4. Get In To The School of Your Choice

By now you know that there is a nursing shortage. What people don’t think about is the shortage of nursing instructors that goes along with this. What does this mean for you? It means that you may be facing waiting lists and steep competition among prospective nursing students. You will need to do everything possible to make sure you get to the top of the list.

Nursing schools will be looking at

• Your grades
• An Admissions Essay or Statement of Purpose
• Letters of Recommendation
• On the Job Experience

5. Complete Your RN Program – What to Expect

Nursing clinicals are what really get you ready for working in the healthcare setting. During clinicals, you will spend time working side by side with actual nurses, so you can get a feel for what it is they actually do. Many students find clinicals to be stressful at first. You worry about whether you will make a mistake that could actually harm a patient. Nursing students joke about this (“I made it through clinicals today with out killing anyone!”) but the truth of the matter is that you can find yourself in some very stressful situations.

6. Decide on a Specialty

The good news is that you have a wide range of specialties to choose from. The bad news? You have a wide range of specialties to choose from. How do you make up your mind? Fortunately you will have lots of exposure to each one. In nursing school you will typically spend about a semester in each specialty. Here’s a run down of each one:

Adult health – this encompasses a wide range of specialties from oncology to OR nursing. The benefit to specializing in adult health is that you will build a good solid foundation for your nursing career. The skills you learn in this area can be carried over to other areas; the reverse isn’t always true.

Critical Care – Do you crave excitement? Do you like to be where the action is? Then critical care is for you. It encompasses the ER and the ICU. ICU nursing involves more specialized skills. You have a smaller patient load (often 1-2 patients) but your patients are much more acutely ill.

Pediatrics – Caring for children can be one of the most difficult and rewarding experiences. The challenge? Children aren’t “supposed to get sick” so to see them and care for them in such a state can take its toll on you.

Maternal Health/Labor and Delivery – This is a good specialty to choose if you are interested in women’s health.

Psychiatric Nursing – This involves caring for the mentally ill in various capacities. Psych nurse can facilitate group therapy meetings, and they also carry out care plans for patients who are in the hospital.

Community Health – One thing that you will learn about in nursing school is the importance of health promotion. This is the concept that maintaining health starts with the actions that you take before you get sick. Community health nurses are great facilitators of this concept.

Next: Steps 7 – 10