How to become a nurse? Challenges and opportunities

Key takeaways:

• Nurses take care of patients and their health in hospitals, polyclinics and other health centres, performing a variety of tasks: they administer medicines, assist doctors and support patients both in physical and emotional terms.
• To become a nurse, you usually need a university degree. What’s more, you need to hone your skills regularly through specialty programmes, vocational courses and other forms of professional training.
• We live in a time of ageing societies, lifestyle diseases and the resulting nursing shortage, while the demand for nursing professionals is constantly increasing.

What does a nurse do?

On a daily basis, nurses provide healthcare services to patients in various environments: hospitals, clinics, health centres, doctor’s offices, care homes, hospices, etc. In practice, healthcare services refer to patient care: administering medicines and injections, assisting doctors in procedures and carrying out their instructions, performing basic diagnostic, treatment and rehabilitation tasks and providing general support to recovering patients, such as physical, emotional and social care as well as health education and promotion. If you want to learn more about nursing duties, read the following article: What does a nurse do? Job description

Since its very beginning, nursing has been a female-dominated field. However, nowadays, the number of male nurses is steadily growing. Helping other people is really a rewarding occupation. If you’re interested in medicine but, for a variety of reasons, you don’t see yourself as a doctor, and yet you still wish to be professionally engaged in taking care of other people, nursing is a great career path for you. So, how do you become a nurse?

European Union laws concerning professional nurses

In the European Union, the right to practise as a nurse is granted to a person who has a nursing school certificate or graduation diploma. You can use a certificate or diploma obtained in another country, provided that it has been recognised as equivalent in accordance with other EU provisions, and meets the minimum training requirements laid down in the EU law.

You can rely on the European Professional Card (EPC), which confirms that the professional qualifications issued in your home country have been recognised by the country you wish to work in (the host country). If you’re planning to stay in another EU country for a short time only, the EPC will certify that you meet the required conditions and are allowed to provide healthcare services in that country.

The EPC replaces other processes of qualification recognition that allow professionals to provide cross-border services and it is valid in any EU host country.
You can apply for the EPC if you intend to practise your profession temporarily in another EU country, or if you want to move to another EU country and provide your services permanently.

If your qualifications come from outside the European Union, you can still apply for the EPC as long as your degree has already been recognised in one of the EU countries and you have at least 3 years of professional experience in your field, starting from the date of obtaining the relevant qualifications.

How do you become a nurse in Lithuania?

To work as a general practice nurse in Lithuania, you need adequate professional qualifications. So, to obtain the professional qualification of a nurse of general practice, you have to complete college or university education. Nursing study candidates must have at least secondary education to apply. The nursing study programme takes 3.5 years: as you graduate, you are given a bachelor’s degree in nursing. You may also opt for a 4-year university programme.

The licence is issued for 5 years. You can prolong it if you have worked for a specified number of hours in your specialty, at the same time engaging in continuous professional development. Just like doctors, nurses can specialise in a variety of areas: anaesthesiology, diabetology, heart diseases, mental health, surgery and many more. In order to do that, Lithuanian nurses must complete special training, which is additionally paid and takes around 6 months, depending on a given discipline.

Once you obtain the bachelor's degree and professional qualification as a general practice nurse, you can work at public healthcare institutions of different levels (primary, secondary and tertiary), in the defence and interior sector healthcare facilities, social care centres, home care organisations for people with and without disabilities and in private healthcare centres.

Can you become a nurse in your 40s?

If you want to become a nurse, your age doesn’t really matter – you just have to be older than 18. Young people often make hasty professional decisions – the choices that you made when you’d only graduated from secondary school may have been off target. As you mature with age, you’re likely to make better, more informed and conscious decisions, as you’re equipped with consistency, perseverance and determination. So, if you’re in your 40s and you feel you wish to change your career path and become a nurse, age should not make any difference. You can study nursing and midwifery at any moment in your adult life, choosing from various forms of study.

Are you thinking of becoming a nurse?

There are plenty of nurses in the world – and yet, there are still not enough of them among other medical professionals. Nursing shortage is a constant problem, caused by a number of factors: the increased life expectancy among people, the spread of lifestyle diseases, the declining birth rates and, consequently, the sub-replacement fertility rate. It is also worth noticing that the public perception of this profession has changed gradually: nurses meet with growing social respect, become increasingly independent and receive a number of rights. The image of a modern nurse is far from decades-old stereotypes. Becoming a nurse is one thing – but holding out in this satisfactory yet demanding profession is another. However, regardless of your age, if you’re thinking about becoming a nurse, get all the necessary information and just do it! Then, at UniformShop, you will find top-quality nursing scrubs to help you do your best at work as a healthcare professional.