Nursing as a career has come a long way from the 1800s. These days, nursing is one of the world’s most sought after professions. It can be a highly paid, exciting career. And nurses are in demand all over the world. With nursing as a career, the sky’s the limit!

There are three levels of nurses when you choose nursing as a career. First of all, there’s the nurse practitioner (NP). A nurse practitioner is a fairly new career option in Australia. Nurse practitioners are different from other nurses in that they can prescribe medication to patients. Previously, only doctors were able to write prescriptions. You must be a registered nurse before you can study to become a nurse practitioner.

Secondly, there’s the registered nurse (RN). The first step in becoming a registered nurse in Australia is to undertake a bachelor degree in nursing at university. Once you have achieved your bachelor degree, you can commit to further study and undertake a postgraduate degree in advanced nursing, or you can do ‘post basic courses’ which help give you the practical experience that you‘ll need in order to become an effective nurse.

Thirdly, there’s the enrolled nurse (EN). An enrolled nurse undertakes studies at TAFE during a 12 month period. When he or she is not in the classroom, they are gaining practical nursing experience in a hospital. Starting off as an enrolled nurse may be a good option for people who are thinking of pursuing nursing as a career but are unsure if they’re really suited to it.

However, the state of Victoria has slightly different categories for nurses. There are five divisions of nurses in Victoria, starting with RN Division 1 (general nurse), RN Division 2 (who work under a Division 1 or Division 3 nurse and are similar to an enrolled nurse in other states), RN Division 3 (specialising in psychiatric nursing), RN Division 4 (specialising in intellectual disability nursing) and RN Division 5 (mothercraft nurses).

These days, nurses aren’t called ‘sister’ or ‘matron’. They are generally called by their first name, and write RN or EN after their names.A nurse is part of a healthcare team and works in collaboration with other healthcare professionals to provide the best in patient care.A nurse can work in a hospital, clinic or nursing home. There are many career paths open to registered nurses these days, such as mental health, midwifery, theatre nurse or the academic side of nursing.

In each of the sub-areas of nursing, the training is different although with the same principle in the provision of care. A nurse can train in whichever field of nursing they‘re interested in and take further studies in the area chosen.

The College of Nursing in Australia offers different courses to nurses through distance education. These courses include anaesthetic nursing, neonatal physiology, applied clinical physiology and cardiac nursing, just to name a few.

A nurse can also broaden his or her horizon by exploring specialized areas such as the intensive care unit – which basically caters to critical health situations and involves the use of life-support machines; emergency room or unit.

Psychiatric nursing for example needs a totally different treatment measure than medical-surgical nursing. Pregnant mothers or those undergoing complications of pregnancy also need a different approach, as well as those in the intensive care units.

Paediatric nursing involves the care of sick children while neonatal nursing involves caring for premature babies. A theatre nurse assists the surgeon in the operating theatre. A nurse who works in the oncology unit of a hospital helps care for cancer patients.

Interestingly, you don’t need to be a registered nurse to become a midwife. You can just complete a Bachelor of Midwifery degree at university to become a qualified midwife. However if you’re already a registered nurse and would like to become a midwife, you would need to complete a one year postgraduate degree in midwifery.

Midwives assist pregnant women in delivering their babies safely. They may work one on one with the pregnant mother in a birthing centre for example, or they may assist a doctor if there are birth complications.

Mothercraft nurses assist new mothers in caring for their newborn baby. They show the new mother the necessary skills needed to breastfeed and bond with their baby.

A community nurse works in the community, visiting patients in their own home. These patients may not be ill enough to be in hospital, but they may be housebound and unable to visit their doctor (such as the elderly) and need a nurse to attend to them (such as changing a dressing on an ulcer).

Nurses can work full-time, part-time or casually. Casual nurses can join an agency and are contacted when work is available at various hospitals. For example, you may be able to get fairly steady work two days per week as a casual nurse, although your days and the hospitals you work at may vary from week to week.

A nursing unit manager (NUM) runs a hospital unit and is in charge of the other nurses in the unit and liaises with other health professionals To become a NUM you need to be at least a registered nurse and would probably need the relevant postgraduate studies in order to attain a position at this level of nursing.

A clinical nurse educator is a registered nurse who educates other nurses in a hospital ward or unit and keeps up to date with the latest training for nurses.

The academic side of nursing is another great medium to explore. Nurses can pursue further studies, become clinical instructors, unit heads or nurse consultants. As you can see, nursing as a career provides a lot of options for men and women these days and is sure to provide even more in the future.