Hi! My name is Mei Na Chen. I am a student at the New York City College of Technology who is reflecting on my major and thinking ahead to enter a specific career field. The major that I intend to pursue is Nursing and the specific career field in Nursing that I want to enter is a Registered Nursing Program. I have a huge passion for helping people that needs to be helped and to give hope to others. I have faith in myself that I will become the best nurse anyone could ever be in my own opinion. The reasons why I intend in becoming a nurse are that there is a great demand for nurses in the present, nurses have good pay, and last but not least, nurses also have flexible schedules and you can work your way up.
The major that I intend to pursue is Nursing, but the career that I want in the nursing program is to be a registered nurse. Registered nurses usually train at hospitals where nurses care for, educate, and enhance the lives of patient’s every day. They will eventually learn the basis of caring for people with both short and long term effects, and how to treat their situations. They will also learn on how to examine the patients because that is the first step to everything. “Nursing majors train to care for sick and disabled patients to disable their health.” This major is offered in both the associates and bachelors. I am trying to aim for the Bachelors which is 4 years in school. After graduation, there are many options in this major. When you pass the Nursing Program License test, you will be an eligible registered nurse and then can start applying to different hospitals. You can start work right away. Your jobs can be a registered nurse (RN), head nurse, practical nurse, etc. The specific thing that I want to do at City Tech is to gain some experience and get my degree in the nursing program. I might transfer to Hunter or Stonybrook because I want the Bachelor’s degree and City Tech only offers the Associates degree.
One reason why I intend on becoming a nurse is because of the high demand for nurses in the present day. According to Jean Gray, “As recruitment and retention rates improve at the most successful trusts, there will be a knock-on effect throughout the service, with new nurses having to accept perhaps their second or third choice of employee.” This means that more and more people are going to be getting their jobs as a nurse and that other nurses will eventually have to accept them and cooperate with them because the demand in this job will increase dramatically. She also states that we won’t be able to see unemployment in this particular major which is a good thing. All the credit goes to the government for attracting more nurses because they have been campaigning and doing stuff to help us get more nurses. Campaigns like Harold Shipman are rare but demand a serious amount of people.
The second reason why I intend on becoming a nurse is because nurses get good pay. When I went back to visit my teachers at my high school, Eleanor Roosevelt High School located on 411 E 76th Street, I had a conversation with the secretary. She told me that her daughter was working as a registered nurse and that her pay was really good. She encouraged me in becoming a nurse because her daughter only works 3 days a week and gets paid for the entire week even on her day off. When I heard that I was surprised because I never knew that you could get paid even when you weren’t working. Furthermore, I did some research and this is what I found out. I found out that the median annual wage for registered nurses are $65,570 in May 2012. The wages also depend on where you work. For example, if you work for the Government, your annual wage would be $68,540, if you work for hospitals, your annual wage would be $67,210, if you work for home healthcare services, your annual wage would be $62,090, if you work for nursing residential facilities, your annual wage would be $58,830, and if you work for offices of physicians, your annual salary would be $58,420. These are the top options of places you might work in after you graduate college and get your license as a registered nurse. These different jobs are all good choices.
The last reason why I want to be a registered nurse is because of the flexible schedule and the way you can work your way up. First off, being able to have a flexible schedule is the best because then you can decide when you want to work and make your own schedule. I think that if I were to make my schedule right now, I would probably work night shift because I am not a morning person and I always end up being late. I like being up at night because I feel like I am more focused and on task. Having a flexible schedule also benefits you if you want to work your way up. For example, if you want to study at the same time as work as a nurse, you can do that because of the flexible schedule. You can work on one hand and study into becoming whatever you want on the other hand. This is why nursing is a perfect job for me.
By going to the New York City College of Technology, City Tech will help further my knowledge and skills on how to become a better nurse. City Tech will do this by having me major in liberal arts first and then moving me on to become a nurse. In the course catalog in City Tech, it shows me all of the classes that I have to take and the amount of credits that I will need in order for me to be able to sign up for the nursing program. The course catalog is a very helpful place in my opinion because it tells you everything you need to know about your major and how you would be able to achieve your goals.
In conclusion, if you want to become a nurse like I do, I recommend that you do a little bit of research like I did on nursing. I think that the course catalog was a huge help into my understanding because I didn’t know that I had to take that many classes and I didn’t know how much credits I needed for the nursing program. I also recommend doing some internship at hospitals and other clinical work to gain some experience and to make sure that this is the job you want for your future. I hope that you make the right decision and love your job and mostly have fun.
