Getting the most out of your nursing career is important. Reaching your goals and achieving your aims is important for you and your career. When you advance your nursing career, you get the opportunity to reach many more people (including patients), and you also get the opportunity to make changes, too – especially if you end up in leadership.
So, just how can you go about advancing your nursing career, and what processes do you need to start working through?
A Period of Self-Assessment
Do you know where you are currently at within your nursing career, and are you as far along as you would like to be? Undergoing a period of self-assessment can be eye-opening for you, but it can also be insightful too. Simply pushing ahead with your career without even knowing where you are starting from can be foolish. Taking time to reflect on your career so far is crucial to your advancement.
Seeing what you have achieved so far will help give you drive and direction for the future. In this period of self-assessment, you may also find it beneficial to write down what your goals are for the future. Sometimes having a visual reference to refer to can prove helpful.
Choosing a New Specialism
To take your nursing career to the next level, you may want to look at choosing a new specialism. More opportunities may exist in other areas or in other specialisms, so really think about how happy you are in your current area and see if growth exists anywhere else. You may find that moving to a new specialism gives you more opportunity to grow.
Continuing Your Education
To elevate your nursing career, you may wish to continue your education. For example, you may want to study an online DNP degree after master’s to gain you a position as a senior nurse or even as a nursing leader. When you continue your education, you advance your knowledge, and you open up more opportunities for progression. To successfully continue your education, you need to focus firmly on the future. Think about what programs will be beneficial to your career and your development.
Embracing Professional Development
Alongside continuing your education, you will also find it beneficial to embrace professional development. Enrolling and being involved in professional development courses and programs can help you grow and further develop what you have to offer in a new role. Professional development can allow you to build your skillset, and it can allow you to enhance your nursing awareness.
Setting Out an Action Strategy
Getting your nursing career to the stage, you want it to require action and ensuring this happens. You need an action strategy. An action strategy will clearly lay out your plans and aims for at least the next five years. An action strategy will earmark programs you will find beneficial, and it will lay out the aims and goals you should be working towards. A well-thought-out and planned action strategy will give you much-needed clarity and focus.
