A registered nurse is a critical piece of the support system for injured and sick patients. Nurses are greatly valued in the health care system because they have many and varied responsibilities within hospitals and clinics, including: patient care, administration of medications; communication with other health care providers, patients and patients’ families; and education of patients, family members, and new nurses in training (Isaac, 2014). Nursing is one of the oldest professions and was originally centered at the patient’s home. The first hospital was built in 1751 in Philadelphia, but it was, at that time, not well thought of as a place to provide safe health care. Hospitals were known as asylums or poorhouses until the Civil War. The Civil War created the need for new hospitals to be built, thus moving the nursing profession from the home to the hospital. This is when nursing became a recognized profession and when people began to respect the work that nurses would do. Over the years, registered nurses have become even more valued in the health care setting (Weatherford).
In order to pursue a career in nursing, one must obtain the proper education. One must receive a high school…show more content… The major concern for registered nurses regard’s the nurse’s health and well being. Safe staffing levels are continuing to become more of a problem. The U.S is expected to experience a shortage of nurses as the “Baby Boomers” age and the need for health care grows (Rossester, 2014). This shortage is causing some health organizations to work with minimal amounts of nurses. This is affecting the nurse’s ability to provide safe care due to fatigue and injury. This shortage is also resulting in a dramatic increase in the amount of mandatory overtime, which often means that nurses stray from face-to-face patient care and can produce an increase in the amount of medical errors (American Nurses Association,