ADVANCE YOUR NURSING CAREER
Take your career to the next level with a
Bachelor of Science in Nursing
Career Advancement
Whether you are just starting out in nursing or you are interested in career advancement, we provide you with the resources you need to set you up for success in your nursing career.
Educational Resources
Most of today’s hospitals require nurses to have a bachelor’s degree. If you are looking to advance your nursing education, or add a BSN to your RN, we provide you advice and resources to complete your education.
Continuing Education
Most employers look for nurses who are highly qualified with education, experience or both. Nurses must keep up with their certifications, and we provide state-by-stat guidelines on certs.
The Role of a Registered Nurse
Nurses are crucial members of any medical organization. They make vital contributions to overall patient care, organizational culture and diagnostic and treatment efforts. They consistently work as advocates for both patients and doctors alike, and talented nurses must be able to balance the needs of all stakeholders in patient care.
Nurses are on the front lines in dealing with traumatic situations, relaying good news, and running entire departments and hospitals smoothly. A nurse must be able to work quickly, manage multiple tasks and patients effortlessly, and to not allow the stress of the job to impact performance, particularly in high-stress situations.
Choose a nursing program
What fits for your life? If you are just starting your college education, then a BSN is a great start. If you want to get into the workforce as soon as possible, then choose an ADN and enroll in an RN to BSN program once you are working. For more advanced nurses, you can earn advanced degrees through the doctorate level.
Complete clinical requirements
All nursing programs have clinical portions to their program – the part where you get hands-on training in a supervising setting by a clinical nurse educator. Now, you can find innovative programs that are mostly online and partner with hospitals for the clinical portion.
Take NCLEX-RN exam
In all 50 states, you need to take and pass the NCLEX-RN, the entry-level exam for all nurses set forth to determine if it is safe for you to practice as a nurse. Look for programs with good NCLEX-RN pass rates and study hard for this part of your entrance into nursing.
Earn additional certifications
Do you want to specialize as a nurse? If so, you may need additional certifications in things like neonatal care, OB/GYN, oncology, critical care, podiatry, diabetes, dialysis and so much more. Look for reputable organization and licensing bodies when you are determining which certifications you want to acquire.
Continuing education
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Join professional organizations
Nurses are collaborative business professionals who make an impact on healthcare and the world around them. Take that impact even further by joining nursing organizations either within your given specialty, general nursing, or join boards of other organizations as a healthcare and nursing liaison.
Stay in touch
Pediatric Emergency RN/BSN
Tabitha is a Pediatric RN/BSN in a Pediatric Hospital Emergency Room in a major U.S. city. She earned her BSN as an undergrad and has been able to take on a leadership role and lead change initiatives in her hospital with this degree. She has no desire to leave bedside nursing and loves that nursing has allowed her the flexibility to raise a family and also to care for ailing family members with its flexibility and supportive coworkers. Throughout her 19-year career she has been able to travel, perform medical mission work in Mexico and continue learning and growing as a nurse.
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Interview with a BSN/MSN/FNP
Kim works as a nurse in a clinic as well as in a hospital, with her schedule entailing one week in the hospital and three weeks in the clinic each month. She appreciates the fast pace of the hospital work and the stability of the clinic work, so to her, she gets the best of both worlds and is never bored. She is another student nurse, currently earning her Acute FNP Post Master’s Certificate so she can continue to provide the level of care she has been providing since her state boards have changed their regulations.
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Interview with an ER BSN/RN
Sarah is a nurse in a suburb of Phoenix, Arizona, in an extremely busy Level 1 Trauma Emergency Department. Once she earned her RN she hit the ground running, starting work and her BSN program simultaneously. While she claims that was the hardest year of her life, she also went back for more and is a current APRN student. This year finds her traveling to Haiti on a medical mission, with her job supporting her time off and her contributions to global healthcare. She recommends finding a hospital that will set you up as a new nurse with solid mentorship so you can add on to what you learned in school and for your clinicals for what you need on the job.
read moreThe Changing World of Nursing
Improved patient processes, updates to technology and increased hands-on patient care are the norm
Today’s nursing professionals do more than just read and update charts and prepare patients for doctors. RNs, as they are commonly called, work within healthcare organizations large and small to improve processes and patient care. They lead meetings and shifts and work alongside LPN/LVNs, CNAs, techs and physicians to deliver quality care, process paperwork and keep things running smoothly.
Nurses work in clinics, hospitals, surgery centers, doctor’s offices, schools, and more. The day-in-the-life of the registered nurse varies greatly each day, and can include charting, seeing patients, preparing patients for surgery, post op and much more.
Nurses typically spend most of each day on their feet, and are always moving around, often tasked with moving patients and repositioning them, making this a very active line of work.
Within the patient care team, the nurse has a very important role, often times seeing the patient more than the doctor. For example, a labor and delivery (L&D) nurse might stay with the patient during the entire labor process, up through delivery and post-delivery for patient and baby care, while the doctor might only be there for the delivery itself.
Nursing is a growing field, with 15 percent expected job growth from 2016 to 2026, making this a much faster than average growing career. By 2026, the BLS estimates 438,100 new nurses will enter the field, and the expected minimum level of education is a bachelor’s degree. This makes nursing a stable and growing field for new prospected, increased by the amount of training, education, certification and specialization a nurse is willing to achieve.
Nursing with a BSN
Nursing is the lifeblood of any healthcare organization, whether large or small, because they deal with so many moving parts of the healing process. As healthcare continues to evolve, so does the nursing profession, with nursing adding more and more education and resources to their knowledge base. As one of todays’ leading healthcare professionals, you can explore hands-on patient care, management opportunities, leadership roles, teaching, and more after you earn your BSN.