If you’ve ever thought about a career in nursing, you may have asked yourself, is being a nurse worth it?
The great news is, the answer is YES!
Nursing is a well-rounded career that provides many great benefits. Read this blog to find the answer to the question, “Is being a nurse worth it?”
What is a Nurse?
Nurses are healthcare professionals who provide patient care and support. They work in hospitals, community nursing, home and aged care and plenty of other roles.
Nurses use their knowledge and skills to assess patient needs, develop care plans, administer treatments and medications, and educate patients on how to take care of themselves.
Is Being a Nurse Worth It? 7 Reasons Why the Answer is Yes!
Without further adieu, here are 7 reasons why being a nurse is worth it!
1. Stable Income
Nursing is one of Australia’s most stable income jobs. Nurses are always in high demand and are essential workers. All through the pandemic, where entire industries collapsed leading to widespread loss of income, nurses maintained their income.
Furthermore, because nurses are essential to the healthcare system, and because they require university qualifications, their salaries will always need to grow to remain an attractive career option. Simply put, nursing is so important that salaries need to stay competitive. This competitive requirement ensures regular wage rate review.
2. Growing Profession
Nursing is an ever-growing profession. The reality is, humans will always need medical care. As we live longer, and as our population size increases, this means the amount of medical care required in Australia is also growing.
The job growth rate for nursing roles is expected to increase by 13.9% over the next 5 years. That’s an exceptional growth rate in a time when many other industries are being drastically changed by automation, or still haven’t recovered from the pandemic.
3. Career Progression
There aren’t many professions that can claim to have an almost endless line of career progression opportunities, but nursing may just be one of them!
There are two main routes you can take to progress through your career as a nurse.
The first is specialising into one of the various types of nursing. Not only can specialising significantly boost your salary, but it is also a great way of becoming more sought after by employers.
The second method is entering nursing management. Nursing management is an incredibly rewarding career path that allows you to make change on a larger scale. Rather than being restricted to care you can physically provide, you can change practices and policies across entire units.
4. Ongoing Education
In many careers further educating yourself can give you an edge, but you need to do it in your own time – and at your own cost!
That isn’t the case for nurses. Earning additional qualifications, especially for in-demand roles, are often subsidised by employers. Even if they aren’t, attaining qualifications or accessing educational materials like journals and seminars are usually tax deductible if they contribute to your role or career prospects.
Even if you aren’t directly compensated, nursing salaries are structured so that the more qualified you are, or the more specialised the role that you do, the more you can earn. This makes healthcare one of the few industries that directly incentivises further education after attaining the original nursing degree.
5. Remote Options
If you’d like to see more of Australia, or if you’ve lived coastal all your life and would like a change, remote nursing could be a great opportunity for you.
Remote nursing, where you work in a remote area or community, usually comes with generous salary boosts and other benefits to make it worth your while.
Not only do you get to travel throughout Australia, but you’ll also feel like a vital part of the communities you support. If feeling like you’re making a difference is important to you, working in a remote region is one of the best ways to show how your work directly benefits your community.
6. Nursing Agencies
If you love variety in your work, nursing agencies provide it in spades!
Most people wondering if being a nurse is worth it think about being stuck in one hospital for years, but that doesn’t have to be the case.
Nursing agencies mean you work where you are needed, and that can include big hospitals, GPs, aged care & other facilities and other community roles. Never feel tied to one workplace, or even one kind of nursing. It’s this flexibility that makes agency nursing one of the most attractive forms of nursing for recent university graduates.
7. Making a Difference (Not a Cliche!)
How many jobs are there where you can genuinely claim to make a difference?
Not many…except for nursing!
Every patient you help, whether it’s through physical or therapeutic treatment or providing compassion in a time of need, has had their life positively affected by your work. That’s a very rare and special thing that not many people can claim to provide.
While there are many things that go into being a good nurse, a commitment to providing excellent care is what matters most. If you feel genuinely passionate about helping people, deep down you already know that being a nurse is worth it!
So, is Being a Nurse Worth It After All?
So, is being a nurse worth it after all? – the answer is an absolute Yes! Becoming a nurse can be worthwhile despite the rigorous nature of the profession. For those with a passion for research, healthcare, and most importantly, compassion for others, the profession offers a fulfilling career. Nursing is a worthwhile career choice due to the possibility to have a significant impact on people’s lives, the diversity of specialties available, and the stability of the industry. It frequently strengthens the sense of accomplishment and purpose because of the difficulties that come with it. Nursing is therefore unquestionably worthwhile for individuals who find fulfilment in providing for others and making a difference in their well-being.
Nurses Now
Nursing Now is a leading nursing agency that provides nurses where they are needed. Our team of professional nurses are highly sought after and are always looking for new nurses to join.
If you think a nursing agency would be the perfect place for you, we’d love to hear from you. Get in touch today!
For more information about us, including our history and what roles we offer, visit our website.