Interesting Facts About Being a Nurse (That You Might Not Know)

If you're thinking about pursuing a degree in nursing, then odds are that you know a little bit about what the job responsibilities of a nurse are and what to expect. However, there are a number of lesser-known facts about nursing that you may not know about, and that may help strengthen your resolve to become a nurse. Here are just a few of the fascinating facts that surround the nursing profession.

• Nurses have been around for thousands of years - The very first nursing school was founded in 250 B.C. in India. However, only males were allowed to attend.
   
• The first American nursing school opened in 1862 - The New England Hospital for Women and Children was the first nursing school to open in the U.S. It was also the first time that women were given the opportunity to obtain clinical training; in fact, the first nurse trained by women graduated from there in 1873. The school is not only important for being the first nursing school in the country, but also for allowing women to train for one of the few occupations that they could hold at that time.
   
• Nurses get plenty of exercise on the job - Many jobs these days are sedentary, which can result in health issues later in life if you don't make it a point to exercise regularly outside of work. Nursing is basically the very opposite. MEDSBURG released a nursing study back in 2006 titled "How Far Do Nurses Walk?" In it, they reveal that nurses walk on average four to five miles a day, almost twice what the average American walks per day.
   
• There are over 3 million nurses in the U.S. - Nursing is the biggest healthcare occupation in the U.S. According to the Kaiser Family Foundation, there are currently around 3,328,771 registered nurses in the U.S. along with 824,886 licensed nurses, making the total number of nurses around 4,153,657. 
   
• Only 60% of nurses work in hospitals - One of the common misconceptions about nurses is that the majority of them work in hospitals. This, however, is not true. While hospitals do employ around 60 percent of all active nurses, according to the AMN Healthcare survey, 40% of nurses in the U.S. work in different locations, such as schools, hospice care, the homes of patients, and more.
   
• There are more than a hundred types of nursing professions - Few people realize that being a nurse isn't just one type of job. There are many different nursing professions to choose from. In fact, according to Discover Nursing, there are 104 nursing specialties available, including cardiac care nurses, clinical nurse specialists, critical care nurses, geriatric nurses, hospice nurses, independent nurse contractors, long-term care nurses, nurse educators and school nurses, just to name a few.
   
• Nursing is a rewarding field - There's a common misconception that nurses work extremely long hours and are always tired. While shifts can be long, the number of shifts that a nurse works every week tends to be very flexible, and it's generally easy for nurses to pick or drop shifts as well. The flexible work schedule and emotional fulfillment of the job make most nurses very happy with their work. In fact, the 2017 annual AMN Healthcare survey revealed that 83% of nurses were satisfied as a nurse, while only 9% disagreed.

Did you know some of those interesting facts about nurses? If you want to become a nurse, you’ll probably want to earn an Associate of Applied Science in Nursing. ECPI University offers this program at an accelerated rate. To find out more, connect with one of our friendly admissions specialists today.

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