In today’s climate, nursing is everywhere. It’s in the news and social media, but the coverage is rarely positive. Nursing has been America’s most trusted profession for years, but COVID-19 changed the perception of nursing.
No longer are nurses viewed as the safe harbor for patients who were battered by the winds and wrath of an industrial health care complex. Instead, nurses are publicly placed on trial for system errors and named in lawsuits for medical malpractice. What does the future of nursing look like in America? No one knows for certain, but I do know
who can reframe the perception of nursing, and that is the nurse educator.
Soul of Nursing
The nurse educator is truly the master of the soul of nursing. Still, they are rarely esteemed for the critical work accomplished. The nurse educator takes the raw material of an eager student and pours endless knowledge and skills to form the building blocks of a nurse. There is not a single nurse in existence who has not passed through the skilled hands of a nurse educator. The educator can genuinely alter the perception of a new nurse before the nurse even realizes they have been altered. The nurse educator can transfer tolerance and understanding through their formative teachings, prejudice, and judgment. The responsibility to develop the future of the entire profession rests on a select few, rarely acknowledged, who guard our profession with love and passion.
Passion
It is passion that drives the nurse educator. It surely is not the ability to earn a high income. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the average nurse educator earns an annual income of $78,000. For a job that requires an advanced degree, any nurse educator could be better served with more lucrative uses of their degree, such as a nurse practitioner or joining an organization’s nursing leadership. It’s not the hours that drive the nurse educator. Is getting Christmas off a perk? Absolutely! Is waking up to 13 texts from a student who could not upload an assignment a benefit! Absolutely not. As a nurse educator, the breaks from classes are spent reworking material, developing new experiences, and continuing to grow professionally. It is truly a passion and a calling that drives the nurse educator.
Need for Nursing Faculty
Why should every nurse be aware of the need for nursing faculty? According to the American Association of Colleges of Nursing, a faculty vacancy rate of 8.8% nationwide has remained. This has resulted in a horrendous outcome of over 91,000 qualified applicants being turned away from nursing programs. Turning away applicants continues to exacerbate the nursing shortage. With the current projection from NCSBN of close to one-fifth of the nursing workforce looking to exit in the next five years, every applicant to a nursing school is a building block to the solution.
Know Your Influence
So why consider nursing education? The nurse educator is an artist. They take a piece of unformed clay and place pressure to mold and change the clay into a beautiful vase. With every student, educators leave a tiny part of themselves to transform a corner of the world. As a bedside nurse, I touch a few lives every shift. But if, as an educator, I have taught the floor of nurses, my reach is far greater than I will ever know. Knowing that your influence can affect the health care of a region, state, or nation is a pride and privilege few know. Nursing education is a beautiful profession that is far too often overlooked but should be dutifully considered.
Nursing has always held health equity as a critical value in many ways. Nurses strive to deliver the best care to all patients, independent of socioeconomic status, gender, race, or other factors.
Health equity arguably gets even more attention than in the past. And that attention also occurs in nursing schools, where nurses are presented with the concept of health equity.
In this article, we examine how various schools teach health equity. But first, let’s define the term.
“Equity should mean that people have the opportunity to get what they need when they need it,” notes Alicea-Planas, associate professor of nursing at Egan and practicing nurse at a community health center in Bridgeport, CT. “That’s something that has historically been lacking for certain communities within our healthcare system.”
Health equity means that “everyone has the ability and opportunity to be healthy and to access healthcare to help them maintain health,” says Latina Brooks, PhD, CNP, FAANP, associate professor at Frances Payne Bolton School of Nursing, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio. Brooks also directs the MSN and DNP programs at Frances Payne.
Beyond Accessibility
The CDC notes that achieving health equity requires ongoing efforts to address historical and contemporary injustices; overcome economic, social, and other obstacles to health and healthcare; and eliminate preventable health disparities.
Health equity isn’t just about access to healthcare, notes Elaine Foster, PhD, MSN, RN, vice president of nursing, Education Affiliates. It can also relate to whether a diabetic patient, for instance, knows what to get checked. “I think sometimes we’ve put a very narrow description on health equity, and I think if you were to flesh it out, it goes beyond that accessibility,” Foster notes.
“You can even take health equity that next step and say, Do you have an advocate or do you have someone who knows to push the envelope?” says Foster. “We have to be active participants in our healthcare these days to get what we need.”
Besides accessing resources, health equity involves “understanding how to navigate our healthcare system,” says Alicea-Planas. “It is understanding the information that’s being provided to us by healthcare providers and being able to use it for patients to do well on their health and wellness journey.”
Teaching Equity
At various schools, health equity is integrated throughout the course of study. For instance, at Adelphi University College of Nursing and Public Health, Long Island, New York, health equity is threaded throughout the undergraduate and graduate curriculum in various courses, notes Deborah Hunt, PhD, RN, Dr. Betty L. Forest dean and professor. For example, in the school’s community health course, there is a focus on vulnerable and underserved populations. In the childbearing course, Hunt notes, there is a focus on health disparities and maternal and infant mortality.
Foster notes that health equity is threaded into the curriculum at the 21 nursing schools within the Education Affiliates system. Likewise, at Frances Payne Bolton, health equity is integrated into courses. However, Brooks notes that some courses go more in-depth, such as discussing health equity in vulnerable populations.
At Egan, introductory courses talk a lot about health equity and social determinants of health, notes Alicea-Planas, as do clinical courses. “I think a big part of understanding health equity is also understanding social determinants of health,” says Alicea-Planas. “I am super excited that now in the nursing curriculum, we have lots of conversations around those social determinants of health and how they influence people’s ability to attain their highest level of health.”
The Takeaways
One crucial learning that Alicea-Planas hopes students take away is that for students who haven’t been exposed to many people from different backgrounds, it’s essential “to understand how historically our healthcare system has treated certain communities of color. That factors into people’s feelings about how doctors or nurses treat them, influencing their ability to seek care.”
Foster hopes that students learn that no matter what the patient’s background, “Everyone is entitled to good, nonjudgmental care within the healthcare system.” Students must learn “not to impose our beliefs, our judgment on someone. Because until we get rid of that type of judgment, we will never overcome issues with health equity because we’ve got to first check our beliefs and opinions at the door and say I’m going to give the best care possible to these patients.”
You may not naturally think of becoming a nurse executive, which may seem far removed from the bedside and benefiting patients. Yet, you can significantly impact patient care as a nurse executive, such as a chief nursing officer.
“When you’re caring for patients, as a nurse, you’re caring for a set cadre of individuals,” says Elizabeth Speakman, EdD, RN, FNAP, ANEF, FAAN, senior associate dean, professor, and chief academic officer, School of Nursing, University of Delaware. “When you’re in a leadership role in the clinical environment, you may have thousands of patients you are responsible for.”
If that appeals to you, read on. In this article, we’ll examine a few programs available to prepare for the nurse executive role.
Students at the 28-month program “typically come with a master’s degree already and have some experience at a leadership level,” according to Kimberly Nerud, PhD, RN, dean at Post University’s American Sentinel College of Nursing and Health Sciences. Perhaps they have worked as a charge nurse or directed a healthcare unit, and “they’re looking to build on those skills that will help prepare them for those advanced opportunities within a healthcare system.”
At the Frances Payne Bolton School of Nursing at Case Western Reserve University, students who want to pursue a role as a nurse executive can choose from a range of programs, according to Joyce J. Fitzpatrick, PhD, MBA, RN, FAAN, Elizabeth Brooks Ford professor of nursing, Frances Payne Bolton School of Nursing and distinguished university professor, Case Western. Those programs include a doctoral program with an executive focus and a postdoctoral and senior executive program. These programs are housed within Case Western’s Marian K. Shaughnessy Nurse Leadership Academy.
Although students need a doctoral degree to enter the postdoctoral program, for instance, the academy believes that “every nurse is a leader,” notes Dr. Fitzpatrick. “Our philosophy is you’ve already got the leadership skills. You may not know how you have been leading, but you have been leading as a clinical nurse.”
For example, Dr. Fitzpatrick notes, “Nurses are leading care at the bedside for the patient. They’re leading care for the patient’s families. So as they become nurses, they learn to lead in clinical care. We capitalize on the experiences they’ve already had as clinical nurses and help them to understand how they’ve been leading all along.”
The school emphasizes a relationship-based leadership model, according to Dr. Fitzpatrick. That includes components such as communication, executive presence, intentional communication, and helping the leader understand any individual’s influence in a leadership role.
The academy, says Dr. Fitzpatrick, is especially interested in identifying individuals to join the program who come from under-represented groups. The school also seeks to engage minority nurses in mentoring the next generation.
“Stackable Credentials”
According to Dr. Speakman, nurses considering executive leadership positions can benefit by focusing on two actions. First, “they need to know that leadership is not just your title. Leadership can be very informal. How you lead is more important than your position. How you hold yourself pedagogically in life and how you present yourself. I think that’s the first and foremost conversation.”
The second involves earning what Dr. Speakman calls “stackable credentials.” That can include fellowships, earning certificates, and joining leadership programs – gaining new skills. Another word of advice: “Before you decide you want to be the top executive, spend time with the top executive.”
Leading After COVID
In considering a role as a nurse executive, know that COVID took a toll on nurse leaders, making the need to prepare nurses for executive roles even more important. Dr. Nerud hopes that “we can help to rebuild that area of nurse leadership that decided to take a step back or step out or retire early because of all of the demands that came from the pandemic.”
Dr. Nerud stresses the need to have nurse executives view problems from a policy perspective “that we’re helping these leaders go in to help be able to think fast and be able to talk about the policies that need to be made to move quickly because we learned during the pandemic that that was huge. We needed to be able to focus on quick changes and quick policies and quick things that needed to happen.”
During the pandemic, leaders faced significant challenges, notes Dr. Fitzpatrick, as did clinical nurses. “We need to continue recruiting nurses into leadership roles because the challenges are still there,” she says.
Even though the worst of the pandemic is over, we still have to rebuild and revitalize the clinical systems,” says Dr. Fitzpatrick. “We want to be sure that we focus on nurses staying in the workplace, which falls to the leader. We know from the research that if you have good leaders, you have higher nurse satisfaction–that leadership is key to keeping the clinical nurses engaged.”
“There is No Box”
Nurse executives and leaders have opportunities in traditional healthcare systems, industries, and corporations. “We shouldn’t just think of nurse leaders being positioned in the traditional healthcare environments, but engaging them outside of the traditional healthcare environments into executive positions in corporations as well as in community health,” says Dr. Fitzpatrick.
“The potential is unlimited because nurses come with skills that help them to help others. I like to teach my students, we often talk about thinking outside the box, but what we try to communicate to our nurse leaders is there is no box.”
The World’s Columbian Exposition of 1893, held in Chicago, was known for many things: the World’s Fair that inspired the blockbuster book The Devil in the White City, where the first Ferris wheel premiered, and where the National League for Nursing (NLN) began.
The superintendent at Johns Hopkins Training School in Baltimore, Isabel Hampton, headed the group of superintendents at the fair. Together, they laid the groundwork for the first nursing association in the United States: the American Society of Superintendents of Training Schools of Nursing.
The name changed twice. First to the National League of Nursing Education in 1912 and finally to the National League for Nursing in 1952.
The Mission
“The mission is to promote excellence in nursing education to build a strong and diverse nursing workforce to advance the health of the nation and the global community,” says Beverly Malone, PhD, RN, FAAN, President and CEO of NLN.
According to Malone, the NLN was founded because, at the time, there were no boundaries, criteria, or standards regarding how nursing should be taught. “In the United States, it was going on your own. Everybody determined what would be taught, and the public deserved to know the criteria,” she says.
“It’s the same issues we have now,” Malone continues. “The public deserves transparency regarding the quality of nurses’ preparations. We were stretching beyond being the doctors’ handmaid. So, how does one stretch to become a professional? You start determining your standards. Not only would we determine them, we would live by them and operationalize them. That’s what the National League for Nursing started with, and that’s what we continue to do.”
The NLN Today
The NLN offers services for over 45,000 individuals and more than 1,000 institutional members.
In addition to its mission, Malone says that the NLN is also guided by its four core values: caring, integrity, diversity and inclusion, and excellence.
Malone explains what the first and last core values mean to the organization. “Caring promotes health, healing, and hope in response to the human condition. I think hope is something that we don’t appreciate enough,” she says. “The ‘excellence’ piece is cocreating and implementing transformative strategies with daring ingenuity. We don’t do anything by ourselves. We are into cocreating and co-implementing, and then transformation.”
The NLN offers members professional development, networking, assessment services, nursing research grants, and public policy advocacy. Regarding professional development, the NLN accomplishes this through a variety of centers.
The Center for the Advancement of the Science of Nursing Education, Malone says, deals with the scientific background for nursing education. While patients are expected to receive evidence-based care, that starts with nursing students receiving evidence-based education.
“With technology moving as fast as it is, we must understand the scientific basis for nursing education,” says Malone. “This distinguishes the National League for Nursing’s belief in the evidence-based.”
In addition, the NLN has a division for credentialing nurse educators. To date, about 15,000 nurse educators have received credentials. They have a certification for clinical educators and credentialing for newly-developed nurse educators.
“I believe that this is so critical to the nursing profession of holding us not just accountable, but also providing an opportunity for recognition,” says Malone.
The NLN’s Center for Transformational Leadership provides nurses with education regarding leadership, and its Center for the Innovation in Education Excellence gives education about simulation and technology and how it will be incorporated into the teaching and education of nurses.
Malone says these exceptional programs for nurse educators make the NLN crucial. “We believe wholeheartedly that unless you address the issues for nurse educators, including salary, the nursing shortage continues,” she says.
The National League for Nursing offers so much more for nursing educators. For additional information, check out their website.
The nursing industry has dozens of professional associations devoted to the art and science of nursing care and nursing specialties. And while many nurses know they exist, they may need to realize the depth of what associations do and how the skills and connections developed through membership can advance a career in ways they never expected.
American Nurses Association (ANA) president Jennifer Mensik Kennedy, PhD, MBA, RN, NEA-BC, FAAN, says joining an association is an excellent professional move, and membership carries personal benefits that are just as critical. “Many people don’t consider that when they join the ANA or an association of another specialty, that they are advocating for the profession,” she says. “We are protecting our profession or specialty.”
“We grow in the ability to influence. So even if you feel like being a member isn’t an active form of involvement, it is; you are being counted when association leaders are advocating for change. We represent you, and you count.”
Be an Active Member
If you want to get the most from any professional association membership, active participation helps you and the organization. Even if your busy schedule leaves little time to devote, you can find something that will fit your schedule. Sign up for any newsletters and read them. Attend webinars, seminars, and conferences as you are able. “NAHN doesn’t have a chapter in every state yet, so if you don’t have a local chapter, I would encourage you to reach out to the national organization and connect with other members who live in your area,” says Nava. “Our national organization also has national committees, and volunteering for a committee is another way to become engaged.”
With so many nursing professional associations out there, it’s not hard to find the most appealing one. “Review the organization’s mission, vision, values, and goals to determine which organization may best fit your professional needs,” says Nava.” Do these align with your values and goals? If so, this organization may be a good fit, and you will find other nurses to collaborate with to meet those goals and stay engaged.”
There are many opportunities to get involved, but not all involve nursing skills. Associations need you to reach out to legislators or members of Congress, help produce newsletters, or advance fundraising efforts. “When you’re in an organization, it’s about the organization as a whole, and it’s not nursing specific,” says Kennedy.
All Nurses Are Welcome and Needed
Associations don’t require years of nursing experience for membership. Nurses across the entire career spectrum can learn from each other. “I often hear from students that they are too busy to join an association,” says Ann Kriebel-Gasparro, DrNP, FNP, GNP, FAANP, and president-elect of the Gerontological Advanced Practice Nurses Association (GAPNA). “And yet, this is the best time to join. Membership fees are often lower, there are opportunities for growth, and later on in your career trajectory, you may want to run for a state or national office in that organization. The opportunities are many–most associations/organizations offer scholarships, travel, and speaking opportunities, and networking connections are especially important.”
“A misconception is that novice nurses have nothing to contribute, which is a myth,” Kim Regis, DNP, RN, NEA-BC, CPNP-PC, BCC, and a member ofthe American Academy of Ambulatory Care Nursing (AAACN). “The voices of all generations must be at the table so that policies, practices, and standards reflect everyone working in the profession and the communities we serve.”
Regardless of where you are in your career, Kennedy says that mentoring plays a big role in many nursing associations. Whether you are a new nurse looking for guidance from a mentor or a more experienced nurse who can share your expertise and mentor someone else, a nursing association offers excellent opportunities to do both.
All the skills you acquire, and your work in an organization will also help advance your career. You may have yet to gain formal management experience, but if you have led an education campaign, board member, or committee in your organization, that gives you hands-on experience.
Nurses can also add to their knowledge and grow into leadership roles within an association. “Joining a nursing organization is a great way to expand your skill set within leadership, advocacy, research, and clinical practice,” says Nava.
The personal connections you’ll form in an association membership are also professionally valuable. “This is how you learn of job opportunities, fellowships, and academic opportunities,” says Nava. “Also, members and leaders within organizations, through your engaged involvement, will end up being the people who mentor you, or sponsor you, or write letters of recommendation for you, to advance your career.”
Nurses also know the opportunities they find through an association membership are often the kind they would not have found any other way. “As a new member [of AAACN], I had many doors opened to get involved in various committees and task forces,” says Andrea Petrovanie-Green CAPT(Ret), NC, USN, RN, MSN, AMB-BC, and a member of the leadership team supporting AAACN. “These experiences helped hone my leadership, management, and clinical acumen. As a result, I authored a white paper that established the first Specialty Leader in Ambulatory Care Nursing for the Navy Nurse Corps. Another unique opportunity I am grateful for was co-chairing the Tri-Service Military annual symposium. During networking events, I was introduced to several influential and inspiring leaders who mentored me to pursue additional opportunities. I subsequently served as a member of the nominating committee and currently as a director.”
Both Nava and Kennedy credit their association memberships with advancing their careers.
“I joined my first association because my aunt encouraged me to join with her our local Illinois Chapter of NAHN when I was a first-year nurse,” says Nava, noting the small chapter gave her opportunities to take on leadership roles including, eventually, president. “My ability to work with others and build a team, something I learned early on, has helped me grow and become the leader I am today as the national president of NAHN.”
Kennedy says she was starting her PhD when she first heard of the ANA. One of her classmates was the executive director of the Arizona ANA and asked Kennedy if she was a member. “I joined that day,” she says with a laugh, eventually becoming president of the Arizona ANA. As needs arose, she helped out and got involved, learning new skills along the way and developing close personal connections. “That’s what helped me most in my career,” she says, joining an association. “We need new individuals to carry on the profession. They must be involved to keep our profession and specialties strong.”
Kriebel-Gasparro says membership in an organization gives nurses leverage on areas they care deeply about. “This is why I belong to the Nurses of PA organization and offer my time to advocate for safe staffing and other issues,” she says.
Associations know policymakers without nursing experience are making critical, industry-impacting decisions. It takes nurses with lived experience and a passion for excellent nursing practice to move into roles where they can make those decisions.
“With over four million nurses in the United States and greater than 80 percent of those employed in the field, it is imperative that a unified voice, with a unified message, is brought forth on many of the issues that impact practice and the health of our communities in which we work,” says Regis. “The bottom line: there is a professional organization for everyone to find a home where they belong. If a nurse has not found a good fit where they are, it is almost guaranteed that there is one out there somewhere that will pour into them with mentorship and development. Don’t miss your opportunity to take your career to the highest level.”
Nursing is more than a profession. It’s a calling. And those who answer the call become the backbone of a high-functioning, compassionate health care system. People who become nurses are capable, compassionate, and strong scientists and clinicians who have worked hard to start their careers. Their expertise, patient care delivery, and commitment to the profession contribute a distinct perspective on how health care should be managed and delivered.
While nurses are strong and resilient, they can’t fix their biggest problem: a dire nursing shortage. A decade in the making, our national nursing shortage threatens our already struggling health care infrastructure. Studies have long predicted
that the demand for nurses would intensify as the U.S. population aged. And just like the trends in general higher education, nursing schools have become less accessible, as many face faculty shortages, limits on enrollment, and limited space for clinical training at teaching hospitals.
And, of course, the COVID-19 pandemic only accelerated these trends. Nurses came under incredible pressure from the increase in patient numbers and acuity, and public distrust surrounding politicized vaccines and treatments, with a large number of their peers opting to leave the field due to these pandemic stressors. The nurses who remain find themselves in professional limbo, looking for ways to squeeze in continued education and professional development, manage work demands and challenges, and find a healthy work-life balance.
And that is if they chose to stay. A staggering number of nurses have decided to leave. The total number of registered nurses in the workplace decreased by more than 100,000 in 2021, the most significant drop observed in four decades. The largest group to depart was nurses under 35.
We need to do everything in our power to create sustainable solutions that don’t simply “put nurses on floors” but will provide our nurses with the best possible experience, one that allows them to practice at the top of their license. The circumstances are challenging, and there’s no quick fix, but our patients, our communities, our health systems––health care itself can’t afford to continue in this direction.
At Trinity Health, we started developing solutions well before the pandemic and have seen first-hand how thoughtful solutions, informed and led by nurses, impact job satisfaction most. Programs that give nurses greater flexibility and options based on where they are in their career and what they want to do, innovative care delivery models that support their work and provide opportunities for professional development, continuing education, and alternative career pathways work.
Supporting Education and Career Advancement
Starting a career in nursing is no simple endeavor. So, when entry-level nurses are just beginning, it’s critical to jump on the moment’s excitement and encourage them to dive as deep into their new role as possible. In 2014 we collaborated with Vizient, the country’s largest member-owned health care services company, to create our Nurse Residency Program. This program helps orient entry-level nurses as they transition into practice. The evidence-based curriculum incorporates three key areas: patient outcomes, leadership, and professional development.
For experienced nurses, we provide a robust system-wide learning platform for those interested in advancing their skills in various areas of practice specialization. Obtaining the highest level of education doesn’t just support their careers and livelihoods, but it helps us ensure we provide the best patient care possible.
Opportunity must be equitable, and we are committed to living Trinity Health’s values of equity, diversity, and inclusion in everything we do. Unequal access to education, specifically for underrepresented communities, is a well-documented barrier for students who wish to pursue a nursing degree. To that end, we provide tuition assistance, flexible online programming through our nursing schools and seven academic partner schools, scholarships, on-the-job training, and career advancement programs to help level the playing field for nurses from diverse backgrounds. This is crucial for delivering health care that is representative of the populations we serve.
Multiple Options to Support Work-Life Balance
Nurses especially need work-life balance. Options for flexibility and roles that match their needs and goals are essential to increasing the longevity of a fulfilling and meaningful career.
Nurses at Trinity Health led the development of FirstChoice, our internal staffing agency that offers flexible scheduling and travel opportunities for nurses and clinical staff. Having our pool of travel nurses helps prevent colleague burnout and maintains continuity in patient care. In addition to FirstChoice, we’ve introduced a new care delivery model to improve patient care, experience, and nurse satisfaction. The delivery model has been well-received by nurses who are early in their careers and benefit from the unique mentoring experience and from more tenured nurses who can continue to work in a less physically demanding but gratifying capacity.
Beyond flexibility, we must provide other ways to support nurses’ well-being and resilience. A recent study reports that a quarter to half of the nurses reported feeling emotionally drained (50.8%), used up (56.4%), fatigued (49.7%), burned out (45.1%), or at the end of the rope (29.4%) multiple times a week. Mental health benefits are an essential requirement once considered a luxury perk or not considered at all. We began offering Colleague Care Resiliency Rounding, a real-time, one-on-one, human connection for colleagues in high-volume, highly demanding areas within the hospital setting. The program’s goal is to address mental health proactively and sustain their mental well-being in the face of the inevitable stress of the job.
To ensure that there are no barriers to mental health support, we offer six free therapy sessions and six free coaching sessions per calendar year, as well as options for personalized care, access to diverse providers, self-guided wellness exercises, personal medication management training, substance use support, work-life services, and more.
When someone is a nurse, their career can easily become their identity. Nurses love their job, and we love them for that. But we must recognize that every nurse is more than the exceptional care they give to patients. They are whole humans with lives away from the bedside. They need support that is designed with that in mind.
Empowering Nurses
Nurses have long been renowned for confidently taking control of situations many shy away from. While I firmly believe it’s up to administrators and health systems to provide the essential support nurses need to thrive, I also know nurses must have a hand shaping their work lives. From my 40 years of experience as a nurse, with nearly 30 of those as a chief administrator, here is my advice to nurses searching for a career that will meet their personal and professional needs and goals.
Find an organization that shares your values. Look at the organization’s mission, vision, and values. Does it align with your own? Can you see evidence of their commitment to these values? Make sure the operational structure meets your needs. Does flexibility matter? Ask about shift offerings, virtual opportunities, or options to work in multiple locations. Do you care about mental health access? See what benefits they offer from day one.
Make sure the organization will truly see you and hear you. Your input is key to creating improved work environments and patient care. You must feel nothing less than supported in asking questions and contributing your voice to the conversation.
Whatever stage of your career––recently graduated or 20 years in––make sure an employer is willing to support your professional development. Opportunities for a new nurse should look vastly different than those for someone who has spent decades in a specialized unit. Ensure you can access individualized educational opportunities that impact your career trajectory and help you meet your goals.
I can only speak for myself and my team, but until all nurses feel adequately supported, I won’t rest my case that urgent action needs to be taken. Patients’ lives depend on our ability to care for and empower the people who care for them.
I am encouraged by my colleagues who have taken notice and have started to make meaningful changes. Nurses have been through a lot in the past few years, and we never know what awaits around the corner. But a positive shift is coming. The momentum we’ve built so far must continue so that the next generation of nurses feels more supported, better equipped, and more passionate about their calling than they ever dreamed possible.
