4 Ways To Advance Your Nursing Career

When most people think about nurses, they imagine people wearing scrubs taking vitals and filling out medical charts.  In reality, this is just part of the job for many.    A nursing career can take many forms.  So if you are working as a nurse and you want to move up the career ladder, there are lots of career paths to choose from.

Here are four nursing specializations that could completely transform your nursing career.

Health Policy Nurse

Are you tired of doing physical exams and inserting IV lines? If so, you may enjoy working as a health policy nurse. Health policy nurses work behind the scenes, helping with more topical issues such as advocacy, policy developments, and occasionally public health problems.

The job is very different from working on a hospital ward, but it is just as important. This is because health policy nurses help to push forward new reforms that benefit both nurses and patients, which benefits the whole country in turn. So if you prefer the idea of an admin role, this could be the perfect nursing job for you.

Nursing Informatics

Nursing informatics is also a behind-the-scenes job.  But this role focuses more on data and analyzing medical statistics. Nursing informaticists normally work for pharmaceutical companies or government agencies, and the pay is very good: the average nursing informaticist makes around $83,000 a year.

As such, if you are one of the three million nurses currently working in the USA and you are interested in studying further to allow you to change your career, nursing informatics could be a great option with financial rewards down the road.

Travel Nurse

If you like working on hospital wards, but you are ready for a change, you may be interested in qualifying as a travel nurse. Travel nurses do the same job as regular nurses, but they have the freedom to travel around the company to work in its different hospitals. This makes the day to day work much more varied, and it means you can visit lots of different states as you work.

Travel nursing is also fairly well paid, with the average nurse making around $92,734 a year. This is because they can choose medical facilities with the most competitive rates and avoid those with lower rates. So if you want to improve your earnings while traveling around the US, being a travel nurse could be the option for you.

Nursing Educator

If you love nursing, but you want a job that has a slightly slower pace, you could consider becoming a nursing educator. Nursing educators teach the next generation of nurses, so it is a very important job – especially because there is currently a national nursing shortage.

Another benefit of working as a nursing educator is that it isn’t very physically demanding, so if you have health problems, this could be a smart option for you. The job also comes with a set schedule, which is ideal for parents or people with many other commitments.