Be it in hospitals or on television, you see nurses wearing scrubs working in hospitals, hustling around patients to provide them the caress service from time to time, perhaps, the never-ending parade of suffering that they experience day in and day out.
But have you ever heard or seen the nurses who work from home, or from behind a computer, and are still helping the hospital decide how to use its resources or improve treatment plans?
Also, you surely didn’t have seen the nursing educators, the nurse practitioners, who function in much the same way as doctors.
In other words, you rarely see just how diverse and interesting a profession nursing really is.
All of these unique healthcare jobs come at the other end of a specialized certification.
In this article, we take an in-depth look at nursing education, and what it takes to think beyond the hospital floor as a nurse. Read on to find out.
Nursing Education: How Do You Become a Nurse?
The initial path to becoming a nurse is somewhat boilerplate, starting from the ground up, you do need to earn your BSN.
This is the four-year degree that comes at the end of nursing school through traditional college enrollment.
Once you complete your BSN you still need to become certified through the NCLEX—a standardized test that all nursing school graduates must take to start working.
The NCLEX is a challenging exam with a pass rate in the 80% range for first-time takers, however, it traditionally can only be taken 45 days (or longer) after graduation; get that milestone out of the way to be eligible to start working.
At this stage, you are licensed for a somewhat limited range of healthcare roles, however, most newly certified nurses wind up working on a hospital floor.
If you want to branch out, you will need additional certifications, which we will look at in the next headings.
Also, you should note that there are additional nursing education options that MIGHT be valid depending on your situation.
If you already have a college degree, you will be eligible for either:
- An accelerated program or
- A licensure-only option.
Accelerated programs can be completed in as little as eighteen months, during which time school will basically be your full-time job.
They are difficult, but they can be a great way to pivot into a new job.
On the other hand, licensure-only nursing programs simply focus on preparing students for the licensure exams (NCLEX-RN or NCLEX-PN) and don’t ask for added undergraduate coursework, if you already have a bachelor’s degree.
In simple words, you most likely won’t have to take any pre-requisite classes in a licensure-only program.
The remaining classes that you need to take can be completed in a timeline that makes the most sense to you.
Diversity in Education Pathways
When the above paragraphs describe the path to becoming a standard RN, there are tons of other directions you can take your nursing degree once you have become certified.
These jobs generally depend on completing an additional certification program.
Certification programs vary in intensity, some can be completed without almost any additional effort at all.
For example, a compact nursing license (an additional certification that will allow you to work in almost every state) can sometimes be earned simply by achieving a high score on the NCLEX.
Most certification programs are more complicated, Forensic nurses, for example, need to complete classwork and gain hundreds of hours of experience in forensic nursing before they can become fully certified.
But how, you might be wondering, can one gain that experience without their certification?
It does sound paradoxical, doesn’t it? What generally happens is that RNs are hired on a conditional basis for roles that require experience-based certification.
An RN wishing to become a forensic nurse might be given a two-year timeline to complete all of their continuing education requirements and get certified.
One of the nice things about these arrangements is that your employer will usually pay for continuing education requirements.
Do You Know?
As of January 2024, New York State (NYS) boasts 265,422 licensed registered nurses (RNs) (NYSED, 2024).
Graduate School
Sometimes, new employment opportunities depend on going back to college.
Most commonly, you’ll see nurses trying for their master’s degree because they want to become nurse practitioners.
NPs have a ton of autonomy, functioning almost as general practitioners in many states including the most major benefit that they can specialize and focus on the aspect of nursing that interests them the most.
For instance, if you love working with babies, you might consider becoming a Neonatal Nurse Practitioner.
In case you are passionate about mental health care, you might consider becoming a Psychiatric Nurse Practitioner.
On the other hand, if you have entrepreneurial ambitions, you could even open your own practice as a Family Nurse Practitioner.
All of these jobs come at the end of a 2-3 year stint in graduate school, however, the particularly challenging part is that most people enrolling in an MSN program are already working as nurses.
This means adding significant challenges to an already challenging job.
That said, there are benefits to logging some time in the trenches before going out for your MSN.
For one thing, if you’ve already spent time working as a nurse before enrolling in graduate school, you will have a better idea of what parts of the job interest you the most.
You might, for example, enter the profession thinking that you love working with babies.
However, through time, you might come to realize that the life of a Neonatal Nurse Practitioner is filled with far too much tragedy for you.
You decide instead to become a Family Nurse Practitioner, with the same level of prestige and autonomy with far less tragedy.
Other benefits include,
Many hospitals do offer employer-sponsored tuition programs to their employees, majorly to the ones who have been around in a company for a long period.
If you are interested in graduate school, but decidedly less interested in student loans, this is a great option for you.
There are tons of ways to work as a nurse, just tap into the various nursing education options to find your dream job.
