While nursing may not sound like a particularly glamorous career choice, wearing scrubs all day, staying constantly sanitized, and administering complex medications to patients is what many people today are selecting as a career path.

“It’s a great career choice because the sky’s the limit with nursing,” says Lacey Sparkes, now entering her second year as a registered nurse. “You can go into 100 different career paths.”

Sparkes graduated with a Bachelor of Nursing at Memorial University in St. John’s, NL.

The Institution’s School of Nursing offers a variety of undergraduate and graduate programs, including a regular, four-year bachelor of nursing program, as well as a fast-track option that allows you to complete your degree in just two years, or six semesters.

Tenured professor Sandra MacDonald has been teaching nursing at Memorial University since 1989. She says one of the many benefits of nursing “is that you’re pretty much guaranteed a job.”

According to the Registered Nurses’ Association of Ontario, The Canadian Nurses’ Association estimates there will be a shortage of 78,000 registered nurses in Canada this year. By 2016, they estimate the shortage will rise to 113,000.

And job security isn’t all: nurses have a solid salary range of $50,000–$85,000, which includes one of the highest starting salaries in Canada.

“Nurses are in demand and we constantly fluctuate from shortages too,” says MacDonald. “There’s always ups and downs.” She also says there is a demand for nurses all over the world if you’re willing to travel.

“I get emails all the time from students who are in Texas, Saudi Arabia, over in Pakistan,” she says. “It’s a very portable degree and portable career that you can take pretty much anywhere in the world.”

In addition to travelling to seek out nursing career opportunities that appeal to you, there are also many other directions your nursing degree can lead you. MacDonald says to avoid thinking of nursing as a job limited to caring for patients in a hospital bed as there are all sorts of other professions available to you.

According to York University’s School of Nursing, degrees in this field can open doors to allow you to work in education as a school nurse or professor, administration as a supervisor, academia in research roles in various institutions, or in other fields such as gerontology, rehabilitation, and fitness. “You’re only limited by your imagination,” says MacDonald.

Sparkes got into nursing because of a driving interest in subjects like science and biology.

“Originally I wanted to do med school, so nursing was going to be my fall-back,” she says. “But then I did it and enjoyed it, so I haven’t really pursued anything further.”

Sparkes says the most rewarding part of being a nurse is the connection she is able to make with patients and their families. The most challenging part is the workload.

“It’s a lot of multitasking and thinking on your feet,” she says. “You have to prioritize because you might have 10 or 15 patients, so it’s about thinking who you need to see first.”

Staying current with your knowledge can also be tough.

“Healthcare changes so quickly so you might have learned something months ago, but this month there might be a newer and better way of doing it,” she says. “The public is so well-educated now with their health that your patients challenge you a lot, so you have to be quite current with your knowledge.”

According to Sparkes, most registered nurses can expect to regularly work shifts as long as 12 hours. However, that doesn’t mean you’ll be working every day. She explains most nurses benefit from working one long week and one short week, where one might work five days one week but only two the next.

Sparkes’ final words of advice speak to anyone looking for a long-term and interesting career.

“The only thing I’d tell people is if you want to become a nurse, you have to be willing to keep learning, experience everything you can, and grow with the profession. There are always changes.”

Photos: praisaeng/Thinkstock