Things to Consider Before Choosing a Career as a Nurse

Unfortunately, gaining a thorough understanding of what career options are available can be challenging. However, not all of them are equally obvious. This article covers some of the main considerations to keep in mind before making a career decision.

Choose Your Specialty

Nursing is a specialty that focuses on providing health care to patients of all ages. While it is a relatively safe profession, it is not without its fair share of challenges. Before making a career decision, you’ll want to thoroughly research the options available to you and assess which career path is right for you.

The breadth of specialties is impressive, but each of them has unique requirements and challenges. However, there is also a growing number of specialty nursing options, such as critical care, neonatal, and others. There are opportunities to further specialize in areas such as developmental, psychiatric, and others.

Healthcare Informatics

A career in healthcare information management is a versatile one that can provide invaluable experience in a variety of areas, including data curation, data analytics, and data communication. Healthcare information management is a growing field that can help you gain valuable experience in a variety of healthcare settings, from private practices to healthcare facilities. Data curation and analysis require experience in a variety of areas, including data management, statistics, and computer programming.

Nurse Practitioner

A career as a nurse practitioner is more than just providing care. It can also be an advanced practice that specializes in health promotion, wellness, and other areas. Some of the benefits of this advanced practice are that you get the opportunity to work in a variety of settings and with a wide variety of patients. You can choose whether to work in an acute care facility, a home health agency, or a doctor’s office.

Nurse Anesthesia

Many medical specialties have subspecialty options that can provide additional advanced practice privileges, including anesthesiology, pediatric anesthesiology, and anesthesia. However, becoming certified as an anesthesiologist is a challenging path to take.

Non-Nursing Careers as a Registered Nurse Registered Nurse Residencies

Registered Nurse Residencies (RNRs) are available in several areas, including a child and maternal health, long-term care, substance abuse, and others. You can earn an RNR by working as a registered nurse. The option to work in a hospital or an ambulatory care setting is a great way to gain experience in a variety of settings.

Registered Nurse Residencies

Like RNRs, advanced practice registered nurses (APRN) positions are available in several areas.

You can earn a position as an APRN by working as a registered nurse. Like RNRs, this is a versatile position that can provide valuable experience in a wide variety of settings.

Workplace Health and Safety for Registered Nurses

When considering which areas of healthcare to focus on, it is important to consider how you will gain experience. Experience is important, but potential employers also want to see how well you will fit into their organization.

Registered nurses are in a unique position to provide valuable insight into the work environment for nurses, including the potential for harassment or discrimination. A good way to examine this is to talk to fellow nurses about their experiences. You can also look into organizations that focus on workplace issues for nurses, such as the American Nurses Association (ANA).

How Much Does a Nurse Earn?

The average salary for a nurse is $59,280 as of 2017, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. This is higher than the salary for several other healthCare occupations and is large because nurse practitioners are medical professionals and therefore make more money than traditional nurses. The overall salary for all registered nurses as of 2017 was $39,390, in line with other healthcare occupations.

Many nurse practitioners earn more than the average salary of $59,280. For example, a practitioner specializing in community-based primary care who works in a large city may earn $90,000 or more.

How do you determine how much a nurse earns? The best way to do this is to look at the salary of peers in the same field. In addition, you can consider the number of hours worked and the benefits that come with the position.

What is the Benefits Package for a Nurse?

One way to open up the conversation about benefits is to ask about the pay and benefits for a variety of positions. For example, if you are interested in going into a full-time role as a nurse, you would likely be offered a benefits package that includes:

Paid time off Most commercial employers will give you paid time off if you are on medical or maternity leave. To get these benefits, you will need to ask about this on your application.

Most commercial employers will give you paid time off if you are on medical or maternity leave. To get these benefits, you will need to ask about this on your application. Medical, dental, and vision coverage: These may be limited in some cases. In these cases, you may be offered a higher salary but will still need to examine the benefits package to see if they meet your needs.

These may be limited in some cases. In these cases, you may be offered a higher salary but will still need to examine the benefits package to see if they meet your needs. Paid time off for your spouse or domestic partner: This is usually a perk for employees who are married or in a domestic partnership.

What is the Job Market for a Nurse?

The job market for nurses is expected to continue growing over the next few decades. This growth will likely be accompanied by increasing competition for jobs within the healthcare industry. The growth of outside employment will also result in increased competition for jobs as a nurse.

The BLS forecasts that the job market for nurses will grow at a rate of 6.6% between 2020 and 2040, which is faster than the average growth rate for all occupations.

To succeed in the workforce, nurses must be aware of the job market for nurses and other healthcare providers. To do this, you will want to use our free nursing job resource.

How to Successfully Delegate Care for the Caregiver

This can be a challenging balance to strike. In other cases, you may be able to make a difference by delegating care to others.

When you select the right people to convey messages to or take care of tasks, you can effectively manage your time, energy, and resources. This is particularly important when you have limited time and resources.

Conclusion

As you have begun to determine your career goals, you’ll want to carefully examine these options to make sure they are a good match.