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4 Ways to Do More As a Nurse

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Getting through nursing school without losing your sanity is an accomplishment in itself, but as time passes, you may find yourself considering going back to school to learn things that’ll open more doors in terms of career possibilities. Below, you’ll find a few potential options to give you more insight into available choices. Perhaps they might convince you it’s time to hit the books once again.

Offer Services as a Consultant

As a healthcare provider, you have knowledge that’s incredibly valuable to others. By choosing to further your education, you can focus on particular areas of expertise in which you’ll eventually offer advice on a consultant basis. For example, as a community consultant, you might give information to health clinics or nursing homes. By deciding you’d rather work as a consultant in conjunction with a specific disease or disorder, you could help patients and caregivers learn better ways to manage things like diabetes, heart disease, and high blood pressure. Alternatively, as a management consultant, you might assist hospitals with matters such as standards of care, budgeting, and educational opportunities for staff members.

Be a Nurse Educator

After you’ve done more with your own education, you could continue the cycle by educating others. Similar to work as a consultant, a career as a nurse educator has a couple of possible tracks to pursue. One of those is an educator who works in a university setting. Otherwise, you could fill a role as a clinical educator, which would see you primarily working in healthcare settings to train staff members.

Explore Nursing Administration

If you’d love to be in a supervisory role and nurturing the careers of new nurses, a career in Nursing Administration may be a wonderful option. You’d likely start out by pursuing as a position as a Nurse Supervisor, and then might have the opportunity to advance to Head of Nursing, a position that obviously comes with great responsibility, but also the potential for financial lucrativeness.

Engage in Research

While participating in nursing research, you’d have the chance to use your expertise as a positive influence. A great solution for people who love to get engrossed in data, a career in nursing research allows you to eventually streamline things like credentialing for staff members at a hospital, administrative procedures, and setting standards for employees.

The Need Exists

There are certainly a lot of considerations involved in making the decision to go back to school. If you are already working successfully as a nurse, the choice can seem even harder to make. However, last year, the Bureau of Labor Statistics published a study that highlighted an existing nursing shortage that’s likely to worsen in the coming years due to a large population of baby boomers who’ll need healthcare in their golden years. Also, the Bureau of Labor Statistics report cautioned that despite the increase in demand, nursing schools are struggling to compensate for the shortage.

If you choose to broaden your education now, that could put you in a prime position to assume a guidance role for people who are just entering the nursing field. Even if you were in that situation several decades ago, you can probably still vividly remember the nerves you felt throughout your first year. Decide to make yourself more marketable in the years to come. Furthering your education could mean a ticket to a brighter future characterized by more choices, financial stability, and persistent excitement about your job.