It is never too early to start considering the next step in your nursing career, even if it is your first day in the profession.
Although your main focus should be on learning and succeeding at your current job, you should ensure you are doing your very best to impress your current bosses while staying alert for opportunities to improve your skills and knowledge, that is, things that will qualify you as the perfect candidate for higher positions.
If you wish to change your nursing career level to a higher one, it is the best time to upgrade yourself in every way possible. After focusing on your nursing job and improving your nursing skill and knowledge, ensure you make it impressive to all officers, staff, and patients. Do not get stuck on the job. Instead, make it more challenging, progressive, and enjoyable overall.
In this article are specific ways by which you can boost your nursing career and get promoted.
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6 Ways to Boost Your Nursing Career and Get Promoted
Be Successful at Your Current Job
Take a step back and examine your current job. Examine your competency in all the tasks you need to do and whether there are gaps in your knowledge. Also, compare your skills and knowledge with what the other nurses possess.
Your sincere responses to the above examination should create the basis for your short-term goals, which you should plan to put into necessary action before applying for higher positions.
Networking
Discuss with the nurses that have attained those higher roles you aspire to attain one day. Learn all that is required, and brush up your skills and knowledge so that you can be an ideal fit for those positions.
Know about their positions in general, including their working hours, duties, etc. Evaluate it to be sure that it is the kind of job you desire or if something else would suit you better.
Additionally, find out how they got promoted to the position they currently hold, and examine whether your career path has been similar to theirs.
Furthermore, it will be of help to create good connections with those people you wish to work with someday, and especially helpful to get someone that holds a higher position who can act as an excellent mentor to you and perhaps spread the good word about you amongst those that are hiring for higher roles.
In the same way, networking among nurses with higher roles will help you become aware of upcoming job vacancies that would be of interest to you.
Further Education
The more education and qualifications you are able to list on your resume, the greater the chances of your promotion. For example, if you are already an enrolled nurse, consider becoming a registered nurse by furthering your education at a tertiary institution.
For nurses that wish to specialize, a variety of postgraduate diplomas and certificates are available. You can also make investigations regarding options for masters in nursing and doctoral-level qualifications. Moreover, having a background in a relevant research area may be attractive to certain employers.
Other available study options include participating in online courses and workshops offered by your workplace or simple self-study at home to have your knowledge improved. You should as well take advantage of any workplace opportunities for professional development, with online training and practical training workshops.
Maintain Good Continuing Professional Development (CPD)
CPD is the commitment to ongoing learning, that is, recognizing that up-to-date knowledge and training are highly essential in the health profession.
CPD involves having a journal of feedback you have received, patients that have proven difficult to manage, experiences which you have learned from, acting as a mentor for nurses that hold a lower position and/or nursing students, taking part in audits and accreditation committees, and reading relevant professional journals.
It also involves developing new skills, contributing to audits or research, getting involved in developing guidelines and protocols, presenting lectures, and attending conferences.
Moreover, it is vial to have a record of everything you have done that has contributed to the improvement of the health service in any way. This can be highlighted in your resume and help you sell yourself at job interviews. Make sure you show your initiative and commitment to the health system you work in.
Professional Behavior
Ensure you are recognized for being professional, efficient, polite, and reliable. Seek help when you’re unsure how to get something done, as it is much safer and creates a better impression to allow yourself to be guided while trying to do something for a patient.
Moreover, it is important to be a great team player. So much of healthcare involves working in teams that include other nurses, social workers, doctors, physiotherapists, occupational therapists, and welfare officers. Try to avoid shifting blame on others. Instead, help others out in every way you can.
Improve Your Communication Skill
Excellent communication skill makes you more impressive as a healthcare worker. Improving your communication skill helps you to deal perfectly with staff, doctors, patients, and other people.
As a nurse, you should be able to communicate perfectly, clearly, and skillfully. Excellent communication skill is especially needed when managing a whole team or if you wish to manage an entire team.
To enhance your communication skill, simplify your speaking words to make them easily understandable to the listener, speak clearly with the appropriate facial expression and eye contact, learn to listen carefully and attentively to others, and be confident and professional about the topic you want to communicate with someone, to mention a few.
Stand Out as a Nurse
An ideal candidate for higher roles in the nursing career always stands out. By putting into use the ways that have been discussed above, you will become more valuable in the healthcare field. That is, you will become someone your boss will be highly interested in keeping on their employment books. And certainly, you will find yourself going higher and higher in the profession.
