Your nursing career is a lifelong vocation with abundant opportunities for various specialties or areas of focus. However, your journey toward becoming a better nurse does not end when you land your dream job. It is an evolving, ever-changing profession, thus requiring holistic development.
Improving oneself is essential for your personal and professional growth and eventually your holistic growth. In this guide, we will discuss the significance of holistic development and the ways you can elevate your nursing career.
You would have a more meaningful connection with patients and colleagues. Working on your holistic development helps you cultivate better relationships with your patients and co-workers. It essentially expands your career opportunities and helps you reach your full potential as a nurse and as a person.
You can maintain competence through continuous practice and constant learning. Having a mindset of holistic growth propels you to update your skills, so you can adapt to various healthcare environments. This may be through certification, mentoring, or entering nursing specialty professional organizations.
You improve your critical thinking as a nurse. You’d be able to manage new disease processes efficiently and approach evidence-based practices effectively. These will be especially helpful in trying seasons, like a pandemic or tragic accidents. Holistic development guarantees that highly skilled nurses attend to patients’ needs in difficult times.
You would be more conscious of exercising self-care. Often, due to the pressure of the job or lack of work-life balance, you may feel stuck in your career. Developing yourself holistically as a nurse prevents burnout and promotes self-care. With healthy well-being, you can provide proper and more effective health treatments.
Becoming a responsible nursing professional causes a ripple effect on your life and the people around you. Below are the essential things to improve on yourself, so you can be your best self and positively impact your career as a nurse.
Whether you’re a newbie or a seasoned nursing professional, you must learn tasks and jobs that are relevant to your nursing career. You can do this by working in as many units as possible. Working across many fields from the get-go will benefit you in two significant ways: it will keep your skillset in high demand, and it will help you determine your career focus and specialization.
It’s wise to choose a nursing career specialization that you enjoy doing and fits your character well. You can always select jobs in the clinical and medical fields to develop your professional skills, such as a nurse researcher. Beyond that though, you can also develop interpersonal skills, which you can achieve by working out of traditional settings as a military or missionary nurse.
It pays to continue studying what’s new in the health and medical world. Being updated and expanding your knowledge in the medical field can positively improve your nursing career.
Do not forget to refresh your mind while you can. You can always continue your education through academic degrees or expand your professional network for opportunities out there.
Focus on developing your skillset in the non-clinical fields, like working in the healthcare customer service field or hospital legal departments and litigation firms. Through continued research and training, you will gain soft skills, including effective communication, leadership, and stress management.
According to the University of St. Augustine for Health Sciences study in 2021, there are 4.2 million registered nurses (RNs) in the US, and 4x as many RNs as there are physicians. Thus, employment in the nursing field has grown and will still increase in the coming years. With a lot of nurses in the field, you can network and expand your support system.
Professional nursing organizations can help maintain your medical knowledge up-to-date and be a valuable resource for education via conferences. In difficult times, strong connections with your fellow professionals and collaborating for advocacy, education, and development may be your only lifeline.
Seeking out professional advice from someone in the field longer than you can give you access to knowledge that’s only attainable through years of experience. Career mentors also boost your confidence and critical thinking abilities as you have someone to exchange ideas with. Having someone to learn from, provide you with insight, and guide you in your profession can also help you manage your mental and emotional health.
While there may be non-teaching hospitals that don’t offer medical education and training to health professionals, try to learn from a nurse with professional proficiencies and capabilities that you hold in high regard. You can request their help casually and schedule meetings that fit both of your schedules.
By decompressing and finding the perfect balance between work and home, you can consistently bring your A-game, which eventually helps increase your engagement levels. A 2021 study reports that a stressful work environment forces nurses to leave or consider quitting their job due to poor work-life balance.
Thus, when your body feels like it needs that entire weekend to rest, then rest. There’s a fine line between productivity and burnout, and you must avoid getting in touch with the latter whenever you can. At the same time, nourishing your body with proper food helps reduce the negative influence of your stressors. Having an appropriate diet will allow you to take better care of your patients. Eat and sleep routinely when you can, and don’t work additional hours when you feel like you can’t perform your best until you get that rest.
Elevating your nursing career is easier said than done. However, when you aim to grow through holistic development, you create and practice routines that make you better as a person. Set smarter steps and give yourself a feasible timeline to work on your progress. But, don’t pressure yourself way too much so that you forget why you chose this profession in the first place. Enjoy the journey and stay positive always.
At PRS Global, we help nurses get direct-hire opportunities and advance their careers in the medical field. As a global healthcare recruiting and direct placement company, we assure you that your needs are being met by becoming your support system throughout your hiring and onboarding process as a global nurse. Contact us now to learn how you can elevate your nursing career today.