Teaching vs. Nursing: Which Career Is Right for You?

Introduction 

Careers do have differences and similarities with one another. Jobs can be related based on the knowledge requirements, working hours, and job description. However, each job has its unique features and requirements. This fact explains why a person moving from one job to another must undergo some training besides having a basic knowledge to work. Also, other jobs involve daily interaction with clients and customers while others do not. Teaching and nursing are two jobs in different industries. However, they have some similarities in their descriptions and designs. Having worked as a teacher and a nurse, I will compare and contrast the two jobs. 

Similarities 

Both nursing and teaching involve helping others. They are client oriented jobs where one is expected to provide services to customers and clients. The primary role of a nurse is to provide patient care. Nurses mainly work in healthcare centers where patients with different kinds of illnesses come to seek medication. During the treatment process, nurses help to ensure that the patients get quality medical care and are recovering well. Teachers also help others by providing knowledge and skills to people in need, also known as pupils or students. Just like nursing, teaching mainly takes place in schools. However, both can take place at different places depending on existing arrangements between the service provider and the clients. For example, a nurse can also provide care in the patients’ residents. The same way, a teacher can also provide services at the students’ homes or place of work. 

Both jobs require knowledge and skills that can only be acquired through education. Basic education is required for most types of jobs even those that involve more use of strength than knowledge. However, there are some careers that require further education and specialization. Examples are teaching and nursing. To be a nurse, one must join a nursing college after completing high school. At the nursing school, the necessary skills and knowledge to care for patients will be obtained through lectures and practical. This is a field that involves making crucial decisions on human life. Therefore, extensive training is very important. To be a teacher, one must attend a training college to get the skills required for the job. The two jobs are examples of those that need specialization to have some specific skills. Before specializing, high school education is common for the two and even in most careers. 

Both jobs require good communication skills and customer relations. Most jobs are customer oriented. However, some careers involve daily encounters with customers while in others; face-to-face meetings with clients are rare. In nursing and teaching, recipients of services are the customers and interacting with them is part of the job descriptions. Nurses deal with patients daily. Nursing services include administering medicines, changing and cleaning beddings, taking patient history, and monitoring healing progress among others. All these involve interacting and communicating with the patients. In teaching, the teacher is the service provider while students are the recipients. The two parties interact all the time until the students graduate after obtaining the necessary knowledge and skills. One common characteristic of jobs with regular client interactions is communication. Both nurses and teachers need good communication skills to carry out their duties effectively. During training, students in teaching and nursing colleges must be taught how to communicate with their clients and customers. 

Differences 

Teaching and nursing require different levels of knowledge and skills. After obtaining basic education from high school, both nursing and teaching students join their respective colleges for further specialized education. The nature, extent, and duration of training in these colleges vary depending on the career requirements. For example, nursing involves caring for individuals who are sick and comforting their families. A nurse will have to make some decisions that are crucial to patients’ lives. Any error in decision making or service delivery might lead to loss of life. Therefore, the training process of nurses is more extensive and takes more time. For the teaching job, the training is less extensive and takes less time. If a teacher makes any decision-making error, the consequences will not be as dangerous as those for in nursing, and it is also easier to correct the errors than in nursing. 

Another difference between nursing and teaching careers is the working hours. All jobs have designated working hours and other part-time arrangements that are made between employers and employees. These part-time arrangements vary from one institution to another. Teachers work during the daytime and their working hours are set by educational authorities. There are academic-year and school-day schedules which control teachers. Also, teachers do not work during the weekends and public holidays. However, there are private teachers who work on weekends and during holidays and the services are provided at some extra charges. Nurses work all year, and in some cases, they work at night and during public holidays. The nursing career involves saving lives. People get ill all the time requiring immediate medical attention. This is the reason why a nurse cannot have a yearly working calendar. In most institutions, schedules are divided into day and night shifts. 

Having worked as a teacher and a nurse, I also realized that the jobs are different regarding required commitment and collaboration when working. In any career, one must be committed to providing quality services. However, the commitment levels vary. Nurses must always be committed to every service detail and procedure they follow or else they might make fatal mistakes. Also, patient care is a collaborative process which requires a contribution from different professionals such as nurses, doctors, pharmacists, and laboratory attendants among others. Teaching also requires commitment and collaboration. However, a temporary loss of focus by a teacher will not cause as harmful consequences as nursing. It is also possible for a teacher to deliver service based on standard teaching procedures and guidelines with less collaboration with colleagues than in nursing. 

Conclusion 

Teaching and nursing jobs are similar and different in various capacities. Similarities between the two careers include customer and client interactions, both require skills and knowledge obtained from further studies, and the helping nature of both jobs. The two differs in extent and nature of education involved, working hours, and levels of commitment and collaboration. For example, a teacher can teach a subject to a whole class alone while it will take multi-discipline collaboration to provide patient care.