Becoming a nurse is a great decision for anyone interested in the field of medicine as it can be a rewarding career, both personally and financially. If you're thinking about enrolling in nursing school, check out our list of 100 great reasons to become a nurse.
Altruism Becoming a nurse means that you can feel good about what you do.
- You want to make a positive contribution: You care about your fellow man, and want to make a positive impact on peoples' lives.
- Do something that matters: As a nurse, your work matters to your patients and their families.
- You can save someone's life: As a nurse, you may have the opportunity to save someone's life.
- You want to take away pain and suffering: Become a nurse to help stop the pain and suffering of others.
- You'll bring hope: You can be a giver of hope to your patients.
- See miracles: You can see miracles happen every day in nursing.
- You can uplift morale: As a nurse, you'll be able to improve the morale of patients and their families.
Education Here we'll take a look at the educational perks of nursing.
- It's easy to get started: Registered nurses can get started with a 2 year associate's degree and licensing exams.
- You'll be able to spot problems: Even in your daily life outside of work, you can see problems in bacteria, infections, and more.
- Completing a bachelor’s degree offers even more: For better pay and hiring opportunities, it's easy to complete additional education for a BSN.
- You can help family and friends: As a nurse, you'll be able to help support the people you care about in their health.
- Now is a good time to go to school: It's a great time to further your education with a nursing degree.
- You'll be more aware of your own health: Studying and working in healthcare can help you better focus on your own health.
Rewards These are some of the rewards that come along with nursing.
- Seeing patients cured: The reward of seeing someone return to good health is a great reason to become a nurse.
- You can be proud of your work: Nursing is a career that you can take pride in.
- You'll do good deeds for a living: When your job is helping people, you will do good for a living.
- You will value life more than ever: Becoming a nurse will help you better understand the value of life.
- Hugs: One of the perks of working as a nurse? Free hugs from patients and their families.
- Changing people's lives: Become a nurse for the satisfaction of changing people's lives.
- Personal growth: Nurses often experience strong personal growth and satisfaction.
- Respect: Nurses are well-respected in society.
- Medical TV is more exciting: When you live what other people only watch, medical TV shows are more interesting.
- Free consultations: When you work with doctors, much of your medical advice is free.
- You may learn how to decipher doctor handwriting: As a nurse, you just might earn a skill that others don't have-the ability to read what doctors write.
- Free lunch: Often, pharmaceutical reps bring in free lunches for doctors and nurses.
- Self esteem: Working as a nurse, you can feel good about yourself knowing that you're helping people.
- You'll get satisfaction from stopping suffering: When your patients recover, you'll enjoy seeing their suffering reduced.
- You can quickly earn vacation time: When working long hours at a time, you'll be able to earn vacation days quickly.
- You will be appreciated: Although not all patients will recognize your importance, many will be very appreciative of your hard work.
Practical These are some of the very practical rewards you'll get from nursing.
- Benefits: Many nursing jobs come with great medical and dental benefits.
- Free housing: Many travel nurses are given free housing.
- Retirement: You'll generally find nursing positions with retirement savings plans.
- Bonuses: Many nursing positions come with sign on bonuses and special pay for taking on certain positions.
- Overtime: You can be paid well for time worked over your regular hours.
- Incentives: Many employers offer sign on bonuses, tuition reimbursement, and more.
- You can take days off: When you work long hours, it's easy to create a schedule where you have a number of off days grouped together.
- Life insurance: You'll generally find life insurance as a part of a nursing benefits package.
- You can have weekdays off: With a nurse's schedule, you may often end up with weekdays off to run your errands.
Career Here you can examine some of the great things about a career in nursing.
- You'll always have a job: There's always a place for nurses to work, so nursing will give you a guaranteed job.
- You can work anywhere: Medical professionals are needed everywhere, so you can work wherever you'd like.
- Job satisfaction: Job satisfaction among nurses is very high.
- Nursing is recession proof: Although markets can fluctuate, people will always get sick.
- There's good pay: Even new nurses will earn a generous paycheck, and those who fill shortages can earn even more.
- You'll have a flexible schedule: You can create a flexible schedule with a variety of different shifts.
- You'll be connected to technology and humanity: Nursing offers a science to technically caring for people.
- You can work on the road: Many nurses find success in travel nursing.
- You can change your specialty: You can take on opportunities in new specialties if you'd like.
- There's lots of variety: The possibilities are endless when it comes to nursing-you can work in a hospital or clinic, work in pediatrics, insurance, or schools.
- You can take on expanding opportunities: As physicians spend less time with patients, nurses can take on opportunities that offer more hands-on interaction.
- Nursing offers transferable skills: As a nurse, you'll learn skills that are great for any career in health care.
- There's plenty of room for growth: Your nursing career can grow into much more with further education.
Traits Do you have what it takes to be a nurse? Check out these traits.
- You'll get over bodily functions: You will no longer have any problems with other peoples' toilet use and bodily functions.
- You're detail-oriented: You must be able to remember, write a lot, and be organized as a nurse.
- You are empathetic: Sharing empathy with others is essential for becoming a nurse.
- You have the skills: If you have the ability to communicate and instill trust in people, you have the basic skills for becoming a nurse.
- You're emotionally stable: As a nurse, you have to be able to deal with a roller coaster ride of emotions.
- You can deal with blood: If you're faint of stomach, you'll have trouble with nursing.
- You're able to adapt: Every day will be different, so being able to adapt is essential for nursing.
- You can prioritize: Nursing is fast paced and needs constant prioritization.
- You have physical endurance: Nurses often work on their feet all day with minimal breaks.
- You're dedicated: Nursing is not just a job-it's a lifestyle.
- You can think quickly: If you're able to think on your feet, chances are you can keep up with nursing.
- You have a commitment to learning: Nurses are constantly learning, so if you love to learn, nursing is a great profession.
- You have good judgment: You should be able to judge quickly and accurately.
- You're caring: As a nurse, you'll care for people every day, so caring for others is a must.
- You're hardworking: Nursing is never ending, and needs hard workers.
- You're willing to work hard: Nursing is hard work-if you can handle long hours in exchange for rewarding work, nursing may be good for you.
- You're tactful: Nurses need to be able to deal with doctors, patients, and coworkers in a tactful way.
- You're good at multitasking: Multitasking is an essential skill for nurses.
- You have a sense of humor: As a nurse, you have to be able to let things slide off your back.
- You like a challenge: Nursing will stretch your limits, in a good way.
- You're dedicated: Nurses take on their vocation to dedicate their lives to helping others.
- You're courageous: Nursing can sometimes be a scary job, so if you've got courage, you may have what it takes to be a nurse.
People See how people can make your work as a nurse worth it.
- Interaction: You'll be able to interact with different people every day.
- You'll work with patients and their families: You will spend time working with not only patients, but their families as well.
- You'll be a mentor: Nursing allows you to mentor patients, families, and other nurses.
- You'll work as part of a team: You will interact with lots of other health professionals as a nurse.
- You'll enjoy camaraderie: As part of a health care team, you will enjoy camaraderie with your fellow workers and patients.
- You'll educate people: Much of your job as a nurse will be educating patients, their families, and the general public.
- You can become more than a caregiver: Long term care can take a personal turn with patients you really care about.
Advantages Over Becoming a Doctor These are a few reasons why nursing may be better than becoming a doctor.
- Fewer educational requirements: You'll study for 2-4 years instead of 12-14.
- You have less liability: Doctors are responsible for malpractice insurance, while nurses are not.
- You can spend more time with patients: Doctors do not generally get to spend a lot of time with patients-but nurses do.
- You'll take care of patients, not the disease: As a nurse, you can treat the whole patient.
- There's more flexibility: Once doctors pick their specialty, they generally have to stay in it, but nurses can move from one area of medicine to another.
- You can have a life outside of work: Although you will work strange hours, your life will not be completely devoted to work.
- There's less of a commitment: You do not have to own a practice, employ staff, and stay in one place as a nurse.
- You won't start your career in a massive amount of debt: Most doctors start their careers deep in debt from years of education, while nurses tend to have limited debt or none at all.
- It's difficult to get into medical school: Being accepted in medical school is not easy, but nursing school is easy in comparison.
- You won't have to be on call constantly: Doctors normally have to spend certain hours on call, while nurses don't.
Environment Here you will learn why a nurse's working environment is great.
- Nursing is exciting: Every day at work is different for nurses.
- You can embrace change: Even if you work in the same hospital for 25 years, you can change specialties, hours, and more to switch things up.
- You'll avoid the typical 9-5: You can avoid working typical business hours as a nurse.
- Flexibility: Nursing offers lots of flexibility.
- There's lots of variety: You'll be able to work in lots of different settings and positions.
- Nurse staffing agencies are useful: If you'd like to earn high hourly wages with lots of flexibility, you may want to look into working for nursing staffing agencies.
- You can use all of yourself: A career in nursing uses your mind, body, and soul.
- It's easy to move: Nurses can work anywhere, so moving to a new city is not a problem.
- Nursing is intellectually stimulating: As a nurse, or nurse educator, you will work in an intellectually stimulating environment.
- Nurses can work in a variety of settings: Nurses can work in hospitals, clinics, offices, schools, homes, and more.