Students sitting on the fence and struggling to decide whether an investment in a nursing career is one that will pay off should consider these 10 wonderful reasons that nursing is a good bet in education today and tomorrow.

1) Job Security

Right now there is a global nursing shortage. With population booms around the world and baby boomers aging rapidly those shortages look to become more profound in the next five to ten years. Early predications are that the shortage will nearly double in the next five years and more than triple in the next ten.

That’s just the shortage of nurses that is predicted. Even today there is a huge nursing shortage. More importantly though what this means for nursing students starting their educations today is that by the time they earn a four year degree the job market will be wide open and available to them.

2) Income Potential

Nurses on average start out at very attractive wage. LPNs (Licensed Practical Nurses) have an average salary (at all career levels) of $33,500 per year, Staff RNs start on average at $37,000 per year, and Master Level RNs start at $49,700.

In an economy that seems to be shrinking by the hour these numbers are impressive and show many signs of growth as shortages become more acute. Keep in mind that these are just starting salaries also. Salaries tend to be much higher with three or more years of experience.

3) Choices and Options

A nursing degree opens the doors to a big wide world of career opportunities. There is so much more for a nurse to do than work in a hospital. That doesn’t mean that working in a hospital isn’t a noble calling. It’s just not the only game in town for degreed nurses.

Some of the career options that are available to nurses include home health care, volunteer opportunities, legal work, doctor’s office work, pediatric nursing, acute care nursing, surgical nursing…and the list goes on. The sky is the limit and nursing students can keep returning to school for additional training to become Nurse Practitioners, Nurse Midwives, and Nurse Anesthetists.

4) Flexibility

Most students don’t give this important career benefit enough serious consideration when selecting majors and deciding on a lifelong course of action or career. Nursing is one of the few careers that offers such a wide range of flexibility for work hours and work environment.

The huge nursing shortage has forced hospitals and medical centers to come up with creative incentives to make nursing a more attractive career opportunity. Some of the options include skipping benefits for additional wages, working 3 twelve-hour shifts or 4 ten-hour shifts per week instead of 5 eight-hour shifts, and working only weekend, only nights, or only swing shift hours for premium pay.

5) World Wide Demand

The nursing shortage isn’t limited to the United States. There is a world wide demand for nurses and a critical shortage of men and women that are qualified to provide safe medical care. Other countries like Canada, Australia, and the Philippines are in great need for nurses.

Students who have an interest in learning new languages (in some cases though many opportunities exist for English speaking nurses around the world as well) and seeing the world have an incredible opportunity to take their knowledge earn a substantial living almost anywhere in the world.

6) Multiple Degree Options

Perhaps one of the best things about a nursing education for students sitting on the fence is that there are different degree options that require a different amount of educational time and experience.

Students unsure who want a sneak peek at whether nursing is a good choice for them might want to consider the one year program that many community or junior colleges offer to become an LPN.

For those who are willing to invest a little more time and study higher income potentials and increased responsibilities are available to associate degree RNs. BSRNs (Registered Nurses who have a BS degree in nursing) have even greater income potential and are able to take on more administrative roles in medical care facilities.

There are also many opportunities to advance beyond the BS degree. The sky really is the limit for the nursing students of today.

7) Helping Others and Saving Lives

There are few reasons that go beyond the rewards of doing something that helps others. Nurses are on the front line when it comes to patient care in hospitals, doctor’s offices, and other medical facilities around the world.

Doctors may be the head of the operation in some cases but the nurses are the heart and soul. This is one of the few careers that really matters that also happens to allow people to earn a substantial income.

8) Attractive Benefits Packages

As the nursing shortage becomes more and more profound around the world medical facilities are beginning to offer more attractive benefits packages to nurses. These packages include flexible working hours, gym memberships, medical and dental insurance benefits, tuition reimbursement, continuing education opportunities, and additional comp or vacation time.

These benefits can add up and be fairly substantial. Since well over 80% of nurses are women the benefits that offer a more attractive life-work balance are very well received with women nurses with children or preparing to start families.

9) The Opportunity to Work for Worthy Causes

There are many opportunities and worthy causes available to Registered Nurses and nurses with advanced degrees and/or certifications. Not only do many charitable hospitals have a serious need for qualified and committed nurses but programs like Doctors without Borders are always in need of excellent professionals with a true call to help others around the world.

The rewards of opportunities like these go well beyond a paycheck and can literally change the lives of the nurses and other medical care providers they touch. Nursing students or potential students who really want to make a difference in the world and in the lives of people will be hard pressed to find a worthier career path.

10) Scholarships, Tuition Reimbursement, and Financial Aid

Perhaps one of the biggest benefits to struggling students when it comes to a nursing education is all the financial assistance that is available to nursing students. As the shortage becomes more and more widespread and severe these benefits will only improve.

Many hospitals offer a complete repayment of tuition for students who go to work for a slightly reduced rate of pay straight out of college. Others offer scholarships to nursing employees returning for advanced studies.

Julie Blanche writes and blogs at her Nursing Blog.

Lori Singleton-Clarke, at her Maryland home. Photo credit: Melissa Golden / The Wall Street Journal

Lori Singleton-Clarke her victory in the U.S. Tax Court last month winning her case on the grounds that she had properly deducted almost $15,000 in business school tuition. This court ruling should make it easier for many other professionals to deduct the expense of a Master in Business Administration degree.

Read the full story at the Wall Street Journal.

Lynn Callister

PROVO, UT – Lynn Callister is a professor of nursing at Brigham Young University (BYU). She has been honored by the first College of Nursing professorship due to a lifetime of of dedication. She has spent the past 23 years studying women’s health and sharing that knowledge with students around the globe. Callister said that she is honored by the professorship, which allows her $5,000 for research, travel and continued mentoring.

College of Nursing Dean Beth Cole pointed out that it was Callister’s dedication that made her a perfect candidate for the professorship. In an article at the Deseret News, Cole was quoted as saying, “The university benefits from her international vision for the profession.” Cole also went on to state, “Her close relationships with nurses across the world have been the stepping stones for international learning experiences for many students.”

Lynn Callister has spent a lifetime listening to others around the globe.

She’s listened to women as they talk about childbirth from Guatemala, Finland, Russia and Jordan.

In Ecuador, women shared stories of giving birth in the slums, while women from Finland frequently chose an unmedicated route even though they have access to every modern convenience.

In the Deseret News article, Callister was quoted as saying, “All the rituals and behaviors that surround childbirth in different parts of the world are very interesting,” She goes on to state, “I think the commonality for me is that women are strong and amazing, and that they are able to accomplish more than they even thought possible.”

In 1952, BYU’s College of Nursing held its first classes and now has 30 graduate students and 337 undergraduate students, Callister said.

Thanks to money received through the Mary Ellen Edmunds’ Endowment for the Healer’s Art, which was established in 2004, Cole said that BYU was finally able to offer a professorship – which it wanted to for several years, now.

Callister has received honors in the past and has also authored and co-authored hundreds of articles on topics such as HIV in women and children, global birth rate trends, poverty and women’s health. She’s been honored as a Fellow by the American Academy of Nursing, and has also earned the Distinguished Service Award from the Association of Women’s Health, Obstetric and Neonatal Nursing.

But Callister says that she doesn’t do any of it for the accolades, rather she does it because she’s a nurse. She says that nursing means healing and caring for people and it also means listening to people.

She’s met hundreds of mothers who will never be honored for their selfless sacrifices and she also frequently reflects back on them, stating, “It’s those kind of women whose voices we don’t really hear,” she said. “In my research, that’s what I’ve wanted to do — give them voice.”

The accused are identified as Tracy Goetter, 48, of Coopersburg, Lehigh County, a nurse in the Cardiac Cath Lab at Lehigh Valley Hospital’s Muhlenberg campus; Lisa Citrola, 48, of Bethlehem, a nurse in the emergency room at Muhlenberg; Christopher Evans, 31, of Breinigsville, Lehigh County, a nurse at Lehigh Valley Hospital’s Cedar Crest campus; and Krista Lichtenberger, 25, of Bethlehem, an emergency room nurse at Muhlenberg.

Corbett said, in late spring 2009, Goetter started taking waste Fentanyl in her last two weeks of work in an effort to make her own Fentanyl patches for personal use.

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Corbett said that, in August 2007, Citrola began diverting significant amounts of the powerful prescription drug Dilaudid for her personal use. As Citrola’s addiction grew, Corbett said the waste was not enough to feed her addiction. She then allegedly began signing out the drug in patients’ names and using it for her personal use. According to the criminal complaint, in December 2008, Citrola started to inject herself in the bathroom at work.

Corbett said Evans began diverting Fentanyl and Midazolam once a week in May 2009, but increased to four or five times in June and then daily in July. According to the criminal complaint, other employees witnessed Evans dispose of the drug waste, but it was later determined that the waste was saline.

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Corbett said Lichtenberger accessed a Pyxis machine on her day off to obtain prescription medications for her personal use A Pyxis machine is a type of vending machine nurses use to obtain medications for patients.

“Our Bureau of Narcotics Investigation agents are very active in investigating medical professionals who are illegally using prescription pain medication,” Corbett said. “It is a potentially dangerous situation if the person you trust with your medical care is under the influence of drugs.”

Lehigh Valley Health Network released the following statement in response to the arrests:

“Discovering and reporting this type of activity requires having strong medication safety and security systems in place. Every day we assess how to achieve the appropriate balance of allowing enough access to medications to properly care for patients in a timely fashion, and ensuring proper medication security measures. That’s how we were able to identify and report each of these cases to the proper authorities and work closely with them to address these matters. Each of the individuals was terminated after we learned of and investigated each case. A review of each case indicates that patient care was not compromised.”

WFMZ.com contributed to this story.

Murray/News Nikiyah Torres, with her mom Naomi Troy, falls ill after a flu shot.

“I was outraged,” Naomi Troy, 26, told the Daily News after her daughter, had a possible allergic reaction to the shot.

“My stomach was hurting, and I was itching,” Nikiyah said after she was released from the hospital.

The snafu and a similar mixup at a Staten Island school came in the first days of the city’s in-school H1N1 vaccination program. Read full story.

Nursing jobs and healthcare workers affected by Florida law designed to crackdown on fraud

A little-noticed provision in the 160-page measure is preventing doctors, nurses, pharmacists, lab technicians and others licensed by the state from working in Florida if they have old felony convictions for fraud or drugs.

The law, which went into effect July 1, prohibits applicants who’ve had such convictions – even if unrelated to Medicaid or other government programs – from getting new or renewed licenses until at least 15 years after they’ve completed their sentences, including probation. The ban also applies to no contest pleas and cases where judges have withheld findings of guilt. More than 30 license applications have been denied or withdrawn because of the law.

Here’s the irony: The provision covers only those who have violated Florida or federal laws. Applicants convicted of the same crimes in other states can still be licensed in Florida.

“To favor people who commit their crimes out of state doesn’t make any sense,” said Anna Small, legislative counsel for the Florida Nurses Association. Read full story.

Nurses Forum offers information about nursing jobs, travel nursing, forensic nursing, forums, a directory of nursing schools in the United States plus continuing education and career opportunities.

Olympia Snowe was the only Republican to vote yes on senate health care bill

The vote moves President Barack Obama’s goal of overhauling the nation’s health care system one step closer to reality.

The bill would require all Americans to own health insurance or pay a fine of up to $1,500 per family. It doesn’t require employers to offer health coverage – as the House version of the bill does – and would create health-care co-operatives for purchasing insurance, not the publicly run health insurance option many liberals hoped for.

The attorney for the physician who performed the procedure at Weston Medspa said Rohie Kah-Orukotan, a nurse, did not suffer complications until the end of the procedure.

“She went in for a routine  liposuction performed by (Dr. Omar J. Brito Marin) without any complications until the very end, at which time Dr. Brito immediately administered emergency care and called 911,” attorney Brian Bieber told the Sun-Sentinel. “Paramedics arrived; they noted all emergency procedures put into place were proper.”

State officials told the newspaper that the privately owned clinic is not licensed to perform liposuctions under general anesthesia. It could perform a scaled down version of a liposuction procedure while a patient is awake, however. Bieber said he didn’t know which type of procedure Brito performed. State records show Brito is not a board certified plastic surgeon and has a background in occupational medicine.

Kah-Orukotan remained unconscious, with no brain activity, Wednesday at a Florida branch of the Cleveland Clinic, where her family is agonizing over whether to keep her on life support, the family’s attorney said. It’s been five days since Kah-Orukotan had the procedure.

Medspas across the country offer cosmetic procedures like botox, laser hair removal  and lighter versions of liposuction known as laser liposuction or Smartlipo for fat removal. Under the care of a licensed physician, these procedures are relatively safe.

Laser liposuction is still considered a surgical procedure and must be done by a qualified doctor.  If a patient is going to use general ansthesia, then the patient needs to have surgical procedures like liposuction done where there are emergency facilities  to handle complications.

Even local anesthesia such as the use of lidocaine can cause complications. If an overdose of lidocaine is given,  the patient can have seizures.

Under state rules, medical offices do not have to be licensed to perform laser iposuctions or some other procedures  that use only local anesthesia. It’s unclear which type of liposuction Kah-Orukotan had.

NY mandates H1N1 flu shots for nurses and health care workers

Nurses and health care workers in New York are being told to either get the swine flu vaccine or lose their jobs and they are revolting.

New York is the first state in the country to mandate flu vaccinations for its health care workers. They are being told that if they don’t get the H1N1  flu shots, they will lose their jobs

Is New York turning into a police state? Protesters are holding  signs reading: “The State Doesn’t Own My Body’”

A protest took place throughout the state including Albany, where hundreds of demonstrators demanded freedom of choice.

Health care workers in Hauppauge also rallied Tuesday against the state mandate screaming “No forced shots!”

Paula Small, a Women, Infants and Children health care worker said “I don’t even tend to the sick. I am in the nutrition field. They are telling me I must get the shot because I work in a health clinic setting.

Small’s concern. like many, is that the vaccine is untested and unproven, recalling the 1976 flu shots that caused many deaths from the flu vaccination itself.

Frank Mannino, a 50 year old registered nurse, said the state regulation violates his personal freedom and civil rights.

“And now I will lose my job if I don’t take the regular flu shot or the swine flu shot.”

Around 500,000 health care workers are slated to receive the vaccine.

With already a nursing jobs shortage and lack of adequate heath care staff, can New York afford to carry out its threat of firing its health care employees?

Stay tuned for more on this story.

Sarah Palin writes WSJ Op Ed on Obama Care

Tues September 8, 2009, Sarah Palin wrote an op ed piece for the Wall Street Journal called Obama and the Bureaucratization of Health Care. The president’s proposals would give unelected officials life-and-death rationing powers.

Palin said, “Writing in the New York Times last month, President Barack Obama asked that Americans “talk with one another, and not over one another” as our health-care debate moves forward. I couldn’t agree more. Let’s engage the other side’s arguments, and let’s allow Americans to decide for themselves whether the Democrats’ health-care proposals should become governing law.”

She states that some 45 years ago Ronald Reagan said that “no one in this country should be denied medical care because of a lack of funds.” Each of us knows that we have an obligation to care for the old, the young and the sick. We stand strongest when we stand with the weakest among us. Read full story.