Explore a Career in Nursing

This lesson is a crash course in medical basics. It will discuss some common medical acronyms and how to decode intimidating medical terminology. It will also talk about the different types of doctors, equipment, and tests that nurses encounter and then finish up with an introduction to medical math. These topics may sound scary, but this lesson will serve as a foundation to understanding the ones that follow. The information presented here can be helpful whether you plan to work in the medical field someday or just want to know a little bit more about what's really happening when you go to the doctor.

This lesson is all about nurse training. First, you'll take a look at exactly what happens in nursing school—from the coursework to the clinical rotations to the exams. But school is just the beginning! After graduation, there's the NCLEX licensing exam, where you'll demonstrate that you've learned enough to be a safe and competent nurse. Then, it'll be time for your first nursing position, where you might enroll in a nurse internship or residency, or you might receive additional training in your department. By the end of this lesson, you'll have a good idea of the different types of training you might go through on your path to becoming a nurse.

In this lesson, you'll look at the three most common job settings for new nurses—hospital acute care, outpatient clinics, and long-term care facilities. You'll learn about the different specialties you can pursue in each area, the colleagues you might work with, and what working as a nurse in these three areas is really like.

Many people consider ER, OR, and ICU nursing the most exciting fields of nursing! This lesson will discuss what it's really like to work in these settings—and how this compares to what you see on TV. You'll learn how ERs triage patients, what it means to scrub or circulate in the OR, the different types of ICUs, and a whole lot more.

There are certain fields in nursing that require more care and compassion than others. This lesson will discuss psychiatric nursing, hospice nursing, case management, and health coaching. These positions are less likely to be adrenaline-fueled, but they're rewarding in their own ways. These are careers that focus on the counseling and patient advocacy roles of nursing. The lesson will discuss psychiatric hospitals and substance abuse centers and the people you'll work with there, as well as some of the most common tasks in working with patients who are dying and those who are looking to maintain good health and healthy practices.

This lesson is about careers that focus on the research, education, management, and change agent roles of nursing. You'll look at research nursing, informatics nursing, and legal nurse consulting. Although most nurses working in these fields have at least a year of clinical nursing experience, none of these positions require additional certification or degrees.

What have you heard about community health nursing? This is a specialty that encompasses a variety of positions, from school nurses to prison nurses to Red Cross disaster relief nurses. Community health nurses engage in all six of the nursing roles, with heavy focus on education, patient advocacy, and being a change agent. You'll explore what it really means to be a community health nurse by learning where you'll work and what you might be doing.

This lesson is for wanderers! You'll explore everything from working as a travel nurse in a neighboring town to taking to the high seas as a member of the Navy Nurse Corps. You'll also look at medical mission work like Doctors Without Borders and Mercy Ships. If you want to use your nursing skills while seeing the world, get ready to love this lesson.

No nursing survey course would be complete without touching on pediatric and obstetric nursing. You'll take a look at these specialties and then check out a few other nursing positions that involve working on a team instead of in a department. Finally, you'll take a quick peek at what it means to be a charge nurse or nurse manager.

This lesson is for overachievers and forward thinkers. Maybe you want to be a nurse, but you know that you'll want to do more than basic clinical nursing. You might be thinking about teaching or hospital administration. Or perhaps you want to become a nurse practitioner or nurse anesthetist. You'll look at all of those options in this lesson!

What if you've gone through this course so far and learned about nursing school and licensing exams and the different fields of nursing, but you still don't know if nursing is right for you? That's okay! This final lesson will recap the highs and lows of nursing and give you some ideas about alternatives to becoming a nurse. You'll also look at some strategies for getting more information so you can be armed with the knowledge you need to make a decision.