RN test:

• Nursing Diploma
• Associate Degree in Nursing
• Bachelors Degree in Nursing