Tips for Advancing Your Nursing Career

How long have you been working as an RN? You graduated with an associate RN and have really enjoyed working in the acute care setting but are tired of pulling all night shifts, right? Maybe you have had some great supervisors, but now you would like to be one? Getting a BSN is now more and more necessary for any kind of administration position in nursing. This degree also helps if you want to step out into the world of private practice.

Being Competitive in Today’s Medical Field

Hospitals hire RNs to do the charge nursing and supervise. Those with BSN degrees find the positions of choice more easily. There is hope, however! Getting your BSN is easier than ever with convenient online RN to BSN degree programs. You can go to school and work at the same time.

Which Program Should You Choose?

There are many programs online now. You can find highly ranked RN to BSN programs through searching online. Talking to your fellow nurses can help you broaden your familiarity with programs offered as well. Maybe you want to broaden your nursing experience. Check for programs that offer classes in specific fields as part of your BSN degree.

RN Specialty Programs

If you have an area of nursing that you really enjoy or in which you are particularly proficient, you can earn a certificate of expertise for that area. By going into a specialty field, you can really decrease burnout and the wear-and-tear on your body!

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The Constantly Moving Life of Traveling Nurses

When you go to a hospital or care center you are usually treated by a doctor, but more than likely your patient needs are more commonly met by the nurse in attendance at the time of your visit or stay. There are many people who are unaware that the nurses attending you may not even from the area you are in. These nurses are known as traveling nurses and they make up almost 10 percent of the nursing population. That may seem low but when you consider how far they travel it is significant. This is a typically unknown segment of the health care profession that is often times neglected.

Traveling nurses are just what the name implies — they travel to work as nurses. At times this can be within their home state, but other times they travel great distance for long periods of time to do the profession they love. Traveling nurses can acquire contracts with hospitals and clinics around the United States and around the world. Traveling nurses are required to have at least one year of specialty training in their area of expertise.

A typical travel nurse contract is from 13 weeks or three months to one or two years depending on the location. Often times these assignments make it hard on the family of these nurses. As anyone who has moved can attest that moving is hard work and dealing with everything from moving quotes, packing, unpacking and loneliness can be stressful. All these factors, on top of having to adjust to a new work environment in a very short period of time and be able to perform, can be intimidating.

So next time you are being cared for remember that the person who is attending you and seeing to your care is also an individual who may need some help and care themselves.

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Affording Nursing School

With the global economy in a state of chaos, you may feel like going back to school and changing careers is the only option you have. But college is so expensive. While you have worked and worked and worked, you have  only been able to save up a little bit of money for school. You know that if you could get your degree in nursing that your life would change, but nursing school seems so far out of your financial ability to pay for it that you just want to give up. While college and nursing school can be costly, you have more options available to you than you think.

First, as a nursing student, you can apply for and receive federal financial aide. This means that the government would give you money to help pay for nursing school. Depending on your ability to pay, the government may give you grants, scholarships, and loans with low interest rates. Some of these forms of financial aid do not need to be repaid. This means you get free money to go to nursing school! Also, your nursing school may offer work study programs through the local hospitals so that you can afford to attend this nursing school and get experience at the same time.

Secondly, you can do a quick internet search for private companies and groups who offer scholarships for a certain career field, ethnic minority, or interest. Maybe your family is Native American. You can search scholarships for Native Americans and see all of the groups offering free money for your ethnic group to attend school. See nursing school can be affordable if you take the time to research all of your options.

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