Careers in Nursing

Your Career in Nursing Starts Here

Whether you are just starting out in nursing or you are looking to advance your nursing career, the field is ready for you to make your move. Nursing as a whole is experiencing a shortage, due to enrollment rates in nursing school not growing at a fast-enough rate to replace the retiring nurse population. Combine this with a lack of nursing educators and both an aging population of Baby Boomers and a large majority of nurses (55%) reaching retirement age in the next 10-15 years, the nursing profession is reaching a crisis state.
Z

Beyond the RN

All too often, people think that becoming a registered nurse is where their nursing career must end. The truth is, there are a multitude of options for anyone wanting to enter the nursing profession, depending on what type of patients you want, your desired work environment, how much you want to earn and what level of degree you hold.
Z

Top Careers

Nursing involves careers from LPN/LVN all the way to Nurse Practitioner, where you can prescribe medication and have your own practice, similar to a doctor. Other top nursing careers include Nurse Anesthetist, Psychiatric Nurse, Neonatal Nurse, Labor and Delivery Nurse and much more. Check out our Nursing Careers hub for more information on all the options that are available to you as you enter or advance in the field of nursing.

Advanced Practical Nursing Careers

To help you decide which direction your nursing career should take, we have compiled thorough information guides on all sorts of advanced practice nursing careers. Check out our guides to becoming one of these types of nurses, and learn all you need to know about salary, education requirements, job prospects and more.
Z

More Than Patient Care

Beyond hands-on care, a BSN allows a nurse to work in other functions in a hospital or other healthcare setting. Whether your interests are in a specialty such as hospice nursing, a management role or a new career as a nurse educator, a BSN can be the beginning of this new career for you.

Find Your Ideal Nursing Career

Whether you prefer more hands-on care, or you like numbers and paperwork, if you like high-stress situations, or a more routine setting, there is a path into nursing for you. Nursing is a wide and varied profession with a lot of different specialties and places you can practice. As a nurse, you will never get bored if you commit to trying new things and staying active with your education and exposing yourself to new opportunities.

Registered Nurse

A registered nurse holds a minimum of an ADN or nursing diploma and has passed the NCLEX-RN exam administered by the NCSBN.

Surgical Nurse

Surgical nurses are inside the operating room assisting with both routine and more difficult surgeries and procedures.

ICU Nurse

ICU nurses deal with patients who are in very precarious health situations with the goal of helping them recover from their injuries.

Pediatric Nurse

Working with the youngest of patients, a pediatric nurse can work in a hospital or clinic and counsel parents as part of the job description.

Nurse Manager

Nurse managers help patients through managing the nurse or nurses who care for them, collaborating with doctors and running the floor.

Hospice Nurse

A hospice nurse deals with end-of-life palliative care either in a nursing home setting or at the patient’s home when they are no longer able to recover.

Nurse Educator

Teaching the nurses of tomorrow, a clinical nurse educator runs and facilitates clinical training for nurses-in-training.

Critical Care Nurse

A critical care nurse must be good in crisis, able to make quick decisions, and must be able to switch roles from patient to patient.
Z

Earn Your BSN

A bachelor of science in nursing (BSN) is the new normal when it comes to nursing education. Depending on where you live, the type of hospital you want to work at, and the type of nursing you want to practice, a BSN will give you the global view of theory and practice that you won’t get in an ADN.

Z

Get Licensed

If you already have your RN, then a “bridge” program, RN to BSN is for you. But for those switching careers or adding starting from the beginning, you must take coursework toward your RN and then take the NCLEX-RN, a licensing exam required for all nurses to prove efficacy and safety standards will be met.

Z

Begin Your Career

Take the advice of the many nurses interviewed on our site and try various paths within nursing, don’t take the first job you get out of panic, and be patient. The right nursing career is just around the corner. And the great thing about nursing? If you don’t like what you have chosen, change it!