The Intellectual Aspect of Nursing

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In electing the correct career path, which one’s life will orbit around, makes one deliberate all the aspects of said path. When determining the right path, look at the hours the job would require, the years of schooling, the capability to take orders, and being able to keep pace on a scholarly level. Knowing the level of intellect a field necessitates allows one to determine if they can learn at the pace that is expected and required. Fields that fall into the scope of medicine can be intellectually demanding to study. The inclination to help others is not the only quality desired in nursing, the job is mentally as well as physically demanding. Specific nursing areas like psychiatry requires swift critical thinking and the ability to defuse dangerous situations with words, empathy, and a bit of tough love. Once someone figures out that helping others is their end goal, the choice of where in the vast galaxy called medicine that one wants to stumble into. It is a must for someone to have a genuine pull towards helping others no matter what medical issue a patient may have. Nursing allows for one on one patient interaction, more than a doctor would have. While a doctor can save a life by performing surgery, a nurse can and often has to, make life or death decisions in sundry situations. Becoming a nurse requires the love of school, primarily because a majority of the first few years after making this career choice is spent there. In those first few years, most institutions require basic general education credits be taken, from English to math and maybe even a few history classes. Once those are accomplished, moving along to classes such as nutrition and sociology, one finds themselves able to view topics in an innovative and inter... ... middle of paper ... ...en a dangerous medical emergency and a quickly diffused situation. In conclusion, the intellectual demands of nursing can viewed in more than one approach. The accomplishment of finishing school is one of the first hoops that one would need to get through. When considering book smarts are only a small part of the job, what is truly considered the intellectual part can vary depending on the person. The ability to retain and use the information learned in school and clinical situations is valuable .Not everyone has the ability to think quickly in a high pressured situation that is life or death, and certainly not on a daily basis. The desire to help change lives has to be incredibly strong for a person to make a career choice which can be potentially dangerous. It could be said that there is “book smarts” and “street smarts” when considering the intellect of a nurse.

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