Students - MANAGING YOUR NURSING CAREER

MANAGING YOUR NURSING CAREER

What issues are you facing as you complete your education? What areas are you planning on working and why? Some of you are already working which will give you an advantage over those just beginning to seek a position in the health care arena.

Whether you are already working or searching for your first position, potential employers are going to be looking for employees who can communicate well, be a team player, and be a leader.

Characteristics describing leadership and what employers expect include:

Vision
Values
Integrity
Listening to Others
Being able to communicate well (KEY CHRACTERISTIC)
Sense of Humor
Intelligence
Energy
Risk Taker
Team Player (KEY CHARACTERISTIC)
Critical Thinking & Decision Making Skills
As a leader, allow others to make it happen
Designer of Organization
Ability to assess and ability to enable others to do their job (empower them)

Keys to Success in Managing Your Career:

Develop your personal mission statement. Don't be afraid to confront this issue. View your career as a primary tool for your life and write down your personal mission statement. In writing your mission statement, you give clarity to your work life. It increases the meaning of everyday work activities. You gain a greater sense of mission, purposes, and meaning.

Identify your personal profile-these are your personal traits, motivators, and values. Think about how you would answer these questions:

How is my communication style?
How is my work style?
Take time to actually write down examples of your personal traits, motivators, and values.
Be prepared to talk positively about yourself. This sounds simple; however, you want to describe yourself in a way that would "benefit" the employer.
Understand how you create results. In today's job market, it isn't enough to tell an employer what you can do; rather you must talk about what results or accomplishments you can make for them.
Identify your skills and skill sets. Consider all possible categories of skills to create a comprehensive list: administrative, computer, interpersonal, and technical.
If you have work experience, show how a major activity you helped with contributed to the organization. If you do not have experience, give examples that will show your ability to create results if given the opportunity. (Example: work with health fair, community work, church work, etc.)

Be your own marketing director. Tell others about the skills, services, and results (or goals) of your career. Present yourself objectively. Remember: Marketing is everything! The people who get jobs are not necessarily the best qualified. They are, however, the most skillful in telling others about what they can do. You need to speak like politicians--they always talk about what they plan to do for people. You need to be able to speak this way about yourself to the organization. Take as many opportunities as you can to market your own skills and services.

Be strategic at all times. Develop a systematic plan for growing your career. Ask yourself: What do I want to be doing in 1-3-5 years? Where do I want to work? Who do I want to work with? What are my short-term goals? My long-term goals? Create a strategic plan for yourself. In addition, analyze the market conditions for your organization, industry, and region. Think about another possible position for your talents. Even if you have a job right now and are happy with it, think about another alternative, just in case something might happen. Prepare for losing your job -- and continuing your career! The average person changes jobs 7 times and new generations are changing careers 2 to 3 times. If you are unhappy in your current position, search out another opportunity and try something else - the possibilities are limitless in nursing!

Keep networking. Manage this carefully. Remind yourself of WHOM YOU KNOW. Talk to your contacts--ask them about their work, the trends they see, their ideas, and perspectives. Ask them to give you names of their contacts to continually expand your "network" of colleagues. 75% of all jobs are found through this method. For this reason, ALWAYS keep your resume up-to-date. Consider using business cards. BE PREPARED TO TAKE ADVANTAGE OF THIS APPROACH AS A WAY OF CREATING A NEW OPPORTUITY FOR YOURSELF. NOTE: Membership in nursing organizations such as the M L N is very important for this.

Focus on your clients. Ask them what they think, need, and want. This will help you keep in tune for what employers are seeking as health care is focused on customer service. (The client is often the insurance provider versus patient--but you are the advocate for the patient.)

Get a coach. Find someone who can provide you excellent advice for your career. Ask this person to give you suggestions/recommendations on how to get through the types of problems that may arise. Select the person whom you look up to, whom you can learn from, and whom you respect.

Not only will your coach help you through problems, but he or she will tell you the fine points of getting ahead. They will help you achieve your maximum potential. This can make a huge difference in your career. SELECT A COACH AS CAREFULLY AS YOU WOULD A SPOUSE--AS THEY CAN BE JUST THAT IMPORTANT FOR YOUR CAREER.

Manage change and transition. There are predictable stages for change and transition in each of our lives--both personally and professionally. Look at the issues of growing old as an example. As you age, you may have less energy, less drive, and be interested in other issues. These stages can be a backdrop to other events in our lives--such as losing a job. Then the cumulative impact is gigantic. Because of the constant nature of change, we will need "change management" skills. Develop your own technology for managing change.

Even with all the changes in health care employment, there is no other occupation that offers the variety of career opportunities as well as appealing variety of work schedules. The need for health care will continue. The future will see a better product with new and different jobs--no matter what; there will have to be health care and health care professionals.

Make the most of your choice to be a nurse and make sure you are one of the providers of a better product of health care!

Additional Tips for Finding Employment

Persist, persist, and persist. Follow up on your application. Keep in touch with the nurse recruiter. Be a positive, persistent professional job seeker. Rather than fretting about an initial turndown, hang in there. Keep at it. Find out when the postings are and make a point to check on those days. Be aware of the fine line between being persistent and a pest.

Flex yourself. Don't box yourself into a specialty or a hospital or a work schedule. Be willing to take something else. Maybe it will be part-time or in a nursing home rather than a hospital. Get the experience wherever you can. See everything as a chance to learn. Employers are looking for student nurses who take the initiative to get experience--if hospital nursing is not available, consider nursing homes, clinics, office settings, schools--all which offer a chance for using skills and building a record of experience.

Welcome change. The reality is that the whole health care field is changing and if you aren't comfortable with change, you need to get out of health care.

Dress appropriately and present yourself well. A good personal presentation is important and can give you a definite edge. Be positive in presenting yourself. Although employers are looking for experienced employees, they often will hire a new graduate who demonstrates a willingness to learn.

Education. In both good times and bad times, good grades become a factor. Beyond nursing school, most hospitals expect nurses to continue their education and certifications. Crendentials are always important, and there are lots of credentialing processes. This shows the employer that you have pursued other credentials and skill training above and beyond the basics--that you are striving and motivated. (M L N can provide affordable continuing education for you.)

Stability is important. Years of experience with a particular employer rather than a few months here and a few months there are important. It doesn't even have to be work history--it can be a history of volunteering.

People skills are necessary. Hospital nurses who are customer service oriented, who are very focused on the patient and the patient's needs--Can they deal well with the public? Do you have good communication skills? Customer service extends beyond the patient. Patients are our number one customers, but you have to also treat the patient's family, the doctors, and co-workers as customers. Smile, be positive, respond to people's questions. If you don't like working with people, there are other options in nursing available to you.

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