Why Nursing is the Most Trusted Career on the Planet

Jobs for nurses mean seeing it all. They observe, experience, witness, and learn from every patient experience. Some moments can be scary, embarrassing, emotional, exhausting, and testing. Yet, nurses never give up.

While pursuing postgraduate nursing courses in Canada, nurses get the opportunity to understand complex medical processes and languages, which help them grow in their professional journey.

Within the healthcare landscape, nurses bring comfort, peace, and calm, when the patients need it the most. Well, we’d say it is hard to find such attributes in any other healthcare professional other than nurses. So, let us explore more reasons that contribute to making nursing the most trusted profession on the planet.

Nurses are the Best Secret Keepers

Confidentiality is an essential element of jobs for nurses. They are bound by law to protect sensitive information regarding their patients, the profession, and the healthcare system. Hence, patients feel comfortable sharing their concerns, views, and emotions with nurses. A concerning matter might be brought to light and might as well be documented for reference but nothing beyond that is revealed in terms of the patient details, etc. This quality is developed even when nurses are studying postgraduate nursing courses in Canada.

If you can confide in a person who is professionally bound to respect your space, it is one of the best qualities. Hence, this adds to the values that make nursing the most trusted profession.

Nurses Give the Best Advice

As a part of their professional ethics, nurses are the best advisors for their patients. This stands true even in instances when patients do not seek their advice. Their objective is to impart good health, and quality of life, ensuring that their knowledge becomes fruitful for making a positive impact in their patients’ lives.

Nurses are Reliable

While pursuing postgraduate nursing courses in Canada, nurses are taught the value of being reliable. From being there to help patients use the bathroom at odd hours to empathizing with the family when they lose a loved one, nurses can always be relied upon. Even when there are public holidays, you’ll see nurses around in the hospitals because their jobs are based on their true calling as a nurse.

In a nutshell, trusting a stranger with their abilities to treat you and improve your quality of life can be overwhelming. There are so many instances where patients can feel judged, embarrassed, or vulnerable. But, research and facts prove that nurses are the most trusted

professionals on this planet and their motive is to gain your trust to make the process of becoming better, easier for you. They pick you up during your lowest times and let you rise after every fall. Also, they do so just because of the love and respect for their profession. So, the next time we recall the qualities of nurses, we must do so considering that before a profession, it is a true calling.

Nurse Safety: Have We Addressed the Risks?

 Starting a nursing career after completing nursing courses in Canada, you must pay attention to the common health hazards that come along with the profession of nursing. These health hazards and risks are most likely to be encountered by new nurses, but even old, registered nurses can at times fall prey to them.

As much as we think about improving patient care standards, the healthcare system is also equally responsible for thinking about nurse safety and addressing the pertaining risks that hamper the smooth health of nursing professionals.

Various nursing courses in Canada for Indian students discuss nurse safety and the risks attached to it. Let us draw a couple of references from them and discuss them in brief here.

Nurse Safety & Areas of Concern

The safety of nurses is now a matter of public interest. Nursing forms the largest community of caregivers. Nurses form the backbone of the healthcare industry and play an essential role within the healthcare ecosystem of every country. Studying nursing courses in Canada helps thousands of internationally educated nurses to upskill and be a part of Canadian healthcare settings.

With a large population of patients to be treated, nurses can become prone to multiple health hazards. Apart from the muscle strains, stress, and long-standing tiredness, there’s much more that nurses experience without an actual solution to it. Listed below are some of those health hazards that must be addressed to continue to provide optimal healthcare by staying healthy.

1. New and old nurses must be taught well to tackle problematic situations by not rushing through their task list. Rushing will not help until you perform the duties with a calm state of mind.

2. Nursing courses in Canada for Indian students should specifically point out the varying techniques of lifting or moving patients. The technique might vary in India and Canada, but the nurses must ensure they implement appropriate body mechanics while lifting the patients.

3. The hazardous and sharp needles should be used with extra safety by the nurses. It is important to know that the used needles must not be bent or recapped. The ideal approach to dispose of the sharp waste and needles should be to put it all into a labeled and leak-free container, using gloves.

4. Risks to nurse safety can be minimized to a great extent with the correct and timely usage of protective clothing and equipment. Goggles, masks, gloves, and face shields can prevent bacteria, viruses, and fungi from reaching nurses and spreading further.

5. Nursing courses in Canada emphasize informing new nurses about adhering to safety precautions at their workplace. Still, there is learning one does when experiencing a situation in real-life patient care scenarios.

6. Nurses, it is important that you keep an active check on your exposure to radiation. Elevated levels of radiation exposure are risky and should be avoided. Certain devices can help you monitor radiation exposure and inform you when you are about to hit the high point.

7. Lastly, self-care and relaxation are important to be addressed for the safety of nurses. Indulging in extreme patient-care conditions can result in burnout. So, it is important to purposely try and strike a boundary between work and mental well-being.

Patient care is important, but the safety of nurses is what will continue to make patient care experiences smoother. Therefore, nurses must be taught well to address the risks around them and keep their well-being a priority. The future needs more of you, nurses!

Essential Guide to Promote General COVID Prevention Measures

It is the collective responsibility of everyone to ensure that COVID prevention measures are adopted, but the healthcare professionals are the ones highly responsible to let people know, understand, and diligently follow these measures. 

An important part of the nursing profession involves educating the patients to take care of themselves. The students are taught the importance of educating patients while completing nursing education. This is because nursing professionals in particular spend the maximum amount of time with the patients and their families. 

With the spread of COVID, nurses have been promoting general COVID prevention measures to ensure the safety of everyone. Listed below are the commonly promoted measures. 

 1. Washing hands: One of the first few things that the W.H.O. recommended to nurses for preventing COVID was washing hands. Most people touch a variety of things from mobile phones to bathroom doors. These surfaces can become a reason to carry the COVID-19 virus.

For this reason, nurses instruct people to wash hands with soap and water as the most desirable and effective way to prevent COVID-19. They also ask people to use sanitizer in places where there is no access to soap and water.

2. Coughing and Sneezing in Bent Elbows: It is recommended to cover your nose and mouth while coughing or sneezing. One must also throw the used tissues in the trash. On the other hand, in case one does not have a tissue then it is best to cough or sneeze into your elbow, not the hands. 

This is also an important COVID-19 preventive measure because coughing or sneezing into your bent elbow catches the droplets and stops them from getting on the hands.

3. Not touching Eyes, Nose, and Mouth: From picking up objects to turning door knobs, most people are constantly touching many surfaces contaminated with pathogens. These pathogens can be easily picked up with our hands and can also get into the body through the mucous membrane on the eyes, nose, and mouth which can further act as a pathway to the throat and lungs. 

The Corona Virus is believed to spread mostly by inhaling droplets released when infected individual coughs or sneezes. However, these droplets can also easily land on surfaces that are commonly touched with hands. 

4. Avoiding Close Contact With Sick People: To ensure that healthcare facilities and even the homes of patients are free from the Coronavirus, the nurses instruct people to always stay away from people who are sick. 

It is advised to maintain a distance of 6 feet from the people who have some kind of infection and even the ones outside of the home. Keeping this distance is particularly important for people who are at risk of getting the disease. 

5. Disinfecting Frequently Touched Surfaces: The nature of the Corona Virus is such that it is difficult to tell how the virus landed upon a surface. Therefore, one of the best courses of action for preventing the spread of this virus is by disinfecting the surfaces that are touched often. 

Regular household cleaning and disinfection products can effectively help in getting rid of the virus from the surfaces. For cleaning the surfaces suspected with or confirmed with COVID-19, virucidal disinfectants such as 0.05% Sodium Hypochlorite (NaCIO) and ethanol products should be used. 

Conclusion: 

Nurses act as a guide for patients. It is one of the foremost responsibilities of nursing professionals to ensure that people follow the general COVID preventive measures properly. 

Upgrading a Nursing Career : Professional Nursing Pathways

Nursing is one of the most appealing and demanding jobs worldwide. The profession ranges from bed side nursing to nursing research. Nurses are at the front-line of the health care profession and are often the first line that meets the patient needs. Over the last few decades, nursing profession has evolved into a new phase and has advanced to higher standards. In today’s world, bed side nursing is considered to be a mere part of the many areas where nurses practice.
Direct nursing care includes collecting history, performing assessment, providing care, and delivering health education based on the patient’s health condition. In addition, nurses need to work jointly with other health care professionals to meet the health care needs of the patient. To work effectively in this challenging field, nurses need to upgrade their knowledge, skills, techniques and approach towards the patients as well as the profession. Apart from that, nurses need to improve their communication skills as they are always in contact with the patient. So, it is clear that nurses never stop learning and nursing is a continuous learning process.
Nurses today love challenges and are ready to explore the new areas in their profession. There are plenty of advanced specialty areas in nursing and nurses have sprouting opportunities to excel in the same. The initial nursing education is either a three year diploma or four year degree program (BSN) which includes both theory and practical blocks. This enables the nursing student to acquire adequate knowledge to work in the practical setting. Most of the countries require nursing students to appear for a licensure examination to qualify as a nurse. For instance NCLEX -RN/PN in the United States, CRNE/CPNRE in Canada. After acquiring the license, nurses are allowed to work as a nurse in any kind of health care settings. Nurses who are highly ambitious and those who want to conquer new areas in the profession have got ample options from which they can choose the specialty area of their choice.
Masters of Science in Nursing (MSN) is an advanced specialization degree that a registered nurse can pursue. An MSN graduate learns the application of various nursing and other theories for the delivery of evidence based nursing care, research, leadership and management and other courses based on their specialty area. MSN with different specifications like MSN in Nursing Education or Administration can work as a nursing faculty in nursing schools and as director of nursing in various health care settings. Nurses who aspire to practice advanced nursing can opt for Nurse Practitioner program or Doctor of Nurse Practice (DNP) program that allow them to address the critical needs of the patient. Their scope extends to taking patient’s history, diagnosing, writing prescriptions, treating and managing diseases.  Other specialty areas include Critical Care Nursing, Palliative Care Nursing, Community Mental Health Nursing, Gerontological/ Geriatric Nursing, Hospice Nurse, Nurse Informatics, Forensic Nursing and so on.
Critical care nurses are registered nurses who specifically work in Emergency Departments and Intensive Care Units providing nursing care to patients with life threatening conditions. Palliative care nursing is considered as a proactive care that improves the quality of care in patients with terminal illness. Hospice as well as Palliative Care nurses develop skills needed to enhance comprehensive care and support to patients confronting the end of life issues. The percentage of geriatric population is increasing leading to establishment of numerous long-term care facilities across the world. As a result, there is a greater need of specialized and experienced geriatric nurses to provide extensive nursing care for elderly and this is a high demand practice area.
All these nursing specialties have respective associations like Canadian Association of Critical Care Nurses, Hospice and Palliative Nurses Associations, Canadian Gerontological Nurses Association, American Association of Critical Care Nurses and so on. The nurse s can join the association based on their membership criteria. International Nurses also have opportunities to pursue their higher education on any of these specializations provided they fulfill the eligibility criteria. They can opt for their Nursing higher studies in Canada, USA and so on. If the nurses are interested in leadership or management areas, they can opt for Nursing Leadership and Management courses that help to improve their skills for the same. Nurses who wish to practice in advanced nursing areas have a vast pool of specialties from which they can pick their area of interest.
To summarize, in today’s world, nursing is not just a profession that focuses on treatment of patients. It has advanced its path from bedside nursing to Nursing administration & leadership, nursing research and to higher areas. Nurses play a vital role in transforming the face of health care system to a new level. Nursing is a different discipline. It is one of the main wings of the health profession. So all nurses, make use of your opportunities by upgrading and updating your nursing standards.

Careers for Internationally Educated Nurses in Canada

Due to the increasing grey population Canada has always welcomed Internationally Educated Nurses (IENs) who willingly want to relocate. Canadian government has also paved way for them to practice and excel in the shortest time possible. However all nurses, regardless of background must successfully accomplish getting licensed or registered with one of the licensing authorities in Canada.
To receive a registered nurse status entails writing the Canadian Registered Nurses Examination (CRNE) as part of the registration program and also achieving the required IELTS or CELBAN score as a proof of English proficiency. After becoming a registered nurse, one can practice across full range of clinical care, education, administration, research and policy settings. However, nurses must be registered to practice in a specific province or territory and they can only work where they are registered.
Nursing associations and regulating bodies have job banks and links where many hospitals and other health institutions post jobs. A health directory  with names and addresses for hospitals, health centers, nursing homes, etc. is published by the Canadian Healthcare Association, that can help finding jobs once nurses meet the criteria to work with them.
The nursing career in Canada allows professionals to choose their own specialty. It also offers opportunity for nurses to opt for nursing leadership and management programs those sometimes lead to position of  officers in large healthcare companies. Even when job prospects are at a low ebb for other professions the need for nurses never decreases, giving the career a strong job security. Nurses are also paid well for their work, with most registered nurses earning well over the median income for full-time employment.
There are numerous options available to the nurses, and many benefits in choosing an international nursing career. Nurses find great achievement in their work, and are remunerated well. Internationally Educated Nurses have countless opportunities for progression, and are able to travel to work in new places. Nurses even have the ability to choose their own specialty and excel in the same.
Internationally educated nurses can upgrade their Diploma as well as Degree, that would bring their nursing skills at par with international standards and also ease the process of becoming registered nurse in Canada along with post study work visa. They can take up study in any one of the following:

• Post Graduate Certificate in Nursing Leadership & Management
• Post Graduate Certificate in Palliative Care – Multidiscipline
• Post Graduate Certificate in Community Mental Health – Multidiscipline
• Post Graduate Certificate in RN Critical Care
• Enhanced Nursing Practice – Clinical & Critical Care
• Post Basic Nursing – Hospice Palliative Care & Gerontology
• Acute Complex Care for Internationally Educated Nurses