Dedication, empathy, and efficiency are the corner stones of the nursing profession. Nurses provide holistic health care that includes health education and advocacy, promoting healthy lifestyles, and disease care and prevention. They are responsible for maintaining, promoting and enhancing the health of individuals, families, communities, and the country at large. Their competency and compassion contribute to the improvement of the health care system as a whole. The contribution of nurses to the health and vibrancy of a country and its economy is unparalleled.
In the recent times, dramatic changes in society are affecting the profession of nursing in many ways. Increase in the number of elderly patients, major technological advances, rise of newly identified viral diseases, and severe repercussions of an unhealthy life style, are some of the reasons which have led to the increased need for professional and skilled nursing staff. Nursing staff is required at all levels of healthcare – at advanced level in hospitals, community health agencies, nursing homes, and home health care. The wide gap between the number of qualified nurses required in the health care system versus the availability of competent nursing staff, makes nursing a highly sought after and lucrative professional option. A career in nursing is not only financially rewarding but is also philanthropically rewarding.