How to become a Registered Nurse 2024

Registered Nurse Assess patient health problems and needs, develop and implement nursing care plans, and maintain medical records. Administer nursing care to ill, injured, convalescent, or disabled patients. May advise patients on health maintenance and disease prevention or provide case management. Licensing or registration required.

Registered Nurse is Also Know as

In different settings, Registered Nurse is titled as

Certified Operating Room Nurse (CNOR)
Charge Nurse
Emergency Department RN (Emergency Department Registered Nurse)
Oncology RN (Oncology Registered Nurse)
Operating Room Registered Nurse (OR RN)
Psychiatric RN (Psychiatric Registered Nurse)
Relief Charge Nurse
School Nurse
Staff Nurse
Staff RN (Staff Registered Nurse)

Education and Training of Registered Nurse

Registered Nurse is categorized in Job Zone Four: Considerable Preparation Needed

Experience Required for Registered Nurse

A considerable amount of work-related skill, knowledge, or experience is needed for these occupations. For example, an accountant must complete four years of college and work for several years in accounting to be considered qualified.

Education Required for Registered Nurse

Most of these occupations require a four-year bachelor's degree, but some do not.

Degrees Related to Registered Nurse

Training Required for Registered Nurse

Employees in these occupations usually need several years of work-related experience, on-the-job training, and/or vocational training.

Related Ocuupations

Some Ocuupations related to Registered Nurse in different industries are

What Do Registered Nurse do?

Maintain accurate, detailed reports and records.
Monitor, record, and report symptoms or changes in patients' conditions.
Record patients' medical information and vital signs.
Modify patient treatment plans as indicated by patients' responses and conditions.
Consult and coordinate with healthcare team members to assess, plan, implement, or evaluate patient care plans.
Order, interpret, and evaluate diagnostic tests to identify and assess patient's condition.
Monitor all aspects of patient care, including diet and physical activity.
Direct or supervise less-skilled nursing or healthcare personnel or supervise a particular unit.
Prepare patients for and assist with examinations or treatments.
Observe nurses and visit patients to ensure proper nursing care.
Assess the needs of individuals, families, or communities, including assessment of individuals' home or work environments, to identify potential health or safety problems.
Instruct individuals, families, or other groups on topics such as health education, disease prevention, or childbirth and develop health improvement programs.
Prepare rooms, sterile instruments, equipment, or supplies and ensure that stock of supplies is maintained.
Inform physician of patient's condition during anesthesia.
Administer local, inhalation, intravenous, or other anesthetics.
Provide health care, first aid, immunizations, or assistance in convalescence or rehabilitation in locations such as schools, hospitals, or industry.
Perform physical examinations, make tentative diagnoses, and treat patients en route to hospitals or at disaster site triage centers.
Conduct specified laboratory tests.
Prescribe or recommend drugs, medical devices, or other forms of treatment, such as physical therapy, inhalation therapy, or related therapeutic procedures.
Direct or coordinate infection control programs, advising or consulting with specified personnel about necessary precautions.
Perform administrative or managerial functions, such as taking responsibility for a unit's staff, budget, planning, or long-range goals.
Provide or arrange for training or instruction of auxiliary personnel or students.
Refer students or patients to specialized health resources or community agencies furnishing assistance.
Consult with institutions or associations regarding issues or concerns relevant to the practice and profession of nursing.
Work with individuals, groups, or families to plan or implement programs designed to improve the overall health of communities.
Engage in research activities related to nursing.
Administer medications to patients and monitor patients for reactions or side effects.

Qualities of Good Registered Nurse

Problem Sensitivity: The ability to tell when something is wrong or is likely to go wrong. It does not involve solving the problem, only recognizing that there is a problem.
Deductive Reasoning: The ability to apply general rules to specific problems to produce answers that make sense.
Written Comprehension: The ability to read and understand information and ideas presented in writing.
Oral Expression: The ability to communicate information and ideas in speaking so others will understand.
Oral Comprehension: The ability to listen to and understand information and ideas presented through spoken words and sentences.
Inductive Reasoning: The ability to combine pieces of information to form general rules or conclusions (includes finding a relationship among seemingly unrelated events).
Speech Clarity: The ability to speak clearly so others can understand you.
Near Vision: The ability to see details at close range (within a few feet of the observer).
Information Ordering: The ability to arrange things or actions in a certain order or pattern according to a specific rule or set of rules (e.g., patterns of numbers, letters, words, pictures, mathematical operations).
Written Expression: The ability to communicate information and ideas in writing so others will understand.
Speech Recognition: The ability to identify and understand the speech of another person.
Category Flexibility: The ability to generate or use different sets of rules for combining or grouping things in different ways.
Flexibility of Closure: The ability to identify or detect a known pattern (a figure, object, word, or sound) that is hidden in other distracting material.
Memorization: The ability to remember information such as words, numbers, pictures, and procedures.
Speed of Closure: The ability to quickly make sense of, combine, and organize information into meaningful patterns.
Perceptual Speed: The ability to quickly and accurately compare similarities and differences among sets of letters, numbers, objects, pictures, or patterns. The things to be compared may be presented at the same time or one after the other. This ability also includes comparing a presented object with a remembered object.
Selective Attention: The ability to concentrate on a task over a period of time without being distracted.
Time Sharing: The ability to shift back and forth between two or more activities or sources of information (such as speech, sounds, touch, or other sources).
Arm-Hand Steadiness: The ability to keep your hand and arm steady while moving your arm or while holding your arm and hand in one position.
Manual Dexterity: The ability to quickly move your hand, your hand together with your arm, or your two hands to grasp, manipulate, or assemble objects.
Finger Dexterity: The ability to make precisely coordinated movements of the fingers of one or both hands to grasp, manipulate, or assemble very small objects.
Far Vision: The ability to see details at a distance.
Fluency of Ideas: The ability to come up with a number of ideas about a topic (the number of ideas is important, not their quality, correctness, or creativity).
Trunk Strength: The ability to use your abdominal and lower back muscles to support part of the body repeatedly or continuously over time without "giving out" or fatiguing.
Originality: The ability to come up with unusual or clever ideas about a given topic or situation, or to develop creative ways to solve a problem.
Number Facility: The ability to add, subtract, multiply, or divide quickly and correctly.
Mathematical Reasoning: The ability to choose the right mathematical methods or formulas to solve a problem.
Static Strength: The ability to exert maximum muscle force to lift, push, pull, or carry objects.
Visualization: The ability to imagine how something will look after it is moved around or when its parts are moved or rearranged.
Multilimb Coordination: The ability to coordinate two or more limbs (for example, two arms, two legs, or one leg and one arm) while sitting, standing, or lying down. It does not involve performing the activities while the whole body is in motion.
Auditory Attention: The ability to focus on a single source of sound in the presence of other distracting sounds.
Stamina: The ability to exert yourself physically over long periods of time without getting winded or out of breath.
Extent Flexibility: The ability to bend, stretch, twist, or reach with your body, arms, and/or legs.
Visual Color Discrimination: The ability to match or detect differences between colors, including shades of color and brightness.
Hearing Sensitivity: The ability to detect or tell the differences between sounds that vary in pitch and loudness.
Wrist-Finger Speed: The ability to make fast, simple, repeated movements of the fingers, hands, and wrists.
Control Precision: The ability to quickly and repeatedly adjust the controls of a machine or a vehicle to exact positions.
Response Orientation: The ability to choose quickly between two or more movements in response to two or more different signals (lights, sounds, pictures). It includes the speed with which the correct response is started with the hand, foot, or other body part.
Dynamic Strength: The ability to exert muscle force repeatedly or continuously over time. This involves muscular endurance and resistance to muscle fatigue.
Reaction Time: The ability to quickly respond (with the hand, finger, or foot) to a signal (sound, light, picture) when it appears.
Gross Body Coordination: The ability to coordinate the movement of your arms, legs, and torso together when the whole body is in motion.
Depth Perception: The ability to judge which of several objects is closer or farther away from you, or to judge the distance between you and an object.
Speed of Limb Movement: The ability to quickly move the arms and legs.
Gross Body Equilibrium: The ability to keep or regain your body balance or stay upright when in an unstable position.
Dynamic Flexibility: The ability to quickly and repeatedly bend, stretch, twist, or reach out with your body, arms, and/or legs.
Explosive Strength: The ability to use short bursts of muscle force to propel oneself (as in jumping or sprinting), or to throw an object.
Rate Control: The ability to time your movements or the movement of a piece of equipment in anticipation of changes in the speed and/or direction of a moving object or scene.
Spatial Orientation: The ability to know your location in relation to the environment or to know where other objects are in relation to you.
Sound Localization: The ability to tell the direction from which a sound originated.
Night Vision: The ability to see under low-light conditions.
Peripheral Vision: The ability to see objects or movement of objects to one's side when the eyes are looking ahead.
Glare Sensitivity: The ability to see objects in the presence of a glare or bright lighting.

Tools Used by Registered Nurse

Angiocaths
Anti-embolism elastic stockings
Apnea monitors
Aqua K pads
Arterial blood gas testing equipment
Arterial line catheters
Audiometers
Autoclaves
Automated medicine dispensing equipment
Autotransfusion systems
Bag-valve masks
Balanced suspension traction equipment
Bed scales
Bilevel positive airway pressure BiPAP ventilators
Bilimeters
Binocular light compound microscopes
Bladder irrigation equipment
Blood collection needles
Blood warming equipment
Bucks traction equipment
Canes
Capillary glucose monitors
Cardiac monitor electrodes
Cardiac monitors
Centrifuges
Cervical collars
Cervical traction equipment
Chemotherapy spill kits
Colonoscopy equipment
Colposcopes
Computerized electrocardiography EKG and hemodynamic monitoring systems
Continuous enteral feeding equipment
Continuous passive motion CPM machines
Continuous positive airway pressure CPAP ventilators
Cooling blankets
Crutches
Curved hemostats
Defibrillators
Doppler pulse measurement devices
Double lumen catheters
Electrocardiography EKG units
Electronic blood pressure monitors
Electrosurgical devices
Endotracheal ET tubes
Enema equipment
Epidural catheters
Epidural pumps
Evacuated blood collection tubes
Fetal monitors
Fetal scalp electrodes
Flash sterilizers
Flexible sigmoidoscopes
Gait belts
Gastrointestinal GI endoscopes
Glucose testing equipment
Grounding pads
Head immobilizers
Heelstick blood sampling equipment
Hemostats
Hemovac drains
Heparin locks
Hospital beds
Hyper/hypothermia blankets
Incentive spirometers
Infant security sensors
Infant warmers
Infusion control devices
Infusion pump enteral feeding tubes
Insulin pumps
Intermittent enteral feeding equipment
Intra-aortic balloon pumps IABP
Intracranial pressure monitors
Intramuscular needles
Intravenous IV equipment
Intravenous IV tubing
Intravenous syringe pumps
Intubation stylets
Isolettes
Jackson-Pratt drains
Lancets
Laryngoscope blades
Laser printers
Leather restraints
Levine tubes
Limb restraints
Loop electrosurgical excision procedure LEEP equipment
Lower extremity prosthetic devices
Lukens traps
Manometers
Manual blood pressure monitors
Manual resuscitation bags
Manually operated oxygen supply resuscitators
Mayo trays
Mechanical lift devices
Mechanical stethoscopes
Meconium aspirators
Medical encyclopedias
Medical tuning forks
Mobile medical services spine boards
Nasal cannulas
Nasal suctioning equipment
Nasogastric tubes
Nebulizers
Non-rebreather masks
Notebook computers
Occlusion clamps
One-way valve protective shields
Oral suctioning equipment
Otoscopes
Overhead clinical trapezes
Oxygen administration equipment
Oxygen flowmeters
Oxygen regulators
Oxygen tanks
Oxyhoods
Pacemakers
Partial masks
Patient controlled analgesia PCA pumps
Patient lifters
Pelvic specula
Pelvic traction equipment
Percussion hammers
Peripheral angiocaths
Peripheral butterflys
Peripheral intravenous IV locks
Personal computers
Phaco apparatus
Phaco consoles
Photopheresis systems
Phototherapy equipment
Pleuravacs
Pocket personal computers PC
Pulmonary artery catheters
Pulse oximeters
Rape kits
Reflex hammers
Retractors
Russell's traction equipment
Scalpels
Sequential compression devices
Single lumen catheters
Skin traction equipment
Snellen eye charts
Splints
Staple removers
Straight hemostats
Subcutaneous hypodermic needles
Suction equipment
Surgical clamps
Surgical drapes
Surgical lights
Suture needleholders
Suture needles
Suture removal kits
Swab dryers
Syringes
T-pieces with aerosol
Tablet computers
Telemedicine equipment
Telemetry units
Titmus vision screeners
Torso immobilizers
Tourniquets
Tracheal suctioning equipment
Tracheostomy collars
Traction equipment
Transcutaneous electric nerve stimulation TENS equipment
Transport cardiac monitors
Triple lumen catheters
Tuberculosis TB skin test equipment
Umbilical catheters
Upper extremity prosthetic devices
Urinalysis test strips
Urinary catheters
Urine analysis equipment
Vacuum extractors
Venous oxygen saturation SVO2 monitors
Ventilators
Ventimasks
Ventricular assist devices VAD
Vest restraints
Walkers

Technology Skills required for Registered Nurse

Allscripts healthcare automation software
Allscripts Sunrise
Apache Spark
Data entry software
Database software
Diagnostic and procedural coding software
DoctorsPartner EMR
Drug guide software
eClinicalWorks EHR software
Electronic medical record EMR software
Epic Systems
FaceTime
FileMaker Pro
Google Docs
Google Drive
Healthcare common procedure coding system HCPCS
Henry Schein Dentrix
HMS
Human resource management software HRMS
IBM Notes
Kronos Workforce Timekeeper
LinkedIn
Medical condition coding software
Medical procedure coding software
MEDITECH software
Microsoft Access
Microsoft Excel
Microsoft Exchange
Microsoft Office software
Microsoft Outlook
Microsoft PowerPoint
Microsoft Project
Microsoft SharePoint
Microsoft Windows
Microsoft Word
Oracle Taleo
PCC EHR
Per-Se Technologies ORSOS One-Call
PointClickCare healthcare software
Prognosis Innovation Healthcare ChartAccess
QuadraMed Affinity Healthcare Information System
Siemens SIENET Sky
YouTube

US Universities

How to become Registered Nurse in 2024