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How to Score in Your Nursing Career

Featured Author:

Laura Wisniewski, RN

Laura Wisniewski RN is an educator, speaker and writer with 25 years of front line nursing experience. Her company, Nursing Voice Communications, provides empowering, solution-oriented presentations on nursing workforce issues. Her articles encourage and challenge nurses to improve healthcare.

See all of Laura’s featured articles here.

To learn more about Laura, please visit her website.

More articles from this author:

• All Nurses Are Leaders
• Nursing as a Second Career
• Immediate Openings: Role Models and Mentors

UNCERTAIN TIMES

Change is occurring in all areas of healthcare. Are you prepared for it? When it comes to your career are you reactive or proactive? Reactive nurses ignore the warning signs of change. By remaining unprepared, they leave their career development to chance or the decisions of others. The proactive nurse observes trends, sets goals and consistently takes career building action. In contrast, they have already learned the rules of the game and are ready to win at it.

SCORE and BECOME a WINNER

Successful career management is simple once you understand the rules of the game and follow the strategies of winners. It will take hard work, determination and practice to achieve your goals. Victory belongs to those individuals who have earned it. The acronym SCORE will help you to remember the qualities of a winning nursing career. SCORE stands for: Skills, Confidence, Opportunity, Readiness/ Risk and Experience/ Education.

SKILLS

Can you quickly list the skills that you possess? Are they recorded and regularly updated on your resume? As a nurse, you have already acquired many valuable skills such as: critical thinking, time management, supervising the work of others, and conflict resolution. What other skills do you have? Have you acted as the relief charge nurse? Do you precept new nurses or provide in-services for your department? Are you one of the few nurses on your unit that can operate a specialized piece of equipment? Do you mentor student nurses? Are you a whiz on the computer and can create PowerPoint presentations? What skills do other nurses have that you don’t have? Who is your competition for nursing positions that interest you? The answers to these questions will serve as a starting point for developing your game plan.

CONFIDENCE

Self- confidence comes from belief in yourself and your abilities. Taking control of your career is one way to help build your self- confidence. Study confident people. Recall an image of a confident person that you know. How do they dress? What is the quality and pace of their voice? How do they use body language, eye contact or gestures? What else makes them appear confident to you? Do you possess the winning attitude of confidence or do you need practice?

OPPORTUNITY

Opportunity consists of two parts; the first is the ability to recognize an opportunity and the second is the willingness to go for it! Attend job fairs. Routinely review want ads and job postings for nurses. Read books and articles on career management. What are the educational opportunities in your area? Consider Internet training programs. Ask successful nurses to mentor you. Expand your network by participating on committees and joining professional nursing organizations. It has been said that the best defense is a good offense.

READINESS/ RISK

In order to obtain the career results you desire, preparation and training are essential. Start with a great resume, if you need help creating one, ask for assistance. Maintain a professional portfolio containing your certifications, awards and letters of recommendation. Have a business appropriate outfit that is ready to wear for interviews. Regularly practice your interviewing skills. Actively seek training to continually build your skills. In order to win at anything you also must be willing to risk failure. Failure is not the opposite of winning…not trying is.

EXPERIENCE/ EDUCATION

Do you have fifteen years of experience doing the same thing or have you had multiple experiences over a fifteen year period? You may find the thought of expanding your comfort zone very unsettling. An unexpected career change is even more unsettling. Cross training to other nursing units will help build a more interesting and flexible career. Becoming involved in new educational and work experiences will also expand your network of nursing colleagues.