Have you ever considered a career in nursing? For many nurses, they find their work brings them joy, fulfilment and a few surprises each day. Want to know more perks of being a nurse? Here are a few of the rewards:

Impact the lives of others

Nurses help patients on a daily basis, which is why most find the profession personally fulfilling. Do you love to work with young children? Or, do you have a special place in your heart for the elderly? With so many facets of healthcare, nurses can choose their specialty, working in a field of care that best suits them.

My twin daughters once had a friend spend the night that wasn’t allowed to watch Disney movies.That was a stressful 24 hours for me because my husband and I found that we had to be very careful about things we said, conversations that we initiated, music played in the car, and TV shows on the screen in the background around the house. I mean, if you can’t watch Disney movies, I’m pretty sure that excludes the TV show Cops or conversations including stories about drunks in the emergency room or hospital politics.

Today I caught a fellow co-worker diverting narcotics…. she’s an RN with a past history of doing this, but it couldn’t be proven, not even with a pop up Urine screening. She had patients complaining about not being given the correct pain pill….

The issue of night shift and nurses’ health is a very broad one but also very serious. Every week, another study tells us about the negative effects of working the night shift on health—cancer, diabetes, obesity. Recognizing that nursing is a 24-hour business and that we can’t do away with night shifts entirely, what else should we be doing to protect the health of nurses when we are asking them to risk their own health by working the night shift to take care of patients?