There are SO MANY different amazing career fields in nursing! There are so many different places you can work and things you can do. From pediatrics to family practice to the ER to the OR to Med-Surg, to the ICU to cardiology, depending upon your interests, you can specialize in just about anything.
What is related specifically to Microbiology? Every area of nursing requires a strong background and knowledge in microbiology, no matter what the field, but there are a few careers in nursing that focus and specialize in aspects of it more than others.
Why do nursing students need to take Microbiology? Microbiology is vital!
Infection Control Nurse: Also known as Infection Prevention Nurse or Infection Preventionist or Infection Prevention Coordinator
As an Infection Control Nurse (or Medical Lab Scientist or other Public Health Professional), your role is to identify, create and put into practice "best practices" for sanitation and infection management at the hospital or clinical where you are employed. You are also a healthcare educator and are asked to speak at orientations, provide infection control education to new employees, give poster presentations, create pamphlets and educational materials, and communicate and interact with other areas, including the lab, the public health department, and the epidemiology department.
Whenever there is a pattern, an outbreak, an endemic, an epidemic, or a pandemic, your colleagues will look to you for guidance and leadership in controlling and eliminating infectious threats that may be present. If you are analytical, quick thinking, love patterns and solving mysteries, putting pieces of the puzzle together, are detail-oriented, love to research, a career in infection control may be a highly rewarding one for you and stimulating and challenging.
You help in identifying nosocomial (hospital-acquired) infections, whatever the microbial cause, and communicate best practices to your colleagues, patients and their families to ensure their safety. Your knowledge of risks of infectious diseases is critical and you are a natural-born problem-solver, always at the forefront of modern healthcare solutions. With the widespread global outbreaks, such as Ebola and COVID-19, the demand for experienced Infection Control Nurses is on the rise. Plus, in general, ICN's are indispensable members of everyday medical teams. Everyone will know and respect who you are.
Education required to become an ICN includes an Associates Degree in Nursing (ADN). Holding a Bachelor's Degree in Nursing (BSN) is even more desirable to some employers. As with any nursing specialty, you must first spend at least one year working as an RN to build your solid base of hands-on experience. Then, you will be eligible to pass a certification exam, courtesy of the Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology (APIC). After this, you'll be ready for a career as a Registered Infection Control Nurse. Some ICN's further their education by pursuing a Master's degree, some in Public Health (MPH). This ranges from 2 to 4 to 6 years. There are many bridge programs online for BSN and MSN or MPH degrees. Other routes are to become a Medical Laboratory Scientist (certified) with experience, particularly in Microbiology (other than nursing).
The role and tasks of the ICN vary depending upon where you are working, but it is mainly infection prevention and control. You need to stay informed, be proactive, and communicate effectively with patients and colleagues. Some common places ICN's work are hospitals, ambulatory and outpatient care centers, home care and hospice centers, oncology centers, public health departments, long-term care centers, or as travel nurses.
Urology Nurse:
A Urology Nurse cares for patients with diseases related to the urinary tract (bladder, kidneys, ureters, urethra) and works directly hands-on with patients. If you love structure and routine and a calmer environment, this career field enables you to follow a very structured routine, anticipating and preparing for every situation ahead of time. You'll spend a lot of time guiding patients and teaching them about preventative care, including proper hygiene, avoiding STD's, and home care for affected areas of the body. You'll interpret medical results and diagnoses. You'll administer medications and assist with catheterization. You will work in hospitals, doctor's offices or outpatient care centers.
Education Required: ADN or BSN; Pass the NCLEX-RN
Experience: Work as an RN for 2 years in Urology, then passed the Certified Urology RN exam.
Public Health Nurse:
Public Health Nurses are also known as Community Health Nurses. This specialty focuses on Public Health. Your focus is also Infection Control, but for the entire community, and includes health management, health education, health coaching, and home care visits. You may be a home health care nurse, hospice nurse, school nurse, work for DHEC or a local public health center, the CDC, or local community clinics to provide preventative services, such as immunizations, routine screenings, blood pressure, and diabetes management. Your goal is awareness, education and coaching, and you will often create and disseminate pamphlets, posters, and other educational materials to target local and state health departments, school districts, colleges and universities, and other nursing associations so that their awareness will be increased and up-to-date. If you are a cheerleader or coach-type of personality with a lot of energy and stamina, you love to create information, desire to be a healthcare educator, and love to counsel and guide others, this would be a great career field for you to come alongside other fields to increase and promote awareness and prevention of illness, not just microbial, but others as well (heart, lung, kidneys, liver, diabetes, etc...), and to promote a healthy lifestyle. Your goal is also to effect long-term changes in communities through education and health promotion.
Education: To be a Public Health Nurse, you must possess a BSN, pass the Public Health Nursing-Board Certification (APHN-BC), and some states require that you complete a Public Health Certificate as well. This field is highly in demand due to COVID-19.
Reference:
What is related specifically to Microbiology? Every area of nursing requires a strong background and knowledge in microbiology, no matter what the field, but there are a few careers in nursing that focus and specialize in aspects of it more than others.
Why do nursing students need to take Microbiology? Microbiology is vital!
- Nurses use the concepts of Microbiology to understand infectious diseases and to maintain environments free of contamination and infection and spread of disease (basic infection control principles)
- Nurses must use Microbiology when it comes to the disposal of biomedical waste of ALL types (blood, urine, stool, tissue, sharps)
- Nurses need to know how to properly collect specimens to send to the lab and what containers to send them in
- Understanding immunizations and immunization schedules
- Understanding infection prevention, control and treatment of diseases
- Understanding asepsis, sterilization, sanitization and disinfection
- Understanding disease transmission so you can implement universal precautions and other types of precautions (droplet, aerosol, isolation, etc...)
- This is the analytical and academic side of nursing studies before you get to the practical, hands-on procedures
- Understanding the uses of PPE (gloves, aprons, hand-washing versus hand sanitizers, placing IV catheters, cleaning surfaces and materials, properly labeling sample containers)
- Using the steps of the scientific method in analytical problem-solving and making observations (signs and symptoms, assessments, patient hx), knowing differential diagnoses, tests to order, interpretation of results, how to collect data, come to a conclusion and come up with a treatment plan
- Understanding nosocomial versus community-acquired infections and how diseases are transmitted
- Understanding endemics, epidemics, outbreaks and pandemics
Infection Control Nurse: Also known as Infection Prevention Nurse or Infection Preventionist or Infection Prevention Coordinator
As an Infection Control Nurse (or Medical Lab Scientist or other Public Health Professional), your role is to identify, create and put into practice "best practices" for sanitation and infection management at the hospital or clinical where you are employed. You are also a healthcare educator and are asked to speak at orientations, provide infection control education to new employees, give poster presentations, create pamphlets and educational materials, and communicate and interact with other areas, including the lab, the public health department, and the epidemiology department.
Whenever there is a pattern, an outbreak, an endemic, an epidemic, or a pandemic, your colleagues will look to you for guidance and leadership in controlling and eliminating infectious threats that may be present. If you are analytical, quick thinking, love patterns and solving mysteries, putting pieces of the puzzle together, are detail-oriented, love to research, a career in infection control may be a highly rewarding one for you and stimulating and challenging.
You help in identifying nosocomial (hospital-acquired) infections, whatever the microbial cause, and communicate best practices to your colleagues, patients and their families to ensure their safety. Your knowledge of risks of infectious diseases is critical and you are a natural-born problem-solver, always at the forefront of modern healthcare solutions. With the widespread global outbreaks, such as Ebola and COVID-19, the demand for experienced Infection Control Nurses is on the rise. Plus, in general, ICN's are indispensable members of everyday medical teams. Everyone will know and respect who you are.
Education required to become an ICN includes an Associates Degree in Nursing (ADN). Holding a Bachelor's Degree in Nursing (BSN) is even more desirable to some employers. As with any nursing specialty, you must first spend at least one year working as an RN to build your solid base of hands-on experience. Then, you will be eligible to pass a certification exam, courtesy of the Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology (APIC). After this, you'll be ready for a career as a Registered Infection Control Nurse. Some ICN's further their education by pursuing a Master's degree, some in Public Health (MPH). This ranges from 2 to 4 to 6 years. There are many bridge programs online for BSN and MSN or MPH degrees. Other routes are to become a Medical Laboratory Scientist (certified) with experience, particularly in Microbiology (other than nursing).
The role and tasks of the ICN vary depending upon where you are working, but it is mainly infection prevention and control. You need to stay informed, be proactive, and communicate effectively with patients and colleagues. Some common places ICN's work are hospitals, ambulatory and outpatient care centers, home care and hospice centers, oncology centers, public health departments, long-term care centers, or as travel nurses.
Urology Nurse:
A Urology Nurse cares for patients with diseases related to the urinary tract (bladder, kidneys, ureters, urethra) and works directly hands-on with patients. If you love structure and routine and a calmer environment, this career field enables you to follow a very structured routine, anticipating and preparing for every situation ahead of time. You'll spend a lot of time guiding patients and teaching them about preventative care, including proper hygiene, avoiding STD's, and home care for affected areas of the body. You'll interpret medical results and diagnoses. You'll administer medications and assist with catheterization. You will work in hospitals, doctor's offices or outpatient care centers.
Education Required: ADN or BSN; Pass the NCLEX-RN
Experience: Work as an RN for 2 years in Urology, then passed the Certified Urology RN exam.
Public Health Nurse:
Public Health Nurses are also known as Community Health Nurses. This specialty focuses on Public Health. Your focus is also Infection Control, but for the entire community, and includes health management, health education, health coaching, and home care visits. You may be a home health care nurse, hospice nurse, school nurse, work for DHEC or a local public health center, the CDC, or local community clinics to provide preventative services, such as immunizations, routine screenings, blood pressure, and diabetes management. Your goal is awareness, education and coaching, and you will often create and disseminate pamphlets, posters, and other educational materials to target local and state health departments, school districts, colleges and universities, and other nursing associations so that their awareness will be increased and up-to-date. If you are a cheerleader or coach-type of personality with a lot of energy and stamina, you love to create information, desire to be a healthcare educator, and love to counsel and guide others, this would be a great career field for you to come alongside other fields to increase and promote awareness and prevention of illness, not just microbial, but others as well (heart, lung, kidneys, liver, diabetes, etc...), and to promote a healthy lifestyle. Your goal is also to effect long-term changes in communities through education and health promotion.
Education: To be a Public Health Nurse, you must possess a BSN, pass the Public Health Nursing-Board Certification (APHN-BC), and some states require that you complete a Public Health Certificate as well. This field is highly in demand due to COVID-19.
Reference:
- Johnson & Johnson Nursing: Infection Control Nurse (ICN) at a Glance, https://www.nursing.jnj.com, (Links to an external site.) 2021