Your Nursing Career on Your Terms

Every nurse and healthcare professional has the opportunity to define success on their own terms. However, how many of us let others dictate how our nursing careers should be measured? How can we take control of our careers and define our own success?

Beyond a Cookie-Cutter Career

At this time in your life, your definition of success may mean earning your MSN by the time you’re 35 and your PhD or DNP by the time you’re 45. For one of your nurse colleagues, success may mean earning a BSN and securing a job that will provide a stable income and support a child through college. For another, it’s taking a year off and traveling the globe on an around-the-world ticket. And why not?

There are many prescriptions for a successful nursing career, but cookie-cutter solutions are just approximations of what’s possible for you. What works for Jane the nurse doesn’t necessarily work for Bill the nurse Jane and Bill have different life histories, goals, professional experiences, family circumstances, and responsibilities, so they each need to forge an individualized path forward.

Just because they say you need two years of med/surg before pursuing other opportunities doesn’t make that true for you. And just because most of your nursing school classmates are already planning to become nurse practitioners, maybe you’d prefer to do research, become an educator, or even work for the pharmaceutical industry. The field is wide open, and cliché prescriptions for a successful nursing career aren’t always a good fit.

Your Own Compass

When a hiker strikes off into the woods, they often use a compass (whether an old-fashioned version or a digital app) to avoid getting lost. All compasses universally point out the directions of north, south, east, and west. The hiker can use those cardinal directions in concert with a detailed topographic map to make good decisions about where they’re heading.

Defining Your Success

To take the bull by the horns and define success on your terms, you need to know what you think and feel. This may seem simple, but many of us allow ourselves to be blown around by the winds of opinion that others force on us. Our peers choices may also influence us.

Knowing what you honestly think and feel means exploring your motivations, goals, and desires, as well as identifying the preconceived notions that you brought to your professional nursing career. We all have career baggage, as well as self-judgments that hold us back and keep us from making choices that are truest to our nature.

These questions (and others) may hopefully lead to further exploration and the uncovering of what you want:

What are my greatest strengths? What do I bring to the table as a nurse and healthcare professional?
What are my weaknesses? Where do I need to bolster my knowledge, expertise, and/or experience?
What are the things that are potential threats to my success and happiness? (e.g., Do I lack motivation? Am I going through a difficult divorce? Do I have medical or mental health conditions that impact me negatively at home or work? Is a lot of my energy taken up by caring for an elderly parent or disabled loved one?)
What opportunities are out there just waiting for me to seize them?
Who might be a good networking connection?
What are past experiences that can lead to new opportunities in the future?

Staying Focused

Many factors will influence what you do in your nursing career over time. If your circumstances change (e.g., divorce, marriage, birth of a child, etc.), you may need to make some adjustments. If a big corporation buys your hospital and heads are rolling left and right, you may need to abandon ship before things go south.

Threats, opportunities, and stuff that plain happens may cause you to lose focus and deviate from a very clear career plan. These abrupt turns can be advantageous happy accidents, but they can also lead you unhappily astray. Staying focused means consciously choosing to keep your eyes on the prize, maintaining the integrity of your plans, and being simultaneously open to serendipity and the unknown. An open mind will serve you best in just about all situations.

Know Thyself

Creating a nursing career on your terms calls on you to know yourself as well as possible. The advice above is just the tip of the iceberg: find coaches, mentors, counselors, therapists, colleagues, and/or accountability partners who can listen well, hold your feet to the fire, question your motivations, and otherwise be there when you’re at your strongest or your weakest.

Dig deep and get to know yourself. If you do nothing else, self-reflection and increased self-knowledge will benefit every aspect of your life, not to mention your relationships with those around you.

Defining your nursing career on your terms isn’t rocket science, but it’s also not as simple as it seems. Do the work, put in the sweat equity, and you’llbe rewarded with self-knowledge, self-confidence, and an understanding of what makes you tick in both your personal and professional lives. The rest is icing on the cake.