Comparison of Careers in Psychology and Nursing

Running head: PSYCHOLOGY
PSYCHOLOGY
Name of the Student
Name of the university
Author’s note

1PSYCHOLOGY
CAREER INTEREST
This paper will compare and contrast between two careers, one from the field of psychology and
another from the field of nursing.
Occupational psychologists refers to the psychologists that apply psychological
knowledge and philosophical learnings to organizational issues at workplace like culture and
modification. This might be useful in improving the job satisfaction among the employees and
increase the overall growth of the organization1.
On the other hand the profession of nursing mainly focuses on health care sector,
working in frontline with the doctors to address the increasing demand of health care in today’s
world. It focuses on the care of the individual, communities and the families to attain the
optimum quality of health2.
The average salary of a U.S registered nurse is about $67,930 and can be broken down in
to $1,306 per week and a monthly salary of $5,660.The wage levels may differ depending upon
the experience, levels of training, location and industry. The median annual salary of an
occupational psychologists are $81,910. Again the remuneration depends upon the experience
and the organization.
1 Schilling, Richard Selwyn Francis, ed. Occupational health practice. Butterworth-Heinemann, 2013.
2 Paley, John. "Cognition and the compassion deficit: the social psychology of helping behavior in
nursing." Nursing Philosophy 15.4 (2014): 274-287.

2PSYCHOLOGY
The essential skills that are required in nursing are the compassion, communication,
ethics, critical thinking, stamina and adaptability3. The registered nurses should have effective
communication skills to communicate with the peers, patients and patient’s family. The skills of
an occupational psychologist on the other hand are required to have an excellent communication
and the interpersonal skills, for convincing the clients about the abilities, gain information by
inspiring their trust. The profession generally covers a wide area such as counselling and
personal development, designing work environments, organizational change and development,
human –machine interaction, career development. Being an occupational psychologist, one had
to assess the functionality and the usability of a system, like workstations, investigate the
problems that can arise accidents and make recommendations4. An occupational psychologist can
review the ergonomic design of the workplace by assessing the noise levels, lighting and can
recommend for suitable changes. They can be responsible for implementing new strategies for
employee selection or can find way outs for assessing the mindset of the employees for
decreasing the employee turnover.
Value of the internet profiler
The internet profiler helps to measure the realistic, investigative, social, enterprising,
conventional and artistic occupational interest. The internet profilers are excellent tools that
helps the consumers to explore the type of activities and occupation. Clients gets the chance to
identify and learn about a large number options for careers.
3 de Vries, Jan MA, and Fiona Timmins. "Psychology teaching in nursing education: A review of and reflection on
approaches, issues, and contemporary practice." Nurse education in practice 12.6 (2012): 316-321.
4 Schilling, Richard Selwyn Francis, ed. Occupational health practice. Butterworth-Heinemann, 2013.