Nursing as a career choice
Nursing is an exciting and innovative area of health care. Becoming a nurse is not only about having a job, it is about having a career that offers a wide range of different roles.
Few professions can offer the diversity and excitement of nursing, and allows you to match your career with your lifestyle.
A nurse is a health care professional, educated to provide holistic nursing care to a variety of patients/clients in a diverse range of health care settings, and often under challenging circumstances. Nurses develop therapeutic relationships with patients/clients and their families through open and honest communication and application of counseling skills.
Nurses assess client needs, develop effective interventions and implement a plan of nursing care that meets both physiological and psychological needs. Nurses are part of a multi-disciplinary team, whilst holding individual accountability and responsibility for the care they deliver.
Nursing is interesting, challenging and diverse work. Work locations include hospitals, aged care facilities, community settings, schools, prisons, holiday resorts, and rural and remote areas. Nurses work with people throughout the lifespan, from newborn babies to the elderly. A nursing career provides opportunities for full time, part time and casual employment, offering flexibility to allow choice of when to work.
A Registered Nurse belongs to a profession that is transportable and in demand. Once registered in Victoria nurses are eligible to register in all Australian states and New Zealand, as well as overseas. Nursing offers many opportunities for travel, to obtain diverse nursing experience, and to care for people in different cultures. Being able to work and travel anywhere in Victoria, Australia and overseas is a benefit that few professions provide.
Contemporary nursing needs people from diverse backgrounds to ensure the profession represents the community it serves. If you study a LOTE in your secondary school education, consider continuing this at University, as multilingual nurses are an asset to both nursing and the culturally diverse range of Australians who require nursing care.
