3 Ways To Progress In Your Nursing Career

Nursing is such a rewarding career that gives you the opportunity to help people on a daily basis, but there are some downsides. The hours are long and the pay isn’t that good when you consider the work that you’re doing. But people are willing to overlook that because they love what they do. The best way to increase your salary and help people on a larger scale is to progress in your nursing career. However, a lot of nurses find that difficult and end up staying in the same role for a long time. If you want to push your nursing career forward and move up the ladder, these are some of the best ways to do it.

The Right Choice Of Degree

Often, your choice of degree has a big impact on your ability to progress in your career. If you’ve already finished studying, that may mean going back into education again to get a second degree. The two main types of nursing qualification are the Master’s Degree in Nursing (MSN) and the Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP). Both will qualify you to work as a nurse, so is there a difference between MSN and DNP? Yes, there are quite a few differences between the two qualifications. An MSN is a shorter degree that prepares you to work as a nurse practitioner in lots of different fields. A DNP is a longer degree program but it has more of a focus on preparing you for leadership positions. If you’re going up for a promotion, a DNP is going to give you a bit of a head start over other candidates that have an MSN. If you initially studied for an MSN, it might be worth going back into education to do a DNP.

Let Your Work Speak For Itself

This is so important because, even if you’ve got the right degree, that doesn’t mean that you’re going to get a promotion. Not everybody has what it takes to be a good nurse and if you can’t demonstrate that you have the patience, compassion and professionalism that you need, you’re not likely to progress very far. You should make every effort to do your job to the best of your ability and let your actions speak for themselves. It’s better to show your superiors how amazing you are at nursing, rather than just telling them in interview.

Find A Mentor

There are a lot of things that you can learn on a nursing degree but some things can only be learned through experience. If you want to push your career forward, you need to take advice from people that have that experience. You can’t force a relationship with a mentor and some people won’t be receptive to it. The best thing to do is to find a senior colleague that you think would be a good mentor and ask them for some general career advice and build the relationship from there.

The further you progress in your nursing career, the more power you’ll have to help people. But if you don’t actively pursue it, it’s never going to happen.