Free Sample
The Complete Guide to Becoming A Registered Nurse
What you'll really do, what you'll really earn, and whether you'll actually fit the job - before you spend a dollar on tuition
by Alumigogo Books
Chapter 1: What Does a Registered Nurse Actually Do?
You're probably here because you've heard that nursing is a stable job, or because you want to help people, or because a family member who works in a hospital has told you to \"get into it.\" But before you invest years of your life and tens of thousands of dollars into a nursing degree, you deserve to know what the job is actually like - not the promotional video version, but the real, everyday reality. So let's be precise about what a Registered Nurse actually does, because the short answer is: a lot more than you probably think.
At its core, the job is about coordinating and delivering patient care. But that phrase - \"coordinating and delivering\" - feels abstract. Let's make it concrete. On a typical shift in a hospital - which is where most new nurses start - you are assigned a group of patients, usually between four and six on a med-surg unit. That's the medical-surgical floor, the general catch-all unit where patients go after surgery, with infections, for observation, or when they're too sick to go home but not sick enough for intensive care. Your shift is typically 12 hours, often from 7am to 7pm or 7pm to 7am. You will rarely sit down for more than ten minutes at a time.
Your day starts with report. That's when you meet the nurse who had your patients for the past 12 hours, and they tell you, patient