5 Steps to Getting the Promotion You Want

If you have decided to advance your career this year, getting a promotion might be at the top of your to-do list. Or maybe you’re content with your current role, but would appreciate more recognition from your supervisor for bringing 110 percent to the job all day, every day.

Promotions take a lot of effort—few nurses get promoted just because they come to work every day. How can you bring some attention to your work?

Here are five small steps to do this year that may set you on a path to your next promotion.

Be Valuable

Doing your job is expected; doing more is what gets you noticed. Create value for your organization by always assessing processes to see where you can create more efficiency. When you can do something better, faster, or with less people and the end result is better patient care, you become a really valuable nurse. Keep alert to ways to improve routines.

Get Extra Training

Making the effort to get an additional nursing degree is almost a fast-track plan for getting a promotion. With a push for having nurses attain a minimum of a bachelor’s degree, extra education is a valuable asset. If an advanced degree isn’t really an option for you, certification is another way of achieving a higher professional level. Certification helps you gain a deeper understanding of complex nursing areas—from cardiac to wound care—and will help you provide better nursing care. Find out about new practices and new technology, Don’t forget about online or in-person seminars that many healthcare organizations offer.

Whatever you do, make sure you keep learning and keep your supervisor in the loop when you learn something especially valuable.

Become a Networking Pro and Get Involved

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Allaying Your Ebola Fears

Get to know other nurses and healthcare professionals by getting involved in the professional nursing community. Join a professional organization and volunteer to take an active role within that organization. While you are out and about, be an active and positive ambassador for your organization. This activity won’t necessarily get you a promotion, but it will get you noticed for what you bring to your organization.

Go to Conferences and Share Your Knowledge

Attending conferences is an excellent way to learn more about nursing and to uncover ways you can improve your own nursing care. But don’t go to a conference and then operate in a silo. Share what you have learned when you return. Offer to give a lunchtime talk about a new tactic, a cutting-edge technology, or a vital change in evidence-based practice. Let others know what you learned about how other nursing units are successful.

Think of Good Publicity

Become a vocal nurse advocate wherever you are. Find a nursing cause you believe in and get involved to change policy. Write letters to the editor championing the valuable care nurses provide. Raise funds for causes devoted to nursing. Becoming a positive force for change elevates your own personal goals and gives your industry and your career a boost in the process.

Being a good nurse is any nurse’s goal, and getting ahead in your career involves that qualification and then a little more. Extend yourself to reach that promotion.