Changing your career into nursing is not just a noble pursuit; it can be great for your income, your stability, and your overall satisfaction and sense of fulfillment. Nurse practitioners, which are a type of APRN, are consistently one of the best-ranked job roles in the entire country. In fact, it is in the top five in these categories:
- Best jobs in the United States
- Best jobs in healthcare
- Best jobs in STEM
To be in the top five of three different key categories speaks for itself. Nurse practitioners, a highly advanced, highly trained type of nurse, are one of the best choices for job satisfaction, pay, and mobility.
You will be giving back and getting back as a nurse, so the question isn’t whether or not nursing is right for you, but whether you are a good fit for nursing. While some are only concerned with the potential earnings and financial stability of nursing positions, your personality traits, ability to outperform in stressful situations outweighs how you will handle the job. Anyone searching for “nursing role salary” or “how much a travel nurse makes” will easily figure out how lucrative and financially promising this role can be, but not everyone considers the hardships and academic challenges the professionals go through.
Is Nursing a Good Fit for You?
Nursing is a difficult job that is frequently understaffed due to a global shortage of nurses. Changing your career into nursing is one of the best things that you can do for your fellow citizens, but that doesn’t mean that there are no downsides.
The work is difficult, you may be needed to handle overtime hours, and you will be seeing patients who are at some of their lowest points. The job will get dirty, it will get stressful, and you need to be able to handle critical situations.
If you can keep your cool even in stressful situations, are compassionate and caring, and have an interest in medicine and healthcare, however, then nursing can be the perfect fit for you.
Your Route into Nursing
There are a few main routes available to you as a nurse.
With a Non-Nursing Degree
If you already have a degree, then you can earn an accelerated BSN to get you started. Your best bet for this is if you already have a degree in a STEM field, as there are a few prerequisite courses. If you don’t have these prerequisites, you can earn them with a foundation degree or by taking it course-by-course, though this can take longer.
By accelerating your degree like this, you can work to become a BSN-RN faster. You can also continue to work in your current position, allowing you to continue to support yourself and your family while making strides towards your degree.
Once you graduate, you will then need to take the state exam. Pass that, and you will be a licensed RN and will be well on your way to getting your first job in nursing.
Without a Degree
If you don’t have a bachelor’s degree, but do have a career that can support yourself already, then you can work towards an online BSN straight away. IT will take longer than the accelerated route, but the process is the same. You graduate, you take the exam, and then you can become a RN.
If You Want to Work in a Nursing Position Now
You will need either an Associate’s Degree in Nursing or a BSN in order to become an RN. It is always better to go for the RN position, but if you aren’t currently employed, this can be a difficult move to make. A good option, then, will be to train as a certified nursing assistant and start to work as a CNA. This only takes a few weeks of training, and then you can start to work in the hospital setting and work your way through either the LPN certification or the BSN.
Working Your Way up to APRN
You cannot become an Advance Practice Registered Nurse without first being an RN. This is because the prerequisite to earn an MSN is to earn a BSN and to also work as an RN for at least one year, in most cases. The benefits of becoming an APRN are massive. You earn around $30,000 more as an APRN than you do as an RN. You also specialize in the area of medicine that you are most interested in, improving your work/life balance.
APRNs earn more, have more job opportunities, and have more upward mobility. Though there are further academic qualifications in nursing, APRNs are the highest level of nursing currently available.
At the very least, you will want to work towards that MSN. It’s the best way to stay in charge and get the most out of your new career as a nurse.
How to Choose the Right Specialization for Your MSN
There are many considerations to take when choosing your specialization. Up until you become an RN, what you learn is fairly consistent. There is no need to worry about making the wrong choice in your career because, so far, it has been very linear, regardless of the approach that you took to get this far.
After you become an RN, your next step is to become an APRN. Though there are hundreds of different types of APRNs, the four main types are nurse practitioner, clinical nurse specialist, nurse anesthetist, and nurse-midwife.
Even narrowing down your goals between these four, however, is not enough.
Take Nurse Practitioners, for example. Nurse Practitioners are one of the most highly ranked job roles available, yet there are dozens upon dozens of different areas you can specialize in as an NP.
You can specialize either by the demographic of patients that you treat, by the area of medicine, or even by both. Nurse Practitioners work throughout healthcare in a variety of settings.
What an NP is, essentially, is a highly trained nurse that works in a primary care position. All APRNs work with patients, but only NPs will manage patient records, diagnose or send for diagnostic tests, prescribe medication, and even develop a care plan.
The only NP position that can be seen in a more general light is the Family Nurse Practitioner. The FNP is different than other NPs in that they treat a variety of different people for a wide range of conditions.
What the FNP does is care for their patients in a primary care setting. What this means is the FNP will work in a clinic where you go for checkups, to ask for questions and advice about health concerns, and where you will get everyday health treatments.
They earn their MSN-FNP from qualified nursing schools like Marymount University, and once they are qualified, the FNP work hours are often far more stable, as they work in what is known as ambulatory clinics. They are also paid well into six figures, and they can even manage their own clinic in 22 states and counting. You can even become an NP online in order to maintain your current job.
What they do not offer, however, is specialized care. If you are passionate about oncology, or mental health, then the FNP role will not be a good fit for you. FNPs have very varied days, but their work is mainly in preventative and early-stage healthcare, where the patient will finally come in to ask for advice and help with a health problem they were having.
FNPs cannot help provide psychiatric or phycological help. They are not qualified to work in critical care settings.
So, while there are more general roles, they aren’t always ideal for you. You need to do what you are passionate about, and if that means working as an RN for a bit longer while you explore different health fields and also learn more about your options, then take that time. You will only become a better nurse by being patient with yourself so that you can learn what you want out of your nursing career.
Patients deserve someone who is passionate, who cares, and who is knowledgeable. Passion, in particular, means that you love what you do, and that shines through everything that you do.
Of course, you don’t have to be passionate about the field you are in if you love the work/life balance. If your goal is to become a Nurse Director, then all previous nursing roles are more a means to an end, at which point choosing the career path that is easy for you to manage can be the right route forward.
Regardless, time is on your side.
If You Do Want to Switch Later in Your Career
It isn’t the end of the world if you come across your passion for medicine later on in life. There are such things as post-degree certifications. What this means is that you can use your MSN to accelerated through another qualification. You can go from being a critical care nurse to a family nurse practitioner with a Post-masters FNP certification. It takes less time than your MSN and will prepare you for the state exam.
The best news when it comes to retraining? You don’t lose your old qualifications. Rather than restart, you have simply expanded your offerings, making you a better candidate for job roles across the state.
Change Careers with Ease with these Tips for Success
There are multiple routes to get started as a nurse. You can be employed with a degree, employed without a degree, or not employed at all and still have options into nursing. One of the key demands of every route, however, is the ability to work while studying. The juggle can be a struggle, and mastering the art of working while completing a full degree will help you get into nursing and throughout your nursing career.
Improve Your Health Before You Get Started
The best way to get started with the juggle is to improve your health. You need to be eating well, you need to be sleeping well, and you need to be physically able to handle the work. Nursing is a very physical job, so exercising now will prepare you for the job and also help you better regulate your energy.
Get started by removing unhealthy foods from your home and life. Make healthy replacements where you can, but otherwise, leave them out of your diet. Don’t worry too much about your weight, and instead about the nutrients you need and what foods you are eating that provide them.
As for sleep, there are two tips for you to use. The first is to be as consistent as you can with your sleeping routine. The second is to improve your bedroom. Make it darker, improve the sheets, and try to keep it cool in order to support a healthy, deep sleep night after night.
Exercises should also be done regularly. Exercise works to increase circulation through the body and the brain. This deposits those nutrients you have absorbed and helps oxygenate the different areas of your body – particularly your brain.
All three will help make it easier to work a full day and then go and study for your degree.
Adopt These Time-Saving Habits
Your time is precious when so much of it is going to be taken up throughout the day and week. To save time, you’ll want to prep and make use of “negative time”.
For example, you can prep healthy meals in advance so that making dinner or lunch is as easy as reheating a few different dishes. As for using negative time? Consider studying while you are commuting. How you do this depends on your mode of transportation. If you take public transport, you can read; if you drive or bike, you’ll want to either listen to podcasts or audiobooks or use the text-to-voice feature to listen to text documents.
Find the Best Way You Learn
Use the time before you get started with your new nursing degree to figure out how you learn best. Some are auditory learners, others are visual learners, and some are kinetic learners. Figure out ways to incorporate how you learn into your routine so that you can make notes or relay the information you are learning to yourself in a way you easily understand.
Take Your Time to Make the Choices for Your Future
Changing your career path is a big deal. It takes a lot of courage to start again, but with the clear-cut, straightforward path to become a nurse, you can stay motivated and explore your options. You have until you become an RN, and right before you apply for your MSN, to learn what you want out of your new career.
