The Importance of Staying Educated

Stay Educated

All of us go through periods of boredom in our career. There are points at which, we seem to be just going through the motions, not unlike a robot programed to a specific task. We clock in and out of our jobs, interact with our coworkers, and take home the same paycheck, week in and week out. It begins to make our chosen career and hard earned education, seem less meaningful. Daily tasks fail to hold our interest, because they have lost their challenge. What once peeked our curiosities and maybe even cause us a little stress, no longer has the appeal that it once did.

As humans, we function at our best when we are challenged. The heightened awareness and acute focus of difficult tasks cause us to perform our jobs better. When those challenges are gone and we are no longer interested, we begin to do our jobs with less perfection and possibly even cause us to make more mistakes. For anyone working in the healthcare industry, we know that mistakes are not something to be taken lightly. It isn’t like a factory part that can simply be redone or fixed. A mistake in our practice of medicine can have far greater consequences. Our patients can suffer because of a simple mistake. Imagine the effects of a simple mistaken dose of medicine, or the result of a millimeter off incision.

Education leads to greater challenges

Remember when you first began your adventure into medicine? Remember how every new procedure or skill caused you to feel excited? How nervous you were, the first time you performed those skills on a real patient and how exhilarating it was when you completed the task successfully? Education is the basis for all that we accomplish. Had we not first taken the initiative to understand and learn those skills, we would have never had those feelings of complete satisfaction of a job well done. Even the most menial tasks felt great, and gave us a sense of accomplishment. A stark contrast to the boredom we feel further into our careers, when those same tasks feel almost trivial.

Continuing to learn and further our knowledge, increases the likelihood that we will maintain longer and more meaningful careers. Gaining new skills gives us the tools we need to take on new challenges and stimulate our excitement for our job. With each new bit of knowledge and skill, we gain a new asset, which we can test and master. It’s no different than the little puzzle games we sometimes play. We don’t play them because we are going to receive something tangible. We play them because we enjoy the challenge and we gain satisfaction from completing or mastering a new level in our career.

It isn’t just you that will benefit from your education

Along with expanding our knowledge base and skill level, we may often see an increase in pay. While for many of us that could easily feel like biggest benefit to continuing our education, it may not actually be the best benefit. Perhaps the single best benefit to extended learning isn’t even a benefit for us. Perhaps the most benefit goes to our patients. After all, aside from some self-satisfaction and a little money in our paychecks, the most real tangible benefit is actually received by our patients. In the end, it is our patients that have the most to gain. They invest nothing and receive everything we have to offer. Ask any accountant and they will tell you who the winner is in that scenario.

A fruitful career is full of bumps and bruises along the way. It’s how we earn our stripes and gain the feeling of satisfaction that we all crave. Comedian George Carlin once stated: “The caterpillar does all the work, but the butterfly gets all the publicity.” The same could sort of be said for those of us in healthcare. We put in all the hours, time, sweat, and money, and we do it so that our patients can reap better rewards. You may enjoy the satisfaction of a job well done, but the lives of your patients will forever be improved.

Share |
Nursing Degree Programs
Nursing Degree Levels
Education Advantages
Achieve Test Prep