Nursing Roles You May Not Have Heard Of

By Swindon Link - 24 February 2022

College & Higher Education

Do you know what nurses do? They are the people working in hospitals and primary care centers to support physicians and administer healthcare to patients, but did you know that there are a huge number of nursing roles and some of them are very specialized?

The career path for someone wishing to become a nurse has never looked so bright or so diverse. Students studying for the role of a nurse can now choose specialisms such as gerontology, rehabilitation medicine, oncology, and many others. They can also combine some of the roles for which they are already fully qualified.

Choosing Your Nursing Role

 

So, which is the best nursing role? What is the best course you could take to pursue it? Well, the answer to that is the hard one. The best course for any prospective nurse is one that will allow them to gain a variety of skills during their studies, allowing them to move from role to role throughout the wider healthcare profession.

 

In this article, we will look at some of the most popular roles in nursing and help you decide if they are something you wish to pursue.

Nurse Educator

 

The Nurse Educator role may seem a very general term, but it can refer to many different things. It may refer to the role of a nurse who leads a course or tutorial session on skills or techniques that may be new to the student, but it can also refer to the teacher in a classroom setting for students at any level.

 

This is one of the most common roles selected by nurses currently, with more registered nurses looking to move into this specialism every year. This has clearly benefited from an increasing number of opportunities for the workplace to be funded, whether by pay rise or promotion. Furthermore, the demand for future nurse educators is expected to continue growing as the profession gains recognition for its crucial role in shaping the future of nursing education.

Nurse Practitioner

 

The nurse practitioner is also one of those roles which has become common in recent years and which has become very diverse and, therefore, offers more choices than most other roles.

 

The role can vary immensely from a relatively senior nurse contributing to a team in the hospital to the patient care assistant who is looking after a patient at home or on their own property. There are all sorts of variations of this role that have become increasingly popular over the past few years.

Oncology Nurse

 

Nurses in these roles all benefit from working alongside oncologists and their colleagues in hospitals and tertiary centers across the country. These nurses tend to specialize in a particular area and can be responsible for very different duties during their lives.

 

These nurses often work inside the medical area of an institution and often in specific teams such as medical oncology, surgical oncology, radiation oncology, hematology, or lymphoma.

 

They can also be involved in general nursing areas such as chemotherapy or care of patients with cancer.

Family Nurse Practitioner

 

The family nurse practitioner is another role that is very much becoming one of the most common in the profession.

 

These nurses work alongside other healthcare professionals such as audiologists, pediatricians, and others and are often responsible for their own management of patients and others that they work with.

 

The family nurse practitioner can also take on roles such as counseling and pre- and post-natal advice.

Pediatric Nurse

 

These nurses can offer a wide range of services to children and their families.

 

They can be involved in general nursing for children or be part of a specific area such as nutrition or psychology. They may also work alongside audiologists and other healthcare professionals and can help to manage and oversee the ongoing care of children.

 

Many nurses tend to move into this role after post-graduate training in that area or through working alongside an individual with that specialism, but it is also often open to students at various levels of their education.

Women's Health Nurse

 

These nurses are often involved in many different types of treatment for women but are also involved in nursing across the board.

 

Their roles may span from infertility counseling to issues of sexual health or mental health. These nurses are often specialists within the wider profession, having spent years gaining training and experience.

Public Health Nurse

 

These nurses can have many different roles in the practice of their profession, but the most common role they have is that of community health.

 

They are often used to look after people who are homeless or living in poverty or who may be at risk of becoming homeless or living in poverty. Their main goal is to help them get back on their feet and work towards an independent life.

School Nurse

 

The role of a school nurse is a very common one in nursing, and it can be seen in many different ways.

 

School nurses can provide a variety of services, from counseling to health screening programs. They may also provide day-to-day care for students at their schools and help to support them with educational issues.

 

They are able to offer advice, information, and assistance on a number of issues surrounding the education system and the overall health of their students.

 

This is one area that has become increasingly common in recent years as the outsourcing of schools has increased.

Mental Health Nurse

 

These nurses come into the role after a period of training and often work alongside psychiatrists and psychiatric nurses.

 

They can help to manage patients with mental health issues such as depression, anxiety, and other problems. They can also provide counseling and support for patients and their families, as well as offering vocational services such as promoting self-help groups for those who may be dealing with the same sort of problems.

Midwifery

 

Many hospitals around the country now have midwives on staff, especially in larger cities, where they can offer a wider range of services.

 

They are still able to provide basic care such as pregnancy testing and counseling for expectant mothers, but they can also offer more advanced plans such as putting women on bed rest or helping with labor if necessary.

 

They are able to help improve the lives of their patients as well as those who may seek out their services from those around them.

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