Working in the nursing field can be a very rewarding career choice. There are so many different types of careers that you can choose and as you work to advance yourself, you will find that the pay will increase as well. Medical facilities across the country are looking for nursing professionals during the current shortage, which can open more doors to you.
Nursing is considered a diverse industry, with many career paths to choose from. But which one is going to be the right career path for you? Some of the top career paths that you can choose in the nursing profession include:
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Bedside Nursing
These nursing professionals are going to work in hospitals and often provide some of the daily care that patients need when they are admitted into the facility. They can spend a good part of their day interacting with the patients and will often be assigned to the same group of patients for the day.
There are many responsibilities that the bedside nurse is going to be able to work on. They could monitor patients during their time at the hospital, may administer some of the necessary medications, and they will be able to do some of the simple tests and procedures to help monitor the patient and ensure they stay healthy.
Clinical Research
Another option that you can choose as a nursing professional is clinical research. This is important because some of the trials that are run in clinics can help when it is time to research and develop some new therapies and patients to help them with a variety of issues. You could help do some of the research to help patients now and in the future.
When you work in a clinical research setting, you can help assist and oversee all of the people who participate in clinical trials. This could include making sure that all of the procedures used will follow safety and clinical guidelines. This ensures that the data the researchers are gathering from the trial are viable and will actually help out others.
Care Coordination
It is possible that some patients will need to go through some complex treatment plans. When this happens all of the professionals who help with the care will need to be on the same page. They need to know all of the relevant information about the patient while also following the necessary procedures to get the maximum care for the patient.
As a care coordinator nurse, you will be able to provide the patient with the necessary guidance while also helping with communication between the different medical professionals who will assist the patient. This keeps some of the treatment for the patient-focused and ensures organization. Overall, this gives the patient a better level of care than before.
Nursing Education
You can also choose to become a teacher in the nursing field. This is an important career choice because it helps to educate the next level of nursing professionals who will be able to assist medical professionals and patients for years to come, as long as you have the right degree to help.
To make sure that the next generation of nurses will have the right education to succeed, it is important that there are educators who have a good combination of experience and knowledge to teach about this industry. When you get an advanced degree, you will be able to work as a nurse educator as well.
Nurse educators can work in a variety of situations and will teach based on a curriculum. They can even add a bit to the curriculum based on their own professional experience in the field, adding a lot of knowledge and value to the experience the nursing student will have at the same time.
In-Home Care
You could provide a high level of care to those who are no longer able to leave their homes. Some patients will also need care for a long time, which can make visiting a hospital or another facility very difficult over time. To help them out, you could work as a home care nurse, providing a lot of care to patients in their homes.
Home care nurses are able to visit patients in their own homes. This allows them to oversee the treatment of the patient, doing some tasks like monitoring readings off a variety of medical devices and administering the necessary medications to the patient. Some in-home nurses work with a small group of patients while others may work with just one patient, it depends on the type of training. If it is caregiver training for senior home care agencies and assisted living, then the nurse may work with multiple patients at once. Additionally, home care nurses provide emotional support and companionship to patients who may be feeling isolated or lonely.
Insurance Nurses
You can also work on the business side of the nursing profession, helping out with insurance to make sure the doctors are going to get paid. When providing insurance policies of some types, like life insurance, it is not uncommon for the insurer to require that their customers go through some health screenings before giving the policy.
Sometimes this can happen through the healthcare provider that the patient already uses, but in other cases, the insurance company wants to hire their own professionals to do the work. When the latter is true, they need an insurance nurse to step in to get the work done.
This can provide the insurer with accurate medical assessments that they are able to trust, while also making the assessment more affordable or convenient for the patient. You will need to have the right knowledge and skills to do this while also being able to learn the steps that the insurer is looking for during some of the assessments.
Choosing the Career Path for You
With so many great nursing careers to choose from, one of the hardest decisions is to know which one is right for you. You can pick from many options to help you have a very rewarding and high-paying career that you are sure to love. Take a look at some of the top nursing career paths above to see which one will help you to find your place in the nursing field.