You go to school, you study and take tests, you graduate college; then you have to take the NCLEX exam to see if you actually get your license and become a nurse.
Then what? When you first graduate, you will be a new nurse and you will need to start working in a hospital setting to get some nursing experience behind you.
New graduates are finding this to be difficult because without experience it is hard to get hired for a nursing job anywhere.
So, once you jump that hurdle and get your first nursing job, you will find that nursing school just barely prepared you for the job you are expected to do.
You will learn to think on your feet, to hold your bladder for hours and hours, to work while eating and taking orders from non-English speaking physicians.
You will be delighted to care for your 8-9 critically ill patients with little help from anyone else because they have their own patient load.
After a year of this, you are ready to think about what your options are in nursing.
This is a critical step in your nursing career.
This is a step that is frequently overlooked and then nurses look back over many years of floor nursing and wonder why they did not change jobs.
Once you have both a nursing license and some nursing experience, you have so many choices to pick from.
You need to decide where your interest lies, based on your exposure and experience; maybe you can not decide on any particular direction but you still want to make a change so you start looking around for options.
There are many different places that a nurse can work besides in a hospital:
Nurses work everywhere in our society.
So, your nurse's license is really a key to your imagination.
Once you are a licensed nurse, you can pick the area of nursing you enjoy and pursue that as your nursing career.
Then what? When you first graduate, you will be a new nurse and you will need to start working in a hospital setting to get some nursing experience behind you.
New graduates are finding this to be difficult because without experience it is hard to get hired for a nursing job anywhere.
So, once you jump that hurdle and get your first nursing job, you will find that nursing school just barely prepared you for the job you are expected to do.
You will learn to think on your feet, to hold your bladder for hours and hours, to work while eating and taking orders from non-English speaking physicians.
You will be delighted to care for your 8-9 critically ill patients with little help from anyone else because they have their own patient load.
After a year of this, you are ready to think about what your options are in nursing.
This is a critical step in your nursing career.
This is a step that is frequently overlooked and then nurses look back over many years of floor nursing and wonder why they did not change jobs.
Once you have both a nursing license and some nursing experience, you have so many choices to pick from.
You need to decide where your interest lies, based on your exposure and experience; maybe you can not decide on any particular direction but you still want to make a change so you start looking around for options.
There are many different places that a nurse can work besides in a hospital:
- Nurses work in schools;
- they work for corporations;
- they work in clinics;
- they work in research;
- they work in nursing homes;
- they do home health nursing;
- they work in the military;
- they work for lawyers;
- they work in insurance companies;
- they work for state governments;
- they work in hospices;
- they work in community health clinics;
- they work in summer camps;
- they work on cruise ships;
- they work in helicopters;
- they work in prisons;
- they work with police;
- they work as educators;
- they deliver babies;
- they work as managers;
- they work with public health;
- they work for a community;
- they work in dialysis clinics;
- they work in psychiatric settings.
Nurses work everywhere in our society.
So, your nurse's license is really a key to your imagination.
Once you are a licensed nurse, you can pick the area of nursing you enjoy and pursue that as your nursing career.
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