Among all the career paths, nursing is the fastest growing profession of all times. Furthermore, nurses aspire to master the specialty to grow in their career and one such highly preferred specialty is gerontology.
According to a survey, the average age of patients has increased, which means, patients over 65 make up 60 percent of adult primary visits, 48 percent of inpatient hospital admissions and 85 percent of nursing home residents.
Moreover, a study from Occupational Health and Safety Administration predicts that – By the year 2020, the need for registered nurses in nursing homes will increase 66%, for licensed practical and vocational nurses by 72% and the need for certified nursing assistants will increase by 69%.For nurses working in home health settings – which include ‘managed care’ nursing home settings – those numbers are even higher – well above 250% increase in nurses needed at every level of licensing.
Thus, if you are a nurse or planning a career in nursing, you have abundant opportunities available to work in nursing homes and patient care facilities. Additionally, if you think that a nursing home job is an ideal career option for you, here are some of the options that you can explore.
In Conventional Nursing Home Jobs
These days, nursing homes have become quite different in terms of services; facilities and employment than it were few decades ago. Moreover, a nurse specializing in gerontology in a nursing home can expect to work with patients in the long term.
Above all, there are ample jobs available, from head nurse of the entire healthcare facility to floor in-charge nurse to oversee the care and medical needs of one wing or floor and certified nursing assistants who do much of the hands on nursing care.
Jobs in Rehabilitation Facilities
It’s not that all the nursing homes serves to long-term geriatric patients. It’s because the hospital costs are rising, the trend seen is discharging patients to rehab centers and recovery homes instead of keeping them in the hospital until they’re fit to go home. When nurses work in such an environment, they become the part of the recovery process of the patients and many take great pride and joy in watching a patient advance and recover. Moreover, these jobs include charge nurses, floor nurses and nursing assistants as well as physical and occupational therapy specialists.
As an On-site Nurse in Senior Housing
There are elderly who do not require round the clock care from a nurse, instead, just needs some periodic observation. In senior housing communities, there are on-site nursing professionals to help patients with medication problems, to perform routine medical care and aide in times of emergency. This kind of job generally has a good pay scale and work schedule is quite similar to other geriatric nursing jobs.
To find a place in to this field of nursing profession, INSCOL offers Postgraduate Certificate in Gerontology from Niagara College, Canada for internationally educated nurses. To know more about the course, please visit the website at http://www.inscol.com/canada/academic-courses/.
