If you’re a nurse — or if you’re thinking of becoming one — you have many career options ahead of you! Getting the most out of your career means setting the right nursing career goals and then taking the action you need to achieve them. Here’s a quick guide to what you need to know.
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How to Set Your Nursing Career Goals
There are lots of great reasons to go into nursing — the chance to help others, for instance, or to enter a field where you’re always in demand. But with so many options, it can be hard to know where to start. We've got you covered with this quick guide to everything you need to know about setting and achieving your nursing career goals.
Career goal #1: Choose your starting point
RN, LPN, or AP? As a nurse, you’ll either work as a licensed practical nurse (LPN — or, in some states, LVN for “licensed vocational nurse”), a registered nurse (RN), or an advanced practice nurse (nurse practitioners, CRNAs, midwives, and other specialized professionals).
The difference is the amount of training.
- You can become an LPN or LVN by getting a nursing school certificate, usually in a year or two.
- To become an RN, you’ll need either an Associate (ADN), which takes one to two years to earn, or a Bachelor’s degree (BDN), which can take two to four years. An Accelerated Bachelor of Science in Nursing (ABSN) is a faster option. Most RN jobs today do require a Bachelor's, although an ADN can be a good starting point.
- Advanced practice jobs require higher education like a Master’s of Science in Nursing (MSN) or a Doctorate in Nursing Practice (DNP).
Career goal #2: Choose your specialty
What type of nurse do you want to be? Would you prefer a nine-to-five schedule, or the excitement of working in an ER or OR? Is there a type of patient you feel inspired to work with, like children, the elderly, or mothers and newborns?
The sooner you answer these questions and choose your specialty, the better, since nursing school is a great place to get training on the equipment and tech you'll need. Some specialties like dialysis care even recruit students to work on-the-job training programs upon graduation. Learn more about that here.
- Too soon to decide? Remember, you can change your specialty later. Learn more here.
Career goal #3: Choose your future path
Sometimes, it takes years of working as a nurse to truly know your long-term goals. For instance, pay may be more important later in life than when you're a new grad.
If you're the type who always wants to move into bigger and better opportunities, you should consider setting your long-term goals on a leadership or management role. As a leader, you’re still a nurse, but with more responsibilities, including business tasks like helping with hiring, budget setting, and even operational decisions.
- Got leadership experience? View our interim leadership jobs here.
How to Achieve Your Nursing Career Goals
So now that you know what your career goals are — or at least, you understand your options — you may be asking, “How can I actually advance my career as a nurse?” Here are the best places to start.
Option #1: Certifications
For almost any RN job, you’ll need Basic Life Support (BLS) or Advanced Cardiovascular Life Support (ACLS) certification just to land a job. But that’s just the beginning — you’ll also want to pursue others related to your specialty, to a specific technology, or to soft skills (see below).
- What certifications do you need? See our list of top certifications for RNs.
Option #2: Continue your education
Another way to achieve your nursing career goals is with a post-graduate degree, like a Master’s or Doctorate. This is essential if you want to become an advanced practitioner, and a great idea if you want to land a leadership role or another hard-to-get position.
Option #3: Develop your soft skills
Maybe even more than certifications and degrees, your success as a nurse depends on the “soft skills” that are so important to the job. Teamwork, communication skills, fast decision-making, leadership, adaptability — all of these are key to landing future nursing jobs.
Option #4: Build experience and expertise
Learning the latest skills and clinical best practices is critical for meeting your long-term career goals, especially in the use of the latest equipment and tech. And the best way to do this is with continuing education (CE) classes, which your employer may pay for, and which you may need to maintain your nursing license.
Option #5: Join associations and attend events
There are dozens of nursing associations in the U.S., dedicated to everything like specialties (e.g., American Association of Critical-Care Nurses), locations (your state's local ANA chapter), treatment types (e.g., the American Association of Heart Failure Nurses), to name just a few.
Join one and attend the events they hold to network and meet other nurses and clinical professionals — including those who could help steer you toward new career opportunities (and vice versa).
- Refer a nurse and you could earn up to $1,000! Learn more here.
Option #6: Work per diem or contract jobs
Finally, working as a per diem nurse or a contract nurse — short-term jobs that include travel assignments — provides the chance to develop new skills and experience in new types of facilities or settings, which can help you build your CV in a way that helps you meet your overall career goals.
- Get started: Learn more about the benefits of traveling here, and the benefits of per diem work here.
Meet Your Nursing Career Goals with HealthTrust
From travel and per diem to permanent placement, float pools, and interim leadership, we've got the nursing job that meets your nursing career goals! Get started today with a quick search of all open per diem and contract nursing jobs in the HealthTrust network.
