Nursing Specialties

The demand for nurses is at an all-time high right now, with many healthcare assistants positions available in the country. There is an expected increase of 26% in the jobs for healthcare assistants by 2020. Certified nurses are required a major requirement everywhere, however, some of the nursing specialties are more in demand due to their complicated nature and the amount of responsibilities they need to perform.

For example, people with chronic diseases need full-time nurses to take care of them. The nurses are not only able to read their vital charts at all times but are also well-trained to provide any emergency care to the patient, if the need arises.

Specialties like ICU Nurses, progressive care certified nurse, certified nurse anaesthetist, certified nurse midwife, etc. are in high demand these days and many healthcare assistant positions are available for them. Some of the most prestigious and highly demanded nursing specialties are listed below:

ICU Nurses (CCRN):

ICU Nurses, better known as the critical care nurses are the registered nurses who are appointed to look after the critically ill patients recovering from an extensive surgery, or life threatening diseases. They’re places especially around and at intensive care units, and trauma emergency centres. They’re trained to respond to issues like heart attack, stroke, and respiratory distress among others.

With most of their regular duties ranging from reading and assessing the vital charts of critically ill patients to keeping a track of their treatment and medication, the critical care nurses also educate the patient and their family about their condition, and give intensive therapy and intervention. They’re highly recommended for maintaining the life support systems which involve mechanical ventilation.

The sheer amount of cases with severe life threatening damages in the industry today has increased the number of healthcare assistant positions available for these nurses. Nurses with a BSN degree along with a couple of years of experience are preferred. More often than not, they’re also required to attain a Certification in Advanced Cardiac Life Support to be eligible for the job.

Certified Nurse Manager and Leader (CNML):

Many hospitals today are well-equipped with a team of healthcare assistant qualified to do various jobs for patients and help them recover better from their condition. Given the amount of healthcare assistant positions available today, there is also a major need of Certified Nurse Managers and Leaders in this field.

Required to supervise medicinal units in hospitals, clinics, and other medicinal institutions, the Certified Nurse Managers and Leaders are hired specific to the departments they have the most amount of experience in. The departments can range from basic healthcare, and midwives, to surgical and critical care nurses.

Administrative qualities are also a must-have skill in aspirant CNMLs. These nurses are appointed specifically to provide high quality evidence based care to a variety of patients along with many administrative responsibilities. Though these nurses are hired based on their individual experience in the environment they choose to work in, however, they are also required to clear an entry-level certificate examination for the same.

Certificates for Certified Nurse Manager and Leader are provided by organizations like American Organization of Nurse Executives (AONE) and the American Association of Critical Care Nurses (AACN).

Progressive Care Certified Nurse (PCCN):

The rise of conditions like cardiac arrest, renal failure, cancer and COPD has led to a demand of increase in the number of ICUs these days. However, due to lack of space and area, there has been a rise in number of Progressive Care Certified Nurses.

These nurses are appointed to take care of the critically or acutely ill patients who are recovering through recent surgery. These nurses are required to understand how to read cardiac rhythm of a patient and how to interpret. They’re especially used for patients in need of constant monitoring and are therefore, have a lot of healthcare assistant positions available in this field.

These nurses are trained to operate basic and advanced life support systems along with understanding signs of any emergencies. However, to earn this job title, they need to qualify necessary certification exams for the same. These exams can have varied structure based on the field they’re applying for.

Other healthcare assistant positions available in the field of nursing include ambulatory care nursing, cardiac nursing, forensic nursing, nurse practitioner, certified nurse midwife, psychiatric nurse practitioner, and clinical nurse specialist.