Career in Nursing

What: Nursing is an integral part of medical care system. It is the art of caring sick people with the science of health care and believed to be one of the noblest jobs in the world. This domain of work is particularly women specific. At the initial level, nurses are required for the bedside care of patients. At the senior level they are required to manage special group of people like psychiatric, pediatric, intensive care patients etc. which require specialised skills. Besides these they are also involved in dispensing medication, keeping records of the patients’ progress, setting up and operating medical equipment, administration and several other routine works.

This profession demands long hours of work and duties which incorporate both skill and understanding of patient’s needs. Those who come forward to take up this as a career has to be patient, courageous, have a service mentality and at the same time be ready to work for extra hours even night shifts.

Nurses who are new to this profession often earn a monthly salary that is in the range of Rs 7,000 to Rs 17,000. Mid-level positions can fetch a pay packet anywhere between Rs 18,000 to Rs 37,000. Highly experienced nurses can even get a salary in the band of Rs 48,000 to Rs 72,000 per month.

How: Nursing involves taking care of patients suffering from all sorts of physical and psychological maladies. Nurses constantly have to monitor the condition of these patients and administer prescribed medicines at regular intervals. They also assist medical specialists and help set up medical equipment in operation theatres and clinical laboratories. Furthermore, nurses provide assistance to people who are unable to lead a normal life due to one reason or another or are recovering from illness. Other than these general activities, nurses can acquire specialisation in a particular area such as midwifery, cardiac care, intensive care, orthopaedics, paediatrics and so on. Nurses also have to keep abreast with the latest technological developments in the field of medicine.

You can enrol for the Auxiliary Nurse Midwife/ Health Worker (ANM) course. The duration of this diploma course is one-and-a-half-years and it can be joined after completing Class X. Then there is the General Nursing and Midwifery (GNM) program. The GNM is a three-and-a-half-year diploma course. The eligibility criterion for this program is Class XII with Biology, Chemistry and Physics with an aggregate of 40% marks.

Apart from ANM and GNM, you can apply for BSc Nursing (Basic) in different colleges and nursing schools across the country your schooling. The eligibility criterion for this program is a 10+2 with 45% aggregate in Biology, Chemistry, English, and Physics and a minimum age of 17 years.

Where: Nurses do not remain unemployed. They easily get jobs in private and government run hospitals, nursing homes, orphanages, old age homes, industries, sanatoriums and the armed forces. They can also seek employment in the Indian Red Cross Society, Indian Nursing Council, State Nursing Councils and various other nursing institutions. With increasing focus on health care, job prospects for nurses look brighter than ever before. More and more hospitals, nursing homes and medical establishments are coming up.

Institutions: 

• Chhattisgarh Mother Teresa College of Nursing, Durg.
• JG College of Nursing, Ahmedabad.
• Srinivasarao College of Pharmacy, Visakhapatnam.
• Asian Institute of Nursing Education, Guwahati.
• Bhagwan Mahaveer Jain College of Nursing, Bangalore.