Nurses are respected and valued members of the medical community. They play a critical role in the health care field. Although the medical field is made up of many types of nurses, they are all exciting and rewarding careers. The following list outlines many types of nursing careers:

- Registered Nurse (RN): Registered Nurses work in almost all areas of the health care profession. They perform many tasks that include: administering treatments such as medications, performing certain medical procedures, monitoring vital signs, advising and supporting patients, educating patients about medical conditions, and keep families up-to-date on a patient’s status. Registered Nurses can specialize in certain medical areas

- Certified Nurse Assistant (CNA): Certified Nurse Assistants are also known as nurses’ aides, patient care technicians, home health aides, and home health assistants. CNAs are employed in a number of health care fields. They work in hospitals, nursing homes, private homes, and adult living homes. CNAs perform a number of duties that include: monitoring health such as recording a patients temperature, pulse, and respiration, helping patients eat, bathe, and dress, helping patients walk, keeping patients rooms in order, providing nutritious meals, answering patients’ call bells, and making beds. They may also help patients to exam rooms and even assist with simple procedures. CNAs report to a Registered Nurse.

- Licensed Practical Nurse (LPN): Although Licensed Practical Nurses have less training than Registered Nurses, they are employed in all areas of health care. They work in hospitals, nursing homes, and medical clinics. LPNs perform such duties as monitoring a patient’s overall condition, giving injections, recording vital signs, and applying dressings. They will also assist patients with personal hygiene and report any treatment reactions

- Critical Care Nurse: A Critical Care Nurse works with seriously injured and ill patients in the hospital. This type of nurse works in the ICU (intensive care unit) or CCU (critical care unit). Their job is to care for patients who are being treated for serious and life-threatening illnesses.

- Travel Nurse: A Travel Nurse is a nurse that travels to different areas and provides short term support when there is a nurse shortage. They will fill in when a full time nurse goes on maternity leave, during peak work times, if a nurse has a long term illness, or if a nurse is on an extended vacation. There assignments are short term but they are highly paid. An assignment usually runs for about 13 weeks. Travel Nurses often work in hospitals and medical clinics. Employers will provide many benefits such as free housing and health insurance.

- Licensed Vocational Nurses (LVN): Theses nurses perform the same job function as licensed practical nurses. LVNs provide certain medical services such as giving enemas, treating bedsores, bandaging wounds, and recording vitals. They also assist patients with bathing and dressing.

- Public Health Nurse (PHN): These nurses are registered nurses who have specialized in community health. They often go to community centers, homes, and schools where they assist individuals and families with health concerns. They work with community organizers regarding health related issues. They also perform the same duties as registered nurses.

- Nurse Practitioner: A Nurse Practitioner is a registered nurse who has specialized training and education which allows them to carry out many tasks normally performed by a doctor. Such tasks include diagnosing and treating illnesses and injuries. Some states allow practical nurses to write prescriptions.

These are just a few of the more popular areas of nursing. Nurses are on the front lines of health care and are usually the first people patients meet when faced with a health issue. Nurses provide valuable support for patients and their families making them an indispensable part of the health care community.

There is no question with regard to trade certification: medication aide, nursing assistant and other health professionals all need it in order to work at their designated fields. Certification basically refers to a vital piece of paper that people in sensitive trades are required to have… and arguably, no trade is more sensitive than working in a medical facility, such as a hospital, a clinic or a pharmacy.

What can you expect from training to get certification? Medication aide aspirants will wonder if they actually need to study medicine in order to quality for training. This is not so. One does not need to have an extensive knowledge of medicine, although this is of course a plus… what is more important for a medication aide, is to develop a sense of organization and punctuality, which are both required skills on the job.

Moreover, a medication aide wishing to work in a specific state must take the certification exam set by that state. While some elements of certification may be standardized, certain states may require some medication aides to be intimately familiar with certain laws that would govern their performance on the job. Passing rates for the Board would also differ for different regions.

What is a medication aide? A medication aide is also called a “medical technician” or “med tech” in some regions. The prime responsibility of a med tech is to assist nurses and doctors in dispensing medication on the job. They differ from pharmacy technicians in that their primary responsibility is tending to inpatients – that is, patients who are required to stay in the hospital in which they are treated.

Certainly many inpatients also rely on the medication dispensed by pharmacies… but the help given by med techs or medication aides is indispensable within hospitals. In the case of late-night medications, when close relatives are no longer allowed to stay and acquire and dispense medication for the sick, medication aides take over. They should be depended on for their ability to stick to a schedule and not get the medications mixed up.

Medication aides are not only called for in hospitals – they are also useful in senior homes, or other places that are badly in need of good medical professionals.

In order to gain proper certification, medication aide must be able to pass the Board for a certified Medication Training Course. But this is not all. An application for medication aide must be filed with the hospital or institution one wishes to be hired in. And, of course, one must be listed on the official Medication Aide Registry of the country in which he or she wishes to work.