Working as a floor nurse is a perfectly valid and rewarding career path. However, it is not at all the only option available to people with a BSN. Most nursing jobs are just on the other side of an extra credential. Specialized certification that allows them to administer unique types of care. Sometimes these credentials require graduate school. Sometimes, they do not.
In this article, we take a comprehensive look at the various nursing certification programs that are out there. We all also explain what it takes to work in certain high-level nursing positions and what you can expect to make for your extra effort.
Nurse Practitioner
If you’re interested in thinking beyond the hospital floor, getting certified as a nurse practitioner may be one way to go. For one thing, there are lots of things you can do with a graduate degree in nursing.
Graduate school gives you the opportunity to specialize. For example, if you are interested in psychiatric care, you can become a psychiatric nurse practitioner. Not only will you earn more than RNs— nurse practitioners in the six range— but you will also get the chance to engage more deeply with medical concepts that you were passionate about.
There are many other ways to specialize as a nurse practitioner. For example, are you passionate about caring for newborn babies?
Neonatal nurse practitioners play a pivotal role in helping babies who were born prematurely or encountered significant health challenges after birth.
Nurse practitioners also have a lot more autonomy than other types of nurses.
Family nurse practitioners, for example, have almost the same degree of independence that general practitioners do.
In certain parts of the country, they can write prescriptions diagnose patients, and conduct unsupervised consultations.
These conditions even make it possible for nurse practitioners to open up their own practices and engage with the healthcare system as entrepreneurs.
The extent to which this is possible will be defined primarily based on local laws. If you are interested in becoming a nurse practitioner because of the autonomy that it provides, research local regulations.
How Do You Become a Nurse Practitioner?
Most people become nurse practitioners after completing their undergraduate degree and working for several years as a regular nurse. This waiting time allows you to gain relevant experience and discover what areas of healthcare you are most interested in. It takes most people three years to get a degree once they start a graduate degree program.
That said if you don’t want to wait that long, there may be ways around it. Students who are looking at their first undergraduate program and already have some of their prerequisite courses taken care of may consider looking for an accelerated graduate program. These courses of study allow you to complete your undergraduate and graduate degree in a total of 5 to 6 years instead of the combined eight or nine, it might otherwise take.
These programs are extremely intense, but they will save you money and they will also allow you to begin your career with a much higher-paying position than most first-year nurses are eligible for.
What About a Compact Nursing License?
Compact nursing licenses are not exactly unique certifications. Instead of allowing you to work in a niche healthcare setting, they qualify you to work virtually anywhere in the country. Why might you want this type of license?
There are lots of reasons. Let’s say that you live in Southern Missouri. Naturally, you have the option to work in your home state but you were also within driving distance of Illinois and Kentucky.
You also have family out west and a long-distance boyfriend on the East Coast. Bottom line? A Missouri-specific nursing license may be very limiting for you. It will keep you from pursuing all of your local options and also be a bit of a pain in the butt if you should decide to move.
A compact nursing license takes those problems off the table. Through a single certification, you will be able to work in any of the states described in the example.
Or maybe you wish to be a travel nurse. Travel nurses could potentially wind up working anywhere in the country, and therefore need to have a license that allows them to go where they are needed.
What’s more, the process of applying for a compact nursing license is relatively straightforward. You need only to live in one of the compact states to begin applying for a compact nursing license.
It’s one of the easiest ways to expand your options as a nurse.
What Other Options Do I Have?
Plenty of options. We don’t have enough time or space to give them all justice. The truth is that there are literally dozens of ways to use a nursing license. Many of them do require additional certifications. These requirements can be satisfied online.
Better yet? You usually don’t need to have the certification to apply for the job. As you probably know most hospitals are experiencing significant nursing shortages. If you are interested in a position that is only a simple certification way they will often work with you. They may even pay for the required classes.
Take your time and figure out where you want to go with this. What interests and excites you in the world of healthcare? There’s probably a specialized way to use your nursing license that suits your interests.
School nurse? Psychiatric nurse? Neonatal nurse? Gerontological nurse? Maybe you want to work from home. There are telehealth services that are looking for new nurses every day.
Maybe you want to work in a helicopter. There are nurses who work exclusively in the transport department for their hospital, flying with high-risk patients when they need to be moved from one place to the next. The sky is very literally the limit, pun intended.
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