Associate’s Degree in Nursing (ADN)
Associate degree means first level of training course in nursing and those who do it, are eligible to get admission into bachelor of Nursing according to the American system of education. There are so many nursing schools run by hospitals, government and even by reputed educational networks. There are also many faculty specializations to do the course like hospital nursing, ambulance nursing, nursing midwife, school nursing, sports nursing and so on and so forth. According to the specialization we chose, the course content and the tenure of the course might change slightly.
This associate degree is like our Intermediate education in India and is of two years duration. There are many levels in nursing education like the diploma, associate’s, bachelor and masters etc. There are even part time and evening courses also available with varied finance schemes, but one has to select the course most suited to his requirements with a careful thought. There are even online and correspondence courses also available in nursing. It is indeed, a rewarding career the nursing job gives both human satisfaction of serving the needy and also more attractive career in employment opportunities now a days.
Service in paramedical is no doubt, a divine and one can help a need in crisis and even the pay pocket is also luring, but there is at the same level a danger of the professional becoming stoic to the ills and sufferings and if he goes corrupt, he can expect money even from the coffins. The very sensitive human feeling of compassion will go away when one is thick skinned in the profession. Beyond the duty precincts, a nurse can serve the society by educating, habituating and cultivating to the healthy life style since prevention is always better than cure and many diseases even more than 80% are preventable with a little bit of awareness and precautions.
Serving the poor is serving the God and Mother Theresa already proved it! This profession is an excellent opportunity to have this virtue and even sometimes, learning the history of patient makes a nursing professional cautious of his own history and turns him a social reformer. Teacher, nurse and mother are the saviors of human race and entry into this pious profession at entry level of associate’s course is indeed a very right choice of profession. To nurse means to heal and the professional will have this unique opportunity to heal the sufferings and problems of the people.
The profession is equally complicated and challenging and a life long learning process. To quote specially, military nursing is special and it brings us the pride of serving our nation as well as serving the human beings in suffering. Forensic nursing on the other hand is different and it gives the satisfaction of finding the internal enemies and criminals in the nation. If you are patient and cal talk soothingly, you are the most suited to the profession and alternatively you can also go for private practice also as a professional nurse by giving your services to the indented on fixed rates. Overall, beginning the career as nurse with associate is a real humble beginning.
