Registered Nurse Job Description
The job of a Registered Nurse involves treating patients, educating patients about their medical conditions, providing advice or emotional support to patients and their family members, recording medical histories, performing diagnostic tests and analyzing results, operating medical equipments, administering medications and treatments, helping patients with rehabilitation and assisting medical doctors with various tasks.
Education/Experience Requirements for the job of a Registered Nurse: A successful candidate can become a registered nurse through a bachelor’s degree in nursing (BSN), an associate’s degree in nursing (AND) or a diploma. Graduates of any of these educational nursing programs can then obtain a NCLEX-RN license to practice as a Registered Nurse (RN). Many employers prefer RNs to have at least 1 year nursing experience and a CPR certification. Specialization and continuing education is available to RNs.
Skills of a Registered Nurse include but are not limited to: Strong problem-solving and decision-making skills, excellent interpersonal skills, good communication skills, and knowledge of practices, trends and principles in nursing. Registered nurses must also be physically fit, caring, responsible, detail-oriented, sympathetic, flexible, possess good work ethic and emotionally mature to cope with human suffering on a daily basis.
Specific work elements of the job as a Registered Nurse include but are not limited to: Administering medication based on doctor prescriptions; recording patient’s symptoms and progress; supervising junior-level nurses; providing care to children or elderly; conducting physical examination to patients; assisting doctors in diagnosing illnesses; checking blood pressure; conducting ECG tests, x-rays or other laboratory tests; and advising patients about healthy lifestyles and post-surgery care, among others. Some registered nurses specialize in a particular organ, disease or treatment, so their tasks may vary widely depending on specialization.
