Military nursing is one of the most fulfilling and challenging career paths a Registered Nurse could explore. There’s no doubt about it: working in the military can be stressful and even dangerous, but, in the end, it brings together two of the noblest actions any person could undertake: helping others and serving their country.
In this comprehensive guide, we will explore some subtleties of this career and, more importantly, what makes military nursing such a sought-after profession. In addition to that, we’ll discuss the steps to t a Military Nurse, the benefits, salary prospects, and much more.
Let’s proceed.
What Is a Military Nurse?
Regardless of whether you work in civilian or military nursing, the overarching goal of the practice is the same: providing high-quality nursing care to patients and promoting their wellbeing. Military RNs, however, accomplish this goal under very different circumstances.
Military RNs serve in the major branches of the military because their services being needed and highly valued in the Army, Navy, Air Force, and Coast Guard. As far as job descriptions go, their duties aren’t much different from those of a nurse caring for civilians – it’s just the work environment that’s really different.
Working in the military can mean deployment to foreign war zones to accompany active troops on their missions. It may imply serving in makeshift facilities as combat units near the front lines. The workplace will be fast-paced and high-stress, and at times, you may have to work in life-threatening conditions. The travel requirements, patient population, and the working conditions can lead to physical and psychological demands.
Clearly, military nursing is not a job for everyone. It takes a certain kind of personality to excel in this career. An aspiring Military Nurse ought to be professional, think fast on their feet, and keep their composure even under the most frightening situations. High-stress tolerance is another critical skill for RNs who consider military jobs.
What Are the Steps to Becoming a Military Nurse?
Suppose the thought of joining the Army, the Navy, or the Air Force as a nurse has crossed your mind. In that case, you need to be familiar with all the requirements for becoming a nurse in the military. In this section, we will discuss how to become a Military Nurse. We’ll start with the schooling requisites and move on to the additional training needed to secure military nurse contract jobs.
Step 1. Enroll in nursing program
While many civilian nursing jobs accept an Associate Degree in Nursing (ADN) as a baseline educational requirement, but that is not the case when it comes to the military. In the military, nurses are commissioned officers. In order to be eligible for commission and become a nurse in the military, you need to hold at least a Bachelor of Science in Nursing or an advanced practice nursing degree. Hence, the first step is to enroll in an accredited BSN program that will equip you with the extensive knowledge and skills necessary to excel at military jobs. If you want to advance your education further and become a Military Nurse Practitioner, you will have to pursue a Master’s Degree in Nursing.
Nightingale College’s accredited BSN program will rise to the task and prepare you to join the military as a Registered Nurse in as little as 32 months.
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Step 2. Pass NCLEX-RN
After completing a nursing program, you need to earn certification as a Registered Nurse. You do that by passing the National Licensure Examination (NCLEX-RN), an extensive exam that will test your preparedness to become a fully-fledged RN. Once this last hurdle is out of the way, it’s time to celebrate now that you are a licensed nurse and one step closer to your dream job!
Step 3. Gain experience
With proper RN licensure under your belt, you can start working as a Registered Nurse. Many nurses decide to work and gain experience in the civilian nursing field before enlisting. However, you can also join the military as a new graduate, although the lack of on-the-ground nursing experience may add to the stress of the job.
Step 4. Undergo officer training
A military career involves a fourth, very-specific step that other nursing specialties don’t. After completing all the other schooling requirements, you also need to undergo officer training offered by the military branch where you plan to serve. Officer training acts much like a crash course on leadership skills and military life, preparing the aspiring Military Nurses for the lifestyle they are about to embrace. Also, as part of officer training, nurses have to pass a series of physical exercises and prove their proficiency in different fitness challenges.
Do You Need Certifications for a Career in Military Nursing?
Other than holding a BSN degree and having an active and unencumbered RN license, there are generally no additional mandatory certifications for nurses who want to work in the military. Still, some credentials may be highly encouraged (or even required) for particular nursing specialties and positions. These are very specialty specific. Examples of potential certifications employers may ask for are: Acute Cardiac Life Support (ACLS), Pediatric Advanced Life Support (PALS), or Critical Care (CCRN). It is useful to remember that each military nursing job will come with its own set of requirements, so it’s essential to check what they are ahead of time.
Where Do Military Nurses Work?
Generally, as a Registered Military Nurse, you are required to make a commitment that lasts at least three years. You will likely change locations and be stationed in a new region every three years. These locations can be either at home or abroad. Some work environments you can end up in are:
Military hospitals
Military clinics
Global response centers during natural disasters
Ships
The military recruits nurses with different specializations. Critical Care RNs are particularly in-demand for armed services recruitments because their expertise is needed to treat the severely wounded. But nurses also care for service members and their families and help them with non-combat illnesses, injuries, or conditions. Some other specializations for Military Nurses include Labor and Delivery, Neonatal Care, and Mental Health Psychiatric Nursing. Thus, the specialization may also play a part in the work environment you end up in.
What Is the Age Limit for Working as a Military Nurse?
Military Nurses who work in the uniformed services also need to consider their age as a factor in the employment process. The eligibility age will differ from one branch of the military to another. To work in the Navy Nurse Corps, one ought to be between 18 and 41. The Air force eligibility age is 18 to 47 while enlisting in the Army Nurse Corps is available for nurses aged between 21 and 42.
What is the Salary of a Military Nurse?
For some nurses, the question How much does a Military Nurse make? may be the determining factor in pursuing this career path.
Military Nurses are competitively compensated, with the pay rate increasing with the grade or rank that the nurse holds. On average, ZipRecruiter reports that Military Nurses earn between $50,000 and $100,000 annually. The job outlook for Military Registered Nurses is particularly excellent. They are in demand in all the branches of the military. Still, the Army remains the largest employer of Military Nurses.
Competitive salaries aren’t the only benefit. Registered Nurses who are enlisted in the military have the opportunity to have their student loans repaid by the Government, which is a tremendous financial advantage. Other benefits include housing stipends, low-cost or free health insurance, hazard pay when working in combat zones, and retirement plans. Military nurses can retire after 20 years in service and are entitled to receive a pension.
What Do Military Nurses Do?
Military Nurses share many of the responsibilities of civilian nurses; only they perform all these responsibilities in a military environment. Generally, a Military Nurse’s duties are largely dependent on whether they serve during peacetime or wartime. In peacetime, nurses will care for the active-duty personnel, military retirees, and the family members of active military members. They may offer ambulatory, maternal/child, or rehabilitation nursing care. During combat, nurses will have to provide care near battlefronts and in conflict zones wherever they are stationed around the world. This often may include treating severe life-threatening injuries, like gunshots or lost limbs. Some of the specific duties of an RN working in the military include:
Treating wounded soldiers and military personnel
Monitoring the pain and comfort levels of injured patients
Providing psychological and emotional support
Setting up military triage in war zones
Providing nursing care to victims affected by natural disasters
Assisting in humanitarian efforts
Providing vaccinations and/or care to children in developing countries
Are You Ready to Embark on a Military Nursing Career?
Joining the military as a Registered Nurse is one of the noblest and most rewarding career paths for RNs. It is, by all means, a challenging profession that comes with a potentially dangerous work environment. But it also comes with the potential to travel and work around the world, significant financial benefits, such as high salaries and loan repayment options. Moreover, it offers you the opportunity to serve your country while following your calling: caring for people and making the world a better place, one patient at a time.
Start your journey towards a Military nursing career by enrolling in Nightingale College’s BSN program. If you already have an ADN degree and want to fast-track your way to working in the military as a nurse, our online RN-to-BSN is the answer.
Becoming a Military Nurse is a wonderful goal to have. We’re here to help you accomplish it.
We’ve said it before, and we’ll say it again. One of the best things about nursing is the versatility of the field. There are tens of specialties to choose from, and regardless of the career path you take, one thing is always true: as a nurse, you make a difference in people’s lives. For some nurses, that means offering bedside care; for others, it’s helping people feel better and more confident in their own skin. Regardless of the path you take, be it in ICU, ER, or Cosmetic nursing, your care and expertise are invaluable to your patients.
This article will discuss the perfect nursing specialty for aspiring RNs seeking to make a difference and improve people’s quality of life by helping them feel and look their best. Enhancing one’s appearance can have a ripple effect throughout their life. Scars, burns, or unwanted tattoos may be a source of an individual’s embarrassment or a barrier to their professional success. As part of the aesthetic healthcare team, Cosmetic Nurses help patients build more confidence, gain higher self-esteem, and overcome depression—a rewarding career path.
If you want to find out more about aesthetic nursing: the steps to becoming a Cosmetic RN, their duties, and what salaries they can expect, you have come to the right place.
What is an Aesthetic Nurse?
Aesthetic Nurses are also known in the industry as Cosmetic Nurses. Some employers also use alternative spellings for the position, such as Esthetic Nurse or Esthetician’s Nurse. The main focus of the specialty is on cosmetic and dermatological procedures. On the job, Aesthetic Nurses provide a wide array of services that range from non-invasive procedures to assisting physicians in surgical procedures. For the most part, aesthetic procedures will involve in-office, non-invasive treatments, but there may be some exceptions. Some of the cosmetic procedures that Cosmetic Nurses have to perform or assist with include:
Breast augmentation
Liposuction
Rhinoplasty
Abdominoplasty
Injections of dermal fillers
Injections of Botox neurotoxin
Laser hair removal
Collagen replacement therapy
Chemical peels
Micro-needling
Dermabrasion
Tattoo removal
Non-surgical body contouring
Generally, patients opt for aesthetic procedures for either medical or personal reasons. Women make up the majority of the patient base. However, men are increasingly seeking cosmetic treatments in recent years, leading to a higher demand for aesthetic healthcare professionals.
What Are Some Sub-Specialties of Aesthetic Nursing?
The cosmetic healthcare industry is reasonably broad. So, as an Aesthetic Nurse, you can choose to specialize in a specific sub-field. Some popular options include:
Aesthetic nurse injector. Cosmetic nurses specializing in injections may work with fillers like hyaluronic acid derivatives, calcium hydroxylapatite, autologous fat, or with botox. The first category of fillers generally treats wrinkles deeper than those normally targeted by botox.
Cosmetic dermatology nurse. These nurses will be well versed in performing procedures like microdermabrasion or chemical peels.
Laser nurse. Laser therapy is widely used in aesthetic nursing. It is usually employed to correct skin issues without damaging other body areas. It can help reduce the aspect of acne spots, burns, psoriasis, scars, stretch marks, and sun damage. It is also used to remove unwanted tattoos. Lasers can also be a tool for unwanted hair removal, with many nurses performing laser hair removal treatments.
What are the Duties and Responsibilities of a Cosmetic Nurse?
An Aesthetic Nurse’s job description may vary depending on the employer and specialty. Still, some everyday duties and responsibilities that Cosmetic Nurses can expect to perform during their shifts are:
Screening and scheduling patients
Assessing patient’s aesthetic health issues
Performing non-invasive treatments, like Botox injections, dermal fillers, or chemical peels
Assisting surgeons during cosmetic surgical procedures
Prepping and sterilizing equipment and/or instruments in the OR
Providing pre and post-operative care
Monitoring patient’s progress after treatment
Continuously staying informed and up-to-date on new procedures, treatments, protocols, and guidelines.
How to Become an Aesthetic Nurse?
As an aspiring Aesthetic Nurse, one of the things you’re probably most interested in is the schooling requirements necessary for securing a job in this exciting field. So, let’s talk about the steps you have to undertake to become a successful Cosmetic Nurse.
Step 1. Enroll in a Registered Nursing Degree Program
In order to work as an Aesthetic Nurse, you must earn a Registered Nurse degree. There are two main educational avenues for that. The first option is a two-year ADN program. The second option is to earn your Bachelor’s Degree in Nursing by pursuing a BSN program. While holding a Bachelor’s Degree in nursing is not a requirement for pursuing a career in aesthetics, it is highly encouraged. If you are an ADN-trained nurse and wish to advance your degree, you may want to consider an RN-to-BSN bridge program. Most of them are offered online and designed with working professionals in mind, which means that you can further your education without giving up your job.
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Step 2. Pass the NCLEX-RN
Once you complete a nursing degree, you need to sit for the NCLEX-RN exam. Passing this exam is a requirement to gain RN licensure. It is a comprehensive six-hour exam that will test your nursing knowledge and skill and determine your preparedness to practice as a Registered Nurse.
Step 3. Start working and gain experience
Once the first two steps are completed, you are a fully-fledged Registered Nurse and can start applying for jobs. Make sure your resume is up-to-date, hone your interview skills and be ready to embark on the third leg of your nursing journey: working as an Aesthetic Nurse. Another thing to consider is continuing education. The aesthetic healthcare field is rapidly changing, and new technologies and processes are constantly emerging, so you need to keep your finger on the pulse of the industry. Continuing education is just the way to do it.
Step 4. Consider getting certified
Certification is not mandatory in aesthetic nursing. However, there are many benefits to getting certified. The advantages range from having access to a broader pool of high-paying nursing jobs to increasing the level of your nursing knowledge and expertise. Certification for aesthetic nursing is available through the Plastic Surgical Nursing Certification Board (PSNCB). Eligibility criteria for obtaining a Certified Aesthetic Nurse Specialist credential through the PSNCB include:
Having a current and unencumbered RN license.
At least 1,000 hours of practice in core competency specialties accrued in the last two years.
A minimum of two years of nursing experience within the designated four core competencies with a board-certified physician within a core specialty (Plastic/Aesthetic Surgery, Ophthalmology, Dermatology, or Facial Plastic Surgery)
Endorsement from a supervising core physician.
Some nurses decide to advance their education beyond the BSN level and become Aesthetic Nurse Practitioners. To practice as an APRN, you need to earn your Master of Science in Nursing.
Where Do Aesthetic Nurses Work?
Aesthetic Registered Nurses can find employment in various settings. Some of these include:
Clinics
Cosmetic dermatology practices
Ophthalmologist’s offices
Medical spas
Private practices
Outpatient surgery facilities
Cosmetic nursing jobs often provide a consistent schedule, making them perfect for nurses who despise the 12-hour shifts and prefer a more traditional nine-to-five schedule.
What is the Salary of an Aesthetic Nurse?
Aesthetic Nurses’ salaries will vary based on several factors: level of education, experience, certification, location, employer, or specialty. Still, according to ZipRecruiter, on average, Cosmetic RNs can expect to take home around $89,976 annually. Some Aesthetic Nurses can earn salaries as high as $134,000.
This pay range is significantly higher than the median wages for Registered Nurses, as reported by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. BLS data shows RN salaries round up to $77,600 a year.
In line with most healthcare professions, the higher a Cosmetic Nurse’s experience level, the higher their paycheck. In addition to excellent compensation, Aesthetic Nurses most often enjoy benefits including paid vacation, sick leave, health, dental, and vision insurance policies, prescription coverage, or reimbursement for educational expenses.
Job Outlook for Aesthetic Nurses
Registered Nurses, in general, enjoy great job prospects, with BLS estimates indicating a 9% increase in nursing employment by 2030. In addition to that, demand for plastic surgery and cosmetic procedures is on the rise. With it increases the need for qualified healthcare professionals to perform the procedures and provide care to patients undergoing them. For instance, the number of Botox treatments has almost doubled between 2000 and 2018, and it’s not showing any signs of stopping. Hence, due to a higher demand for aesthetic services, the job outlook for RNs interested in a career in cosmetic healthcare is excellent. The future looks bright for Aesthetic Nurses.
Are You Ready to Pursue a Career in Aesthetic Nursing?
Pursuing a job in aesthetic nursing is a fantastic option for RNs who want their care to make people happier, more confident, and more content in their skin. Additionally, it’s a field in high demand and offers enticing salaries. Cosmetic nursing won’t disappoint you if a challenge is what you are after. It all adds to a rewarding profession that will bring as much joy and fulfillment in your life as in your patients’ lives.
Take the first step toward your dream job as an Aesthetic Nurse today. Enroll in Nightingale College’s BSN program or advance your education with our online RN-to-BSN program and start building the foundation of a wonderful career in aesthetic nursing!
The allure of travel nursing isn’t too hard to pinpoint. You work when you want, where you want, and you make more money in the process. You fulfill your purpose by doing a job you love and caring for people. Plus, you get to experience new challenges, live new life experiences, and explore places that may have otherwise remained unknown to you.
It sounds pretty good, doesn’t it?
While those statements are indeed true, there’s more to travel nursing than meets the eye. If you want to secure those highest paying travel nursing jobs, enjoy all the benefits and none of the headaches of an on-the-go career, you need to come in prepared.
And that’s where we come in. We put together a comprehensive guide on travel nursing that includes everything you may need to know: a list of the highest-paid travel nursing specialties, advice on how to get them, things to consider when signing up for travel jobs, and much more.
What is a Travel Nurse Job, and What Does It Involve?
Travel nursing jobs are short-term nursing assignments where nurses travel to a specific location to provide patient care. To put it simply, travel nurses fill the need for personnel in destinations with a shortage of qualified nursing staff. Generally, most travel nursing contracts last around 13 weeks. However, you can find assignments ranging from eight to 26 weeks.
A travel nurse’s job description closely resembles that of a local RN. It would be nearly impossible to provide a comprehensive list of the responsibilities of a travel nurse, as these will be largely dependent on the employer, place of work, and specialty. Still, some of the most common duties you may expect to encounter on your assignment are:
Monitoring a patient’s condition and keeping accurate records of nursing actions and patient developments
Administering medication as per doctors’ prescriptions
Working as part of the healthcare team to create and implement treatment plans for patients.
Some of the most popular employers for travel nurses are hospitals, long-term care facilities, and surgery centers. Equally in need of travel RNs are specialty hospitals and clinics that provide care to a specific patient population.
Why Are Travel Nursing Jobs in Such High Demand?
The demand for travel nurses was always high, but the COVID-19 pandemic amplified it further. Let’s see some of the reasons that led to the increased popularity of nurse traveling.
The nationwide nursing shortage is real, and it’s harsh. Projections show that there will be a shortage of over half a million RNs by 2030.
As Baby Boomers age, the need for healthcare services intensifies. According to the US Census Bureau, by 2030, there will be over 82 million people aged 65 and older. As the number of older people increases, there will also be an increased need for geriatric care.
“The Great Resignation” hit on the nursing industry. In the summer of 2021, the number of US workers who quit their jobs reached record highs. BLS data showed that over 4.3 million Americans quit, out of which over 530.000 were healthcare workers. In addition to that, a significant segment of the nursing workforce is nearing retirement age, which further deepens the nursing shortage and, subsequently, the need for travel nurses.
Geography is a harsh mistress, as well. The nursing shortage is felt nationwide. However, some regions feel it more. The most alarming effects are being felt in the South and West regions of the country. Also, rural communities feel the staffing gap even more than larger metropolitan areas. Nursing care is much needed in these areas, making travel nurses precious commodities.
What Are the Benefits of Travel Nursing?
The demand for nurses is undoubtedly high, driving many people toward the profession. But what are some of the benefits that attract nurses to choose travel jobs as alternatives to permanent staff positions? We’re about to find out.
Higher Pay
The promise of bigger paychecks is assuredly the main incentive for nurses to seek short-term employment as travel nurses. You will see in the following sections that traveling RNs indeed earn more, with some cashing in around $130,000 annually.
Increased Flexibility
As Travel RNs, nurses choose where to work and when to work. This allows them to relocate even briefly closer to friends or relatives or experience new destinations. It also gives them a choice about how long they stay. Some assignments last a few weeks; others may span over a few months. Traveling nurses have the flexibility to fix these details according to their needs or preferences.
Freedom to Schedule Breaks Between Assignments
Because the travel nurse has more control over the job opportunities, they also have more control over their breaks. So, they can schedule longer breaks in between assignments, allowing them to recharge and potentially avoid nursing burnout.
More Opportunities for Career Growth
One significant advantage of travel nursing is exposure to a wide variety of new career experiences. Each travel assignment comes with its own challenges and lessons. As a result, nurses learn new skills, are exposed to new ways of working and gain new experiences. This makes them better professionals and more prepared to tackle any professional obstacle in the long run.
Benefits that Extend Beyond the Paycheck
The perks of travel nursing don’t stop with a more sizable paycheck. You can also enjoy other benefits, such as getting free accommodation for the duration of your assignment, travel reimbursements, and tax advantages.
Job Security
We’ve already mentioned the high demand for travel nurses. This leads to high job security and the promise of being able to find gainful employment.
Mission-Centered Jobs
For many nurses, nursing is more than just a job or a paycheck. It is a calling. When the need is more pressing, RNs won’t hesitate to go where they are needed most. Their selflessness may lead them to places where disaster struck, where their care is needed on the frontlines. The pandemic is another example of nurses pursuing their noble mission. More professionals than ever joined the ranks of traveling nurses and helped fight the disease in destinations away from their homes.
What Are the Challenges of Travel Nursing?
The benefits of travel nursing are many, and they are compelling. But we want you to be fully informed before getting into this career. This section will explore the other side of the coin: the challenges of traveling for work as an RN.
You leave your family and social networks behind.
Even though it may be for a short period, from a few weeks to a few months, you are still leaving the familiar behind and diving headfirst into the unknown when relocating for a job. It may take some time to become familiarized with the new community, or you may experience home-sickness.
The hospital orientation you receive may be minimal.
Often, temporary staff will have to learn and get used to things on the go. You were hired as a travel nurse because the hospital is severely understaffed, so don’t be too surprised if you only receive a brief orientation and are expected to pick things up quickly. Also, you need to learn to navigate a new organizational culture. You only have a limited amount of time to earn your peers, doctors, and other healthcare team members’ trust and develop a working relationship with them. Additionally, there may be new policies or procedures to comply with, new customized charting systems to learn in a short time (this can double down as an advantage in the longer run). Essentially, what it takes people months to learn and get used to, you need to do in days. And that can be a bit stressful.
You will receive no paid vacation accrual.
As you don’t gain employee longevity within one institution, you don’t qualify for vacation accrual.
Flexibility may be a double-edged sword.
As a travel nurse, your schedule may be designed to accommodate permanent staff. So, your flexibility needs to extend to accepting night shifts or weekend shifts.
The overwhelming number of staffing agencies
Before signing up for traveling nursing jobs, you must do your research thoroughly and find the best options for you. However, there are hundreds of staffing agencies in the US, and sometimes choosing the best ones can prove complicated. In addition to your own research online, you can always ask your fellow nurses for recommendations.
All in all, travel nurses need to quickly and efficiently adapt to challenging mobile work. That may be equal parts exciting and intimidating. It’s up to you to decide which wins in your case.
What Are the Highest Paying Travel Nursing Specialties in 2022?
We’ve covered the pros and cons of travel nursing. Now let’s explore the highest paying traveling nursing specialties*. Bear in mind that you need to have at least one year of experience working in your specialty for all travel nursing jobs. Employers take the previous experience as a sign that you had time to develop your skills and will excel on the assignment.
ICU Travel Nurse
ICU Travel Nursing is one of the most lucrative and in-demand travel nurse specialties. ICU Nurses care for patients in the most critical condition – patients who are intubated, ventilated, on life-sustaining medication drips, or whose life hangs on by a thread. Working in the ICU demands a particular set of skills. You must be meticulously organized, respond quickly to emergencies, and handle unpredictable situations.
You need at least one year of experience in an ICU ward or acute care setting before pursuing an assignment in the Intensive Care Unit. BLS and ACLS certifications are mandatory, while a Critical Care Certification (CCRN) will set you apart from the competition. The paycheck reflects the high demands of the job, travel ICU nursing being one of the highest-paid traveling nursing jobs. On average, ICU Travel RNs make $54 an hour, or around $112,228 per year, earning their spot as some of the highest-paid travel nurses.
Dialysis Travel Nurse
Dialysis Travel Nurses provide life-saving care to patients suffering from chronic kidney disease. Other than changing the location where they practice every few weeks, their duties remain the same. Dialysis RNs need to monitor and record a patient’s vital signs before, during, and after treatment, keep an eye out for adverse reactions, and ensure that dialysis and other treatments are administered correctly. To perform these duties with the utmost professionalism, you’ll need to display calm and compassion skills, problem-solving, analytical, and observational abilities.
In terms of education, the minimum requirement is an ADN or BSN degree. Advanced Cardiac Life Support certification is required, alongside at least one year of experience in a professional setting. Seeking certification as a Certified Dialysis Nurse is not mandatory, but will only come to your advantage. Salary-wise, traveling Dialysis RNs earn around $96,272 annually, or the equivalent of $43 an hour.
ER Travel Nurse
The demand for talented ER Travel nurses remains high in acute care facilities across the country. It’s a rewarding specialty, both personally and financially, that requires an organized, quick-on-their-feet personality who can make accurate and timely decisions before taking action. As an ER travel nurse, you are in the front line of the hospital, caring for various patients who come into the hospital’s emergency department.
In addition to the minimum one year of experience as an ER Nurse that ensures you have a grip on the life in the ER, you may also be required to gain BLS, ACLS, and PALS certification. Certification requirements may vary from one institution to another. If you’re wondering how much ER travel nurses make, at around $106,709 annually, the answer won’t disappoint.
Psychiatric Travel Nurse
A Psychiatric Nurse, also known as a Psych Nurse or a Mental Health Nurse, helps treat patients affected by mental health and psychiatric issues. Pursuing a travel career in this area doesn’t impact your duties and responsibilities. Your job description still includes aiding in evaluating patients undergoing psychological evaluations, conducting tests, administering medications, and collaborating with other healthcare professionals to ensure the best treatment paths for clients suffering from psychological problems.
As for the salary of a Psych travel RN, it revolves around $98,924 per year.
NICU Travel Nurse
One of the best-paying travel nursing jobs on the market is that of a NICU Travel Nurse. Working in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit, NICU Registered Nurses care for premature and critically ill newborns who need immediate medical attention as soon as they are born. It’s a very sensitive job requiring quick thinking, quick reactions, keen observations, and significant amounts of comfort and compassion for the families.
The wages NICU Nurses can expect to get on traveling assignments oscillate around $105,500 yearly, some of the highest salaries in the travel nurse industry. The hourly rate is $51.
Med-Surg Travel Nurse
Medical-Surgical Nurses, or Med Surg Nurses, work with adult patients injured or in recovery from medical procedures. These nurses may be working in a specialty, but unless there is special monitoring or technology that requires specific training or certification, they are considered Med-Surg. Thus, this specialty makes up the foundation of nursing, being one of the most sought-after jobs in the RN travel industry. Med-Surg nurses are employed in a variety of settings: hospitals, clinics, long-term care facilities, general hospital floors like neuro, trauma, general surgery, oncology, cardiac, and many other areas of care. High-level critical-thinking skills, vast clinical knowledge, and calmness under pressure are imperative for med-Surg nurses.
For their invaluable efforts in patient care, Med-Surg RNs receive fairly high wages: over $90,350 a year.
Pediatric Travel Nurse
Pediatric Travel RNs provide nursing care to children, adolescents, and teens. Because they work with such a sensitive population, their duties will often go beyond simply monitoring vitals, administering medications, or performing developmental screenings. Pediatric Nurses may have to alleviate fears and use therapeutic communication techniques to convince a child to get a shot or medication. They may have to educate young people and their families on treatment options after a clinical diagnosis. It’s a job that covers a broad range of clinical skills and interpersonal abilities.
And Pediatric Travel Nurses are remunerated well for it. In this specialty, you make around $98,343 per year.
Postpartum Travel Nurse
Caring for mother and baby immediately after the labor and delivery process is one of the most rewarding nursing jobs, and Postpartum Nurses do just that. Post-delivery, they provide essential care to the newborn and the infant’s mother. This may include giving medications, monitoring the vital signs of both mother and infant, and educating the family on proper newborn care.
Postpartum Travel Nurses are needed throughout the nation. And if you’re curious what kind of postpartum RN salary you can expect to earn, we have the answer. This is one of the highest-paid travel nurse specialties, with wages in the vicinity of $98,500.
PACU Travel Nurse
Post Anesthesia Care Units across the US are another big employer of travel nurses. PACU RNs are indispensable to postoperative care as they provide core nursing care to patients after surgery. Nurses working in this role need to possess critical care skills to assess incision sites, monitor vitals, and track other indicators of post-op stability or complications. This specialty is also one of the highest paying travel nursing jobs, with salaries that often go above $124,195.
OR Travel Nurse
Traveling OR Registered Nurses can expect very lucrative assignments in numerous medical facilities. They perform the same duties as permanent OR nurses. The main goal of the specialty is to coordinate patient care in the operating room. On a day-to-day basis, Travel OR Nurses manage care before, during, and after medical procedures, monitor the equipment during surgical interventions, and assist surgeons with sterilizing supplies, equipment, and instruments, ensuring that operations happen in the safest manner possible.
Through their travel assignments, OR travel Nurses can cash in $55 an hour, or about $113,610 per year, one of the highest wages for traveling RNs.
Labor and Delivery Travel Nurse
If you want to land a high-paying travel nursing job, look no further than the Labor and Delivery specialty. L&D Nurses are a valuable resource that many hospitals need and are willing to pay for. Labor and Delivery travel nurses are an integral part of the delivery process, ensuring that mothers, newborns, and their extended families receive quality, essential care during every step of the birthing process.
To secure a position in this area, you need to have graduated from an accredited nursing program and have at least one year of professional experience in the Labor and Delivery Department. Some institutions may require extra certifications, like BLS, ACLS, and the Neonatal Resuscitation Program (NRP).
As for wages, Labor and Delivery Travel Nurses are on the higher end of the earning specter. They make about $111,149 yearly.
PICU Travel Nurse
The Pediatric Intensive Care Unit requires a highly specialized area of expertise, astute assessment skills, excellent critical thinking, and vast clinical knowledge. PICU Travel nurses are some of the better-paid travel RNs, with salaries that exceed $108,440 a year. Their duties alternate between monitoring children and teen patients, providing appropriate care and educating patients and families about procedures and treatment plans.
Oncology Travel Nurse
Oncology Travel Nurses care for patients undergoing cancer treatments or those who are in remission. They ought to be well-versed in diverse cancer treatment methods and need to possess a strong understanding of patient treatment plans, procedures, and side effects. The sensitive nature of this specialty requires Oncology RNs to display high levels of compassion and excellent communication abilities to help patients and families alike cope with the diagnosis.
The requirements for Oncology nursing travel positions are similar to all other traveling nursing jobs: unencumbered nursing license and at least one-year prior experience in the oncology department. Additionally, certification from the Oncology Nursing Society may be required for certain travel nurse positions.
In the travel department, Oncology nursing is one of the high-paid specialties, with salaries of about $100,800.
Telemetry Travel Nurse
Telemetry nursing jobs use high-tech equipment to monitor a patient’s condition, response to treatment, and overall progress. Travel RNs interested in this profession are in for a top-notch career: high demand and above-average wages – $102,320 yearly. Common conditions that ask for Travel Telemetry RN interventions include cardiac surgery, renal failure, COPD, sleep disorders, neurological problems, epilepsy, and cancer.
Hospice Travel Nurse
Hospice Travel Nurses come in when there is no possible treatment for a severe illness. Essentially, they provide end-of-life care to their patients. Hospice RNs’ care and compassion help with managing pain and symptoms. They offer support to patients and families in critical moments and help patients through the process of death in the most dignified manner. It’s a compassionate nursing role that is compensated reasonably well: $86,277 annually.
Cath Lab Travel Nurse
Cath Lab RNs are among the most requested and well-compensated traveling nursing specialties. This job is an integral part of the cardiac care unit, the ICU, or the cardiac catheterization lab. Registered nurses who have embraced this specialty assist physician during cardiac catheterizations and monitor the patient’s cardiac rhythm and vital signs. Travel assignments for Cath Lab Nurses offer exceptional pay and comprehensive benefits. Annual salaries can be as high as $110,540.
LPN Travel Nurse
One common denominator for all travel nursing jobs mentioned so far was that the job candidate must be a fully licensed Registered Nurse.
How about Licensed Practical Nurses? Can LPNs engage in travel assignments, and can they secure high-paying travel nursing jobs? Yes. However, remember that you require at least one or two years of on-the-ground professional experience before you can be considered for an LPN travel job. LPNs who want to become travel nurses, expand their horizons, and further their careers can expect salaries higher than permanent staff LPNs – around $74,893 a year.
The world of travel nursing doesn’t stop with the specialties that we’ve already discussed. There are numerous other options available to nurses who want to try new professional experiences in new locations. Some other worthy mentions are:
Vaccination travel nurse
Nurse case manager
Travel Nurse Educator
Triage Travel Nurse
Preop Travel Nurse
Home Health Travel Nurse
Traveling Trauma Nurse
Cardiovascular Operating Room Travel Nurse (CVOR)
What Types of High-Paying Travel Nursing Assignments Are Available?
Strike Nursing Contracts
Often, a prominent supplier of travel nursing jobs strikes. When a strike creates, there usually just aren’t enough qualified nurses to cover an institution’s staffing needs. Still, the patients require constant care and monitoring, so hospitals must resort to temporary staff to meet the needs of their clients. The pay rates for strike nurses are different based on state, region, medical facility, or nursing specialty. Usually, they are 50% to 100% higher than the pay rates for permanent staff. These types of travel assignments are typically rushed, so RNs should be ready to embark on the journey at a moment’s notice.
Crisis Rate Nursing Assignments
Crisis rate jobs are among some of the highest paying travel nursing positions. Sometimes, they are also called rapid response jobs. The underlying idea is that hospitals have a heightened need for travel nurses, so they are willing to pay a higher than average bill rate. These types of assignments were prevailing in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Generally, the highest paying travel crisis nursing jobs have an almost instantaneous start date. It’s not unheard of for RNs to be needed on-site within 48 hours. The reduced flexibility in terms of start date and lack of preparation time may be inconvenient, hence the premium paycheck.
Things to Consider Before Signing Up for a Traveling Nurse Job
High-paying travel nursing jobs are an excellent incentive for nurses to get out of their comfort zone and take their careers to new heights. Here’s some advice to help you land – and profit to the max – from these opportunities.
Always keep your nursing resume updated – You never know when your dream travel job may get posted. You don’t want to miss it because you waste time completing your resume. Having a current resume in both electronic and paper form is a good idea.
Make sure your license and certifications are valid and in good standing. Do you have a multistate license, or do you need to obtain a nursing license for the desired location? Check out our guide on compact state and multistate license agreements to help you navigate this question.
There are so many recruiters and staffing agencies out there. They all offer different services, rates, and benefits. Do comprehensive research and ask for referrals to choose the best ones.
Always read the contracts carefully before you sign. Pay attention to the compensation packages – is housing included, or do the employers offer a stipend? Do they offer relocation assistance? Will it cover your relocation costs? Do they pay you even if your shift is canceled?
Be prepared to work in demanding and stressful conditions.
Enjoy, appreciate and learn from the opportunities. You’ve worked hard. You deserve it.
Ready to Get Your Travel Career Started?
The world of travel nursing opens a whole new world of possibilities for passionate and daring RNs. Perhaps you want to grow your nursing career. Maybe you want to explore the country. You can be in it for the money, because you want a change, or because you feel that your help is needed elsewhere. Whatever drives you, travel nursing can help you achieve it. It won’t be easy. The shifts may be high stress, and the challenges won’t stop coming. But it’s all worth it.
Take the first steps towards a career in travel nursing by putting the accent on your education. And that means choosing Nightingale College. Our programs are designed to help you become the best Registered Nurse you can be.
Enroll in our BSN Program or advance your education with Nightingale College’s online RN-to-BSN Program. Your exciting travel nursing journey starts here!
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* Salary data was gathered using ZipRecruiter as of March 2022.
Fresh out of nursing school, there can hardly be something more exciting than working in a hospital. It’s what you’ve been preparing for all along. The NCLEX training, the sleepless nights, the nursing interviews have led you to this position. And you love it because as a Registered Nurse working in a hospital, you are right at the heart of care. Your patients rely on your professionalism, empathy, and expertise around the clock – and you offer them wholeheartedly during 12-hour shifts, night shifts, holiday, or weekend shifts.
But let’s face it, after a while, the ever-fluctuant schedule and the need to work while everyone else is on vacation or resting may start to leave its mark. Perhaps you want to spend more time with your family or invest time in other activities. You still cherish nursing and your role as an RN, but you need a clearer and more consistent schedule.
Luckily for you, nursing is one of the least restrictive careers. With numerous specialties, varied workplaces, and alternative schedules – you are very likely to find a nursing position that fits your goals.
We put together a comprehensive list of RN careers that combine the joy and rewards of nursing with the consistency and stability of a 9 to 5 job. So, if you are after a nine-to-five nursing position that would allow you to maintain an excellent work-life balance, you have come to the right place.
Clinic Nursing Jobs
Although clinic nursing jobs and hospital (bedside) nursing jobs share many similarities, there is an important distinction that sets them apart: scheduling. In a hospital, nurses have a largely flexible schedule that generally requires 12-hour shifts, three or four days a week. Overnight shifts, alternate weekends, and even some holidays are also part of the bargain when you sign up for a hospital nursing job.
However, suppose you seek employment in a clinic. In that case, you will enjoy a more traditional workweek schedule: Monday to Friday during business hours. Some clinics may offer additional evening or weekend hours to their patients. Still, those are the exception rather than the rule.
As far as job duties are concerned, as a Clinic Nurse, you work closely with patients, doctors, and other healthcare team members. You will be in charge of collecting patient information, such as their medical history, symptoms, or insurance information. You will monitor patients and provide advice and education. Should it be necessary, you will be responsible for administering medication as per the doctor’s prescriptions. Monitoring medical equipment to ensure its proper functionality and taking care of patients’ rooms before, during, and after discharge will fall under your list of duties.
Working in a clinical setting is often less stressful than working bedside in a hospital. Generally, patients coming to a clinic will seek routine care for non-emergency illnesses or injury treatment. In contrast, the incoming patients’ conditions in a hospital may be a lot more severe and urgent. Additionally, some clinics may employ telehealth nurses to triage patients and offer nursing care remotely. So that may be another option to look into if you want to steer away from hospital work.
School Nursing Positions
As far as convenient, routine RN schedules go, it would be hard to find a more accommodating nursing position than School nursing. From nursery to university level, each school needs to hire at least one nurse to be on the premises during academic hours. So, as a School Nurse, you will have a very clearly defined program, usually working anywhere from 8 to 3 or 4. Additionally, you won’t have to work weekends or holidays because your schedule falls in line with the school’s program. This job comes with a comfortable schedule, and it’s also one of the least stressful nursing careers.
School nursing is a particularly excellent nursing position for RNs who have children. It aligns their job with the kids’ time off from school, leaving more time for family trips, activities, and quality time spent together. Should you find you have too much free time on your hands during longer breaks or summer vacation, you can always look for nursing side-gigs – jobs you can do on the side as a nurse to supplement your income.
What are some of the duties and tasks of a School Nurse? You’ll provide primary healthcare to students in case of injury, emergency, or acute illness. Developing health plans for students with chronic illnesses or disabilities and educating students and staff on healthy habits also fall under your list of duties. Also, as a School Nurse, you should perform regular student health screenings to detect health problems in the early stages. Ensuring that the school environment is safe for students, teachers, and staff (for instance, taking measures to stop the transmission of infectious diseases) also falls under your job description.
Ophthalmic Nursing Jobs
Ophthalmic Registered Nurses specialize in ophthalmology, the branch of medicine that deals with the health of the eyes. An Ophthalmic RN’s job description includes caring for patients with various eye diseases and injuries, like glaucoma, blindness, astigmatism, cataracts, macular degeneration, eye trauma, nearsightedness, farsightedness, and many more.
Being such a focused career path means you will likely find work in specialized environments, like an ophthalmologist’s office, a clinic, or an eye care center. These workplaces are generally open to receiving and treating patients during business hours on weekdays only. So, by default, by working as an Ophthalmic Nurse in an ophthalmologist’s clinic or eye center, you will be subject to a more traditional 9-to-five schedule.
Some of the job duties of an Ophthalmic Nurse include assisting ophthalmologists with eye exams, conducting vision tests, collecting medical histories, and recording symptoms and exam results. Nurses may also have to educate patients on proper care for their eye diseases or injury, administer medication, perform fittings for contact lenses or glasses, and assist in eye surgical procedures in more severe cases.
Occupational Health Nursing Jobs
Occupational Health Nurses specialize in the well-being of people at work. Employees often approach them for health-related questions or problems, both for non-work-related conditions and for health and safety concerns stirring from the workplace.
Working as an Occupational Health RN, some of your duties and responsibilities include identifying and preventing work-related health problems and promoting healthy living and safe working conditions. You may also have to provide advice on first aid management, teaching employees how to act in emergency health situations. In case of medical emergencies in the workplace, you’ll administer primary care.
For the most part, you can be employed as an independent practitioner by a company or as a member of an occupational health service team within an organization’s HR department. Potential employers include education institutions, law firms, airlines, local authorities, retail chains, and many other industries. These employers usually translate into working the traditional business hours, satisfying your needs for a nine to five career.
Home Health Nursing Careers
One of home health nursing benefits is that RNs are in charge of their schedule. Instead of the 12-hour hospital shifts, Home Health Nurses choose their own shifts and appointments, making it easier to keep their workday during their desirable hours.
As a Home Health RN, you may have to drive from one appointment to another, caring for diverse patient groups with different health needs, from newborns to the elderly. You may have to provide routine care, administer medication, dress wounds, educate patients and caregivers about treatments, assess the patient’s progress, and counsel both patients and family.
In addition to the schedule that you can tailor yourself according to your needs, home health nursing also ensures nursing autonomy. Indeed, in this specialty, you work as part of a larger healthcare team. Still, when you are caring for a patient in their home, you are the only medical professional there. This requires a higher level of critical thinking, responsibility, and adaptability, but for nurses who prefer more independence in their work, it’s a fantastic job opportunity.
Find out more about home health nursing in our guide to this exciting nursing career.
Nurse Health Coaching Positions
Focusing on holistic health and well-being, Nurse Health Coaches help their patients reach personal health goals and objectives through consultations and strategy sessions. Together with the client, the Nurse Health Coach will identify main health concerns or challenges that one faces. From that point on, the RN and patients will work towards establishing goals and providing strategies to meet the desired health aims.
Typically, Nurse Health Coaches find employment in insurance companies and corporations. Their duties revolve around supporting the employees in establishing and meeting specific health and wellness goals. Thus, Nurse Health Coaches enjoy jobs in office environments that come hand in hand with a fairly consistent Monday through Friday, nine-to-five schedule.
Another great option that some Nurse Health Coaches consider is starting their private practice. They build a private list of clients whom they help reach positive health goals. Creating one’s business has its own benefits: you will be in charge of your schedule throughout the week, and, should you prefer it, you’ll have the option to work from home.
Becoming a Nurse Educator is one of the most rewarding nursing careers for nurses whose passion for educating and guiding others is as strong as their love for nursing. As a Nurse Instructor, you help new generations of nurses learn, grow, and improve. Your classes and teachings will help aspiring nurses find their calling. By sharing your knowledge with nursing students, you ensure that thousands and thousands of patients will have access to highly trained, professional nurses.
As a Nurse Educator, you’ll find employment in nursing schools, universities, colleges, and teaching hospitals. The academic aspect of the job ensures you reap the benefits of the academic lifestyle. A traditional work schedule, with teaching hours often spread between 8 am and 4 or 5 pm, holidays and weekends off.
You will need a Master’s Degree in Nursing to pursue a career as a Nurse Educator, but if you want to combine your love of nursing with your passion for teaching, you’ll find that pursuing an MSN is a worthy endeavor. Plus, you can always opt for an online program, like the one offered by Nightingale College, which will allow you more flexibility.
Dialysis Nursing Jobs
Nephrology is another highly specialized nursing specialty that allows you to maintain a consistent work schedule. Nephrology relates to the kidneys, so Nephrology RNs, sometimes also referred to as Dialysis Nurses, treat patients who suffer from kidney disease.
Kidney disease may affect people of any age. That’s why Nephrology Nurses will have a wide range of patients, from children to the elderly and everyone else in between. For people suffering from end-stage kidney disease, dialysis is a life-saving procedure. It clears the waste caused by nonfunctional kidneys and maintains balanced chemicals in the body. Dialysis RNs are there for patients every step of the way throughout the dialysis process.
Nephrology Registered Nurses practice in various environments, but for the most part, dialysis clinics, physician practices, transplant programs, and other inpatient and outpatient settings will provide a stable work schedule, adhering to a typical work week.
Nurse Administrator Career
One of the best ways to have more control over your schedule and ensure that it follows the Monday to Friday nine-to-five format you want is to climb up the career ladder to a management position. Working in nursing management positions does come with a higher degree of responsibility, but it is also met by a more stable agenda and a higher paycheck.
As a nurse administrator, you will be in charge of managing a care facility’s nursing staff. This implies tasks such as coordinating schedules, implementing policy, and drawing up the budget. You will, essentially, be connecting two worlds: organizational management and nursing practice.
Being a Nurse Administrator is not a non-hospital job, per se, but it is away from the bedside. You will have an office to call your home base and follow business hours. You don’t have to limit yourself to just hospitals if you want to find a job in this position. There is a need for RN Administrators wherever nurses work. So, urgent care clinics, doctor’s offices, outpatient treatment centers, and long-term care facilities are also worthy of consideration when hunting for jobs.
Public Health Nursing Jobs
A fascinating career opportunity for nurses is becoming a Public Health Nurse. Their job description can vary depending on where they work: government offices, county or city health departments, or at the federal level. Overall, some of their tasks may include providing education and services to support healthy lifestyles for individuals and communities. In addition to education, Public Health Nurses work with immigrant populations, the underserved, and other groups of people unable to get access to healthcare in conventional medical offices.
As far as schedules are concerned, Public Health RNs commonly work a Monday to Friday schedule. They are exempt from working evenings, weekends, or holidays, making public health an excellent job for people who want to maintain a healthy work-life balance. As a Public Health Nurse, you may not earn the highest nursing salary, but the benefit packages usually compensate for the difference in paychecks. Plus, the job outlook and security for this specialization are assured.
Are You Ready to Make the Switch to 9-to-5?
Some nurses enjoy the dynamism and the unexpectedness of practicing in a hospital. They want the benefits of 12-hour shifts and prefer only working three or four days a week. Working the occasional weekend or holiday doesn’t seem to bother them either. But that type of schedule just isn’t for everyone. Some nurses prefer careers that afford them normalcy and routine. They want a consistent program that runs from nine to five, Monday through Friday, allowing them more time to spend with family and loved ones, cultivating their passions, or following some other dream on the side.
A routine nursing job is in no way a boring nursing job. Regardless of what career path you pursue, nursing will always have its share of adrenaline and excitement. But with the positions we mentioned in this guide, you get to pack all of it into the conventional eight-hour, five-day a week schedule.
The beauty of nursing lies in the countless career choices it provides, 9-to-5 non-hospital jobs included. The best way to secure access to the nursing job of your dreams is to make sure your education is up to the required standards. Most nine to five nursing jobs require a BSN, so the time to get it is now.
There may come a time in your professional life when you feel like you are in a rut. You still enjoy helping people and realize the value of what you do as a Registered Nurse, but you seem to have lost the spark that ignited your passion for nursing in the first place. Perhaps you don’t find your job challenging anymore, or it’s becoming tedious to fulfill your daily tasks. To put it simply, you’re bored.
If you feel this way, don’t worry. It doesn’t make you a bad nurse, and it doesn’t mean you are unsuitable for this career. You just have to take a step back and think about why you find yourself in this position. But in addition to self-reflection, we have more advice to help you overcome boredom at work.
Here are some concrete steps and actions to ensure that you don’t feel stagnant, bored, or disinterested in your career anymore.
Find a project that you are passionate about
Finding a project that interests you and would allow you to use your talents or develop new skills is a great way to rekindle your passion for nursing. You can start by looking at your workplace or checking volunteering associations or professional nursing associations for exciting new projects. For example, suppose you’ve always wanted to try your hand at teaching. If you work at a teaching hospital, you can ask to be more involved with working with nursing students during their clinical rotations. You can volunteer to help as a nursing instructor, or you could get involved in community education. Whichever path you choose, it’s a good idea to find a new project and try your hand at it. You might discover a new passion or cultivate an older one – either way, bored nurse will no longer apply to you.
Advance your education
Furthering your nursing education is probably one of the best ways to escape the feeling of stagnation in your career. It allows you to develop new skills, advance your expertise, build confidence, and become a better nurse. A more advanced nursing degree will also put you in the running for a wider pool of job opportunities, better paid nursing positions, more autonomy in nursing, and more control over your own schedule.
For LPN nurses who want to move forward in their career, gaining Registered Nurse licensure is a natural next step. You can pursue a bridge LPN-to-ASN program or opt for a BSN program that will open the door for greater opportunities and advancement. If you are an ADN Nurse, consider enrolling in a bridge RN-to-BSN program. There are numerous options, like the one offered by Nightingale College, that are online, allowing you to study without giving up your job.
If the idea of working in management, administration, or leadership positions in the nursing field is stimulating your interest, look into MSN programs. Becoming a Nurse Educator also requires an MSN degree, and there is certainly no chance of getting bored while shaping new generations of nurses. For RNs who feel like their current roles aren’t challenging enough and would like to climb to the top of the nursing career ladder, there are Advanced Practice Registered Nursing positions – Nurse Anesthetist, Nurse Practitioner, Nurse Midwife, and Clinical Nurse Specialist.
However, advancing your formal nursing education is a big commitment, so you should make sure that what’s on the other side of the schooling journey fills you with joy and excitement. Before you invest money, time, and energy in a nursing program, ensure that the investment will be worthwhile in the long run. But we can tell you this much: if a new challenge is what you’re after, a newfound interest in personal and professional growth will have your blood coursing through your veins, giving you no opportunity to feel boredom.
If you are not ready to embark on this academic journey, this does not mean that you cannot keep learning and improving as a nurse. Continuing education courses are an excellent way to always stay on top of your field, gain more knowledge and confidence in your trade, and excel at nursing.
Regardless of which avenue you choose to advance your education, one thing is certain: learning keeps you young and engaged. It helps you learn more about yourself and propels you forward. And this may just do the trick if you find yourself in a professional rut.
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Find yourself a coach
Sometimes, outside assistance may help you overcome that bored at work sentiment. You might find coaching helpful if you need a little extra nudge to explore your priorities, figure out your strengths and weaknesses, set goals, and overcome bad habits or counterproductive tendencies. An RN career coach, a life coach, or a mental health counselor can give you the advice needed to get back on track. They can guide you through finding and executing your own personalized strategy for happiness and success – and that’s an excellent way to ensure you’re moving forward in your career instead of stagnating.
Try out networking events.
Nurses who are bored of nursing may actually just need to see their work from a new angle to remind them of their love for the profession. Networking events can achieve just that. Attending a nursing association meeting or joining a seminar or conference on a nursing subject that peaks your interest are great ways to meet new people with similar interests and fresh perspectives.
Take a leap
Playing it safe is what gets a lot of nurses feeling bored and uninterested in their job. Stability and consistency are good, but sometimes you need to shake things up and get out of the comfort zone. Apply for a new position, run for office in a professional nursing association, try out a committee at work, write an academic article and submit it for publication. The possibilities are endless. All you need is the courage to leave the comfortable – but monotonous – box you’re in and try something new. Greatness and excitement await you on the other side.
Change Specialties
You know one of the most incredible things about nursing? This profession comes with an unbelievable number of options. Do you want to work in the ER, ICU or NICU? Is home healthcare or nursing home practice more suitable for you than working in a hospital? Do you want to work nine-to-five or have a flexible schedule? Do you want to work bedside or from home? Within the nursing field, you can find all these opportunities and more! So, if you’ve noticed that a particular specialty doesn’t work for you, it doesn’t mean that nursing is boring. It just means that you may not have found your calling yet. And changing your specialty might be just the answer. However, switching specialties is not something you can do every week. So, make sure you make this decision informed and aware. Talk to fellow nurses from other departments, attend seminars on the specialties you consider and do your research online. This way, you’ll be prepared for a change. All you have to do is be brave, recognize when something is not working for you, and try to change to something that will.
Check-in with yourself: Are you bored, or are you burnt out?
A state of disinterest and disregard for the job may indicate something more severe than just boredom. Many nurses deal with burnout, a serious occupational phenomenon that results from chronic workplace stress that has not been successfully managed. There are three main characteristics of nurse burnout: mental, physical, and emotional exhaustion; a negative attitude or feelings of cynicism related to the job; and reduced professional efficacy. So, you could think that you’re bored and the job doesn’t excite you anymore, but in fact, you’re exhausted and burned-out to the point where you don’t experience job satisfaction. Preventing the detrimental burnout will help you turn those bad days as a nurse into great ones.
Nursing is a wonderful and gratifying profession, and it would be a shame if the job you used to love so much turned into a chore. So, if you’re feeling bored at work, it’s time to do something about it. Whether taking a risk, advancing your education, or switching careers, you need to do your best to find your way forward. Bring that eager anticipation back into your professional life. There’s much that nursing has to offer. It’s up to you to seize the opportunity.
Nursing is an incredibly rewarding profession. Your care and attention save lives, speed recovery, and improve wellbeing. Now, imagine geographical boundaries no longer tie your ability to offer nursing care to a single state. You can be an RN in multiple states under one nursing license. If you want to relocate to another state and practice over there, there will be no more hassle to get a new RN license for that specific location.
This is the principle behind compact states. You’ve probably heard this term thrown around either in conversation with your nursing school colleagues or your fellow RNs. It is definitely a concept that’s worthy of closer consideration.
In this article, we will talk about compact nursing licenses and states. What they are, which states are included, and where the implementation status is still pending. Moreover, we’ll share how you can get a multistate RN license and what you have to gain from it.
Let’s dive right in.
What Are Compact Nursing States?
Before we move on to examples and lists, we must thoroughly define what compact nursing states are.
Compact nursing states is a term that refers to the Nursing Licensure Compact (NLC). This is an agreement among states that allows Registered Nurses and Licensed Practical Nurses to have one license but have the right to practice nursing in any state partaking in the arrangement.
In 2018, the NLC became the eNLC – the Enhanced Nursing Licensure Compact. With this new agreement, the member states have adopted 11 uniform licensure requirements that an applicant must meet in order to obtain a multistate license. An important distinction between the NLC and eNLC is that the latter requires aspiring nurses to undergo federal and state fingerprint-based criminal background checks.
To put it simply, if you are a legal resident in a compact state, you can practice nursing in any of the other enhanced compact states – and you don’t need to get a new license to do that.
Now, let’s see what states are included in the agreement, which are considering it, and the ones against it.
What States Are Compact States?
Image Source: Nurse Licensure Compact
As of February 2022, 39 states have enacted NLC legislation. These are as follows:
Alabama
Arizona
Arkansas
Colorado
Delaware
Florida
Georgia
Guam
Idaho
Indiana
Iowa
Kansas
Kentucky
Louisiana
Maine
Maryland
Mississippi
Missouri
Montana
Nebraska
New Hampshire
New Jersey
New Mexico
North Carolina
North Dakota
Ohio
Oklahoma
Pennsylvania
South Carolina
South Dakota
Tennessee
Texas
Utah
Vermont
Virginia
Virgin Islands
West Virginia
Wisconsin
Wyoming
What States and Territories Have Partially Implemented the eNCL?
There are some states and US territories that have partially enacted the eNCL. In these places, some restrictions to taking advantage of multistate licenses may apply until implementation is complete and definite. Thus, states and territories pending NLC implementation are:
Guam. RNs who hold a multistate license in other NLC states can practice nursing in Guam. However, Guam legal residents cannot yet obtain a multistate license until the NLC implementation process is completed in 2022.
Pennsylvania. In Pennsylvania, NLC has been enacted, but it still awaits implementation, with the date TBD. This means that PA residents cannot obtain a multistate license until implementation is complete, nor can other RNs with multistate licenses work in PA.
Ohio. In Ohio, the situation is similar to Pennsylvania, with the only difference being that implementation is set for January 1, 2023.
Virgin Islands. This is another example of a US territory where the NLC has been enacted, and the implementation date is to be determined.
What States Have Pending NLC Legislation?
The following list are the states which have pending legislation for potentially becoming part of the Nursing Licensure Compact.
Alaska
Illinois
Massachusetts
Michigan
Minnesota
New York
Rhode Island
Washington
What States Have Taken No Action Towards Becoming Compact Nursing States?
These states are currently not a part of the agreement of the compact states, nor do they have legislation in the works to this end:
California
Nevada
Oregon
Connecticut
Why Are Some States Hesitant to Become Part of the eNLC?
While most states recognize the multiple benefits of a National Nurse Licensing Compact, not everyone is on board. Some of the reasons critics of eNLC are citing are:
Each state has different professional development standards. In its current form, the compact does not have a uniform policy for continuing nursing education. That’s why the reluctant states argue that in certain places, there may be little or no professional development for RNs.
Each state has different licensure and disciplinary standards. Critics say that disputes over jurisdiction may arise as there are substantial differences between state standards.
A national compact interferes with the oversight of nursing state boards about vetting licenses, tracking licenses, and coordinating disciplinary actions.
Other arguments against compact states may be related to the loss of state revenue from new nursing licenses or patients’ privacy.
Why Are Compact States Important for Nurses?
Nurses have much to gain from obtaining multistate licensure. First of all, being able to work in multiple states under the same license opens up the door for a broader range of career development opportunities. You’ll have more job flexibility as you are no longer as tied to geographical boundaries. You can practice in up to 39 states – and you are not required to apply for licensure if you decide to relocate between them. To this end, this translates into fewer impediments to practice, fewer application charges, less stress, and barriers to licensure.
While all nurses have to benefit from compact state licensure, the most to win are travel nurses and military personnel. Because of eNCL legislation, they no longer have to spend time and money to apply for licensure in every state they move to – as long as they relocate to a compact state.
How Does the Nursing Compact Benefit the Healthcare System?
Nurses aren’t the only ones reaping the benefits of compact states. So does the healthcare system as a whole. Being able to work unencumbered in multiple states encourages healthcare professional mobility. As a result, nursing shortages could be more easily and efficiently tackled.
Healthcare professional mobility is a valuable asset in difficult times, as well. When natural disasters strike, significant tragedies happen, or pandemics hit, nurses shouldn’t have to jump extra hurdles to be on the frontlines of care when they are already sacrificing so much.
Telehealth coverage is another essential thing with advantages in compact states. Telehealth nursing has been gaining more and more ground in recent years. Unless cross-state nursing licenses become widely recognized, the very principles of telehealth nursing will be defeated as access to nursing care is restricted. Through eNLC, RNs can offer telehealthcare without having to obtain additional licenses.
What Are the Eligibility Criteria for Applying for a Multistate License?
As we already mentioned, to get licensure in a state that is part of the eNCL agreement and be able to practice in all member states, you need to meet 11 requirements:
You must meet the requirements for licensure in your home state, which is the state where you have legal residency.
You need to have graduated from a board-approved education program.
If English is not your native language or the nursing program you pursued was not taught in English, you must pass an English proficiency exam.
You ought to pass the NCLEX-RN or the NCLEX-PN.
You need to hold an active, unencumbered nursing license.
You must pass state and federal fingerprint-based criminal background checks.
You have never been convicted or found guilty of a felony offense.
You have no misdemeanor convictions related to the practice of nursing.
When seeking licensure, you are not part of an alternative program.
If you are participating in an alternative program, you must disclose this information.
You have a valid US Social Security number.
On the Move Scenarios
Suppose you are considering relocating. Depending on your current residence and license status, there are some scenarios we should look at more closely.
From a non-compact state to a compact state: You must apply for licensure by endorsement in the new state of residence before or after the move. You will be granted a multistate license if you meet all the residency and eligibility requirements (mentioned above). This will not affect your single-state license issued by the non-compact state.
From a compact state to a non-compact state: In this scenario, before or after the move, you need to apply for licensure by endorsement in the state where you relocate. Your prior multistate license will be changed to a single state license. You need to notify your previous Board of Nursing of your relocation.
From a compact state to a compact state: Should you relocate from one compact nursing state to another, by the time you move, you need to apply for licensure by endorsement. You can practice with the old state license in your new location until the new one is issued. The old one will automatically be rendered inactive when your new multistate license gets activated.
What’s the Current Status of Your License?
Suppose you need to double-check whether your license of compact or not. You can do so by using Nursys. Nursys is the only national database through which RNs and LPNs can verify their nursing license, discipline, and practice privileges. On this platform, you’ll be able to see all your licenses and check their compact status. Moreover, downloading your Nursys report will show you all the states where you are eligible to practice.
What About APRNs?
Unfortunately, the eNLC does not pertain to Advanced Practice Registered Nursing licenses. APRNs need to hold an individual state license in each state of APRN practice. Only RNs and LPNs can have a multistate license via compact states.
However, the NCSBN is currently working on a compact agreement for APRNs. Still, this measure can only be implemented when at least ten states enact the legislation.
Resources to Stay Informed
The list of compact nursing states changes and updates as more states pass legislation and begin transitioning towards becoming members of the agreement. Always stay on top of the latest developments using these valuable resources:
Being a Registered Nurse is a highly fulfilling career. And through compact nursing state agreements, you can pursue this gratifying career in more locations than ever before – without the hassle of getting a new license when you want to relocate.
The very first step is starting your nursing education. Nightingale College will prepare you to be a great Registered Nurse in any state you choose to practice.
The nursing process is the cornerstone of all nursing practice. It is a roadmap to quality, holistic care that nurses consistently offer to their patients. Assessment, the first step of this process, is when the RN gathers data about a client’s health state. Registered Nurses later use this information to formulate a diagnosis and identify the appropriate nursing interventions to contribute to the patient’s recovery.
In the assessment phase, one of the basic yet crucial tools a nurse has at their disposal is complete head-to-toe assessment. This evaluation includes all body systems and gives valuable information about the patient’s overall condition.
In this guide, we’ll give you an overview of the assessment process, as well as a comprehensive step-by-step guide on how to perform a head-to-toe assessment. As you gain experience, examining patients will become routine. This checklist is the first step to help you gather the professional confidence needed to perform evaluations.
Let’s get started.
What Is a Head to Toe Assessment?
If you’re still in nursing school or you’re just getting started with your nursing journey, you may ask yourself: What is a head-to-toe assessment? What does it include? How do I complete one?
Simply put, a head to toe assessment is an exhaustive process that checks the health status of all major body systems. It is a comprehensive physical examination that shines a light on a patient’s needs and problems. Performing this assessment falls under an RN’s duties, although sometimes a doctor or EMT might also do it. For the most part, head to toe assessments happen during primary care visits or annual physical exams.
When a patient comes into the medical facility with a particular complaint or health issue, the more common approach will be a problem-focused assessment. This means that the assessment process is fixated on specific care goals: the health problem has been identified, so this type of examination has a narrower scope.
The head to toe assessment is the opposite of that. It’s broader and concentrates on all aspects of the body. Its length will vary depending on the patient and their overall health status.
What Equipment Should you Have Ready for a Head to Toe Assessment?
Nurses who perform head to toe assessment must come in prepared. Some of the fundamental pieces of equipment you should organize before conducting a head-to-toe evaluation are:
Gloves
Thermometer
Scale
Hight wall ruler
Penlight
Stethoscope
Blood pressure cuff
Tongue depressor
Sterile objects, both soft and sharp
What Methods of Examination Do You Use in a Head to Toe Assessment?
There are several procedures for performing a physical examination. While inspecting a patient in detail, you will use four main methods. We’ll describe briefly what they are and what they entail.
Inspection
Always performed first, inspection also is the most repeated method of examination. You need to use your sight and smell to check specific body areas for normal color, shape, and consistency.
Palpation
Touching the patient to sense abnormalities on (or in) the body is known as palpation. In the process of conducting a head-to-toe assessment, you will employ two kinds of palpation: light and deep. Light palpation is gentle and gives information about skin texture and moisture, fluids, muscle guarding, and some superficial tenderness the patient may be experiencing. On the other hand, deep palpation explores the internal structures of the body to a depth of four to five centimeters. Using this technique, RNs can learn more about organs and masses’ position, shape, mobility, and possible areas of discomfort.
Percussion
This third technique requires the nurse to tap on the patient’s body to produce sound vibrations. These sounds can confirm the presence of air, fluid, and solids. It can also pinpoint organ size, shape, and position.
Auscultation
The last method of examination is auscultation. It implies listening to the heart, lungs, neck, or abdomen to gather information. Direct auscultation is done with the unaided ear. Indirect auscultation requires the presence of amplification or mechanical devices, such as a stethoscope.
How Do You Start an Assessment?
The first thing you need to do before starting an assessment per se is to build rapport with the patient. Introduce yourself, explain what you will be doing, ask what brings them to the doctor’s office. Address any questions they may have before you begin. Ask if there’s something you could do to make them more comfortable, like changing the room’s temperature or the lighting. It’s essential to build a relationship with the patient before the actual physical examination begins.
From the moment you walk into the room, you should start making mental notes of certain physical clues the patient might display:
Their general appearance (How does their hygiene, dress, affect seem?)
Their posture (Do they seem to experience problems sitting/standing?Are they grunting during movement?)
Is their speech clear or slurred?
Are there any abnormal smells?
Their alertness (Can they answer questions? Are they reluctant to speak?)
Signs of distress (Do they seem visibly confused, pale? Do they have problems breathing? Are they avoiding eye contact?)
Once you have established a relationship with the patient, you can begin the assessment.
Head to Toe Assessment Checklist
In order to make it easier for yourself to conduct the assessment, you can have a checklist or an overview of all the things you ought to examine. This section will explore in detail what exactly is included in this type of assessment, and it will equip you with a step-by-step guide to performing it.
1. General Overview
First, you obtain a general overview of the patient’s health state. These are the details to keep an eye on in this phase of the assessment.
Collect their vital signs. (It’s encouraged to ask permission before touching a patient. Also, explaining what you are doing/what assessment you are performing will help the patient feel more relaxed.)
Check heart rate
Measure blood pressure
Take body temperature
Pulse oxymetry
Respiratory rate
Check pain levels
Check hight and weight and calculate their BMI
2. Hair/ Skin/ Nails
Once you have a general overview, you can start from the top of the body and make your way down. The assessment is called head to toe for a reason. Some things to look out for are:
Hair distribution(even/uneven)
Hair infestations (lice, alopecia areata)
Bumps, nits, lesions on the scalp
Tenderness on scalp
Tenderness, lumps on the skin
Lesions, bruising, or rashes on skin
Temperature, moisture, and skin texture (is the patient pale, clammy, dry, cold, hot, flushed?)
Edema
Consistency, color, and capillary refill of nails
Pressure areas
3. Head
Shape is rounded, symmetrical
Upon palpation, no nodules, masses or depressions are identified
Face appears smooth and symmetrical with no nodules or masses present.
4. Eyes
Check external structures
Assess eye symmetry
Check conjunctive and sclera
Check for PERRLA
Perform visual acuity test
Check eyes for drainage
Check vision with Snellen Chart
Check six cardinal positions of the gaze
5. Nose
Palpate nose and check symmetry
Check septum and inside nostrils
Patency of nares (patient can breath through each nostril)
Check sense of smell
Palpate sinuses
6. Mouth and Throat
Check lips for color and moistness
Inspect teeth and gums
Examine tongue
Inspect the inside of mouth
Look at tonsils and uvula
Assess hypoglossal nerve by asking patient to move tongue from left to right
Check the patient’s ability to taste, to swallow, and their gag reflex
7. Ears
Inspect for drainage or abnormalities
Test hearing with whisper test
Look inside ear: inspect the tympanic membrane and asses ear discharge
Tuning fork tests (Weber’s Test, Rinne Test)
8. Neck
Check neck muscles to be equal in size
Palpate lymph nodes
Check head movements and whether they happen with discomfort
Observe neck range of motion.
Check trachea placement
Check shoulder shrug with resistance
9. Chest: Cardiovascular Assessment
Listen to the heartbeat. Areas where to auscultate heart sounds: aortic, pulmonic, Erb’s point, Tricuspid, Mitral
Palpate the carotid and auscultate apical pulse
10. Chest: Respiratory Assessment
Auscultate lung sounds front and back
Observe chest expansion
Ask abour efforts to breathe/coughing
Palpate thorax
11. Abdomen
Inspect abdomen
Listen to bowel sounds in all four quadrants
Palpate all four quadrants of the abdomen to check for pain or tenderness
Ask about bowel or bladder problems
12. Extremities
Assess range of motion and strength in arms, legs, and ankles
Assess sharp and dull sensation on arms and legs
Inspect arms and legs for pain, deformity, edema, pressure areas, bruises
Palpate radial pulses, pedal pulses
Check capillary refill on fingernails/toenails
Assess gait
Assess handgrip strength and equality
13. Back area
Inspect back and spine
Inspect coccyx/buttocks
Once you go through all these steps, the assessment is complete. Let your patient know that this stage of evaluation is over. Make sure they don’t have any questions or concerns.
Things to Keep in Mind While Performing a Head to Toe Assessment
Document your findings
Performing the head to toe assessment is a vital part of the nursing process. So is making sure you thoroughly document your findings. Write down all relevant information you get from the assessment concise yet clear. Your observations, translated in these notes, will make up the core of the subsequent care plan. It may be helpful to use a head-to-toe assessment checklist to guarantee that you remember all the essential information and document it.
Communicate efficiently
Efficient communication is the cornerstone of successful nursing care. When performing a head to toe assessment, you should make use of this crucial skill. Ask for permission before touching a patient, explain what you are doing – and why. Create a space where patients feel encouraged to ask questions, express worries or concerns.
Bilateral symmetry
Generally speaking, the human body is bilaterally symmetrical. Any unusual symmetry you may observe during your examination is worthy of further consideration. Weakness on one side? Less ability to move the limbs on one side of the body? These could be indicators of underlying neurological or musculoskeletal issues, so keep an eye for noticeable differences between the body’s right and the left side.
Last Thing on the Checklist: Are You Ready to Become the Best Nurse You Can Be?
Performing a head to toe assessment may seem daunting at first. There’s lots of body systems to examine and many details to keep an eye on. However, as with all things, practice makes perfect. As you gain more confidence in your knowledge, expertise, and skill, you’ll be conducting nursing assessments like a pro.
Having a solid foundation to build on is paramount. At Nightingale College, we help aspiring nurses build that strong foundation.
Registered Nurses are an invaluable link in the healthcare environment. Their selfless care contributes to the patients’ wellbeing, coping, and recovery. To achieve all these goals and offer the best possible nursing care, RNs follow what is commonly known in professional circles as the nursing process – a systematic five-stage guide to offering high-quality, patient-centric care.
The nursing process has one essential, tangible outcome – the nursing care plan – a detailed outline that guides the process of providing care. The care plan, much like the nursing process, includes several steps which the nurse uses to formulate the direction of care. These are the nursing diagnosis, expected outcomes, interventions, and evaluation.
Thus, nursing interventions are an integral part of the nursing care plan. In this comprehensive guide, we will put nursing interventions under the microscope. What types of interventions exist? Why do they matter? What are some of the most common nursing interventions you can expect to perform daily once you get that much-coveted RN title?
Let’s find out together.
What Are Nursing Interventions?
Before we delve into the different classifications of nursing interventions, it may be helpful to take a moment to define what nursing interventions are.
Checking a medical dictionary gives us the following definition for nursing interventions:
“an action or activity undertaken by a nurse to address a specific client problem and to improve, maintain, or restore health or to prevent illness.”
Essentially, nursing interventions are all the actions nurses take to implement care plans with the overarching goal of improving, maintaining, or restoring a patient’s state. These may include therapies, procedures, or education opportunities. As long as a measure or activity aids in treating a patient and aims to increase their health and comfort, it will count as a nursing intervention.
Most interventions are part of the nursing routine: administering medication, turning patients to prevent bedsores, offering feeding assistance, and many more. But, in general, there are hundreds of possible nursing interventions. In the following sections, we will explore what they are and what categories they fall under.
What Are the Categories of Nursing Interventions?
Registered Nurses always act as a part of a bigger healthcare team. In the process of caring for a single patient, there’s an army of nurses, aides, physicians, physical therapists, therapists who all collaborate to ensure the best patient outcomes.
With that in mind, an initial categorization for nursing interventions is related to the nurse’s level of involvement in carrying out the intervention.
Independent nursing interventions are the actions that nurses can perform without assistance or guidance from other medical professionals, particularly without a doctor’s orders. For the most part, these are routine interventions such as checking a patient’s vitals, educating them on how to take medication, or repositioning a client.
Dependent nursing interventions are the actions that a nurse cannot initiate of their own accord but must instead follow a physician’s orders. Administering prescribed medications is one example of this type of intervention.
Interdependent nursing interventions are sometimes also referred to as collaborative interventions. They are the actions that include healthcare team members across the board. For instance, a physician may prescribe medication, the nurse will administer it, and another step in the treatment is performed by a physical therapist. Thus, professionals from multiple disciplines collaborate in the same plan of care.
What Role Does Assessment Play in Choosing Interventions?
Nursing assessment is the first step in the nursing process. It is the one that informs all the subsequent phases, including interventions.
During the assessment stage, nurses gather information about the patient’s state or condition. This may include objective or subjective data. Some of the ways in which the nurse can conduct the assessment include: performing a head-to-toe physical examination, checking vital signs, talking with the patient or their family, reading diagnostic tests.
Once they have a comprehensive corpus of data about the patient’s health situation, the nurse can move on to formulate a nursing diagnosis. Based on that, they can create a care plan for the patient, including the specific nursing interventions required to achieve the desired health goals. So, nursing interventions draw from the assessment phase and are tailored to each patient’s unique needs.
How Are Nursing Interventions Classified?
There is a wide variety of medical needs and conditions that nurses help patients fight and overcome. Based on the medical needs they cater to, nursing interventions are further classified into seven important categories: community, family, behavioral, physiological basic, physiological complex, safety, and health system.
This classification was introduced in the book Nursing Interventions Classifications (NIC), 7th edition, which provides a research-based clinical tool to help nurses choose appropriate interventions from over 550 options.
Let’s take a closer look at each of these categories and the ensuing nursing interventions.
Community Nursing Intervention
In many medical facilities, there is a focus on public health initiatives. These actions aim to educate larger groups of people: patients, their families, and local communities, in general, about matters of general health and wellbeing. Education programs for diabetes, vaccination campaigns on a larger scale, breast cancer awareness movements – these are some examples of public health initiatives in which nurses can take part, subsequently requiring interventions on their part.
Family Nursing Interventions
Certain nursing interventions are directed at a patient’s family as much as to the patients themselves. For example, suppose a patient is diagnosed with a transmittable disease. In that case, the nurse must educate the entire family on ways to reduce the threat of the illness. Or, when a child is born, the nurse may instruct or assist the mother with breastfeeding her newborn or offer other forms of infant care to the parents.
Behavioral Nursing Interventions
If a patient is battling addiction, wants to quit smoking, or needs to learn how to use an assistive device, the Registered Nurse will have to engage in behavioral nursing interventions. These types of actions are aimed at helping the patient learn methods to change a specific behavior. Some more examples include: educating the patient about using a new mobility aid, like a prosthetic leg, or providing coping mechanisms against stress; suggesting physical coping mechanisms to substance abuse.
Physiological Basic Nursing Interventions
Physiological basic nursing interventions are simple actions nurses perform to assist patients with their physical health. These procedures range from exercise and offering feeding or bathing assistance to measuring a patient’s blood pressure or temperature.
Physiological Complex Nursing Interventions
This category includes a more complex set of interventions aimed at helping a patient with their physical health. An excellent example of a physiological complex nursing intervention would be providing IV fluids. This intervention requires a combination of smaller tasks – inserting the needle, administering medication, and keeping an eye on the patient.
Safety Nursing Interventions
Helping patients maintain their safety and preventing further injury is an integral part of a nurse’s job. That’s where safety nursing interventions come in. Safety interventions come in many forms: from educating a patient (or their family) on postoperative care and teaching them how to use a walker safely after a hip replacement to giving instructions on how to use the alarm in case they want to move to avoid risk of falls to showing a disoriented patient back to their room.
Health System Nursing Interventions
This type of nursing intervention is usually collaborative and includes input from multiple healthcare team members. For example, if the health goal for the patient is to reduce the risk for infections during their stay, then the subsequent interventions would be the administration of medication (as prescribed by physician), followed by offering hygiene assistance and changing wound dressings (by the nurse).
What Is the Role of Nursing Interventions?
While nurses may not use every intervention category during every shift, they still have crucial goals.
First of all, nursing interventions help patients reach specific health goals. Administering medication, dressing wounds, and ensuring a patient stays hydrated are just some of the ways in which RNs are a vital part of treatment plans and speedy recovery.
Patient education is another approach through which nurses intervene for a patient’s wellbeing. The education process doesn’t stop at the client. Nurses also have to teach families and caregivers how to implement treatment plans after discharge or keep a patient’s condition in check even after they have left the hospital.
Promoting safety is an additional crucial goal of nursing interventions. An RN’s actions can serve as preventative measures. Repositioning patients in bed to avoid pressure ulcers or lowering the bed to prevent the risk of falling are great examples of how nurses can promote patient safety.
Nursing support isn’t always directed at physical actions nurses take for the wellbeing of their patients. Sometimes, RNs offer support by being there emotionally and comforting patients or their families in stressful situations. Recommending resources for therapy and sharing coping mechanisms are other ways nurses can provide support to their clients.
Examples of Key Nursing Interventions
While there are over 550 possible nursing interventions, some are more common than others. Some of the interventions you may come across more often include pain control, position changes, fall prevention, ensuring adequate fluid or calorie intake, providing sleep pattern control, or engaging with the patient in mobility therapy.
Additionally, we will take a closer look at specific nursing interventions associated with particular conditions or health risks. The list of potential interventions for each condition is by no means exhaustive because nursing interventions will be tailored to each patient’s needs. But this will help you better understand what nursing interventions entail.
Nursing interventions for pain
Nursing interventions for pain will vary greatly depending on each patient and the type of pain they’re dealing with: acute or chronic. Some examples of RN interventions are:
Perform a detailed assessment of the pain. Pinpoint the location, characteristics, onset, duration, frequency, and severity of pain.
Closely observe nonverbal indicators of pain. If the patient is moaning, guarding, crying, that may indicate that the treatment is inefficient.
Provide a quiet environment for the patient. Limit visitor stays or access to the patient’s room
Provide optimal pain relief by administering pain relief medication prescribed by the doctor.
Nursing interventions for hypertension
Some activities you can do in case your patient has hypertension are:
Ensure calm and restful surroundings. Minimize environmental activity and noise.
Instruct the patient in relaxation techniques, guided imagery, distractions.
Administer medication as prescribed by the doctor.
Monitor response to medications to control blood pressure.
Nursing interventions for depression
Some nursing interventions you may consider when dealing with patients suffering from depression include:
Encouraging the patient to express their feelings, be it anger, sadness, or guilt, and trying to develop alternative ways to handle these emotions.
Educate the patient about crisis counseling. Introduce the patient to self-help groups.
Ensure the patient takes medication on time and as prescribed.
Nursing interventions for diabetes
These are some of the interventions that should be implemented for patients suffering from diabetes:
Educate the patient about how to monitor glucose levels at home.
Encourage your patient to read the labels of products they buy.
Teach patients how their antidiabetic medication works.
Check injection sites periodically.
Nursing interventions for COPD
Most patients with Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) receive outpatient treatment. So, an essential part of the COPD nursing interventions focuses on teaching patients to comply with the therapy and understand the nature of this chronic disease.
Demonstrate effective coughing and deep-breathing techniques.
Encourage abdominal or pursed-lip breathing exercises.
Assist the patient in maintaining a comfortable position by elevating the head of the bed, having the patient lean on an overbed table, or sitting on the edge of the bed.
Ready to Embark on the Next Step of Your Nursing Career?
As a Registered Nurse, nursing interventions are an integral part of your practice. You will perform these activities throughout your entire RN career. Each intervention comes with a great deal of responsibility. Still, your nursing education combined with on-ground experience and the right set of skills will ensure you excel at this vital nursing process step.
We’re here to help you succeed and to make sure that you, your patients, and the entire health environment all win.
Enroll in Nightingale College’s BSN program or advance your education with our RN-to-BSN program.
Nursing care plans are one of the most valuable tools nurses have at their disposal. They aid RNs in strategically outlining the best course of care for patients and enable quality communication within the healthcare team. Thus, writing and using a nursing care plan is one of the nursing skills that nursing students and experienced professionals have to cultivate consistently.
Much attention is devoted to mastering this aspect of the nursing process in nursing school, so nursing care plans are an integral part of any nursing school curriculum. And the need to write care plans continues after graduation because a critical part of nursing practice relies on efficiently written and implemented care plans.
This guide will walk you through everything you need to know about nursing care plans. Stick around to find the best practices for making a care plan, how to write it, and how to use this instrument to deliver quality care.
What Is a Nursing Care Plan?
The nursing care plan (NCP) is a process through which the nurse identifies, documents, and keeps track of a parent’s state or condition, needs, and risks. The elaboration of the care plan starts when the patient is admitted to the medical facility. The NCP is continuously updated throughout the patient’s stay based on their condition and response to treatment. Typically, creating a nursing care plan follows a five-step framework.
The nursing care planning process ensures that the quality of patient care is always up to the highest standards. It sets the groundwork for patient-centered care and is a sign of excellence in nursing practice.
Nursing care plans have a few significant objectives. First off, they aim to encourage evidence-based nursing care. Accounting for the fact that psychological, social, and spiritual health are as potent as physical health, nursing care plans advocate for holistic care to manage and prevent diseases. Other aims of this practice include:
Identifying achievable goals for the nursing team.
Spelling out desired care outcomes.
Measuring nursing care.
What Are The Types of Nursing Care Plans?
Nursing care plans are either informal or formal. The informal care plans are courses of action in response to a patient’s state that the nurse has thought of but hasn’t yet documented or formalized.
A formal nursing care plan is the written version of the plan. It details the patient’s care information, information about the nursing interventions, the patient’s state, response to nursing interventions, and more.
Standardized care plans are formal nursing care plans in which the RN specifies the care they offer to a group of clients with everyday needs.
Individualized care plans are formal nursing care plans tailored to the needs of a particular patient. They are specific and unique to each patient’s condition or requirements.
Student Nursing Care Plans vs. Professional Nursing Care Plans
Student nursing care plans and the care plans written by professional registered nurses have the same overall goal: to guide the process of nursing care. However, there are some important differences between them.
Care plans formulated by aspiring RNs in nursing schools are significantly longer. They are written with greater detail and contain more thorough information. It is more time-consuming to devise student nursing care plans. Still, it’s a good training exercise. It solidifies the students’ knowledge and ensures they grasp and apply essential nursing concepts.
Nursing care plans written by Registered Nurses in clinical settings are generally more concise. Unlike students, working professionals don’t have to write down every nursing judgment and decision-making step. Additionally, the clinical setting version of nursing plans does not include the rationale – an extra column in which nursing students have to present the scientific explanations for the chosen interventions.
What Are the Main Reasons to Have a Care Plan?
There are many advantages to writing and implementing nursing care plans. They may be tedious to create, but they benefit nurses, patients, and the entire healthcare system in the long run. These are some of the reasons why care plans play such a vital part in patient care:
Nursing care plans are a roadmap to quality patient-centered care. Care plans help structure and organize patient care. When elaborating them, the nurse employs critical and holistic thinking, leading to better patient outcomes.
Nursing care plans ensure the continuity of care. Nurse care plans need to be written or computerized, and so they become a part of a patient’s health record. Consequently, nurses have access to the same patient information. Despite working different shifts, all RNs caring for a patient will be aware of the diagnosis, prior nursing interventions, and their coworkers’ observations and insights. This means that nurses work towards the same goal, which leads to better patient results.
Nursing care plans ensure collaboration with other members of the healthcare team. In addition to their fellow RNs, nurses also have to collaborate with physicians, assistants, social workers, physical therapists, and other health team members. Nursing plans put all the information in one place and make it easily accessible for all members of this interprofessional team. Thus, everyone is aware of the desired outcomes and can work towards them.
Nursing care plans keep patients engaged. An important part of formulating nursing care plans is setting goals for and with patients. This step motivates patients to be more involved in their recovery, makes them more compliant to treatment, and ensures better outcomes.
Nursing care plans can serve as evidence of given care. These are documents through which nurses document their interventions, thus acting as a record in case of lawsuits or accusations that they failed to adhere to nursing standards. They maximize the efficiency of the nurses while also shielding them from potential problems.
Nursing care plans act as guides for reimbursement. Insurance companies use medical records to determine the amount they will pay concerning the care the patient received.
What Are the Components of a Nursing Care Plan?
Nursing care plans are essentially the written outcome of the nursing process. For this reason, the structure of a nursing care plan closely follows the five steps of the nursing process: assessment, diagnosis, planning, implementation, evaluation.
More precisely, nursing care plans usually follow this template:
Nursing diagnosis
Desired outcomes/goals
Nursing interventions (or implementations)
Evaluation
Let’s look at each step more closely.
Before everything else, a care plan must include a nursing diagnosis. To formulate a nursing diagnosis, you need to conduct a thorough assessment of the patient’s health, consisting of objective or subjective data.
After establishing a nursing diagnosis, the next step in your care plan is outlining desired outcomes and goals. The goals may be long-term or short-term, but all of them ought to be realistic and achievable.
Following that, you need to start documenting the nursing interventions you carry out.
The last component of the nursing plan is evaluation. This step covers the information about the outcomes of the nursing interventions.
How to Write a Nursing Plan?
Developing a nursing plan may seem daunting at first. But it doesn’t have to be. Now that you’re familiar with the components, all you have to do is follow the step-by-step guide that we included below.
Conduct patient assessment.
When you start creating a nursing plan, you first gather information about the patient’s state using specific nursing assessment techniques and other data collection methods. This may include conducting a head-to-toe physical assessment, taking vitals, reviewing the patient’s health history and medical records, asking questions directly to the patient or their family, performing diagnosis studies. It is essential to be thorough and careful in gathering health data.
Analyze and catalog all the information you got in the previous step.
By now, you have large chunks of information about your patient’s state, their history, the health risks they encounter, and more. You need to structure it and pick the relevant details. Based on that, formulate a nursing diagnosis, which will help set your priorities and determine some desired outcomes.
Formulate your nursing diagnosis.
All the data you collected will help you in the diagnosing process. You should write the nursing diagnosis in line with the NANDA-I format, the internationally recognized way to identify and catalog RN diagnoses. Prioritizing will play a vital role in creating a nursing diagnosis. For this, Maslow’s hierarchy of needs will prove a helpful tool. Once you have indicated a diagnosis, you can set goals and pinpoint the desired nursing outcomes.
Find everything you need to know about writing a nursing diagnosis in our complete guide on the subject.
Set SMART patient goals.
After writing a diagnosis, you must set goals for the direction of care. This is essentially the planning stage, where you outline what you hope to achieve once the nursing process is implemented. These goals will pave the path for planning nursing interventions. Later on, they will be the standards by which you evaluate the patient’s health progress.
It’s crucial to keep the goals clear, realistic, and specific. A good strategy for setting goals as part of the nursing plan is by employing the SMART technique:
Specific – Make sure the nursing goals you choose are unambiguous and well-defined.
Measurable – Set specific metrics to determine/measure the efficacy of your actions and the patient’s progress.
Achievable – The nursing goals must be realistic and possible to achieve.
Realistic – They need to be appropriate in relation to the overarching care plan.
Time-bound – Deadlines can help you keep better track of your interventions and how efficient they are. These can be flexible.
Goals can also be short-term or long-term. For the most part, as a nurse, you will devise short-term goals because you are mostly focused on the patient’s immediate (or near future) needs or concerns. Long-term nursing goals are mostly used by nurses working in home healthcare, nursing homes, or with patients suffering from chronic health problems.
Choose appropriate nursing interventions
Nursing interventions are the actions a nurse takes to achieve patient goals and reach the desired outcomes. The interventions focus on reducing the causes of the nursing diagnosis or decreasing the risk factors. You may follow the doctor’s guidelines – dependent nursing interventions – to choose the appropriate interventions. Also, you can develop nursing interventions yourself, drawing from evidence-based practice – independent nursing interventions. Another type of nursing intervention is collaborative, which refers to the actions or activities you carry out in collaboration with other healthcare team members.
There are seven categories of nursing interventions: family, behavioral, physiological, complex physiological, community, safety, and health system interventions. Some of the most common nursing interventions you can expect to perform during each shift include: assessing pain, giving medications, checking vital signs at specific intervals, changing the resting position, initiating fall precautions, or educating the patient.
After identifying the appropriate interventions, you will perform them in the implementation phase of the nursing process.
Provide rationale for the chosen nursing interventions
This additional step is only included in student nursing care plans. Writing down the rationale in the student care plan serves as an exercise for students to ensure that they are fully aware of why a specific nursing intervention was the best course of action.
Perform evaluation
Evaluation is the final step of the nursing care plan. In this phase, the nurse will analyze whether the care goals have been met and whether or not the nursing plan was effective. Importantly, evaluation is an ongoing process. Based on its conclusions, you can continue, change, or cancel nursing interventions.
Tips and Tricks for Writing Efficient Nursing Care Plans
Keep your writing skills sharp.
More than just an important document, a nursing care plan is a guide to efficient nursing care and interdepartmental collaboration. That’s why you need to be efficient in writing it. As much as possible, try to write everything down immediately not to miss or forget any details. Write clearly and concisely, but make sure you and the other members of the team understand the terms or abbreviations you use. Include dates and times.
Always keep the plan up to date.
Make sure your care plans are constantly updated with the latest information. You should always document the changes in a patient’s state, the updates in the nursing interventions, or other developments that may occur in the process of care.
Keep the plans accessible and easily shareable.
An essential characteristic of care plans is that they must be easily shareable with relevant stakeholders. These may include patients, other doctors or nurses, or insurance companies. The format for the nursing care plans may differ from one medical institution to another. Still, for the most part, they are electronic and become part of the electronic health record (EHR). Thus, they can be easily accessed by everyone.
Nursing Care Plan Examples
As a nurse, you’ll have to write nursing plans for a wide variety of conditions: from hypertension, infection, decreased cardiac output, impaired skin integrity, acute pain to constipation, anxiety, diabetes, dehydration, and many more. To better illustrate how to write nursing care plans, we have assembled some examples. Bear in mind that the template of the nursing plan may differ from one institution to another.
Nursing diagnosis
Desired Outcomes
Nursing Interventions
Evaluation
Nursing care plan for risk for falls
Risk for falls
The patient will be free from falls during their hospitalization.
The patient will verbalize their intentions and appropriate interventions to minimize risk for falls
The nurse will educate the patient on how to use the call bell when they need assistance to move
The nurse will teach patient the importance of using a walker when moving
The nurse will keep the patient’s bed on the lowest position at all times.
The patient successfully used the call bell whenever they wanted to ambulate.
The risk for falls displayed by the patient has been significantly reduced.
Nursing care plan for pain:
Acute pain
The patient will verbalize a decrease in pain levels within 24 hours after receiving pain medication.
The patient will verbalize 5 indicators of a pending migraine.
The patient will verbalize how to correctly take Motrin before discharge.
The nurse will assess the patient’s pain level every 2 hours, while the patient is awake until the pain level drops to below 3. – The nurse, will educate the patient on signs of a pending migraine.
The nurse will educate the patient on the proper administration of Motrin.
The patient has expressed a decrease in pain levels within 24 hours after receiving pain medication.
The patient was able to name 5 indicators of a pending migraine.
The patient is aware of how to correctly take Motrin before discharge.
Nursing care plan for hypertension
Risk for Decreased Cardiac Output
The patient will participate in activities that reduce BP/cardiac workload.
The patient will demonstrate stable cardiac rhythm and rate within the patient’s normal range.
The patient will participate in activities that will prevent stress (stress management, balanced activities, and rest plan).
The nurse will provide calm, restful surroundings, minimize environmental activity and noise. Limit the number of visitors and length of stay.
The nurse will instruct the patient in relaxation techniques, guided imagery, and distractions.
The nurse will administer medications as indicated by a physician
The nurse will monitor response to medications to control blood pressure.
The patient demonstrated stable cardiac rhythm and rate within their normal range.
The patient participated in activities that reduced cardiac workload.
Are you Ready to Start Writing Efficient Nursing Care Plans?
Writing efficient, goal-oriented, easily-accessible, clear, and evidence-based nursing care plans is pivotal for any Registered Nurse.
In order to develop nursing care plans that encompass all these qualities, you need to be knowledgeable, display critical thinking, engage in teamwork, and focus on offering patient-centric care. If you follow these guidelines, the care plans you write will help elevate your professional status and the entire healthcare process.
We’re here to make your journey a little easier. Enroll in Nightingale College’s BSN program or advance your education with an online RN-to-BSN and discover that writing nursing care plans doesn’t have to be a daunting process.
The idea of working night shifts can appear very daunting, especially as an aspiring nurse or an RN in the emergent stages of their career. Being a nurse is already a challenging profession. The extra layer of changing your internal body clock and rearranging your life and activities according to an unusual schedule is bound to make it more trying.
There’ll be many questions running through your mind. How do I stay awake? How do I adjust to this new schedule? How do I make sure I offer the best patient care even though I might be exhausted or sleepy? Do the benefits of working night shifts outweigh the risks?
It’s normal to wonder what it takes to survive – and better yet, conquer – the night shift. Here’s where we come in. In this guide, you will find the ultimate night shift survival kit: tips and tricks on adjusting to night shift nursing and advice on how to make the best of it.
What Are the Benefits of Night shifts?
Some nurses dread working night shifts; others prefer them because the benefits of working nights seem to outweigh the drawbacks. Let’s explore some of these advantages:
Night shifts are better paid. Although the salaries will differ from state to state, and even among medical institutions, as a general rule, Registered Nurses who work the night shift earn more than day shift nurses.
Another advantage is that fewer visitors and fewer family members are crowding a patient’s room during the night. Not having to deal with as many parties makes your job a little easier.
More autonomy is another thing that draws a lot of RNs to night shift nursing. People in management positions don’t work nights, so you have a lot more liberty in the workplace. There are fewer unnecessary meetings and fewer distractions. If being more independent in your professional life is vital for you, you’ll find that night shifts fit your personality best.
The nursing team is another big pro for night shift nursing. An unbreakable bond is formed among nurses who work together. The night shift offers more time for creating stronger professional and personal relationships.
Not only do you bond more with your fellow nurses, but you also have the opportunity to create more intimate professional relationships with your patients. Granted, most patients will sleep for the duration of your shift, which means you get more time and get to offer more individualized care to the ones who are awake.
In addition to all of these, some benefits often get overlooked. There will be more parking spaces after business hours, saving you the frustration of finding a spot. The commute to work may be shorter since there is less traffic when you get to work or home. At odd hours there are no lines in convenience or grocery stores.
What Are the Drawbacks for Night Shift Workers?
Night shift nursing comes with its share of benefits, but we will not sugarcoat it; you also need to consider quite a few drawbacks.
While nursing is challenging whether you practice it during the day or night, working from dusk to sunset tends to be harder on your body. If you’re not very careful and aware, the quality of your sleep may decline. Inadequate rest brings its threats:
Slower thinking (which, in certain healthcare situations, may make the difference between life and death).
Reduced attention span.
Increased irritability and anxiety.
Weakened memory.
Subpar decision-making.
These qualities are critical in preventing nurses from committing nursing errors on the job.
Unfortunately, night shift nurses are also more prone to elevated health risks. They are at a higher risk of type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease. Working the night shift disturbs the metabolic rhythms which control the activity of your liver, pancreas, kidneys, and digestive tract. These disruptions may be linked with some gastrointestinal disorders or debilitating metabolic disorders. So, making the switch to night nursing is harder on your body. Still, you can alleviate these symptoms by closely monitoring your health and keeping a healthy diet and sleep regimen.
Another drawback linked to night shift nursing is that not everyone understands what you’re going through and doing. Some won’t respect the time you need to rest or might make it harder for you to stick to your unusual schedule.
At the same time, you may feel like you’re missing out on certain things because of your hectic schedule. Working nights and sleeping for a good part of the day leaves many people feeling like they aren’t present as much as people working more traditional 9-5 jobs.
How Can a Night Shift Nurse Avoid The Risks?
While these cons are stressful, for the most part, they are manageable. First and foremost, to avoid night shift-related health concerns, you need to pay close attention to preserving your circadian rhythms.
The circadian clock is the body’s self-programming to follow a 24-hour cycle. It controls (at least to a certain extent) body temperature, hormones, heart rate, and other body processes and functions. Thus, the body is pretty much wired for when it needs to be awake vs. asleep. Surviving the night shift requires going against your circadian clock, which can lead one to feel fatigued or drowsy. Despite the unusual schedule, preserving your circadian rhythm requires you to maintain a quality sleep pattern. That means you need to get enough quality sleep during the day. How to do that will be discussed in the next section.
Adjusting your sleep schedule is step one in avoiding the risks associated with the night shift. Furthermore, you need to adjust your eating patterns, mental state, and habits. Then you will be able to transition smoothly into night shift nursing.
How to Adjust to Working the Night Shift: Night Shift Nursing Essentials
The night shift duration will generally depend on the medical institutions where you work. 12-hour shifts can be from 8 pm to 8 am, or 8-hour shifts can be from 11 pm to 7 pm. The duties of night shift nurses are the same as those of daytime nurses. The only thing that differs is the additional pressure on your mind and body to face a new set of challenges that go against what they’re used to.
But if you manage to align your body and your mind, you’ll discover that you may enjoy working nights. There’s typically less of a rush. There’s more time to establish quality relationships with your patients and coworkers, and you get paid more. The following tips will help you survive and conquer the night shift. From how to stay awake to how to make the best of it, these are the night shift essentials:
Figure out the sleep schedule that works best for you
One of the first things you need to figure out when starting to work the night shift is the sleep schedule that will have you most rested and prepared for a night’s work after. Some nurses prefer to stay up for a few hours after arriving home from work in the morning. This way, they will wake up closer to their next shift (like one would do with a traditional 9-5).
Other professionals discovered a split-nap schedule to be the more efficient option. This type of sleeping schedule involves napping for a few hours immediately after getting home in the morning, getting up and going about your day, and then sleeping for longer in the hours leading up to when you start the next shift. Finding the proper sleep schedule may involve some trial and error. The thing that matters most is to get enough sleep every 24 hours. The National Sleep Foundation recommends an average of seven to nine hours of sleep for adults.
Understand the Circadian Clock to Better Accommodate It
One of the most significant adjustments you’ll have to make is to change your circadian rhythm and sleep during the day. The circadian rhythm, our body’s default option, is guided for the most part by natural light and darkness. During the day, when there’s sunlight out, your brain releases hormones that make you alert and energized. On the other hand, when the light dims as the night comes, the brain releases melatonin. This hormone activates feelings of sleepiness and relaxation. Understanding how the body reacts to light and darkness will help you conquer them.
Create a Sleep Environment that Encourages Quality Sleep
When reprogramming your circadian clock, you also need to adjust your environment. Figure out what exactly you need to be able to sleep during the day. It may be blackout curtains, eye masks, earplugs, or a sleep machine. You may want to set a ritual for yourself. Perhaps you want to take a hot shower before sleep, use face masks to unwind, drink some type of relaxing herbal tea, or avoid using screens for an hour before sleep. Find what helps you sleep uninterrupted and well during the day, and stick to you. Sleep is an essential part of succeeding during your night shifts.
Be Consistent When Scheduling Night Shifts
Most people will eventually adapt to the night shift schedule, but the entire process may take some time. Training your body to develop consistent sleep patterns that revolve around your home and work routines will help. Many seasoned nurses find that scheduling night shifts “back to back” helps them lower the amount of sleep lost. If you aim to routinize night shifts, it will be much easier to train your body and mind if you have them scheduled consistently.
Don’t Overlook the Power of Naps
The power of naps doesn’t limit itself to the split-nap schedule discussed above. Sometimes, napping for a short while during your shift might increase your energy level and attention. You can opt for a quick nap on your break if you find that a more energizing option than exercising for a few minutes. Some nurses advocate for the concept of the coffee nap, where you drink a cup of coffee and immediately after you take a short nap of 10-20 minutes, waking up just as the caffeine kicks in. Generally, 10-20 minute naps are perfect as they don’t give you enough time to enter a deep sleep phase. Hence, when you wake up, you’re energized and not groggy.
One critical remark here is to check your institution’s policy on napping during work hours. Some hospitals encourage napping in the workplace and even arrange special spaces where nurses can wind down for a few minutes.
Have More Energy with a Balanced Diet
We often take caffeine as the ultimate energy booster, but the truth is, the quick solution isn’t always the best one. If you want to avoid longer-term effects on your body, you should always consume caffeine in moderation.
Instead, to combat fatigue during your long night shifts, you should pay close attention to your diet. Certain foods and snacks will give your body the fuels it needs naturally. For example, fruits (bananas, apples) have simple sugars that will beneficially increase your glucose levels, giving you more energy. Fiber-rich grains are a fantastic way to turn carbs into energy. Opt for foods that contain healthy fats and vitamins, like avocado or salmon. Snacks should also be healthy: nuts, dried fruits, edamame, dark chocolate. As a rule of thumb, to keep your energy levels up and not crash halfway through your shift, consider whole foods, avoid refined sugars, and opt for healthy sources of energy.
Many nurses find that instead of eating a big meal before their shift and another big meal during their break, more frequent and smaller portioned snacks help them get through the night better.
Coffee Is Your Friend Until It Isn’t
When used moderately and wisely, coffee can help you stay alert. That’s why caffeinated beverages are so popular among shift workers. However, too much coffee can also lead to decreased concentration and performance. More importantly, drinking large amounts of caffeine can lead to some health problems: raised blood pressure, acid reflux, heartburn, and even dependency.
So, our main tip is to use caffeine in moderation. A cup of coffee at the beginning of your shift may be an ideal pick-me-up. But having coffee three to four hours before your shift ends is not recommended, as you may have trouble falling asleep when you get home.
Stay Active, Both Mind and Body
The workload tends to be lighter during night shifts, so staying active is paramount. Otherwise, the shift will seem longer, and the fatigue will hit even harder. There are several ways to keep yourself engaged, both physically and mentally.
First of all, if you are done with your regular tasks and still have hours to go, you can help with lower priority tasks that are essential but often get overlooked. You can also try to help the day shift nurses by completing some tasks that can be done ahead of time, like setting up equipment, preparing rooms, etc. The day shift usually is much busier, and your help will be greatly appreciated by day RNs.
Secondly, you can opt for some non-work-related activities to keep your mind and body awake and active. Exercising is a great way to reduce anxiety, release endorphins, and fuel more efficient work time later on. Sometimes, just climbing some stairs to fill your water bottle on another floor can be enough exercise to give you an energy boost.
It’s important to find constructive ways to keep busy and active during your night shift. The slower pace can be either a blessing or a curse – depending on how you use up your time.
Keep an Eye on Your Own Health
Nurses are some of the most selfless individuals. Often they’ll put their patients’ needs and health concerns far above their own. However, it is of utmost importance for nurses to look after themselves and their health and wellbeing. Especially in the night shift environment, RNs have to pay extra attention to how they feel to avoid burnout or other health concerns. Having an irregular schedule may lead to several problems: insomnia, high blood pressure, diabetes, menstrual irregularities, weight gain, and others. That’s why it’s imperative for nurses to consistently monitor their health to ensure their work schedule doesn’t lead them into any health danger zones.
Bond with Coworkers
While all nurses need to establish good relationships with their coworkers, nightshift RNs find it more important to connect and work well with their fellows. Firstly, because night nurses spend less time with the patients and their families, they must communicate well and thoroughly with day-shift nurses. Secondly, because there are fewer managers, directors, and physicians on duty during the night shift, RNs have to rely more on themselves and their fellow nurses. So, there’s a greater deal of autonomy for night shift RNs and a more pressing need to have an efficient professional net to rely on while on duty.
Additionally, because the night shift tends to be more low-key, nurses have more time to spend and interact with their team. When the nursing team gets along and works together efficiently, the benefits are manifold: the shift runs smoothly, increased job satisfaction for all nursing personnel, less chance of burnout, and even better patient outcomes.
Get your Loved Ones on the Same Page
Night shift workers need help, understanding, and support from their friends and family in order to adjust to the new irregular work-sleeping schedule. Your loved ones need to understand that you need uninterrupted sleep during the day, so they shouldn’t call or drop by during the hours when you’re supposed to be sleeping. During the day, it’s harder to go back to sleep if you’ve been woken up unexpectedly. So, they should respect your schedule, even though it might take them some time to get used to it. Their support and understanding will relieve you of the emotional guilt some people feel when they’re unavailable for their loved ones.
When You’re Not Working, Take Advantage of Daytime Activities
One of the benefits of working night shifts is that it opens up the rest of your day for many activities which aren’t normally undertaken by people with a regular 9-5 job. Suppose you’re a resident Registered Nurse in a new city. In that case, you can explore the city in broad daylight: restaurants, tours, museums, and so much more. Working nights can have its perks, even if you are a parent. You can participate in your children’s school activities (meetings, excursions, concerts) or spend quality time together after class or early evenings.
Is the Night Shift a Job for You?
Night shift nursing is demanding, but it is also extremely rewarding. All the challenges you face working nights will only make you a better, more resilient nurse. At the same time, you need to realize that this type of nursing position is not for everyone. Some nurses will adjust to the unusual schedule and responsibilities more quickly. In contrast, others will recognize that they are better nurses working during the day. You need to figure out what’s best for you and your patients and work towards becoming a great nurse, regardless of whether you work during the day or night shifts.
Nurses are guided by the nursing process through nursing school and their first clinicals, from their first nursing position to every other day of their nursing career. Such a ubiquitous and vital notion, it is essential for any aspiring nurse to master the nursing process.
That’s where we come in. In this article, we will walk you through everything you need to know about the nursing process: what it is, its five stages, and its clinical relevance. As a nurse, your main aim is to ensure that your patients receive the best possible care. Read on to find out how exactly the nursing process helps you achieve this goal.
What Is The Nursing Process?
The nursing process has been at the heart of nursing practice for more than six decades, from 1958, when Ida Orlando first introduced it. The American Nurses Association (ANA) defines the nursing process as “the essential core of practice for the registered nurse to deliver holistic, patient-focused care.” The principles that characterize it are critical thinking, client-centered approaches to treatment, goal-oriented tasks, evidence-based practice, and nursing intuition.
This valuable practice unites all different types of nurses working in various areas. Whether they work in the Emergency Room, NICU, Intensive Care Unit, or the Oncology Ward, all nurses use the nursing process daily. It helps them make clinical judgments, elaborate, and follow plans of care to ensure good patient outcomes.
At its core, the nursing process is an assertive, problem-solving approach that aids nurses in identifying and treating patient problems by providing them with a structured and easy-to-follow framework based on their practice, knowledge, judgments, and actions.
How Is a Nursing Plan Structured?
A nursing plan has five stages: assessment, diagnosis, planning, implementing, and evaluation. Taken together, they allow the nurse to think holistically and act accordingly. In this section, we’ll break down each of these steps individually.
Assessment Stage
Assessment is the first phase of the nursing process. It refers to the systematic collection of data about the patient’s condition, which nurses will further use in the care process. Nurses collect both subjective and objective data. Subjective data would be information learned directly from the patient or their caregiver. Objective data are the measurable, tangible information collected by the nurse firsthand. This can include taking vital signs, measuring input and output of oxygen, fluids, height, weight, and more.
As a nurse, you should pay close attention to more than just physiological factors in the assessment phase. Psychological data, sociocultural factors, spiritual, economic, and lifestyle components can be just as relevant to a patient’s wellbeing, thus, worthy of being accounted for.
For example, if a patient refuses to eat, the causes may run deeper than difficulty swallowing. They may be battling an eating disorder, or perhaps their reduced appetite is a sign of stress or depression. The nurse can only move to formulate a diagnosis and, later, a care plan after they have gathered a comprehensive enough set of information about the patient in the assessment stage.
In order to determine what details are essential to include in the assessment, the nurse needs to display excellent critical thinking skills.
Diagnosis Stage
After the nurse has assessed the patient and has enough information to work with, they can move on to the next step, diagnosis.
A nursing diagnosis consists of the nurse’s clinical judgment about the patient’s response to present or potential health conditions or needs. An RN diagnosis is different from a medical diagnosis. It is focused on the exact problems a patient faces (or my face) while they are in your care, like ineffective airway clearance or risk for adult falls. Formulating a nursing diagnosis based on assessments made in the first phase serves as a guide to patient care for the nurse, helping prioritize their needs and care options.
Prioritizing is an important skill in the diagnosis stage. That’s why an efficient nursing diagnosis will consider Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. According to the pyramid, basic physiological needs need to be fulfilled before moving to higher needs, like self-actualization or self-esteem. Thus, if a patient is experiencing severe trouble breathing, the nurse should deem this concern more urgent than their desire to meet their friends or go for a walk.
The nursing diagnosis will prove an invaluable tool to keep track of patients during your shift, anticipate their health needs and challenges, and provide optimal care.
For a complete guide on nursing diagnoses, check out our article.
Planning Stage
Once a nursing diagnosis has been formulated, the Registered Nurse can move to the next stage in the nursing process, planning. This is when the nurse formulates specific goals and desired outcomes that will directly impact patient care.
It is essential that the goal the nurse sets are:
Specific
Measurable/ meaningful
Achievable/ action-oriented
Realistic/ Results-oriented
Timely/ time-oriented
For example, some potential nursing goals can be: taking three short walks with the patient per day; helping the patient resolve conflict by setting a counseling meeting; ensuring patients get their necessary nutritional intake.
The care plan – the actual byproduct of the goal-setting phase – is unique to each patient, considering their individual needs and health challenges. Also, care plans enhance communication between different members of the healthcare team as well as nurse-patient relationships. They’re used for documentation or reimbursement purposes and allow for continuous care across the healthcare continuum.
Implementation Stage
The fourth step in the nursing process is implementation. In this stage, the nurse focuses on doing the actual interventions, activities, or actions indicated in the care plan. It’s an ongoing course of action that spreads to the entire duration of a patient’s hospitalization. Administering medication, offering feeding assistance, providing bedside care or postpartum support, monitoring vitals, and recovery practice – these are a few examples of possible interventions a nurse may do in the implementation stage.
Importantly, nursing interventions and care actions need to be listed in the patient’s record.
Evaluation Stage
The fifth and final step of the nursing process is the evaluation. The RN provides care throughout the nursing process with specific goals in mind (mentioned above). It’s essential to take a step back, reassess the patient’s situation and evaluate or observe if the initial goals have been fulfilled and if the desired outcomes have been achieved.
The evaluation stage doesn’t only happen once prior to discharging a patient. More evaluations may be needed to determine how the patient responds to specific interventions or actions. Thus, the plan of care can change based on new data.
Why Is The Nursing Plan Important?
In the intricate and dynamic world of nursing, the nursing process is an excellent tool for helping nurses navigate the intricacies of the healthcare system and offer optimal patient care.
The nursing process implies that patient-centered care is provided based on a plan. It’s an effective way for nurses to use their time more efficiently. It also promotes better communication practices between members of the healthcare team. The written resources generated from the nursing process increase the quality of care and provide evidence for nursing education and research.
Moreover, using the nursing process encourages nurses to practice critical thinking, creativity, and problem-solving and sharpens their decision-making abilities in clinical practice. As a result, the quality of nursing care increases, and so does the level of patient satisfaction.
Are You Ready to Utilize the Nursing Process in Practice?
A guide to systematic, compassionate, and qualitative care, the nursing process is one of the most critical instruments nurses have at their disposal. It is an efficient way to put nursing knowledge into practice and provide high-quality personalized care to patients. That’s why all nurses ought to utilize the nursing process in their day-to-day practice.
Your nursing education should give you the knowledge and skills to confidently apply the nursing process and all its steps in your future career. The nursing programs designed by Nightingale College will do just that: ensure that you step into nursing practice prepared to offer the best patient care via the nursing process.
A nursing diagnosis is a fundamental part of the nursing process. It’s an essential tool for nurses and subsequently for the entire healthcare field.
In this complete guide to nursing diagnosis, you will find out everything there is to know about this vital instrument. What a nursing diagnosis is and its place in the nursing process; what types and classifications of diagnosis are out there; how to write and use a nursing diagnosis – these are just some things that we will put under a microscope in our article.
Let’s start exploring.
What Is The Nursing Process?
We can’t talk of nursing diagnosis before first explaining what the nursing process is and how the diagnosis fits into the grander scheme of things.
The nursing process consists of five steps, of which diagnosis is the second.
Assessment – The first step of the nursing process relates to thorough patient evaluation. Collecting data, such as vital signs, health history, psychological or socioeconomic evaluations, is an integral part of this step.
Diagnosis – After the assessment has been completed, the nurse can form a nursing diagnosis based on the collected data. The nursing diagnosis instructs the specific nursing care that the patient shall receive.
Outcomes and Planning – In this third step of the nursing process, the nurse develops a care plan drawing on information from the nursing diagnosis. The planning needs to be measurable and goal-oriented.
Implementation – This is the part of the nursing process in which the care plan is put into action. It takes place throughout the duration of the hospitalization up until the discharge of the patient
Evaluation – The final step of the nursing process involves evaluating the care plan based on the initial goals and desired outcomes. Should the results not align, the care plan can be adjusted based on the patient’s needs.
What is Nursing Diagnosis?
As we have already established, a nursing diagnosis is an important step in the nursing process. It is a concrete and evidence-based way for nurses to communicate their professional judgments to patients, fellow nursing professionals, members of other medical areas, and the public. The nursing diagnosis is developed based on information gathered in the assessment phase. Further, once a nursing diagnosis is elaborated, the nurse can move ahead and create a care plan, which can be used to measure outcomes of a patient’s care at a later phase.
NANDA International also referred to as NANDA-I, is the international organization in charge of defining, distributing, and integrating the process of standardized nursing diagnosis worldwide. According to the organization, the official definition of a nursing diagnosis is:
“A nursing diagnosis is a clinical judgment concerning a human response to health conditions/life processes, or a vulnerability for that response, by an individual, family, group or community. A nursing diagnosis provides the basis for selection of nursing interventions to achieve outcomes for which the nurse has accountability.”
What Are the Differences Between a Nursing Diagnosis and Other Types of Diagnosis?
Nursing diagnosis is not the only diagnosis one might come across in the process of care. That’s why it’s important to know the difference between different types of diagnosis. The three main ones to consider are nursing diagnosis, medical diagnosis, and collaborative diagnosis.
A nursing diagnosis refers to the process and, subsequently, the label nurses use to assign meaning to patient data collected in the Assessment phase. The data is labeled with NANDA-I approved nursing diagnosis. For instance, while assessing a patient, the nurse may notice that the patient coughs prior to swallowing any food, displays inadequate laryngeal elevation, and repeatedly reports “something stuck” in their throat. The nurse can conclude a nursing diagnosis based on these symptoms: impaired swallowing.
Examples of nursing diagnosis: risk for impaired liver function; urinary retention; disturbed sleep pattern; decreased cardiac output.
On the other hand, a medical diagnosis is made by a doctor or advanced health care practitioner. This type of diagnosis focuses on the patient’s disease, medical condition, or pathologic state – determining which falls into the expertise of advanced medical practitioners. While the nursing diagnosis can be subject to change, the medical diagnosis generally doesn’t change. It remains imprinted on the patient’s medical history forever.
Examples of medical diagnosis: atrial fibrillation; hepatitis; chronic kidney disease; hypertension.
Collaborative diagnoses are the ones that require both nursing and medical interventions. For the most part, these imply teamwork: RNs keep an eye on the health problems while the medical professionals prescribe drugs and more diagnostic tests.
Examples of collaborative diagnosis: respiratory insufficiency.
Nursing Diagnosis Classification
In order to easily keep track of nursing diagnoses, they need to be organized in an unambiguous and orderly fashion. NANDA-I has listed, arranged, and classified the nursing diagnoses in a register known as Taxonomy II, which has been in use for more than two decades. Taxonomy II is split into three levels: 13 domains, 47 classes, and 267 nursing diagnoses.
Currently, there are the following domains and classes:
Domain 1: Health Promotion
Class 1. Health Awareness
Class 2. Health Management
Domain 2: Nutrition
Class 1. Ingestion
Class 2. Digestion
Class 3. Absorption
Class 4. Metabolism
Class 5. Hydration
Domain 3: Elimination and Exchange
Class 1. Urinary function
Class 2. Gastrointestinal function
Class 3. Integumentary function
Class 4. Respiratory function
Domain 4: Activity/Rest
Class 1. Sleep/Rest
Class 2. Activity/Exercise
Class 3. Energy balance
Class 4. Cardiovascular/Pulmonary responses
Class 5. Self-care
Domain 5: Perception/Cognition
Class 1. Attention
Class 2. Orientation
Class 3. Sensation/Perception
Class 4. Cognition
Class 5. Communication
Domain 6: Self-Perception
Class 1. Self-concept
Class 2. Self-esteem
Class 3. Body image
Domain 7: Role relationship
Class 1. Caregiving roles
Class 2. Family relationships
Class 3. Role performance
Domain 8: Sexuality
Class 1. Sexual identity
Class 2. Sexual function
Class 3. Reproduction
Domain 9: Coping/stress tolerance
Class 1. Post-trauma responses
Class 2. Coping responses
Class 3. Neurobehavioral stress
Domain 10: Life principles
Class 1. Values
Class 2. Beliefs
Class 3. Value/Belief/Action congruence
Domain 11: Safety/Protection
Class 1. Infection
Class 2. Physical injury
Class 3. Violence
Class 4. Environmental hazards
Class 5. Defensive processes
Class 6. Thermoregulation
Domain 12: Comfort
Class 1. Physical comfort
Class 2. Environmental comfort
Class 3. Social comfort
Domain 13: Growth/Development
Class 1. Growth
Class 2. Development
What Are the Categories of Nursing Diagnosis?
NANDA-I recognizes four categories of nursing diagnoses: problem focused diagnosis, risk diagnosis, health promotion diagnosis, and syndrome.
Problem focused diagnoses, also known as actual diagnoses, are patient issues or problems that are present and observable during the assessment phase. They are based on the presence of certain signs or symptoms. A problem focused nursing diagnosis comprises three components: the diagnosis itself, related factors, and defining characteristics.
Risk diagnosis refers to clinical judgments concerning a patient’s vulnerability to developing undesirable health conditions unless the nurse intervenes. Essentially, a risk diagnosis says that a problem does not yet exist, but there are risk factors that could potentially lead to a problem emerging. Thus, nurses will offer care to avoid it. There are two components nurses have to account for with this type of diagnosis: a risk diagnostic label and risk factors.
Health promotion diagnosis, or wellness diagnosis, are the clinical judgments about the motivation and desire to increase well-being and reach one’s health potential. These judgments express a patient’s readiness to improve specific health behaviors. Health promotion diagnosis can exist at an individual, family, group, or community level.
Syndromes are the least present diagnosis in the NANDA-I taxonomy. They concern the clinical judgments that relate to a cluster of nursing diagnoses that occur together and are dealt with through similar interventions.
Below, you will find examples of each type of diagnosis from NANDA-I definitive guide to nursing diagnoses, Nursing Diagnosis: Definitions and Classifications, 2021-2023.
Problem Focused Diagnosis
Decisional conflict
Ineffective airway clearance
Impaired oral mucous membrane integrity
Hyperthermia
Dysfunctional ventilatory weaning response
Risk Diagnosis
Risk for chronic functional constipation
Risk for acute confusion
Risk for autonomic dysreflexia
Risk for adult falls
Risk for peripheral neurovascular dysfunction
Health Promotion Diagnosis
Readiness for enhanced spiritual well-being
Readiness for enhanced coping
Readiness for enhanced self-care
Readiness for enhanced parenting
Readiness for enhanced exercise engagement
Syndrome Diagnosis
Frail elderly syndrome
Chronic pain syndrome
Disturbed family identity syndrome
Relocation stress syndrome
Post-trauma syndrome
What Are the Components of a Nursing Diagnosis?
When writing a nursing diagnosis, certain components should be included. The components may differ depending on the diagnosis type. Below, you’ll find an overview of all the features of a nursing diagnosis:
Diagnosis label – It is a name that reflects the diagnostic focus and the nursing judgements.
Examples: ineffective health self-management; acute pain; impaired skin integrity.
Definition – This component delivers a clear, exact diagnosis description, making it easier to differentiate from similar diagnoses.
Example: for an imbalanced nutrition nursing diagnosis, the definition is: “intake of nutrients insufficient to meet metabolic needs.”
Defining characteristics – These refer to the observable details that pinpoint the existence of a problem focused, health promotion diagnosis or syndrome. It includes things that the nurse can see and things that can be heard, touched or smelled, or information coming from the patient or the family.
Example: for an impaired gas exchange nursing diagnosis, some of the defining characteristics might be: abnormal arterial blood gasses; abnormal skin color (e.g., pale, dusky, cyanosis); and headache upon awakening.
Risk factors – Risk factors can fall into one of several categories: environmental, physiological, psychological, genetic, or chemical elements that increase a patient’s vulnerability to an unhealthy event. Bear in mind that risk factors are only applicable to risk diagnosis.
Example: a risk for infection diagnosis may have one (or more) of these risk factors: chronic illness, like diabetes; inadequate vaccination; invasive procedure; malnutrition.
Related factors: These are the factors that in some way present a connection to the nursing diagnosis. They may have been existent before the diagnosis; they may be associated with it; they may contribute or abet a particular diagnosis. Related factors only occur in the case of problem focused nursing diagnosis and syndromes. Rarely, health promotion diagnosis may have related factors.
For an ineffective peripheral tissue perfusion diagnosis, hypertension is one of the potentially related factors. Others are diabetes mellitus, smoking, or a sedentary lifestyle.
How to Write a Nursing Diagnostic?
First, you need to carefully analyze all the data and identify the patient’s health problems, health risks, and strengths. Once you have all the information, you can formulate the diagnosis statement. NANDA International strongly recommends that diagnosis follow a specific template. This allows for accurate, precise, and valid diagnoses that nurses and other healthcare team members can easily understand and follow.
Each type of nursing diagnosis needs to contain certain information. Below, you will find the outline of how to write nursing diagnoses, including examples.
Problem focused diagnosis:
Impaired bed mobility related to musculoskeletal impairment as evidenced by impaired ability to reposition self in bed.
Constipation related to inadequate toileting habits as evidenced by change in bowel pattern.
Risk Diagnosis:
Risk for decreased cardiac output as evidenced by alteration in heart rhythm.
Risk for adult pressure injury as evidenced by Inadequate adherence to incontinence treatment regimen.
Health Promotion Diagnosis:
Sedentary lifestyle as evidenced by insufficient motivation for physical activity.
Ineffective family health self-management as evidenced by difficulty with the prescribed regimen.
Syndrome Diagnosis:
Post-trauma syndrome;
Chronic pain syndrome.
More Nursing Diagnosis to Help You Elaborate Your Care Plans:
As we have mentioned before, with 267 inputs, the NANDA-I nursing diagnosis list is comprehensive and an excellent tool for nurses used worldwide. We have used several nursing diagnosis examples throughout this guide, all collected from the NANDA-I 2021-2023 complete handbook. This section will provide you with additional nursing diagnosis examples that you can use to formulate and implement future nursing care plans.
Decreased activity tolerance
Risk for surgical site infection
Deficient knowledge
Decreased cardiac output
Deficient fluid volume
Ineffective coping
Acute pain
Ineffective thermoregulation
Ineffective breathing pattern
Risk for electrolyte imbalance
Bathing/dressing/feeding self-care deficit
Risk for ineffective childbearing process
Risk for injury
Fatigue
Impaired physical mobility
Ineffective airway clearance
Readiness for enhanced communication
Impaired comfort
Obesity
Risk for metabolic syndrome
Disturbed body image
Deficient community health
Neonatal hypothermia
Risk for bleeding
Risk for vascular trauma
Are You Ready to Master This Critical Component of Care?
Nursing diagnoses are a useful tool which aids nurses in providing safe, quality, and evidence-based care. They are a critical aspect of patient healthcare that every nurse should know how to use, formulate, and write.
Nurses are the health providers who spend the most time with patients. From when a patient enters the hospital, nurses are there every step of the way through all the procedures and treatment plans and up to their discharge. They provide care, attention, relief, information, and empathy.
Efficient nursing care builds its foundation on therapeutic communication, a vital skill for aspiring nurses, new nurses, experienced nurses, nurses working by the bedside or away from it, telehealth nurses, home health nurses, RNs working in the Emergency Department or any other unit. Regardless of the nursing position or their level of expertise, therapeutic communication is at the heart of all successful nursing practices.
This article will explore therapeutic communication in nursing: what it is, its benefits, and why all nurses should strive to possess this valuable skill. Moreover, we’ll share essential therapeutic communication techniques to help nurses provide excellent, efficient care to their patients.
What is Therapeutic Communication?
Therapeutic communication in nursing consists of an exchange between patient and nurse using verbal and non-verbal cues. It’s a process in which the healthcare professional consciously uses specific techniques to help patients better understand their condition or situation. At the same time, they also encourage patients to freely express their ideas and feelings in a relationship of mutual respect and acceptance.
The main goal of this communication style is to help patients get through emotional and/or psychological distress. Thus, it’s an invaluable approach to patient interactions, making it one of the most important tools in a nurse’s toolbox.
The concept of therapeutic communication is by no means a new one. Its benefits have been acknowledged for centuries. In the late 1800s, Florence Nightingale was one of the first to endorse the importance of communication that develops between nurse and the patient. In more recent times, multiple studies have corroborated the importance of the practice.
In the following section, we will discuss the benefits of therapeutic nursing communication.
What Are the Benefits of Employing Therapeutic Communication?
According to the definition, therapeutic communication aims to advance the physical and emotional well-being of a patient. This is one of the fundamental benefits of this type of interaction: it contributes to healing.
Among other characteristics of therapeutic nursing communication, others worthy of mentioning are:
The process of communicating therapeutically leads to more accurate diagnoses.
Identifying the patient’s needs and emotions can increase collaborative decision-making with patients.
The quality of communication is directly related to the patient’s adherence to treatment. Thus, the chances of a patient following treatment plans are higher when there is efficient communication, leading to better patient outcomes.
Patient-centered encounters informed by therapeutic communication have shown improved patient and nurse satisfaction. Consequently, they lead to a reduced risk of malpractice and decreased levels of nurse burnout.
Essentially, therapeutic communication makes the difference between basic nursing care and quality nursing care. While every nurse has to communicate with patients, RNs who employ therapeutic communication techniques will provide education and support to patients while also being objective and empathetic.
Suppose a nurse has to draw blood from a patient. Standard communication would require the nurse to describe the procedure briefly and then move on. However, in the same scenario with therapeutic communication, the nurse would take the time to talk to the patient about their concerns, reluctance, or worries. They would explain the procedure while also ensuring the patient is heard, their emotions validated, and their viewpoints respected.
The respectful and compassionate nature of therapeutic communication will help patients open up more about their needs, their physical, mental, and emotional wellbeing. It also encourages them to share how effective the treatments are, potential side effects, and so much more.
What are some Therapeutic Communication Techniques?
So far, we have discussed what therapeutic communication is and its tangible benefits. Now, we’ll delve into actual techniques that nurses can implement on a daily basis to provide better care for their patients.
Nurses may use a wide variety of approaches to engage in therapeutic communication. Below, you’ll find a list of the most important ones, as well as examples and different scenarios on how to employ them.
Active Listening
Listening actively implies paying careful attention to what the patient is saying, with words and gestures, facial expressions, and other body language signs. You should sit facing the patient, lean slightly towards them, have an open posture, and make eye contact. It’s also helpful to provide nonverbal feedback. A slight nod or smile will make the patient feel listened to.
Sharing Observations
As a nurse, you should be mindful of your patient’s actions, mood, or looks as sometimes these can give you clues about their condition, how well they’re responding to treatment, and so on. For instance, if you see a patient looking more tired than usual or if you notice them skipping meals, you can share these observations with them.
Sharing Empathy
Putting yourself in someone else’s shoes and trying to understand and accept their feelings and reality is an important skill for a nurse. An example of therapeutic communication using empathy might be: “I understand how difficult this must be. We’ll try to get to the bottom of this and do everything we can to have you up and running again soon.”
Sharing Humor
Sometimes, it’s helpful for patients to forget, even for a brief second, about the condition, the pain, or the diagnosis that brings them to the hospital. A little bit of humor used appropriately can bring about positive emotions and establish a good relationship between nurse and patient. Laughter catalyzes feelings of togetherness, closeness, and friendliness.
Sharing Feelings
Another therapeutic communication technique nurses can use is encouraging patients to express their feelings and emotions. RNs should create a safe space where patients can express their feelings or frustrations. Nurses can guide patients through healthier ways to deal with anger and pain, and communication plays a big part.
Using Silence
Therapeutic communication is as much about knowing when to stay silent as learning when and what to speak. A good nurse will know when to give the patient time to work through their emotions, process information, or observe what is happening in their environment. In most cases, it should be the patient who breaks the silence.
Using Touch
Touch is perhaps the most powerful form of therapeutic communication. Comforting gestures, such as holding the hand of a patient who is experiencing grave illness, can help them feel some peace or optimism when they need it most.
Providing Information
An essential part of a nurse’s job description revolves around educating and informing patients and/or their families. But there’s a difference between “I need to do an electrocardiogram because you have tachycardia” and “I have to get you an electrocardiogram, which is a painless test that uses sensor patches which I attach to your chest to see the timing and duration of your heartbeats. We have to do the test because the heart rate monitors show you have tachycardia.”
Clarifying
The clarification process in nursing therapeutic communication could go one of two ways. Either the nurse isn’t sure or clear on something the patient says. Hence, she kindly asks the patient to clarify the ambiguous statement, or the nurse provides some information to the patient that the receiver doesn’t completely understand. For instance, if the patient isn’t sure what “tachycardia” is, the RN can further clarify: “It just means that your heart rate is elevated and your heart is beating too fast”. On the other hand, if the patient says: “I feel worse than I did this morning,” the nurse would have to clarify how their symptoms changed and what exactly the patient means by “feeling worse.”
Asking relevant questions
Decision-making is an integral part of a nurse’s job. In order to make good decisions for good patient outcomes, RNs have to obtain relevant and encompassing information. Some tips in this direction would be to not overwhelm the patient with too many questions at once. Ask one question at a time and make sure you explore a topic well enough before moving to something else.
Summarizing
The patient will generally find it helpful to receive a brief summary of nursing interactions and procedures. All the most critical information in an easy to digest, remember, and follow format.
Confronting
This particular therapeutic communication technique requires a lot of skill and sensitivity because you don’t want to appear offensive or attacking. However, the patients will display inconsistencies in their attitudes or behaviors in certain situations. For instance, they might refuse a course of treatment to which they had previously agreed. In those moments, if you have established trust with the patient, you can delicately confront them about their choices.
Focusing the conversation
Sometimes, the patient may go off-topic and try to tell you their entire life story when your initial question was about the symptoms they’re experiencing. Respectfully, it would be best if you steered the conversation back into focus. Another way to employ this technique of therapeutically communicating is when a patient mentions in passing a detail that you find relevant. Then, you can zoom in on that detail and focus the conversation on what you find suitable from a nursing perspective. For example, suppose a patient passingly mentions they feel some pain. In that case, you may think it relevant to focus on this detail and ask “On a scale from 1 to 10, how bad is the pain you’re experiencing?”
Exploring
Exploring is essentially a method of asking follow-up questions without giving the patient the impression that you’re probing. When a patient gives you vague or ambiguous answers or when you want to obtain more specific or in-depth information, that’s when you should consider an exploratory approach. At the same time, make sure the patient isn’t uncomfortable in the process.
Paraphrasing
This therapeutic communication technique entails taking what the patient has said and trying to express it in your own words. It’s an excellent way to clarify the patient’s meaning. It might be useful to ask the patient if you understood correctly and your paraphrasing fits their initial statement.
Restating
Although this is also a clarification technique, restating is slightly different from paraphrasing. When attention to detail is of utmost importance, you might have to resort to this nursing therapeutic approach, by which you repeat back to the patient what they said to you. Asking “Did I summarize what you said correctly?” is an efficient way to round off this method.
Providing leads
Sometimes when interacting with a patient, you might be pursuing specific information. Specific, open-ended questions, otherwise known as leads, can be a productive way to get the details you need for offering the best possible care to your patient.
How to Develop the Skills Needed for Therapeutic Communication Techniques?
Utilizing these types of therapeutic communication in everyday practice requires mastering some skills. In this section, we’ll explore the skills needed to excel at therapeutic communication:
Pay attention to body language
Sometimes body language will reveal as much, if not more than verbal communication. The patient could be in extreme pain but too proud to admit it. They could come in complaining about pain in their arm, but careful examination of their body language can pinpoint you in the direction of some underlying issue. You can pick up on these slight clues if you pay attention to body cues.
Make time
Nurses are busy and have to juggle many tasks, sometimes to the point of being overworked. It might be easy to fall into the trap of taking shortcuts in practice, and quality therapeutic communication takes more time than basic care. But it pays off. In order to form relationships with your patients, gain their trust, and be able to help them more, you need to dedicate time and be fully present whenever you enter a patient’s room. Making time is part of what makes you a great nurse.
If you feel like you don’t have enough time and you feel stressed and overwhelmed, you might be experiencing nursing burnout. Learn more about what it is and how to combat it in our article.
Encourage communication
Communication is always a two-way street. Your patients need to know that you will listen actively to their concerns; they should feel safe to talk to you, knowing that you’ll respect their beliefs and wishes.
Focus on the patient
Therapeutic communication is about the interactions between nurse and patient during which the nurse focuses on the patient’s needs, emotions, and feelings. Thus, it’s essential to keep the patient at the center of the experience. Try not to multitask when you’re engaging with a patient. Do your best to understand and empathize with the patient’s experience.
Use open-ended questions
Open-ended questions are your friend. They invite more detailed answers and encourage the patient to give more information about their emotions and behaviors. They are often associated with developing trust, seeming less threatening, and stimulating free responses. Of course, open-ended questions alone won’t get the job done. That’s why nurses skilled in therapeutic communication know the right moment to ask closed or open-ended questions to get the correct information and build a better rapport with the patient.
Offer self
In the process of caring for patients, a tremendous impact can be made by offering yourself – your time, your empathy, perhaps a personal anecdote or story from your own experience. All of these little details can make the patient feel better. If they’re lonely, you can offer to stay for lunch; if they’re bored, you can bring their favorite movie; if they’re stressed, you can talk with them until their mood improves. In any of these situations, you show that you are also human, not only a nurse, and that’s why offering self is one of the most potent forms of therapeutic communication.
Mastering all these techniques of therapeutic communication is not the only way for you to improve your nursing skills. Find more tips on becoming a better nurse and reaching your full potential in nursing practice.
Nontherapeutic Communication Techniques
The opposite of therapeutic communication styles, the non-therapeutic techniques can be seen as blocks to the communication of feelings and ideas.
Changing the subject
Abruptly and callously changing the subject may show a lack of empathy on your side and discourage the patient from engaging in conversation with you. Instead of saying “Your insurance is not important now; it’s time for your lunch,” you could try “First have some lunch, and then we can talk about what’s going on with your insurance.”
Being defensive
Patients won’t always be a picture of satisfaction. They may complain, criticize, or find faults (whether or not they are real). If they do, you shouldn’t get defensive. Listen uncritically and try to get to the root of their dissatisfaction. In most cases, the underlying issues will run much deeper than the fact that you were a few minutes late for the scheduled walk.
Giving false Reassurances
Sometimes false reassurances like “Everything will be alright” or “You’ll be fine” stem from a good place. All you want is to be kind and help the patient feel a little better. But the result won’t always be the anticipated one. The patient may feel discouraged to express their feelings further when they are met with such comments, or they may end up having false hope. Either way, more harm than good is done, so try to steer clear of giving false reassurances.
Judging people
The relationship between nurse and patient should always be non-judgemental, open, and honest. Bringing your judgments into your conversation, either positive or negative, is not a therapeutic way of interacting with patients.
Stereotyping your patient
Stereotyping is one of the most hurtful things you can do as a nurse. It is a barrier to efficient communication. Even more so, it prevents you from nurturing interpersonal relationships with your patients.
Are You Ready to Employ Therapeutic Communication Techniques in Your Nursing Practice?
Nursing care is one of the cornerstones of efficient healthcare. In its turn, therapeutic communication is central to nursing practice. That’s why all nurses should strive to be as proficient in therapeutically engaging with their patients as they are in clinical skills. Everyone stands to win as a result.
Mental health nursing is one of the most complex and gratifying nursing jobs. You care for some of the most vulnerable populations in this position, which makes the responsibility you sign up for so much greater. At the same time, your help and care help people lead happier and more fulfilling lives. And the feeling that you give someone a chance at a better life makes each ounce of responsibility worth it.
If you’re looking for a comprehensive overview of a mental health nursing career, you’ve come to the right place. From how to become a psychiatric nurse to what mental health nurse jobs imply in terms of duties, responsibilities, and paychecks – we’ll answer all the questions you may have about schooling and working as a Psychiatric Mental Health Nurse.
You ought to be ready to embrace both the challenges and the rewards of this profession should you choose to pursue it. In this guide, we’ll discuss both.
Let’s start exploring the ins and outs of a psychiatric nursing career.
What Is a Psychiatric Nurse?
Psychiatric Nurses are often referred to as Mental Health Nurses or Psych Nurses. The abbreviation PMHNs is also used when talking about Psychiatric Mental Health Nurses. For this reason, these terms will be used interchangeably throughout our guide.
Mental Health Nurses have a very sensitive and crucial role in the healthcare industry. Their specialized knowledge and skills allow them to offer nursing care to people with mental health issues, mental health problems, psychiatric disorders, and/or substance use disorders. PMHNs are versed in caring for patients with anxiety disorders, depression, eating disorders, PTSD, psychotic disorders, alcohol or drug abuse, and much more. Clearly, the very vulnerable people they’re working with make the job all the more sensitive.
In addition to caring for the individuals, Psychiatric Nurses work with families, groups, and communities with one overarching goal: to ensure good patient outcomes and support their recovery. The role of a Mental Health Nurse is, thus, invaluable. PMNHs help patients cope when they are at their worst. They help patients manage symptoms, re-gain good living skills, and find their inner strength in the face of disorders and disabilities, which, at times, may seem unconquerable.
Psychiatric Nurses are the second largest group of behavioral health professionals in the country. Even though they have more autonomy compared to other nurses, PMHNs do not work alone. They are often part of a larger healthcare team which includes physicians, psychiatrists, social workers, or other community or medical workforce members.
Where Do Psychiatric Mental Health Nurses Work?
With a basic understanding of what Psychiatric Nurses are, we can move on to where they can find employment.
The good news is that there is a wide variety of places and institutions that hire psychiatric nurses. With so many career options to choose from, you can pursue a work environment that best suits your personal requirements, your ambitions, and personality. Some of the most common work settings for PMHNs include:
Hospitals
Crisis intervention departments within mental health institutions
Psychiatric emergency departments
Acute psychiatric inpatient units
Emergency rooms
Women’s health medical institutions
Community health centers
Halfway houses
Nursing homes
Substance abuse treatment programs
School-based services
Private practices
Academia (especially for Advanced Practice Nurses, such as Psychiatric Nurse Practitioners or Clinical Nurse Specialists)
Forensic health institutions (within the criminal justice systems, there is a high rate of mental illness and/or disorders related to trauma)
Disaster-associated mental health settings
Although these mentioned above are the most popular work settings for Psychiatric Nurses, other options are available to aspiring nurses on the lookout for Mental Health Nursing jobs. Notably, PMHNs can work in telehealth nursing services.
Telehealth nursing has been gaining more ground in the last few years. It’s a valuable tool for offering psychiatric nursing care to people who need it most. Telemedicine, in general, comes with a higher degree of job flexibility. So, if this is something you look for in a job, then applying your psychiatric nursing skills in a telehealth environment might be a great career path for you.
What Does a Psychiatric Mental Health Nurse Do?
Let’s take a closer look at the job duties and responsibilities of Psychiatric Nurses. However, what you do on the job is strongly tied to the level of education and expertise you bring to the table. That’s why we’ll examine what the duties of a Mental Health Registered Nurse are and, also, what does a Psychiatric Nurse Practioner do.
Registered Nurses who work in psychiatric mental health nursing may have some of the following duties on a day-to-day basis:
Conduct an assessment of a patient’s status
Conduct intake screenings, initial evaluation, and triage
Provide nursing care following a treatment plan
Administer medication and/or other treatment regimens
Teach patients self-care activities
Engage in crisis intervention and situation stabilization (when necessary)
Educate patients on how to manage their condition
Provide education to patients’ families and communities
Work efficiently alongside other members of an interdisciplinary team
When it comes to Psychiatric Nurse Practitioners, the job description gets a little more complex. Their advanced education gives them a more complex scope of practice, allowing them a higher level of involvement. These are some of the tasks and responsibilities a Psychiatric NP might encounter on the job:
Conduction comprehensive assessments of a patient’s state
Ordering and performing diagnostic tests
Interpreting diagnostic tests
Diagnosing and treating chronic or acute illnesses
Providing clinical supervision to Registered Nurses, Psychiatric Nurse Assistants, and other members of the nursing staff.
Prescribing medication
Performing certain procedures
Making referrals to other professionals when the health problems encountered no longer fall within your scope of practice or expertise
How to Become a Mental Health Nurse?
There are several ways into a career within the mental health nursing field. The minimum schooling requirement is to become a licensed Registered Nurse, but what path you take to get there is entirely up to you.
To become a Psychiatric Mental Health Registered Nurse, you have to take the following steps:
Enroll in a nursing program.
Here you can choose one of the following options:
An Associate’s Degree in Nursing. ADN programs usually take around two years and are the fastest track into a nursing career.
A Diploma in Nursing program. This type of program has been far less prevalent in the last few years. It is usually hospital-based and takes around three years to complete.
A Bachelor’s Degree in Nursing program. A traditional BSN can be completed in around four years and is the most sought-after credential for nursing jobs.
An accelerated BSN program. This is an excellent option for aspiring nurses who already have a Bachelor’s degree in an unrelated field and would like to transition to a nursing career.
Nursing bridge programs. The most popular bridge program in the nursing field is the RN-to-BSN program. Suppose you started your career as an ADN or Diploma Registered Nurse, and you are ready to advance your education. In that case, you can opt to further your degree by enrolling in an RN-to-BSN program. Most of them, including the one offered by Nightingale College, are offered online, take less time than a traditional BSN, and are career-friendly.
Pass the NCLEX-RN and become a licensed Registered Nurse
Enrolling in a nursing program – and completing it – qualifies you to sit for the national nursing exam, the NCLEX-RN. This is an exhaustive test that tests your nursing knowledge and skills, critical thinking abilities, and apprehension of essential nursing concepts and principles. Passing the NCLEX is the final step to gaining nursing licensure and pursuing a job as a Psychiatric Mental Health Nurse.
Seeking nursing certification is an entirely voluntary step for Registered Nurses, but it comes with plenty of benefits. Increased recognition among peers and enhanced nursing skills are just the tip of the iceberg.
If you would like to become a certified nurse within the mental health field, there are some requirements you have to meet. You need at least two years of practice as a full-time RN. You need to have clocked in at least 2,000 hours of clinical practice in psychiatric nursing, and you ought to have completed at least 30 hours of continuing education. Once you check these conditions, you can choose to obtain Psychiatric-Mental Health Nursing Certification (PMH-BC). This particular certification is offered by the American Nurses Credentialing Center.
If you’re asking yourself How long does it take to become a Psychiatric Nurse?, the answer depends on whichever path you choose. It can be anywhere from two to four years if you’re after an RN psychiatric position. If you want to venture into advanced practice nursing and become a Psychiatric Nurse Practitioner, you’ll have to add at least extra two years of education to obtain your Master’s Degree in Nursing.
What is the Job Outlook for Psychiatric Nurses?
The Bureau of Labor Statistics projects that the employment of Registered Nurses will grow 9% from 2020 to 2030. That adds up to around 194,500 job openings for RNs each year, on average, over the decade.
While the BLS does not provide data specific to Psychiatric Mental Health Nurses, it is most likely that this profession will also experience an excellent job outlook. Data from the National Institute of Mental Health indicates that nearly one in five adults in the US lives with a mental illness. In 2019, around 51.5 million people had different mental illnesses and conditions that varied in severity, ranging from mild to moderate to severe. Out of the 51.5 million adults battling mental health problems in 2019, 23 million (approximately 45%) received mental health services.
Clearly, there is a pressing need for mental health services, and Psychiatric Nurses play a vital role in this ecosystem. Moreover, as public awareness of mental health issues increases, more people will feel more comfortable asking for help. This will also lead to a boom in the demand for Psych Nurses.
How Much Does a Psychiatric Nurse Make?
Psychiatric Nurses tend to earn fairly high salaries. Their wages will, of course, be determined by a variety of factors. Education, location, employer, and years of experience may be just some of the factors that influence the paycheck of a Mental Health Nurse.
According to data gathered from ZipRecruiter, on average, a Psychiatric Nurse makes $79,007 a year. That is close to the average RN salary indicated by the BLS – $80,010.
Psychiatric Nurse Practitioners, on the other hand, can expect to earn much higher salaries. According to the same job board, as of October 2021, Psychiatric Nurse Practitioners make around $123,607 annually.
What Are the Qualities of a Great Psychiatric Mental Health Nurse?
It takes a special kind of person to succeed as a Psychiatric Mental Health Nurse. By now, you probably realize that this is a very sensitive, challenging job, so you need a set of skills to match. Undeniably, all nurses can benefit from these skills, but they are especially critical for Mental Health Nurses:
Compassion. The patient populations you will be caring for are some of the most vulnerable. Maybe they’ve been through war, like so many of the war heroes battling PTSD, or perhaps they’re fighting an internal war every day. You need to approach every individual with care, compassion, and empathy. In this position, you should let yourself be guided by kindness.
Be sympathetic and sensitive to people’s struggles. People with mental health problems or battling substance abuse are just as much worthy of a normal, healthy good life as everyone else. You can’t judge people and be good at this job. You can’t define people by their mental health condition. Seeing the human being in everyone and showing sensitivity when interacting with your patients is paramount in this profession.
Exceptional communication skills. Being able to communicate efficiently with patients is of utmost importance for Mental Health Nurses. You’ll have to help people through some of their most difficult times, and everything – from what you say to how you say it – will play a role in how effective the care you provide is. Therapeutic communication, communication directed towards problem-solving or diffusing stressful situations, excellent listening skills – all of these will be significant assets for PMHNs.
Relationship-building skills. A big part of this job relies on you being able to connect with your patients. You’ll only be able to provide the best care possible if you gain your patient’s trust. That’s not usually an easy task, but it’s essential. Getting to know your patient’s stories and building a relationship with them will come a long way.
Are You Ready to Be at the Forefront of Mental Healthcare?
With high salaries, good job prospects, and multiple ways of entry into the career, psychiatric nursing is an excellent career choice for aspiring nurses. Every day you go into work – whether in a hospital or community setting – you know that your care is directed towards some of the most vulnerable people. It’s gratifying to see that you help people gain or re-gain control of their lives and help them lead better lives.
If you’re ready to pursue a career in mental healthcare, the time is now.
Start by enrolling in Nightingale College’s BSN program and commence your journey towards the enriching nursing field of psychiatric care.
If you’re already a Registered Nurse, Nightingale College’s RN-to-BSN program will help you get your skills to the next level. Be the best nurse you can be!
Experienced, highly regarded among their peers, and great specialists in their fields, Charge Nurses play an indispensable part in the healthcare system. The smooth running of any nursing unit is, in large part, due to them. It’s a nursing role of much responsibility and equal reward.
Every nursing department has a Charge Nurse who is, to put it simply, the nurse in charge of the good functioning of the ward or department. If at one point in your career you have entertained the idea of becoming a Charge Nurse, you probably want to know everything there is to know about this nursing position.
We put together this guide to help you navigate the intricacies of the Charge Nurse role. We’ll cast a light on education and job requirements, salary expectations, duties and responsibilities, and the best skills and qualities to have for a Charge nursing job.
Let’s jump in and see what the role of a Charge Nurse is all about.
What Is a Charge Nurse?
In every medical facility, there needs to be an on-the-ground leadership position to ensure that every shift runs successfully, that all the tasks get completed, the ward is staffed appropriately at all times, and patients are receiving the best quality care.
And that is where Charge Nurses come in. Sometimes also called Nursing Sisters, they oversee a specific department or ward and ensure that the work environment is organized and efficient. Essentially, Charge Nurses are the leader of their respective departments.
Charge RNs supervise the team of nurses working on their ward. They’ll often be in charge of delegating duties, coordinating work schedules, and keeping track of admissions and discharges. Part of the job is also ensuring that their ward is always appropriately stacked with supplies, medications, and equipment.
The Charge Nurse position also requires being the lynchpin between nurses and higher management, hospital administrations, and other Nurse Leaders. By being the link between all the parties involved in healthcare services, the Charge RN sees to it that the nurses’ voices are heard by management and the hospital’s policies and codes are respected and followed thoroughly by the staff.
What Is the Role of a Charge Nurse?
In broad terms, the Charge Nurse is responsible for the efficient operation of a nursing unit or ward. That involves tasks and responsibilities related to planning, coordinating, and evaluating all the nursing activities in their department during their shift.
Because it combines the regular duties of a Registered Nurse with some administrative tasks, the Charge Nurse job description ends up being complex and interesting at the same time. That is a perfect situation, especially for nurses who enjoy working with people, providing direct care to patients, and are ready to commit to a higher degree of responsibility.
Let’s go through a duties checklist and see what some of the things that Charge Nurses have to do on a daily basis are:
Coordinate daily administrative duties. This includes creating schedules for nurses on staff, assigning tasks and assignments to RNs.
Keep track of patients’ admissions, discharges, and transfers.
Train and mentor new staff and offer them the room to grow and become great professionals under our guidance.
Develop continuous education and training programs for nurses and staff.
Monitor the needs and requests of the nursing staff in their ward.
Monitor medical charts and ensure that nurses under their supervision don’t skip steps in providing care.
Communicate and explain any protocol or policy changes to staff nurses and make sure they understand and follow the new rules and regulations.
Make sure that health and safety regulations are followed to the dot in their department.
Record and share with supervisors reports on their department’s activity.
Completes annual performance evaluations on the nurses that work under their supervision.
Deal with conflicts or issues that might arise among nurses and patients.
Solve problems that might occur between personnel on shift.
Order medical supplies or communicate with the department in charge of that. The goal is to make sure that all the nurses in their ward or unit have access to all the necessary supplies and equipment needed to do their job efficiently.
Provide direct patient care to patients.
Provide patient and family education.
Work with physicians and other members of the healthcare team to develop or update patient care plans.
Nurse Manager vs. Charge Nurse
Many times people will confuse the roles of Nurse Manager and Charge Nurse. Both of these positions require some managerial aspects and require excellent leadership skills. However, their scope of practice is different, thus making these jobs quite distinct.
Nurse Managers have a broader scope of responsibilities. They focus more on the administrative and management aspects of healthcare delivery in the institution. They are in charge of budgets, policy issues and supervise a vaster team. Also, the minimum education requirement for Nurse Managers is an MSN degree.
Charge Nurses are a lot more hands-on compared to Nurse Managers. Even though a promotion to charge nursing means more administrative tasks, it doesn’t mean you leave bedside nursing altogether. You’ll continue having patient-facing nursing tasks, in addition to the managerial responsibilities.
How to Become a Charge Nurse?
To become a Charge Nurse, you need to have a solid foundation of nursing knowledge and clinical skills. In this nursing role, you’ll have to make a lot of judgments and decisions, so you need to be prepared to tackle any issue that might arise with the utmost skill and expertise.
It’s essential to be well-prepared before you can embark on this role. That’s why a combination of specific schooling requirements and work experience is necessary to apply for the position. In this section, we’ll discuss the process of becoming a Charge Nurse.
The very first step is to become a licensed Registered Nurse. For that, you can enroll in an Associate’s Nursing Degree program or a Bachelor’s Degree in Nursing program – whichever fits your timeline and professional ambitions better. When you complete one of these programs, you will be eligible to sit for the NCLEX-RN. Once you pass this critical final exam, you will officially be a Licensed Registered Nurse.
Although ADN is a perfectly valid way to gain licensure, bear in mind that most hospitals and other healthcare facilities prefer hiring BSN-trained RNs to fill the role of Charge Nurse.
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Having an MSN degree under your belt is not a requirement for pursuing a Charge Nurse position. A higher degree will set you apart from the competition and make your resume attractive to potential employers.
Unfortunately, you cannot pursue a Charge Nurse position as soon as you complete a nursing program. Being a Charge Nurse requires a lot of actual work experience, so before you can pursue a career in this field, you ought to get some hands-on expertise. Usually, you’ll need anywhere from three to five years of experience before you can apply for Charge Nurse jobs, or before your employers acknowledge your leadership potential and offer you this promotion.
Where Do Charge Nurses Work?
Basically, every healthcare facility that has nurses on staff will most likely offer Charge Nurse positions. Thus, public or private hospitals, clinics, private physicians’ offices, nursing homes will all employ Charge Nurses to oversee and administer the nursing staff.
As a Charge Nurse, you can also pursue more specific interests. For instance, if you like working with babies, you can opt for a NICU Charge Nurse position after you get enough work experience in the neonatal unit. If you’re loyal to the ER and find working in the Emergency Department the most professionally fulfilling path for you, consider going after the ER Charge Nurse role. If, however, the ED is too hectic and disorganized for your personality, an ICU Charge Nurse job might be the best option for you. There are many nursing units and wards to choose from – just make sure you follow your passion, and you’ll make the best out of the additional responsibilities.
What is the Charge Nurse Salary?
The Charge Nurse position doesn’t only come with additional responsibilities. It will also bring about higher wages and better benefits.
According to data from the job platform Salary.com, the average salary of Charge Nurses is $90,353, with most Charge RNs winning wages within the $83,900 and $100,400 range. This is higher than the average Registered Nurse Salary, which, as the Bureau of Labour Statistics reports, is about $80,010 annually.
Certainly, how much you make as a Charge Registered Nurse can vary widely depending on many important factors, like education level, certifications, additional skills, work experience, employer, or even location.
Best Qualities of a Charge Nurse
To succeed as a Charge Nurse, you need a specific set of skills to complement your clinical abilities and nursing knowledge. These are some of the best qualities that a Charge Nurse can – and should possess:
Strong leadership skills. The fine print of this role implies that you are a leader in your workplace. You are in charge of a team of nurses, and how well you manage them will influence the quality of care provided to patients in your ward. Under your supervision, the team should function better, ultimately leading to better care and improved outcomes. And leadership skills are at the very core of it.
Organizational skills. As a Charge Nurse, one of your biggest strengths will be your organizational skills. You need to organize schedules, reports, staff evaluations, supply timetables while also organizing your shift itinerary so that you provide outstanding care to your patients. Handling both administrative and nursing duties is no easy feat, and it’s the sign of a great Charge Nurse to be able to do it gracefully.
Communication skills. You’ll be working and interacting with people a lot. You have to oversee the nursing staff in your unit, train new nurses, talk to supervisors, collaborate with physicians, care for patients, and educate their families. And all during the same shift. That’s why having great communication skills might be one of the best qualities of a Charge Nurse.
Critical thinking and problem-solving skills. Real-life nursing rarely follows the textbook examples you went through in nursing school. Often nurses might find themselves in an impasse, unsure of what’s the best way forward. In those situations, they will most likely come to you for advice and guidance on solving their problems and avoiding making nursing mistakes. Being able to think critically and to make decisions will come a long way in this job.
Patience. Being impatient and getting frustrated when new nurses come to you with questions or when other staff members come to check if they could switch shifts might be one of the biggest weaknesses for Charge Nurses. To be effective in this role, you need to be patient with the nursing staff, your patients, and everyone else involved in the healthcare process. Working as part of a team – and especially leading that team requires empathy, assertiveness, and understanding.
Are You Ready to Take Charge of Your Nursing Future?
Being a Charge Nurse is a fantastic opportunity for Registered Nurses who want to get the best out of both worlds. You are still involved in direct patient care and offer bedside, personal attention to patients. At the same time, you live up to your leadership potential and get more involved in the decision-making process and administration.
It’s a very fulfilling position in which you will tremendously help the entire healthcare team. Are you ready to pursue it?
Enroll in Nightingale College’s RN-to-BSN program and advance your career. A Charge Nurse promotion is just in sight!
Demand for nurses is increasing significantly in the US. At the same time, many potential nurses are having second thoughts about pursuing a nursing career for one reason or another. It might take too long to get the credential. Or maybe they find that while they do share the nursing values entirely, they are not keen on the idea of working in a hospital. Perhaps they prefer more personalized interactions instead of caring for many patients in a hectic environment.
So, many aspiring nurses would consider pursuing this career if it were possible to take a more non-traditional, non-bedside route. If they could choose an option in which they have more flexibility while following their calling: caring for people.
If this description fits you, the good news is there are excellent nursing career options that don’t require you to work in a hospital. Home healthcare is one of them. It’s an extremely rewarding career that can allow you to fulfill your potential on your terms.
In this guide to home health nursing, we’ll explore all the subtleties of a career in this area. Stick around for advice on how to become a Home Health Nurse, what the job description may entail, salary expectations, and much more.
You may have a lot of questions about this career, and we’re here to answer all of them.
How Do You Become a Home Health Nurse?
There are multiple pathways to a Home Health Nurse career. Whichever one you choose is primarily based on your objectives. Is it important to you to start working and earning money quickly? How much time are you willing to spend in nursing school? Would you rather have higher levels of autonomy and responsibility in your Home Health nursing practice, or would you prefer a more entry-level position? The answers to these questions will help you decide what’s the best route for you to take to become a Home Health Nurse. These are your options:
One year LPN Program
One-to-two years ADN Program
Two-to-four years BSN Program
The fastest way to enter a home health nursing position is by enrolling in a Licensed Practical Nurse program. LPN programs generally last approximately one year and prepare you to sit for the NCLEX-PN exam, the test you need to pass in order to gain PN licensure.
Nightingale College’s Practical Nurse Diploma program provides you with the knowledge and skills needed to ace the exam. It will also teach you to demonstrate quality, competent, client-centered care – all invaluable assets in the home healthcare environment.
If you know that nursing is your calling, then becoming a Registered Nurse might be the best way to move ahead in your career. You can gain RN licensure by enrolling in an Associate’s Degree Program or a Bachelor’s Degree program. After completing either of these nursing programs, you have one last hurdle: the NCLEX-RN. The NCLEX-RN is a comprehensive nursing exam that you must pass to become a licensed Registered Nurse.
Home health nurse jobs are available to both ADN-trained nurses and BSN-trained nurses. However, take into account the fact that in the last years, BSN is increasingly becoming the golden standard in nursing practice. Since they are linked to better patient outcomes, it’s unsurprising that employers have a stronger preference for RNs with a Bachelor’s Degree under their belt.
The blended BSN program offered by Nightingale College offers online didactic instruction and on-ground experiential learning. In as little as 32 months, you can become a Home Health Registered Nurse, ready to put your nursing skills and knowledge into practice.
Suppose you pursued an ADN degree and are now at a point in your career where you want to advance your education. You want to reap the benefits of a BSN degree, or you’re ready to take on more responsibility in your job. The good news is you can do that reasonably quickly by enrolling in a bridge program. RN-to-BSN bridge programs, like the one offered by Nightingale College, are usually offered online and are 100% career friendly. Thus, you can pursue a more advanced nursing education without giving up your job.
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Once you become a Licensed Practical Nurse or a Licensed Registered Nurse, you’ll have the green light to go after home health nurse jobs. Certainly, the duties and responsibilities will differ depending on your education level. We’ll pick up that discussion in the next section.
What Does a Home Health Nurse Do?
The fact that they work outside a hospital environment doesn’t make the Home Health Nurse’s job description less complex or important. The requirements, duties, and responsibilities associated with this nursing job are pillars that keep the home healthcare system stable.
Home Health Nurses offer quality and expert nursing care to patients in their homes. Opting for home-based care is increasingly popular in a myriad of situations. Patients who underwent surgery or other medical procedures may require additional care even after being discharged from the medical facility – supplied by visits from Home Health Nurses. Patients who are recovering from accidents or injuries may also need in-home specialized nursing care. Home Health Nurses’ services can be employed in caring for the elderly, disabled people, or critically ill patients who want to manage their condition in a home environment.
Generally, Home Care Nurses have the duty to perform regular visits to their patients’ homes and offer individualized nursing care. Their job doesn’t stop the minute they leave the patient’s house because a critical responsibility of Home Health Nurses is completing records of the care that was provided and sharing them with the doctor after the visit. How documentation is filed and kept might be subject to home health agency policy and procedure.
Let’s see what some of the most common duties and responsibilities Home Health Nurses have to tackle on a daily basis are:
Traveling to the patient’s home and managing their care plans, as advised by physicians or doctors in charge.
Monitoring vital signs and, when necessary, completing medical tests, such as blood pressure, glucose, urine, and stool tests.
Administering medication per the physician’s instructions.
Inspecting wounds and changing bandages and dressings.
Ensuring the patient’s comfort, testing for bedsore, muscle weakness, and infections.
Helping patients with daily tasks, such as eating, bathing, grooming, and so on.
Educating the patients and the family on the care that the patient must receive.
Communicating effectively with the patient and their family, answering their questions, and helping them deal with the situation.
Compiling reports on the patient’s recovery and state to be shared with the physician.
Working closely with doctors and other healthcare professionals to devise home healthcare plans for patients, improved diets, or exercise routines.
What Is a Home Health Nurse’s Salary?
The average pay for Home Health Nurses varies significantly due to a variety of factors. Education level, location, and years of experience are just some of the characteristics that can influence the size of your paycheck.
For instance, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, home health and personal care aides (that don’t require any type of formal nursing education) earn on average $27,080. While there is no official data on the wages of Registered Nurses specializing in home healthcare, marketplace research shows that it’s much higher than that.
Per ZipRecruiter data, as of October 2021, the mean salary for a Home Health Nurse in the United States was $68,885 a year. That divides up to average hourly pay of $33.12 an hour.
You can expect to earn even more if you choose to combine travel and home health nursing. Home Health Travel Nurse earn an average annual salary of $84,699 a year. While travel nursing may not be everyone’s cup of tea, you will enjoy the home health travel nurse career path if you like the excitement of working in new places caring for different people.
Job Outlook for Home Health Nurses
The field of home health is projected to grow significantly over the next decade. As the baby-boom population ages and there are more elderly people, the demand for Home Care Nurses also increases. As a result, more older people, people with disabilities, and critically ill patients rely heavily on home care as an alternative to nursing homes or hospitals.
More often, families would rather have their loved ones be cared for in the comfort and familiarity of their homes rather than other facilities. Also, relying on home care may be a cheaper alternative. Thus many patients reduce their medical expenses by returning to their home and receiving in-home care from a competent nurse.
All in all, this suggests an excellent job outlook for nurses considering to steer their careers in the home healthcare direction.
What Skills and Qualities Must Home Health Nurse Have?
Nurses, in general, are some of the most caring and selfless people – that’s what makes them so great at their job. And a good nursing education ensures that you have the knowledge and technical know-how to succeed at your job. But specific skills will come a long way in your home care nurse position. It’s these skills that you should highlight in your nursing resume and demonstrate during your interview.
In this section, we’ll talk about these essential qualities:
Detail-oriented. There’s plenty of rules and protocols you must adhere to as a Home Care Nurse to ensure that you offer the best care possible. You must carefully examine every aspect of your patient’s condition, environment, and progress. Thus, every little detail should be taken into consideration.
Emotional resilience. Working in home health can be a highly stressful and emotional environment. Many of your patients might experience extreme pain and distress. And you need to be sensitive to their needs while ensuring that you don’t let yourself fall prey to burnout and emotional fatigue.
Integrity. A home Health Nursing job requires you to be highly dependable and trustworthy. Your clients and their families need to know that they can count on you, on your skills and integrity. By letting you into their home, they let you into their lives, as well, and you need to treat this with utmost respect and professionalism.
Interpersonal skills. This is one of the most important skills for Home Health Nurses. You need to communicate with your patients, with their families, with supervising doctors and other members of the healthcare team. Listening carefully, conveying information efficiently, and clearly explaining even the most complex of your nursing actions are vital assets for every aspiring home care nurse.
Physical stamina. The job comes with its share of physical demands. You may have to be on your feet for long periods. The patient in your care may require lifting, turning, or moving around. You might have to move fairly heavy pieces of medical equipment. So, some physical strength will prove helpful.
Why Should You Consider a Career in Home Healthcare?
Many aspiring nurses are excited at the prospect of caring for people and less excited about having to work in a hospital environment. Should you find yourself among these people, these are some of the reasons why home healthcare may be just the best career option for you:
You’ll have a flexible schedule, and you’re the one in charge of it. As a traditional hospital nurse, you have to adhere to certain shifts, specific work hours, and a rigorous pace of work. Home healthcare allows for a lot more flexibility. Even if you work with a home healthcare agency, generally, you get to choose what shifts you work. Instead of being in the same unit all day, you may have to drive from one appointment to another.
In addition to the flexibility, a career in home healthcare comes with greater autonomy and independence. Most likely, you will be a part of a larger healthcare team and act under the supervision of a physician. However, since you will be the only one at home with the patient, you’ll have to be able to act quickly and independently. As a visiting nurse, you need to display strong critical thinking. With greater autonomy comes greater responsibility.
One of the most significant benefits of pursuing a job in home healthcare is the possibility of creating long-lasting, rewarding relationships with your patients. You’ll be spending more time with the patient and their family. You’ll learn more about their story; you might form more meaningful connections than it would be possible in the fast-paced environment of a hospital. Many nurses cherish precisely this aspect of working in-home healthcare.
Are You Ready to Become a Home Health Nurse?
Home Healthcare Nurses play an invaluable role in the health ecosystem. Their care and expertise applied to a non-traditional nursing setting lead to better outcomes for their clients. Patients can get the care they need and deserve right at home, away from the cold fluorescent lights of hospital rooms.
If you love everything about nursing and want nothing else other than help people to the best of your ability, then home healthcare might be the best career choice. Regardless of whether you’re just getting started or switching careers, you’ll discover that being a Home Health Nurse is one of the most rewarding nursing paths. Every in-person visit is your chance to make a difference.
Are you excited about taking your talents into home healthcare?
There are many specialties available to aspiring nurses – each of them unique and rewarding. From working with babies to working as a telehealth nurse or as a Flight RN, you get to personalize most of the aspects of your career. You can choose the patient population you provide care for, the work environment, even the dynamism level of the job.
Emergency Nursing remains one of the most in-demand and fulfilling career tracks for nurses among the myriad of options. Every day you go to work means a life saved. But the ER comes with its own set of challenges. It’s dynamic, but it’s also unpredictable. It’s gratifying but also tiring. You help people day in and day out, but you are also exposed to a lot of pain and suffering. Before starting your journey as an RN in the emergency department, you need to know exactly what you’re signing up for. Once you learn to embrace the challenges, you’ll discover that the professional satisfaction of working in the Emergency department is unmatched.
Our guide is here to help you discover everything there is to know about emergency nursing. From the education and skills, you need to excel at the job to how much money you can expect to make – we can help you learn more about this wonderful career.
How Do You Become an ER Nurse?
One of the things you ponder on when choosing a career is the road that will take you there. You feel drawn to the goals and values of emergency nursing, and you feel like you have what it takes to be a great ER nurse. So, now there’s one more question left to answer: how exactly do you become an ER Nurse?
In order to become an Emergency Room Nurse, you first have to become a licensed nurse. These are the exact steps that will take you there. First, you enroll in a nursing school program. Upon completing it, you will sit for the NCLEX-RN exam. Once you successfully pass the exam, you gain your RN licensure. After that, you can start applying for ER Nursing Jobs.
The path to licensure seems relatively straightforward. Still, there are some decisions you need to make along the way. One of the main ones is what schooling path you’ll pursue. There are several ways to become a Registered Nurse.
You can opt for an Associate’s Degree in Nursing. This type of nursing program takes around two years to complete and is the fastest option to gaining RN licensure. Another possible course of action is enrolling in a Bachelor’s Degree in Nursing. A BSN will take longer – around four years – but it will prepare you more thoroughly for a nursing career.
Either one of these programs culminates with you sitting in for the NCLEX RN examination. It’s an extensive exam that tests your knowledge, critical thinking skills, and overall ability to make the best nursing judgments in any circumstance. As long as you’re a licensed Registered Nurse, you’ll be eligible to apply to most nursing positions.
You can always advance your education at a later time in your career through nursing bridge programs. Bridge programs are an excellent option for working professionals who want to get a higher degree while working. RN-to-BSN programs are one of the most common nursing bridge programs. They are the best options for ADN-educated Registered Nurses who want to get their BSN in a short period of time and for less money. For instance, Nightingale College’s RN-to-BSN program can be completed in as little as 12 months. Moreover, it’s 100% online and career-friendly making it easier to juggle your school, work, and personal responsibilities.
While both ADN and BSN are valid degrees for licensure, most healthcare employers will have a strong preference for BSN-trained nurses. There is no shortage of studies proving the link between BSN education and better patient outcomes, fewer failure-to-rescue rates, and lower mortality rates. While these statistics are important in all nursing areas, they’re all the more poignant in the emergency department. Also, BSN nurses have access to a broader pool of job opportunities, higher salaries, increased job satisfaction, and more autonomy.
If you want to advance your education even further, you always have the option of pursuing ER nurse certifications. The certification process for ER nurses is entirely voluntary. Still, it is an excellent way to improve your nursing skills while also gaining a higher level of confidence in your practice and expertise. Certified nurses are also very respected by their peers and can expect to climb higher on the professional ladder.
There are five main certifications for ER nurses that you could choose from depending on your interests. They are all offered by the Board of Certification for Emergency Nursing (BCEN). These emergency nursing certifications are:
It takes a whole team of professionals to care for the people’s emergency healthcare needs, and ER nurses are the linchpin that keeps the ER running successfully. Their job description is broad and complex because ER RNs deal with a great deal of unpredictability, many specific cases, and lots of dynamic situations. When you start your shift, you don’t know what patients will enter through the emergency room doors that day, so every day on the job will be unique. However, even in a fast-paced environment like the ER, you can still expect some tasks you’ll have to tackle daily. Here are some of the duties and responsibilities that will make constant appearances in your work schedule:
Perform triage. When patients enter the ER, you may need to prioritize the order of care based on need, staffing levels, and acuity of the patient’s condition.
Collect patient information and record data carefully and accurately.
Make sure you record the patient’s state throughout their stay in the hospital. You chronicle meticulously any changes in their condition, any medications you’ve administered, any actions you took towards their care.
Assess the patient’s condition and their state before, during, and after they have received interventions, medications, or other forms of care.
Monitor the patient’s vitals.
Provide personalized care to the patients that are assigned to you.
Engage in patient education. You should be able to explain in easy-to-understand language what the patient needs to do to alleviate the symptoms of their condition even after they leave the hospital.
Partake in family education. Helping people learn how to care for their loved ones is a big part of the job.
Be a team player and collaborate efficiently with other members of the healthcare team: nurses, physicians, social workers, ambulance crews, and so on.
Be a patient advocate. As a nurse, it is your main duty to help and care for your patients to the best of your ability while taking their needs, wants, and values into account.
ER vs. ICU Registered Nurses
Even though they share the common goal of caring for patients to their best ability, ER and ICU nurses are two very different nursing specialties. At the end of the day, these nurses are as different as the departments they work in. Some of the main differences are in the patient population and work environment. ER nurses deal with patients experiencing emergency health threats, and the Emergency Room is a fast-paced, chaotic, and often disorganized workplace. That would be an ICU nurse’s worst nightmare. Intensive Care Unit Nurses deal with very fragile patients, frequently only hanging to life by a thread. They are most likely ventilated, intubated, or their survival depends on life-sustaining medication drips. Such a work environment requires a great deal of organization and meticulous attention to detail.
ER Nurse vs. Trauma Nurse
Frequently the roles of ER and Trauma Nurses get confused or are used interchangeably. However, there are some slight differences in job descriptions that set these nursing roles apart. For Emergency Room nurses, for the most part, their patients are coherent, can answer questions, can move around, or drive themselves to the hospital. Trauma Nurses, however, deal with patients who are in more severe conditions. That means patients who had to be rushed into the ER with potentially life-threatening injuries, wounds, or conditions – patients who need the most urgent medical attention. Trauma Nurses will often work in a special department in the medical facility – the trauma center.
Emergency Nurses can find employment in a variety of settings. Most often, ER RNs will work in the emergency department of public or private hospitals. Triage centers, urgent care centers, and some trauma centers can also employ ER nurses. Additionally, you have a pretty high chance of finding an ER nurse job in medical clinics, emergency response units, poison control centers, or teaching hospitals. Different branches of the military may also be on the lookout for qualified Emergency Room Registered Nurses.
Working as an Emergency Nurse can also serve as a stepping stone towards other nursing specialties. For example, after gaining a few years’ worth of work experience as an ER nurse, you can let your nursing career soar – literally – and pursue a career in flight nursing.
How Much Do ER Nurses Earn?
How much money you make could be a make-or-break aspect of choosing a career. That’s why it’s crucial to get an overview of your earning potential while you’re still in the research phase.
As an Emergency Room Nurse, you can expect to earn a slightly higher salary than the national average for all Registered Nurses. ZipRecruiter, a popular online job platform, indicates that the average salary for ER Nurses is $85,704. For comparison, official data from the Bureau of Labour Statistics puts the national mean wage for RNs at $80,010.
Bear in mind that salaries may vary significantly based on a wide range of factors. The location where you practice, education level, years of experience, and certifications are just a few of the details which can play a part in how much money you can make in this position.
In addition to clinical competencies and nursing knowledge, there are a few skills that you’ll need to master to become a great Emergency Room Nurse. The ER can be a stressful, high-stakes work environment, but having these competencies will help you better navigate the workplace and be a better nurse.
Multitasking. Being able to multitask is an essential asset for ED nurses. Multitasking helps you save time while increasing efficiency. Being organized will help you multitask as it allows you to automate some of the most routine tasks. Thus, you’ll be able to handle more than one thing happening at once. You can get better at multitasking the more you practice it. At the same time, make sure you don’t stretch yourself too thin. You don’t want to experience burnout just because you keep adding to your workload.
Calmness under pressure. Keeping your composure, even in the most stressful situations, is a must in the emergency room. ER RN positions are not for the faint of heart. You may have to deal with highly unusual problems, and some medical cases may be more unsettling than others. Regardless of the situation in the Emergency Department, you need to keep your cool and make sure your patients receive the best possible care.
Time management is another essential skill in the ER. First of all, you have a lot of duties and responsibilities on your plate, and you need to make sure that you complete them all during your shift. Also, in the emergency department, you can expect many interruptions. A patient with a more serious condition that requires immediate attention could walk through the doors at any moment. So, you should know how to manage your time and tasks in such a way that you fulfill your responsibilities without feeling overwhelmed by them.
Interpersonal skills and teamwork. As an Emergency Nurse, a big part of your job revolves around working with other people. Great communication skills and listening to a patient’s concerns or a colleague’s suggestions will help you be a better nurse. Establishing positive relationships with your peers, working efficiently with other healthcare team members, and being able to get through to patients will prove incredible resources on your way to becoming an ER nurse.
Stamina cannot be overlooked. Working in the ER can be quite physically demanding and emotionally draining, so you must always be on top of your game. Stamina is about being strong mentally, maintaining discipline, and not quitting even when things get complicated. Also, building physical endurance will go a long way. As an ER nurse, you can expect to be on your feet for long hours. You may have to move patients or equipment. There may be lifting involved or other duties that require some strength. Don’t discount the need to be in good physical and mental shape when embarking on your journey to become an ER nurse.
Are You Ready to Save Lives in the ER?
ER nursing is an excellent fit for nurses who like to be challenged and want a dynamic and never-boring work environment. Nurses who are great at working in teams, who are pros at juggling tasks, and managing stress will enjoy working in the emergency room. Does that sound like you? Does the idea of being on the frontlines of care seem appealing to you?
In that case, you should consider a career as an ER Registered Nurse. Prepare yourself for the joys and demands of the emergency department by investing in quality nursing education.
Some aspiring nurses know right away that they want to dedicate their professional lives to bringing new life into the world. When it comes down to it, they love babies above all else, so they don’t envision themselves doing anything else but care for the little ones. Other nurses look at jobs more pragmatically. They find the idea of working with pregnant women and newborns tempting because it is a smart career choice. Some RNs may feel like it’s time to take a different direction in terms of career. Thus, they’re turning their attention to working with newborns – a rewarding career.
Regardless of what group you belong to, you are here because you want to learn more about labor and delivery nursing. As far as RN specialties go, this one fits your goals perfectly. So, naturally, you are eager to learn everything there is to know about a career as a Labor and Delivery Nurse.
If you want to learn more, you have come to the right place. This article offers a comprehensive overview of labor and delivery nursing as a potential career. From clarifying what it is exactly that L&D nurses do and what sets them apart from other types of nurses to addressing things like schooling, salary, and job outlook, you will find answers to all your Labor and Delivery-related questions in our guide.
Let’s jump right in.
What is a Labor and Delivery Nurse?
Labor and Delivery nursing, sometimes also referred to as L&D nursing, is a sub-division of Obstetrics nursing. Professionals choosing this career path work closely with physicians or Nurse-Midwives. As part of the care team attending to mother and baby during the delivery process, L&D RNs play an invaluable role. They care for the mother (and then the baby) from admission to discharge. They are present in the delivery room, caring for the childbearing woman every step of the way.
Labor and Delivery RNs will coach the mother through contractions, help her breathe when the pain seems unbearable, cheer and encourage her throughout travail. They will be the right hand of the doctor delivering the baby, assisting in any way possible. Moreover, L and D nurses will also care for the newborn immediately after birth. In some cases, they may care for both mother and baby until they are discharged.
Thus, the Labor and Delivery Nurse is a vital link in the delivery process. Their contribution and expertise make the miracle of childbirth happen. On top of that, their care and advice can help women navigate the first days of their lives as mothers with more confidence and light-heartedness.
In short, as a Labor and Delivery Nurse, you are the family’s source of information and advice. For the mother giving birth, you are a shoulder to lean on, a source of support and encouragement. You can make the birthing experience more rewarding and less painful even with the smallest gestures. Whether it’s hand-holding, giving the patient extra blankets, or helping them fight nausea – even the tiniest gestures can improve how childbirth goes. And mothers won’t forget it.
What Do Labor and Delivery Nurses Do?
The L&D job description may vary slightly depending on the institution where you work, the amount of experience you have in your field, and the level of education and training you have. But there are some common Labor and Delivery Nurse job responsibilities that you can expect to encounter if you direct your career in this direction.
Some of the duties of a Labor and Delivery Nurse include:
Assess the needs of the patient during childbirth
Monitor the vitals of the expecting mother. This may include checking blood pressure levels, the timing of contractions, heart rate, and more.
Provide fetal assessments and monitoring
Provide physical, emotional, or medicinal support (medicinal under the instructions of a physician or midwife)
Administering epidurals if the expectant mother chooses this option
If the birth needs to be induced, you’ll have to administer the medication and provide support
Prepare the expectant mother for a C-section procedure if the situation requires it
Educate the patient about medications, the delivery process, pushing, and so on.
Provide postpartum care and advice. For example, should the new mother need a lactation consultant, you can connect her with a specialist.
Collaborate efficiently with the whole care team: this may include physicians, Nurse Midwife, Nurse Anesthetist, Charge Nurse, Lactation Nurse.
Chart procedures accurately and enter patient data in Electronic Health Records.
Educate the family on how to care for the infant.
Being an L and D nurse comes with an exhaustive job description. No two days on the job are going to be the same because each pregnancy and delivery is different. Expectant mothers have different needs and different attitudes. Each birth is a special case in its own right. So, it’s crucial to be prepared for everything. You need to be able to anticipate and deal with any situation that may occur in the delivery room. That’s why you need to be well prepared for the job.
In the next section, we’ll discuss how to become a labor and delivery nurse. We’ll cover education requirements, schooling, and additional training.
How to Become a Labor and Delivery Nurse?
The most important nurse education requirement you need to fulfill in order to become a Labor and Delivery nurse is to obtain licensure as a Registered Nurse.
There are three main education routes to becoming a licensed RN. You can get an ADN degree, enroll in a diploma program, or earn a BSN in nursing. The most common ways are, by far, the ADN and BSN paths.
An Associate’s degree in nursing is the fastest way to become a Labor and Delivery Nurse. It takes around two years to complete this degree. This is a great option for nurses who need to start working as soon as possible. If at any point in your career you want to advance your education, you can do so through a bridge program. RN-to-BSN programs are common and convenient. Most of them are available online and offer a flexible schedule, making it possible to keep working while studying to get your Bachelor’s Degree. Nightingale College’s RN-to-BSN program is career-friendly and will prepare you exhaustively for a nursing career in your specialty of choice.
If you enroll in a traditional Bachelor’s Degree in Nursing, expect to spend around four years in school. BSN degrees take longer to obtain, but the benefits they come with are worth the extra schooling time. First of all, more time spent learning will help you become a better nurse. Many studies show a positive correlation between BSN RNs, better patient outcomes, fewer failure to rescue instances, and improved patient satisfaction. Likewise, a BSN degree will open the door to more and better-paid job opportunities.
At Nightingale College, prospective learners can enroll in a blended BSN program that combines online didactic instruction with on-ground experiential learning. You’ll advance your nursing skills in as little as 32 months, allowing you to start your journey towards labor and delivery nursing sooner.
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Regardless of what schooling path you choose, becoming a Labor and Delivery Nurse is still a fair amount of work. The nursing education needed before embracing an L&D career will take anywhere from two to four years. If you want to advance your training, you’ll need to count in an additional two years of bedside nursing before you can apply for certification.
Becoming a Certified Labor and Delivery Nurse is entirely voluntary. However, certification is not only validation of your skills as an L&D RN. It’s also a ticket to higher wages, promotions, and better benefits.
Some certifications that will boost your expertise level and L and D nursing prospects are Inpatient Obstetric Nursing Certification, Electronic Fetal Monitoring Certification, and Neonatal Resuscitation Certification.
Labor and Delivery Nurses can work in a variety of healthcare settings. Most L&D RNs can find employment in the delivery units of private or public hospitals, freestanding birthing centers, or private practice offices. In some cases, Labor and Delivery Nurses may need to attend home births.
No matter what work setting you are hired in, the environment will be fairly similar everywhere. Excitement, expectation, mixed in with the screaming and pain of childbirth make for a unique, loud, and enthralling workstation.
What Are the Differences Between L&D Nurses and Nurse-Midwives?
People often confuse the roles of Labor and Delivery Nurses and Nurse-Midwives or assume they are one and the same. That is not the case. While there are some similarities with these nursing roles, there are also many differences that set the professions apart.
Let’s start with the things they have in common. Both Labor and Delivery Nurses and Certified Nurse-Midwives work with expectant mothers and newborns. They care for pregnant women, attend deliveries, and offer support and education on how to care for infants.
The differences between L&D Nurses and CNMs are important to mention. Being Advanced Practice Registered Nurses, Nurse-Midwives have a far more extensive scope of practice and more autonomy. They care for women during labor, but they are involved in caring for the expectant mothers before delivery, as well. CNMs take care of the pregnant woman throughout the course of the pregnancy, which is not a responsibility shared by Labor and Delivery Nurses. Nurse-Midwives can also offer preconception counseling, prescribe medications, and perform routine gynecological examinations.
For most Certified Nurse Midwives, working in Labor and Delivery is the first step in their career. They gain experience in the delivery room and after a few years, go back to school, earn their Master’s Degree (which is a requirement for becoming an APRN), and start working as a CNM.
How Much Do Labor and Delivery Nurses Make?
A career in labor and delivery nursing is rewarding. You get to do what you love, you help bring life into the world, and day-in and day-out, you put smiles on your patients’ faces. But as significant as job satisfaction and professional fulfillment are, they don’t pay the bills. That’s why before starting a job you also ask: how much do labor and delivery nurses make?
According to data from the online job board platform, ZipRecruiter, Labor and Delivery Nurses make annually around $99,040. That is a higher salary compared to the wages all Registered Nurses earn. Per the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the average salary of RNs is $80,010.
The L&D nurse salary will be influenced by more factors that range from location and employer to schooling, qualifications, and certifications.
What Is the Job Outlook for the Profession?
In addition to earning higher-than-average salaries, Labor and Delivery Nurses also enjoy excellent job prospects. This job will always be in demand, so L&D Nurses can feel pretty confident in their job’s security. There were over 3,6 million births in the United States in 2020 and Labor and Delivery Nurses play an essential role in a big part of them. With more babies being born and mothers in need of care, the L&D role will not lose weight any time soon.
What Skills Do L&D Nurses Need?
Now that you’ve gone through the logistic aspects of the job, one question remains: Do I have what it takes? There are some skills you must command to be a successful Labor and Delivery Nurse.
Excellent communication skills are definitely at the top of the list. You need to communicate clearly with the pregnant woman from the moment she enters through the hospital doors until she is discharged. You need to listen carefully to her needs, coach her through the labor process, encourage, and support her as she delivers the baby. You also ought to communicate successfully with family members who are ready to meet the newborn for the very first time. And, of course, you work as a part of the team, so you are expected to communicate clearly with nurses, doctors, and other medical professionals.
Being calm and composed is also a game-changer for L&D nurses. The delivery ward is a dynamic work environment, with many people moving in and out, with mothers experiencing contractions, family members waiting to hear any news, nurses running around. Everything moves at a rapid pace and you need to keep up. But at the same time, you need to be the rock that childbearing mothers know is there even in the midst of this storm.
You need to display emotional strength. Labor and delivery nursing is a beautiful and rewarding career, but it won’t always be all smiles and rainbows. You may encounter heartbreaking developments, pregnancies that don’t end with a crying little bundle of joy on the mother’s chest, or complications that change the entire ‘happy pregnancy’ narrative. In these moments, you need to show strength, empathy, and kindness.
You need to be a pro at managing stress. Stress is a part of any nurse’s job and, if not managed effectively, it will lead to dissatisfaction and burnout. To combat burnout, you need to learn to prioritize your health and wellbeing, not only your patients. Don’t let stress suck the joy out of a job you love so much.
Are You Ready to Embrace an L&D Career?
Nurses who love working with babies and expectant mothers will find a perfect match in labor and delivery nursing. It would be hard to find a more deeply rewarding career. If the idea of working in L&D fills your heart with excitement, take the first step today.
Enroll in Nightingale College’s BSN program or advance your education with our online RN-to-BSN degree.
Mind, body, spirit, and emotion. In holistic nursing, each of these aspects matters equally in the practice of providing care. Thus, Holistic RNs pay close attention to more than just the physical particularities of a patient’s health and the corporeal symptoms they experience. They take into account the environment, and the mental, emotional, and spiritual state of the patient.
Put simply, holistic nursing is about treating the patient as a whole. In recent years, this type of approach to healthcare is picking up speed as many studies prove the benefits of holistic care in terms of patient outcomes.
Nurses who believe that best care lies at the intersection of alternative techniques and traditional nursing will enjoy working as Holistic RNs. But how exactly do you become a Holistic Nurse? What duties can you expect on a daily basis? How much do you make?
In this article, you’ll find a comprehensive overview of holistic nursing as a career path.
Let’s dive in.
What is Holistic Nursing?
To comprehend the concept of holistic nursing, it helps tremendously to first grasp the idea behind holism, in general. The principle upon which holism is built is that to understand people, you need to address factors that affect them in all situations.
Holistic nursing wasn’t recognized as a distinct nursing specialty until 2006. However, its roots go much further than that. Florence Nightingale, the trailblazer widely recognized as the founder of modern nursing, also recognized the importance of holistic nursing and addressing the patient as a whole. She taught nurses of her time the principles of holism: unity, wellness, and the connection between humans and the environment.
The American Holistic Nurses Association (AHNA) currently describes holistic nursing as all nursing practice that has healing “the whole person” as its goal. Registered Nurses who choose this career path make sure to put each person’s physical, mental, emotional, spiritual, and environmental strengths and challenges at the core of their professional assessment, intervention, and evaluation of results.
Holistic nurses don’t shy away from using alternative forms of care in addition to their knowledge and expertise in Western medicine. So, a big part of their practice can include the use of music, therapeutic massage, play therapy, touch therapy, meditation, breathwork, and more. Holistic RNs will guide their patients to integrate self-care, spirituality, and reflection into their lives. This is how patients can balance their physical, mental, and spiritual health.
What’s the Difference Between Holistic and Traditional Nursing?
While there are several differences between holistic and traditional nursing, they share one significant thing in common. Both holistic and traditional nurses must undergo rigorous training and must be licensed to be able to practice. There is a strict educational path you need to follow (that is very similar to that of a traditional RN) if you want to engage in holistic nursing.
One difference, however, is in the methods they can employ to offer care. Traditional Nurses have stricter policies and procedures in place that guide their actions. They can provide medical care within the scope of their practice; they can show empathy, give advice and provide comfort. Holistic RNs can – and are encouraged to – be more creative with how they offer care and the treatment methods they use. Music therapy, calming techniques, massage therapy, and therapy through art are just some of the ways they can treat patients that are not readily available to traditional RNs.
Who they treat may also differ. Traditional Registered Nurses will care for patients from all backgrounds: various ages, ethnicities, social statuses, and medical conditions. Holistic Nurses are also trained to care for the same variety of patients. Still, because the holistic approach means caring for the whole person, it’s harder to employ it in the Emergency Room (for instance). The ER focuses on treating the medical condition as fast as possible – slightly different from the holistic approach. That’s why Holistic Nurses will most often provide care to patients with severe medical conditions or patients who need long-term care. It allows them to establish a long-term relationship and focus on treating not only the body but also the mind and soul.
Another distinction is that in holistic care, patients are more involved in decision-making regarding their care. Holistic Nurses will pay more attention to the patients’ ideas, preferences, and suggestions on treatment options. There may be a focus on non-medicinal healing treatments for specific medical conditions instead of drug treatments or treatments that include medical equipment. That means patients can express an interest in the course of care, and Holistic Nurses will be mindful of it. This may include dietary changes, exercise, meditation, homeopathy, reflexology, and so on.
What Does a Holistic Nurse Do?
Holistic Registered Nurses can perform all the duties and responsibilities of a conventional RN. But, in their practice, they take the healing process one step further, focusing on the patient’s emotional, social, mental, and spiritual healing. For Holistic Nurses, the healing process starts from the inside out, and care isn’t complete unless it integrates all sides of an individual’s being.
To provide care, Holistic RNs have a wide variety of alternative treatments and practices to choose from. Some of the most common complementary and alternative medicine therapies they can use include:
Acupuncture
Aromatherapy
Hydrotherapy
Hypnosis
Massage
Yoga
Biofeedback
Guided imagery
Lifestyle counseling
Art interventions
Herbal therapies
Animal therapy
Wellness coaching
Exercise programs
Stress management
Breathing techniques
Reflexology
Eastern medicine
Music and Sound therapy
Dietary or nutritional counseling
What Holistic Nurses do is promote care and wellness that is multifaceted. Exercise medicine and nutrition are essential. But so is a calming environment and a low-stress atmosphere, or not burying your emotions and feelings. Inner peace can put people on a path of healing.
How to Become a Holistic Nurse?
Becoming a Holistic Nurse requires rigorous training and education.
The first step is enrolling in a nursing program and successfully completing it. You can either opt for an ADN or BSN program. ADN programs are shorter – they usually take around two years. Completion of a traditional BSN program, on the other hand, will take about four years. Even though both pathways lead to RN licensure, earning your Bachelor’s Degree is highly recommended. BSN-trained nurses have many advantages compared to their ADN-educated counterparts. Better patient outcomes, higher wages, and more job opportunities are just a few of them. If you got an Associate’s Degree in Nursing, you could still get your BSN degree by enrolling in a bridge nursing program. An online RN-to-BSN is an excellent option for working professionals who wish to advance their education and open themselves to more and better prospects.
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Upon successfully completing the nursing program, you need to earn licensure as a Registered Nurse by passing the NCLEX-RN exam. You can start practicing as an RN only after you pass this last hurdle in your nursing education.
Congratulations! You are now a full-fledged Registered Nurse. Before you can branch out into a career in holistic nursing, you need to gain some bedside nursing experience.
The next step – one of great importance – is earning certification as a Holistic Nurse. Certification is a voluntary process, but it is highly recommended for aspiring nurses who want to push their careers in a holistic direction. The American Holistic Nurses Credentialing Corporation (AHNCC) is the credentialing body responsible for granting certifications to nurses who want to base their practice on the principles of holistic nursing.
APHN-BC (Advanced Practice Holistic Nurse Board Certified)
The minimum eligibility requirements for either of these credentials are having an unrestricted RN license, at least 2000 hours of full-time holistic nursing practice, and at least 48 hours of CNE – Continuing Nursing Education.
Bear in mind that to seek the more advanced certification, you need to first advance your degree by enrolling in a Master’s program. An MSN is not a requirement for the practice of holistic nursing. But suppose you want to advance your career and become a Holistic Nurse Practitioner. In that case, enrolling in a Master’s program becomes a necessary prerequisite. Holistic Nurse Practitioners have a higher level of autonomy in their practice, making it a highly desirable career path.
How Much Do Holistic Nurses Earn?
Holistic Nurses can expect to earn wages along the same lines as Registered Nurses’. According to official data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the average annual salary for Registered Nurses is $80,010. So, while the BLS does not specify how much the nurses who specialize in Holistic care can earn, the figure is expected to be in the ballpark of $80,000.
Naturally, as you advance your education, training, and credentials, your salary will also increase. ZipRecruiter, an online job platform, estimates that the average annual salary for a Holistic Nurse Practitioner in the United States is $99,620 yearly.
Alongside competitive salaries, Holistic Nurses enjoy excellent job prospects. A 2019 article published in the scientific journal Alternative and Complementary Therapies shared projections regarding the growth of this career in the upcoming years. According to their estimates, the holistic care specialty will grow 20% by 2022.
Where Do Holistic Nurses Work?
Holistic Nurses work in a variety of healthcare environments, including hospitals, universities, and private practices. However, the private sector, birthing centers, and acute care hospitals remain the biggest employers of holistically-trained RNs.
Holistic Registered Nurses can also choose to work in home healthcare settings. Patients who suffer from serious conditions and are being treated in a home environment will often employ the services of a Holistic Nurse to help them adjust to, navigate and learn to live with their condition. Holistic Nurses offer advice on different types of nonpharmacologic pain relief strategies. They will make sure to focus on spiritual, mental, and emotional healing, as well.
Who Can Be a Holistic Nurse?
Many aspiring nurses perceive Holistic Nursing as a calling. It’s not just a job. It’s more of an attitude, a life philosophy, a way of being. You need to accept the holistic principles in your own life before succeeding as a Certified Holistic Nurse.
Self-care, self-responsibility, spirituality, and reflection are cornerstones of holistic practice. If you want to be a Holistic Nurse, you need to integrate them into your philosophy. You also need to be a firm believer that the self, the body, and the mind are wholly interconnected. The very premise on which holistic nursing is built is a relationship between all the building blocks of our existence. So, you need to acknowledge that treating the mind will help treat the body and that healing one’s spirit will help put patients on the road to recovery.
If you are ready to undergo the required education and training and use the guiding principles of holism to help patients to the best of your ability – this means that you have what it takes to become a great Holistic Nurse.
Are You Ready to Pursue a Holistic Nursing Career?
You love helping people, and you want to ensure that the care you provide doesn’t stop when the physical pain disappears. You recognize and honor the fact that biological, social, and spiritual needs are intertwined. To put it simply, you want a career that allows you to care for a person wholly. In that case, holistic nursing may be the most rewarding career path for you.
Take the first step towards it today.
Start your journey to holistic nursing by enrolling in our BSN degree program!
The sky is the limit. When it comes to nursing, we’re not only speaking metaphorically. With the right education, training, and skills, you can take your career to the skies and become a Flight Nurse.
Flight nursing is a highly competitive specialty in the nursing field. It is characterized by the unconventionality of the work environment, the high-pressure job description, and the significant amount of responsibility it entails. But for the aspiring nurses who love a dynamic workplace and are ready to get out of their comfort zone, flight nursing might be an alluring job.
This guide aims to break down this unique nursing role and give you a complete overview of flight nursing as a career path. Among other things, we’ll shine some light on the requirements you have to fulfill, what training is necessary, and how much you can expect to earn.
What Is a Flight Nurse?
Flight Registered Nurses, sometimes also called Transport Nurses or Helicopter Nurses, are highly prepared healthcare professionals who offer medical care during aircraft transportation.
In some situations, mere minutes can make the difference between life and death. Thus, transfer time plays a critical role in the effectiveness and quality of care a patient may receive. A valuable way to reduce patient transfer time significantly is air transport. Major medical facilities and trauma centers specifically have the infrastructure to receive critically ill or severely injured patients via aeromedical transport. Flight Nurses play a crucial part in the aeromedical team stabilizing the patients during transit. Their skills, care, and expertise are needed to guarantee that patients safely reach the hospital where they can receive more advanced care.
Transport RNs also aid with evacuating critically injured patients from dangerous or disastrous situations. Additionally, should there be prospects of better care at institutions located in other states or countries, Flight Nurses help transfer people who are severely ill between medical facilities.
The extremely high-pressure environment in which Flight Nurses work implies slightly different rules than traditional care in a medical facility. At a certain altitude, even the most minor bubble in a patient’s bloodstream can prove dangerous. Flight Nurses have to account for extra layers of responsibility every time they set foot onboard the emergency aircraft.
What Does a Flight Nurse Do?
Overall, Flight RNs’ job description is similar to that of a Registered Nurse, with one major distinction. They offer critical care in the air. In this section, we’ll explore the variety of flight nursing duties and responsibilities. So, let’s see what flight nurses do on a typical day on the job.
Most often, patients transported via aircraft are in a critical state and in dire need of emergency care. RNs onboard make sure they get it. The type of emergency care they have to provide will vary from one patient to another. Still, it can include everything from first aid treatment to resuscitation.
The job of the Flight RN starts at the trauma site. First and foremost, they must secure the patient to avoid them being jostled around the aircraft during takeoff, transit, and landing. That’s done by strapping patients to gurneys, which are then, in turn, bound to the inside of the aircraft. With the patients secure, nurses start making quick decisions regarding the direction of care they will provide en route to the hospital. It may include starting IV lines, administering medication, performing CPR, resuscitation, or other procedures. In addition to the specific clinical nursing duties, Flight RNs must also do their best to keep the patients calm and conscious for the duration of the flight. They should also provide patients with as much comfort as possible given the generally uncomfortable aircraft conditions in which they are being transported.
The job of the Flight Nurse isn’t limited to the flight alone. Once they make it to the destination, an essential duty Transport RNs have is to transfer patients to awaiting medical staff on-ground. In the process, they ought to give clear yet comprehensive updates of the patient’s condition. They also have to report the problems that may have occurred and the medical treatment administered during the transport.
In some instances, instead of trauma sites, Flight Nurses will assist with moving critically ill patients from one institution to another. Here, they are responsible for the paperwork and all the patient data making it to the receiving institution while also ensuring the patient’s safety during the high-risk flight.
Sometimes, Air Transport Nurses may be the only medical personnel on board. The broader level of autonomy also means that, in extreme cases, you must be able to handle pressure, think fast on your feet, and make life or death decisions. However, Transport RNs will primarily work as part of a team, being aided by Flight Paramedics.
How Do You Become a Flight Nurse?
Becoming a Flight Nurse is no easy feat. It requires a lot of schooling, training, and a certain amount of hands-on work experience. Let’s not get ahead of ourselves and start with the education requirements for a career in flight nursing.
To pursue a career as a Flight Nurse, the first and most crucial step is to become a licensed Registered Nurse. You can obtain RN licensure either through an Associate’s Degree, a Diploma Program, or a Bachelor’s Degree.
All three options are viable paths to becoming a licensed RN. Still, the overwhelming majority of healthcare employers ask for a Bachelor’s Degree as the minimum requirement for positions in flight nursing.
A traditional BSN program takes about four years to complete, and it prepares learners holistically for a nursing career. This credential is the benchmark for nursing education; so it’s increasingly preferred by employers in the healthcare industry.
Nightingale College’s BSN program is designed to advance your nursing skills to the highest level in around 32 months. Additionally, this is a blended program that combines online didactic instruction with on-ground supervised field experience. Thus, you get the flexibility of online education and the vital addition of hands-on experience.
If you are already an ADN-trained Registered Nurse and are ready to get your career off the ground – literally – you can opt for an RN-to-BSN program. Bridge programs allow you to get your BSN degree faster. You can also keep working while pursuing this degree.
Nightingale College’s RN-to-BSN degree program is entirely online and career-friendly. It can be completed in as little as 12 months or three semesters.
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Another flight nurse requirement is having some work experience under your belt. Usually, Air Transport RNs have to work for at least three to five years in a bedside clinical setting before pursuing a career in flight nursing. Also, nurses who have work experience in the Intensive Care Unit, Critical Care, or the Emergency Room will have the edge over their competition.
Do You Need Any Certifications to Become a Flight Nurse?
In addition to a BSN education, Flight Nurses will most likely be required to seek certification, as well. Certified Flight Registered Nurses have additional proof that they are ready to tackle any emergency situation and care for even the most vulnerable and critical patients. Certifications validate a nurse’s extensive knowledge and training. They are an incredible asset for RNs interested in a flight nursing career.
TPATC – Transport Professional Advanced Trauma Course
The most important certification for Flight RNs is the CFRN, offered by the Board of Certification for Emergency Nursing. To become a BCEN Certified Flight Nurse, you need to have an unencumbered RN license. Two years of work experience in your specialty are highly recommended but not required.
One of the questions that will pop up during your career planning process is How much does a Flight Nurse Make?
According to ZipRecruiter data, Flight Nurses earn on average $81,100. In general, the majority of Flight Nurse salaries range between $64,000 and $99,000. These wages are slightly higher than the median salary of Registered Nurses, which, as reported by the BLS, stand at $80,010.
How much money you make as a Flight Nurse will be dictated by several factors. Some of these are location, employer, years of experience, and the credentials or certifications you’ve acquired.
Where to Find Flight Nurse Jobs
If a conventional work environment has always seemed uninteresting to you, you have found your match in flight nursing. There are two main career trajectories you could pursue for flight nursing jobs: the civilian path and the military path.
If you go for the civilian path, you can find employment at private or public hospitals, clinics, or trauma centers. You’ll often be involved with moving patients to facilities better equipped to offer them care. You might be working with organ donations, being responsible for moving organs that might save someone’s life between medical institutions. In emergencies, your care will be required on trauma sites. Car crashes, natural disasters, drownings, gunshots are just a few of the plethora of reasons you may be called to offer care by air transportation.
The military path, on the other side, has a very different scope of practice. As a Military Flight Nurse, you’ll have to be enlisted in the Air Force. Army Flight Nurses will often care for military members who’ve suffered battle injuries. Your duties will include transporting injured patients from battlefields or other dangerous situations to other medical facilities, like field hospitals.
Regardless of the path you choose, the workplace remains unconventional. Helicopters, fixed-wing planes, and jets are going to become your workstation. What kind of air ambulance you will work on depends mainly on the situation and scope of your practice. Helicopters are used to transport critical trauma patients, especially when timeliness determines chances of survival. Airplanes are used when patients need to be moved across borders for the possibility of better care in another state or country.
What Skills Should a Flight Nurse Have?
To succeed as a Flight Nurse, you have to master a mix of skills that range from highly clinical, hard skills to soft, interpersonal abilities.
Above all, you do need to have advanced nursing knowledge. Knowing how to offer advanced life support, cardiac care, operating ventilators, defibrillators, intravenous therapy, and possessing many other clinical skills is paramount for being good at this job.
You also need excellent communication skills. You have to gather information from crash sites, communicate with members of the medical team at receiving facilities, with pilots, paramedics, and everyone else involved in emergency air transportation.
Your ability to deal with stress and keep calm even in the most pressing situations needs to be off the roof. You’ll often encounter demanding circumstances, and you need to have the emotional resilience to deal with them.
You ought to be confident in your knowledge, training, and abilities. Chances are, sometimes you will be the only medically trained professional on board, and you’ll have to make decisions about the course of care. You can’t be hesitant in situations where every second can mean the difference between life and death.
You’ll also need physical endurance. Flight nursing as a career can take a toll on your physical state. You may have to lift patients, move debris, you might have to sit in uncomfortable positions for long periods of time.
Emotional strength is also essential. You’ll be exposed to many traumatic experiences throughout the course of your flight nursing career. You cannot let the trauma, suffering, and pain affect your wellbeing.
The ceaseless desire to keep learning and improving is one of the skills that differentiate good nurses from great nurses. As an RN, you’re never really done studying. The healthcare field is constantly changing and advancing, and you need to do your best to keep up. That’s why willingness to attain new skills and knowledge may be one of the most important skills of all. Pursuing nursing continuing education, seeking certifications, and advancing your degree are just a few ways to ensure you never stop learning and improving.
Are You Ready to Take Your Career to New Heights?
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While some aspiring nurses are still trying to decide what direction they want their career to
take, you already know what you want to do. Your calling is helping bring new life into the world. It’s to be there for mothers during the most pivotal event of their lives – childbirth. You’re never as motivated, inspired, and fulfilled as you are when working with babies.
There are lots of jobs for nurses who want to work with babies. Still, you already know that the best career path for you is to become a Labor and Delivery Registered Nurse. There’s only one question remaining. How to get there? What education requirements do you have to complete? What awaits you on the other side of nursing school?
In this guide, we’ll talk about job duties, salaries, and job prospects. However, our main goal is to walk you through all the steps of becoming a Labor and Delivery Nurse. You’ve decided you want to dedicate your work life to caring for newborns and their mothers. We’re here to help you get one step closer to that dream.
What Is a Labor and Delivery Nurse?
One of the most gratifying specialties, Labor and Delivery nursing, is a component of Obstetrics nursing. Labor and delivery nurses – sometimes called L&D nurses as a shorthand – are essential in the birthing process. They take care of expectant mothers from the moment they check into the hospital to give birth till after the baby is delivered. When the labor may encounter complications, L&D nurses help mothers every step of the way and monitor the mother’s and baby’s health at all times. Labor and Delivery Registered Nurses also assist the doctor with the delivery process. They display strength, calmness, and encouragement when the mother is going through the pain, exhilaration, or the trauma of childbirth.
What Does a Labor and Delivery Nurse Do?
While the overarching job description is pretty much evident from the very title of the position, L&D Nurses have a complex role that deals with all aspects of the labor and delivery process. Let’s get into the specific responsibilities and duties. What do Labor and Delivery nurses do on a daily basis?
Labor and Delivery Nurses generally work in the delivery ward of the hospital or birthing centers. Their tasks include:
Monitoring the vital signs (heart rate, blood pressure, etc.) of both mother and baby.
Providing general patient care to mothers from the moment they come into the facility
Timing contractions
Identifying and assisting with complications that may occur during labor
Assisting doctors in the labor process
Educating, supporting, and coaching mothers throughout the delivery process
In the case of cesarean births, providing post-operative C-section care
Assist mother and baby with the first breastfeeding interactions
Providing nursing care after the birth of the infant
How Long Does It Take to Become a Labor and Delivery Nurse?
There isn’t one clear-cut way to becoming an L&D Nurse. Depending on their end goals, career ambitions, time restraints, and so on, there are multiple paths an aspiring nurse could take. For nurses taking the ADN path, the journey may take around two years. RNs who want to climb higher on the ladder of professional success should expect to spend more time studying. Getting a BSN degree and, further, getting certified in labor and delivery fields will put the length of your educational venture at around five or six years.
Steps to Become a Labor and Delivery Nurse
The time it will take to become a Labor and Delivery professional is dependent on some decisions you make along the way. Let’s explore more carefully the steps you need to take to get your dream job in that delivery ward:
Step 1: Become a Registered Nurse
The process of becoming a Labor and Delivery Nurse isn’t much different than other nursing specialties. The first condition you must fulfill is becoming a licensed Registered Nurse. There are three main ways of obtaining RN licensure: ADN programs, Diploma programs, and BSN programs.
An Associate’s Degree in Nursing is the fastest way to become a Registered Nurse. An ADN program takes around two years to complete, so it’s an excellent option for nurses who want to start working as soon as possible. Should you wish to advance your education at a later point in your career, it will be easier and faster for you due to bridge programs. You can enroll in an RN-to-BSN program and earn your Bachelor’s Degree at a future date.
Diploma programs are less common in recent years. They take around three years to complete.
The third educational route towards a career in nursing labor and delivery is obtaining your Bachelor’s Degree in Nursing. You will need around four years to complete a traditional BSN program. Although it takes longer, there are multiple benefits to pursuing this track. First of all, BSN degrees are largely recognized as the golden standard for nursing education. An overwhelming majority of healthcare employers prefer hiring BSN graduates. Also, BSN-trained nurses tend to be linked with better patient outcomes, which is a great motivator to pursue this degree.
Step 2: Think about why you’re choosing this particular area of nursing
After you finish nursing school, you’ll have to decide what area of nursing is of particular interest to you, what specialty you wish to pursue professionally. The good news is you’ve already chosen. It’s Labor and Delivery. But why? What makes this field of work unique for you? What drives you to the idea of helping bring life into the world? You need to find the driving force behind your choice.
There are numerous reasons for that. First of all, when you start looking for jobs, one of the most common nursing interview questions that are bound to make an appearance is Why did you choose this specialty? In addition to wanting highly qualified professionals, what hiring managers are after are passionate RNs. Registered Nurses who love what they do will be better at their job and are less likely to quit early. They will generally be more interested in pursuing continuing education and growing as professionals. That’s why your future employers care about why you are passionate about labor and delivery.
Secondly, a moment in your nursing career may come when you feel like you hate being a nurse. You may feel burnout, overwhelmed, tired, or unsatisfied with your job. You simply feel like you cannot do it anymore. That’s when it’s of utmost importance for you to remember why you chose L&D in the first place. Looking back at your motivation will help you rediscover the passion that drove you to this specialty.
Step 3: Start working
You have finished a nursing program, passed the NCLEX with flying colors, you have found your motivation. The next step is to start putting the long hours of studying and training into practice: you need to find a job. Polish your nursing resume, apply to jobs that spike your interest and prepare to ace the subsequent nursing interviews. Soon, you’ll find a position and start your gratifying career as a Labor and Delivery Registered Nurse. The long hours, the sleepless nights, the tests, and the stresses of nursing school are behind you. Now, you start fulfilling your calling.
Step 4: Consider getting certified in your area of nursing
You may be done with nursing school, but as a nurse, you are never truly done learning. One great way to ensure you remain at the top of your game is to pursue certification in the area of nursing that is of particular interest to you.
Seeking specialty nursing certification is a voluntary process for RNs. Still, certification is seen as a badge of honor for RNs, validating their extensive knowledge, training, and expertise. There are many other benefits to becoming a Certified Nurse. You can explore them all in our article.
As with most RNs, Labor and Delivery Nurses aren’t required to obtain certificates to practice. But if you want to advance your skills and build an iron-clad reputation as an excellent nurse, then you should consider becoming certified. Some of the most common and valuable certifications for L&D Nurses are:
Inpatient Obstetric Nursing Certification. This credential is offered by the National Certification Corporation (NCC). It recognizes the RNs’ specialty knowledge in providing care to hospitalized pregnant women before, during, and immediately after labor and delivery. You need to have at least two years of hands-on work experience in your field before you can apply for this certification.
Electronic Fetal Monitoring Certification, another certificate that can be obtained through the NCC, can also be a solid addition to your L&D RN resume. It validates your capability to ensure the baby’s health and safety during labor and delivery through the usage of fetal monitoring technology.
Neonatal Resuscitation Certification is another great way to stay abreast of the latest changes in your field of practice. The Neonatal Resuscitation Program offered by the American Association of Pediatrics can help elevate your knowledge and skills in caring for a baby at birth up to the highest standards.
Many certifications will give your career in labor and delivery a boost. And you won’t be the only one who has to gain from it. Getting certified means you’re highly trained and equipped to handle every situation or complication that may arise on the job. And that’s an invaluable resource to patients and employers, as well.
Step 5: Join nursing associations that are relevant to your field
Nurses need other nurses. Having connections, friends, and mentors from the same sphere is a great way to keep learning and improving as a nurse. One way you can connect with people who share your interests is by joining professional associations. Some great options for Labor and Delivery Nurses include The Association of Women’s Health, Obstetric and Neonatal Nurses (AWHONN), The National Association of Neonatal Nurses (NANN), and even The American Nurses Association (ANA). Becoming a part of one of these organizations will advance your clinical skills, extend your professional network, and benefit future career prospects.
Labor and Delivery Nurse Salary Potential
According to ZipRecruiter, the average annual salary of Labor and Delivery Nurses is $99,040. The majority of Labor and Delivery Nurse wages generally range between $81,000 to $114,500. The size of your paycheck depends on a variety of factors. Location, employer, experience, academic qualifications, certifications – all can play a role in how much you earn as an L&D nurse. Additionally, as the population continues to grow, the job prospects for this career are expected to be excellent.
Ready to Start Your Journey?
Now that you are familiar with all the steps, you’re ready to embark on the journey of becoming a Labor and Delivery Nurse. And it’s a journey worth taking. Being an L&D RN is a gratifying career, with a lot of potential for growth, high salaries, and good benefits. At times, the road may be stressful, and you bear extensive responsibility in this nursing role. But in the end, you get the greatest joy of all: you help bring life into the world. You help mothers through some of the most significant moments in their life. You help families welcome their babies. What could be more fulfilling than that?
Enroll in our BSN program and get your career in Labor and Delivery Nursing started!
Are you already a Registered Nurse? Advance your L&D career with Nightingale College’s online RN-to-BSN Program.