*From College Board BigFuture Picture this... It’s a typical morning at a city hospital. A woman arrives complaining of severe stomach pain. A nurse asks her a series of direct questions about her symptoms and learns what may be causing the pain. The nurse alerts a doctor, and they work together to order tests and begin treatment. Upstairs, a second nurse administers chemotherapy drugs to a patient who suffers from cancer. On another floor, a third nurse helps to deliver a baby. If you study nursing, you may train in a hospital like this where nurses care for, educate, and enhance the lives of patients every day. You’ll learn about everything from examining patients and treating their immediate needs to keeping up the health of people with long-term conditions. Nursing majors train to care for sick and disabled patients and to promote better health. “I didn't expect nursing to be this hard. I thought nurses just nurtured patients. I didn't know nursing involved all this science and learning about medication and basically having some of the same knowledge as a doctor.” - Shonte, a Junior in Nursing at Bowie State University |
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Did You Know?Registered nurses make up the largest health care occupation, with 2.5 million jobs. Course SpotlightA course in health assessment will be one of your first nursing classes. In it, you'll practice the art of taking a health history and conducting a physical exam to form an accurate picture of a client's health, arrive at a diagnosis, and design a plan of care. The class might focus solely on healthy adults or consider people of all ages and states of health. In addition to listening to lectures on theories and techniques, you'll probably practice your skills through role play in lab sessions. That is, you and your classmates will take turns pretending to be the client. Although it's likely that you'll take a few written exams, your grade will probably be determined by many other factors as well. These could include lab assignments, a paper presenting a health history, your performance of a "head-to-toe" physical examination, and the related paper that professionally documents your findings. |
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Which Colleges offer a major in Nursing (RN)? |