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Top 5 Jobs for New Nursing Grads

Top 5 Jobs For New Nursing Graduates

So you’re a brand new nursing graduate. First of all, massive congratulations completing all of the intense work this required. Second, let’s get you on the right path for finding your healthcare career instead of just another job. The entire goal of this piece is to quite literally give you peace of mind when it comes to picking a job position that will be the start you need in your brand new nursing career.

Nursing Job Search

As soon as you graduate, it’s important to hit the ground running and get on your job search. You see, by not taking time and placing a gap on your resume, employers will understand your willingness and excitement to get started on your healthcare career journey, which is only a positive thing when it comes to hiring.

Starting your healthcare job search might be daunting, but breaking it down into small and digestible pieces will make it way easier. If you look at each thing you need to do as a small item on a list and cross them off as you go, you’ll feel a lot less overwhelmed and more in control. With that said, most nursing schools do happen to have placement help and job fairs to introduce you to healthcare organizations that could help you with getting your new graduate nursing job.

But the real move, that’s niche healthcare job boards such as Healthcare Consultant. You see, niche healthcare job boards are truly the way of the future. With job boards being the second biggest source for receiving jobs (behind referrals) how can you let an opportunity like this go to waste?

The advantage of a niche healthcare job board over a regular one is that it has more direct jobs from people who actually know what they’re doing in the connected industries. With a normal old job board, you may be spammed with tons of irrelevant jobs and dealing with people who are unfamiliar with the healthcare industry.

Go With The Flow

Now I know after working hard in college and in your training you think you’re ready for everything and anything nursing. But the reality of the situation is that, although you’re ready on paper, you aren’t actually ready to tackle everything in the field. This will come from experience, so dip your toes in lightly and don’t burn yourself out. So with that said, when looking for that first job to get started, go with the flow. Now, you’re probably wondering what I mean. Well, your first job in reality probably won’t be your dream job. It’s through this hard work and opportunity you get at your first job that you start to form your own expectations of where you’d like to be in life and who you’d like to work for. Get a year or two in and move onto another brighter path with the help of a niche job board.

Where do I start?

Well, there are a lot of options of places or organizations to work once you have finished your nursing degree.

Types of facilities willing to take in nursing graduates frequently:

• Nursing Homes
• Doctor’s Offices
• Health Care Agencies

The above are awesome for gaining some fundamental experience in a not too aggressive or demanding environment such as an operating room.

Another thing you can do is be open to a nationwide job search. You’ll have more of a say in salary, and get to experience what it’s like somewhere else. It does come with its downsides of course, but if it fits into your lifestyle, you can really take advantage of this with travel nursing.

You can take internships or volunteer if you want something a little extra to pad the old resume.

Salary: $62,472 on average annually.

Best Jobs For New Nursing Graduates

Medical-Surgical Nursing (Med-Surg)

This is the most commonly thought of specialty when it comes to the nursing specialty that people think new grad nurses start in.

As a med-surg nurse you will be primarily caring and provide services to adult patients with a very wide range of conditions. Granting you invaluable experience that can take you all the way to the moon.

In this position you could be dealing with someone who hasn’t had surgery, or just had surgery. The options are practically unlimited along with the actions you’ll be performing for your patients such as bedside assistance, medication dispersal, and handling family visitation.

Operating Room Nurse

The surgical procedure team. Likely the team known for having guts of glory and the ability to tackle the toughest decisions at the drop of a pin. These are some hardcore people and without them we wouldn’t have the care we need. So if you were to join the surgical procedure team as an operating room nurse, what would you be doing?

• Supplying the surgeon with equipment that is both sterilized and precise.
• Helping to prepare and clean the room before and after surgery.
• Prepare the patient for recovery in the recovery room.

So what makes this a great choice for new grad nurses?

Well, you see, a lot of nurses get flustered if they’re thrust into an exhausting environment like the emergency room with several patients. But having one patient can help to keep a nurse on task and focused without feeling the drain from overwhelm.

Salary: $66,713 on average annually.

Emergency Room Nurse (ER Nurse)

An emergency nurse is key to working with the team that handles the emergency cases at the hospital. Typically, when a patient freshly arrives at the ER a team will be waiting to evaluate and stabilize patients who need medical care. Many scenarios actually work with life-threatening injuries, wounds, and ailments. But what will you most commonly be doing?

• Giving medication to patients
• Looking over patients while doctors make their rounds
• Patching and cleaning minor wounds

But in my opinion, out of all of these on the list, this is the very best one for new grad nurses. The reason is because you will get a good assortment of experience without having to dive into the most nitty of the gritty, so to speak. This job also helps you to improve your time management skills because time management in this role is critical. You’ll learn to make the best out of fast-paced situations.

Salary: This role brings in $65,470 annually on average.

Labor and Delivery Nurse

In this role, you will be the helping hand that obstetricians need while actively on duty. Basically, you’re bringing new life into this world and your job is of the utmost importance. You help the obstetrician to make the process go smoothly and act as a sort of patient advocate when coaching new mothers to a successful birth. Before the delivery you’ll likely be talking to expecting parents about the process of birth and all of the prenatal actions needed before going into delivery.

• Educating parents on newborns and risks
• Coaching expecting mothers to a successful delivery
• Teach vital care skills
• Check and monitor babies health and vital signs

This is a good role because it challenges much of the stigma in the industry. You’re able to do something that most nurses are never able to do. You have to use your empathy and compassion for people to really look out for them during an incredibly vulnerable time.

Salary: The expected annual salary for this role is about $55,426 annually.

Intensive Care Unit Nurse (ICU Nurse)

Welcome to one of the most insane environments in all of the medicine world, the intensive care unit. All nursing careers can be a bit tough, but this one, this one might just be in competition to take the cake.

As an ICU nurse, your role in many cases is quite literally life or death. You learn how to help patients and other staff during medical emergencies and attempt to slow down any negative effects they may be suffering from. Other than this, you may be keeping close tabs on patient conditions in an attempt to keep them stabilized.

So as a whole, working in this one as a new graduate nurse can be incredibly rewarding and build up a ton of character for you. You’ll have to learn how to pay attention to the closest and sometimes the most minute of details.

• Practice good time management and efficiency while caring for patients
• Learn some methods for specialized care
• Use next-generation equipment properly
• Care for patients as health declines

These are just some of the skills you’ll pick up as a new grad ICU nurse. But as a whole, this position will be amazing for setting you up for a transition to another specialization of nursing in the future if interested.

Salary: The average annual salary expectation for someone in this role is $64,764 annually.

The Future For New Nursing Graduates

Well, after reading this, you should have a good idea of what kind of roles you can obtain in healthcare as a new nursing grad. The best nursing jobs for new nursing grads will likely always be these five as they give diverse, important, and impactful career experience. In any case, we wish you the best of luck in your nursing endeavors and remember to set yourself on a nursing pathway that works for you and your career goals.

Article was written and published by Healthcare Talent Link. Visit their website with the link below.

Nursing – New Waves of Innovation

Nurses have more career options than perhaps ever before. Here are the top Jobs on the Rise

Article written by Path to Recovery, a newsletter that delivers weekly conversations on how the health care profession will recover from one of the most significant crises of our time. 

This week, I’m covering some of the data from our annual Jobs on the Rise report. Check out our full coverage here.

Sharonda Davis never expected to leave nursing. But when the pandemic hit, her job working in intensive care and progressive care units in a South Florida hospital became untenable.

“I had never dealt with that much death in my career,” she said. “I didn’t realize I was becoming severely depressed. I lost interest in my husband; I lost interest in my children. And one day, I just quit.”

Davis, however, didn’t go far from the hospital. Today, she uses many of the same skills she developed as a nurse in her work as a chest pain coordinator, a job that involves working with doctors and paramedics to develop protocols for managing chest pain patients. The role makes good use of her patient care skills as well as her background in communication and data science.

“It was a role that I didn’t even know existed, but I really love,” she said.

Davis is among the 18% of U.S. health care workers who are estimated to have quit during the pandemic, according to Morning Consult, a research and data firm. In specialties that work directly with covid patients, the numbers might be even higher; the American Association of Critical-Care Nurses found that as many as two-thirds of nurses have considered leaving. The situation is similar in Canada, where last summer the health care industry saw year-over-year increases in job vacancies that outpaced other sectors.

Nurses are in high demand, and there are opportunities to move not only across specialties but away from the bedside altogether. A nursing degree offers an advantage, nurses say, because it’s often easier to supplement health care training with communication or technical skills, rather than vice versa.

“A lot of nurses have awakened to the power of the position,” said Alice Benjamin, who is both an advanced-practice nurse as well as a podcast host and media contributor. And while those roles might sound very different, Benjamin points out that they all involve patient education.

“What are you passionate about?” she said, when asked about the advice she’d give nurses looking for a change. “Find what else you’re good at and marry that with your nursing license.”

When LinkedIn crunched the data on the fastest-growing job titles, it wasn’t surprising to see health care functions on the list. Two roles that made it to the top could be related to the pandemic: vaccine specialist and molecular biologist. But we’re also seeing rapid growth in nursing fields, particularly for surgical intensive care and postpartum nurses. And these two opportunities allow nurses to move beyond the pandemic crunch.

To calculate the fastest-growing jobs, we examined the increase in the number of professionals who added those job titles from Jan. 1, 2017 through July 31, 2021.

Health care jobs also featured prominently in the data we gathered for Canada, where our Jobs on the Rise include vaccine specialist, public health nurse, public health specialist and clinical data manager. The global public health space was gaining momentum even before the pandemic due to growing awareness of how societal and socioeconomic factors affect our health and contribute to rising rates of chronic diseases.

Jobs in public health also provide better hours than typical nursing jobs, said Toronto-based Sara Fung, CEO and founder of the RN Resume, who added that nurses are trying to transition into not only public health, but teaching or doctor’s offices.

“I’ve seen a big surge in nurses wanting to leave the bedside,” she said. “Most people, to be honest, are looking beyond hospitals.”

Burnout hasn’t been the only factor prompting nurses to make a change. Surgical specialties like perioperative care “took a body blow,” said Phyllis Quinlan, an executive coach for nurses, as hospitals canceled elective procedures during covid surges. Some nurses were redeployed to critical care; others were furloughed and still others retired.

At the same time, many countries are facing a critical nursing shortage, and nurses are realizing that they have more clout than perhaps ever before. There’s also hiring interest coming from outside of the health care industry, as non-traditional players like tech companies seek to enter the space.

“The new challenge for leadership is to understand that things are never going to be the same,” Quinlan said. “It’s not going to take a lot [for nurses] to say, ‘That’s enough, we’re done.’”

To keep up with changes in the industry, Rita Wise, director of the masters in nursing education and nursing administration program at the Pennsylvania College of Health Sciences, encourages nurses to seek out opportunities that build leadership skills, like serving on committees or training nursing students.

“You absolutely, as a nurse, have to keep evolving,” she said. “It doesn’t necessarily mean going back to school, but it definitely means increasing your skill set all the time.”

Like others, Wise suggests that nurses think first and foremost about their interests and passions before deciding on a career move — rather than jumping on the latest bandwagon. She also predicts continued demand for nurse educators as the field continues to add new specialties and technologies. And getting back into a classroom, Wise adds, could also help counteract burnout.

Toronto-based Marida Etherington is among the nurses who have made a career shift due to the pandemic. Etherington has a background in acute-care mental health, and she made a transition away from working in a hospital by first volunteering to provide online therapy to frontline workers. From there, she began offering psychotherapy to adult and pediatric clients as well as coaching services for nurses who want to make a career change.

While she misses her former colleagues and the camaraderie that comes from working night shifts together, it was clear to her that working in a hospital was too risky, especially with an immunocompromised husband and three children at home. Overall, she says she’s happy with the move.

“It really fuels me and I feel like I am giving back to the community,” she said.  “I’m doing exactly what I want to do, so you can’t put a price tag on that.”

Looking for a change?

Sara Fung and Amie Archibald-Varley, co-directors of The Gritty Nurse podcast, offer these tips to nurses:

• Put yourself out there: don’t be afraid to apply for jobs even when you don’t meet 100% of the requirements
• Don’t overload your resume with irrelevant experience, but call out areas where you can show hard numbers that speak to the impact you’ve had
• Focus on translatable skills like information technology, certifications, critical thinking and communication
• Seek out opportunities to join workgroups, particularly around quality or process improvement
• Don’t forget about networking, especially in the small world of nursing

Shared from Linked In News – Image credit Linked In

ANA Urges US Department of Health and Human Services to Declare Nurse Staffing Shortage a National Crisis

This press release was originally published Sep 1, 2021 by the ANA. For more information visit their website.

SILVER SPRING, MD – The American Nurses Association (ANA), representing the interests of the nation’s 4.2 million nurses, urges the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to declare the current and unsustainable nurse staffing shortage facing our country a national crisis. In a letter to HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra, ANA calls for the Administration to acknowledge and take concrete action to address the current crisis-level nurse staffing shortage that puts nurses’ ability to care for patients in jeopardy.

“The nation’s health care delivery systems are overwhelmed, and nurses are tired and frustrated as this persistent pandemic rages on with no end in sight. Nurses alone cannot solve this longstanding issue and it is not our burden to carry,” said ANA President Ernest Grant, PhD, RN, FAAN. “If we truly value the immeasurable contributions of the nursing workforce, then it is imperative that HHS utilize all available authorities to address this issue.”

ANA calls on the Administration to deploy these policy solutions to address the dire nurse staffing shortage crisis. HHS must:

• Convene stakeholders to identify short- and long-term solutions to staffing challenges to face the demand of the COVID-19 pandemic response, ensure the nation’s health care delivery system is best equipped to provide quality care for patients, and prepared for the future challenges.
• Work with the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) on methodologies and approaches to promote payment equity for nursing services and remove unnecessary regulatory barriers to APRN practice.
• Educate the nation on the importance of the COVID-19 vaccine to provide resources for widespread administration of the COVID-19 vaccine and any subsequent boosters.
• Sustain a nursing workforce that meets current and future staffing demands to ensure access to care for patients and prioritize the mental health of nurses and other health professionals.
• Provide additional resources including recruitment and retention incentives that will attract students to the nursing profession and retain skilled nurses to the demands of patient care.

“ANA stands ready to work with HHS and other stakeholders on a whole of government approach to ensure we have a strong nursing workforce today and in the future,” said Dr. Grant. “Our nation must have a robust nursing workforce at peak health and wellness to administer COVID-19 vaccines, educate communities, and provide safe patient care for millions of Americans.  We cannot be a healthy nation until we commit to address underlying, chronic nursing workforce challenges that have persisted for decades.”

# # #

The American Nurses Association (ANA) is the premier organization representing the interests of the nation’s 4.3 million registered nurses. ANA advances the profession by fostering high standards of nursing practice, promoting a safe and ethical work environment, bolstering the health and wellness of nurses, and advocating on health care issues that affect nurses and the public. ANA is at the forefront of improving the quality of health care for all. For more information, visit www.nursingworld.org.

ANA Urges US Department of Health and Human Services to Declare Nurse Staffing Shortage a National Crisis

This press release was originally published Sep 1, 2021 by the ANA. For more information visit their website.

SILVER SPRING, MD – The American Nurses Association (ANA), representing the interests of the nation’s 4.2 million nurses, urges the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to declare the current and unsustainable nurse staffing shortage facing our country a national crisis. In a letter to HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra, ANA calls for the Administration to acknowledge and take concrete action to address the current crisis-level nurse staffing shortage that puts nurses’ ability to care for patients in jeopardy.

“The nation’s health care delivery systems are overwhelmed, and nurses are tired and frustrated as this persistent pandemic rages on with no end in sight. Nurses alone cannot solve this longstanding issue and it is not our burden to carry,” said ANA President Ernest Grant, PhD, RN, FAAN. “If we truly value the immeasurable contributions of the nursing workforce, then it is imperative that HHS utilize all available authorities to address this issue.”

ANA calls on the Administration to deploy these policy solutions to address the dire nurse staffing shortage crisis. HHS must:

• Convene stakeholders to identify short- and long-term solutions to staffing challenges to face the demand of the COVID-19 pandemic response, ensure the nation’s health care delivery system is best equipped to provide quality care for patients, and prepared for the future challenges.
• Work with the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) on methodologies and approaches to promote payment equity for nursing services and remove unnecessary regulatory barriers to APRN practice.
• Educate the nation on the importance of the COVID-19 vaccine to provide resources for widespread administration of the COVID-19 vaccine and any subsequent boosters.
• Sustain a nursing workforce that meets current and future staffing demands to ensure access to care for patients and prioritize the mental health of nurses and other health professionals.
• Provide additional resources including recruitment and retention incentives that will attract students to the nursing profession and retain skilled nurses to the demands of patient care.

“ANA stands ready to work with HHS and other stakeholders on a whole of government approach to ensure we have a strong nursing workforce today and in the future,” said Dr. Grant. “Our nation must have a robust nursing workforce at peak health and wellness to administer COVID-19 vaccines, educate communities, and provide safe patient care for millions of Americans.  We cannot be a healthy nation until we commit to address underlying, chronic nursing workforce challenges that have persisted for decades.”

# # #

The American Nurses Association (ANA) is the premier organization representing the interests of the nation’s 4.3 million registered nurses. ANA advances the profession by fostering high standards of nursing practice, promoting a safe and ethical work environment, bolstering the health and wellness of nurses, and advocating on health care issues that affect nurses and the public. ANA is at the forefront of improving the quality of health care for all. For more information, visit www.nursingworld.org.

10 Nursing Podcasts to Help You Succeed

Everyone needs some words of encouragement from time to time. Life can be hard, and hearing stories and advice from someone in a similar position can often make a world of difference when things start to get tough.

Travel nursing is a unique profession and one that isn’t an exception to difficulties. On a daily basis, you face a dozen obstacles and challenges that the average person may never encounter in their whole life in a non-nursing profession. From the physical demands to the emotional strain, working as a nurse is not easy. Add on top of that the tedium of traveling once or twice a year, and you have yourself a recipe for some much-deserved self-care.

And podcasts are a great way to renew your sense of encouragement and gratitude for your nursing profession.

What many nurses don’t know is how many podcasts are out there specifically made for those in the medical field. If you’re looking for something new and relatable to listen to during your travels or daily commute, read on for the 10 best podcasts for nurses!

#1. Daily Nurse – NurseCasts

Number one on the list of the best nursing podcasts is a show called Nursecasts. Episodes of Nursecasts can be listened to on the website DailyNurse. The podcast is hosted by Joe Morita, the senior acquisitions editor of Spring Publishing. Each episode features interviews with real nurses and discusses the daily life of working as a healthcare professional and their nursing experience throughout their career.

NurseCasts usually focus on a particular subject each day, whether it be about mental health,  travel nursing, or the nursing experience of a graduate. For example, the very first episode discusses why so many college students are studying to enter the nursing field. In addition to these interesting discussions, NurseCasts also offers actionable advice to listeners, such as:

• What are the best scrub brands
• Where to get the best shoes for nurses
• Why nurses should wear compression socks at work

Listen to new episodes of NurseCasts daily for helpful information and unique stories about working as a registered nurse.

#2. Good Nurse Bad Nurse

Good Nurse Bad Nurse is a podcast for those who love interesting stories about the healthcare field.

Hosted by two registered nurses, Tina and Sam, every episode has each of them tell a story about working as a nurse. One story, told by the “good nurse” will be uplifting and inspiring. The other story, told by the “bad nurse,” will typically explore the darker side of the healthcare field—such as complications, mistakes, and dangers on the job. This podcast discusses hot-button issues in the medical field and features special guests and interviews with other people with a nursing career.

The next time you’re looking for a gripping but fun podcast, with just the right amount of light-heartedness, check out Good Nurse Bad Nurse.

#3. The Nurse Keith Show

For nurses who want a podcast that focuses mainly on career advice, check out The Nurse Keith Show. Nurse Keith is a registered nurse, board-certified nursing coach, and specialist in holistic healing.

The Nurse Keith show helps nurses make the right choices for their own success and encourages listeners to advance their careers and find their own path. In addition to career coaching, the podcast also explores current topics in the medical field and interviews other healthcare professionals.

This is a podcast with a charming balance of being entertaining and informational.

#4. Nursing Show

Nursing Show is one of the best medical podcasts on the scene. For the nurse who wants a clinical skills podcast, Nursing Show offers educational discussions about the healthcare field. Medication usage, helpful tips on daily procedures, and information on medical conditions and modern medicine are all featured topics on this podcast that are accompanied by a lot of insider knowledge.

In addition to educational topics, Nursing Show also offers:

• Interviews
• Medical news
• General advice on managing and advancing your career

You can listen to Nursing Show on Stitcher. The podcast no longer airs new episodes, but there are over 400 episodes currently available for listening. If you are a graduate nurse, this might be a great listen to gain some valuable information on topics that range far and wide.

#5. Nursing Uncensored

Nursing Uncensored is not for the faint of heart. The podcast is hosted by Adrienne Behning, a registered nurse, and entertainer who believes in combining healthcare and humor.

Nursing is a serious profession, but that doesn’t mean you can’t laugh about it sometimes. Nursing Uncensored is one of the best comedic podcasts for nurses. With interviews, relatable stories, and the occasional curse word, Nursing Uncensored is for healthcare professionals who aren’t afraid to tell it like it is.

#6. Real Talk School of Nursing

The Real Talk School of Nursing podcast is a bit different from the other podcasts on this list. That’s because, instead of focusing on life on the job, it focuses on life around the job. This podcast is for nurses who want to hear relatable discussions about balancing their work as a nurse practitioner and personal life.

Real Talk School of Nursing also interviews professionals in the medical field and discusses people’s personal experiences in this line of work.

New episodes air every couple of weeks, and you can listen to them on the Real Talk School of Nursing website.

#7. Straight A Nursing

Straight A Nursing is a podcast that will help nurses and nursing students do their best at work and get through nursing school. This podcast is essentially a mobile learning lesson each week, but with more entertainment.

Hosted by Nurse Mo, this podcast series delves into educational aspects of the nursing field and offers helpful refreshers and much-needed new information about healthcare work.

New episodes of Straight A Nursing air each week, and you can find them on all your favorite podcast services:

• Apple podcasts
• iTunes
• Google Play
• Stitcher

#8. Stories of Self Healing With Nurse Kristin

Nursing podcasts don’t always have to be about succeeding at work. Stories of Self Healing with Nurse Kristin is a podcast for nurses who want to turn their focus inward and work on their own personal triumphs. Kristin’s podcast series focuses on life outside of nursing care and how to balance a career in nursing and your physical and mental health.

Nurse Kristin specializes in nutrition and offers helpful advice on eating right, feeling your best, and switching to healthy and plant-based foods.

This podcast is a perfect balance of remaining in the nursing field while also taking listeners’ minds off work. Stories of Self Healing with Nurse Kristin will help nurses take care of themselves, so they have the energy and focus to bring their all when working as a nurse or travel nurse.

#9. Nurse Talk Media

It’s no secret that healthcare is heavily politicized. Nurse Talk Media is a politically centered nursing podcast that covers news, work, and experiences from real nurses. Some topics discussed on this show include:

• Medical marijuana legality
• The cost of healthcare and insurance in the U.S.
• The pharmaceutical industry
• Nurse and patient relationship building tips
• Workplace safety standards

Nurse Talk Media is a podcast for nurses with strong political beliefs who are looking for engaging discussions and up-to-date stories about the current state of healthcare.

#10. Your Next Shift: A Nursing Career Podcast

Make each workday better than the last with this helpful nursing podcast that’s full of career advice. Host Elizabeth Scala presents new ways to approach problems you face working in the healthcare field and encourages listeners to bring a proper mindset into their work.

A wonderful combination of practical advice and psychological elements, Your Next Shift is the perfect podcast for nurses looking to feel good about their career and continue to make strides toward the life they want.

With new guest speakers each episode, and a ton of thought-provoking topics, you’ll find yourself itching to listen to the next episode.

Fortunately, new episodes of Your Next Shift air each week on iTunes, Apple Podcasts, and Stitcher.

There’s Plenty to Choose From

Travel nursing jobs are continuing to be readily available. Each year, more and more nurses enter the field—ready to do everything they can to help people feel their best. While the work is hard, and you may not always feel your best, you have to remember that there’s always someone out there who will understand.

Listening to nursing podcasts will help you feel more connected, provide advice, and entertain you with relatable stories for hours on end. Some of these podcasts can even help answer typical nursing questions such as what are the top compression socks for nurses or the best scrub brands.

Now that you have this list, you can start listening and find the perfect nurse podcast for you, and make life as a travel nurse all that much more enjoyable.

Check out more of our articles on healthcare topics to help you get all the information you need to tackle your job as a nurse or travel nurse with comfort and confidence!

Something to Listen to While You Travel

Are you a nurse who’s always wanted to travel the country? Does listening to these podcasts on a ten-hour scenic drive to your next 3-month hospital stint sound intriguing?

At Host Healthcare we strive to help professionals in the healthcare industry find their dream jobs and offer support every step of the way. Whether you’re looking for a job during the COVID 19 pandemic, or you want to switch from a perm position to a travel position, we have your back. Find the perfect position for you with Allied Travel careers. Consider becoming a travel physician assistant, critical care nurse, primary care nurse, or other medical professional.

After looking through these nursing podcasts, you might want to check available travel CNA jobs that you might consider in the future.

10 Ways To Increase Your Focus in Nursing School

It’s frustrating sitting there staring at your textbook and losing focus. Every nursing student has been through it and you will feel like you’re wasting time. Here are some ways to help you focus better during your studying time.

1. Get Better Sleep

We have all been there as a college student and even as a working nurse. When we know we should be sleeping, we are not. Instead we are scrolling through our phones or catching up with the latest show.

It takes a lot of discipline for us to close our phone and go to sleep. By creating small habits, we can have better self-control. Put your phone somewhere far away before you go to bed. Only allow yourself to indulge in your shows after you finished studying for the week.

Getting better sleep is all about prioritizing your sleep over everything else. Have a routine that will prepare your body for sleep. Start preparing for bed 1 hour before bedtime. Avoid having caffeine late in the evening where it will affect how well you fall asleep.

This will take self-discipline at an ultimate level but it will pay off when you pass all your nursing exams. Give yourself small rewards along the way will make it easier. Rewards are something you enjoy such as hanging out with friends or treating yourself to a nice meal.

Maybe you just need a little to rejuvenate yourself. A nap will do you wonders if that’s what your body needs. Sometimes we feel guilty for wasting time napping when we know we should be studying. The lack of focus could be that we are pushing ourselves too hard and not giving your brain a break. Schedule in a power nap to rejuvenate your brain before studying. You will retain information better with a mind at 100% capacity then a brain performing sluggishly.

2. Have An Exercise Routine

Going from classes to clinical and studying gives us little to no time to exercise. You might find that you focus better at the beginning of the semester then you do towards the end.

The time you spend sitting for class and for studying is not making enough blood flow to your brain. You will learn in nursing school that blood is the delivery system for oxygen and nutrient. This means circulation is important to the organs in your body especially to your brain. Your brain needs proper fuel and oxygen to function and learn new information.

Make it a habit to include exercise in your weekly routine. If you don’t have much time, try to fit an intensive training (HIIT) exercise in 15-30 minutes once or twice a week. A low intensity workout like Yoga or Pilates everyday for 15-20 minutes is also an option. You will feel the difference in your mind once you have a good exercise routine.

You don’t need to exert too much effort to make exercising possible. Try using YouTube videos for a quick and easy workout that you prefer. Make the process easier being in comfortable workout clothes if it is appropriate. This way you will find sticking to the routine a lot easier.

If you need to be a better environment to work out, you can check out your school gym. There are inexpensive gym membership you can try to join. Plan your studying time strategically around your workout location for better productivity. You may find that you study better before or after a workout.

3. Eat Nutrient Dense Whole Foods

You will learn that fast food has a price when it comes to how well your body performs. We have all eaten food that makes us sleepy or hungry after an hour. These type of food are convenient but will get in the way of your studying.

It takes effort to be consciously aware of what we eat and how it benefits our ability to study and perform on our test. One way is to avoid food with empty calories such as carb based snacks. Start to identify what you eat everyday and replace it with whole unprocessed foods.

You may need to set aside time to prepare food to bring with you. We all know time is limited as a nursing student. Go for pre-portioned packaged food that you can take with you. Carry packaged nuts and/or healthy energy bars to help hold you over until you get home.

Eating nutrient dense food will offer plenty of fuel for your body to function optimally. It may be a hassle to bring food with you to the library or classroom but it will pay off in the end.

4. Have An Effective Study Schedule 

To be productive, you need to learn how to manage your time. Having a strategic study schedule will give you the edge you need to pass your nursing exams. You could be running around and wasting precious time if you don’t strategize your day. Put the initial effort required to create a study schedule and you will reap the benefits it has to offer.

5. Have Nursing Study Buddies

Being in a nursing program, you will find there are many challenges to overcome. Having a group of people who are going through the same thing you are will make things easier. The amount of information that you will learn in nursing school is a lot to handle by yourself.

Finding friends in the nursing program will help you get through nursing. You may need to be selective of who your study group will be. Not everybody who get accepted into the nursing program will graduate as a nurse. It helps to know that your nursing buddies are serious about studying. You will need the mental support from each other to make it through every semester and pass the NCLEX.

Offering support to each other will also include sharing ways to study. With so many mind working towards the same goal. You will learn better ways to motivate yourself and reach your goals.

You can easily drive yourself crazy by creating the fear of failing every exam. Having a group of nursing buddies will give you back some sanity when you find you are not the only one with doubts.

6. Find Your Secret Study Place

You need to know where you study best in order to have the focus you need to process those chapters in the textbook. It will be productive to hunt down your own little study area. This could be your little secret. The right area will offer everything you need to make you feel comfortable. You will realize how zoned in you will be once you are studying in your secret place.

Having a designated place to hide away from others will come in handy. Sometimes you will find that studying in a group could come with a lot of distraction. This will result in a less productive way of using your precious study time. You may find yourself thinking of a way to sneak off into your comfort zone for an hour or two to actually study.

This secret study space of yours will take some time for you to find. You will be happy knowing there is a place just for you that will increase your chance of passing your exams.

7. Study Smarter

A popular saying is work smarter and not harder. You are not guaranteed to pass your exams just because you studied long hours. It may be counterproductive by studying until you burnout. By implementing ways to study smarter, you will find studying more enjoyable.

Understand How You Learn

One way of studying smarter is to understand what type of leaner you are. There are visual, auditory, linguistic, physical, logical, interpersonal and intrapersonal types of learners. Knowing how you learn best will make things easier for you. Once you’ve understand what type of learner you are, you can explore ways to help you study better.

This article Different Learning Style will help you identify your learning type. This link will take you to Time4Learning.com.

Take Good Notes in Class

Taking perfect notes in class is another way to give your studying a boost. Most information discussed in class will be on the exam. A useful hack is to learn short hand writing such as abbreviation to help you take faster notes in class. You can also try using a voice recorder in class to avoid missing anything important. Getting permission from your professor may be necessary before recording the lesson.

Use Technology To Give You An Edge

Using smart devices will make it easier to study. Having a laptop can speed up the process of creating study notes by typing them up. A laptop will also give you accessibility to the web to look up information quickly. Utilizing a smartphone with a camera built-in for a quick snap shot of notes on the board to review later. The are many apps you can use to give you the edge you need to have the information you need at your disposal. You only need to be creative with what you already have.

8. Teach Others What You’ve Learned

Grab anybody around you and try teaching them what you’ve just learned. This is a way that you can help your brain process and understand information. If you understand something thoroughly, you will be able to explain it very well.

You may find through your explanation that you don’t quite understand it yourself. That is how you can pinpoint the information you need to review. You will find your mind focus better when trying to find the answer. Your ability to recall this information is better because of the energy you put into it.

Just try it and see how well it works for you.

9. Test Yourself

Testing yourself is another way of identifying what you don’t know. Questions from nursing study guides may cover information you are suppose to know. There are options that you can use to quiz yourself.

Nursing Questionnaire Apps

Free nursing apps are easily accessible if you have a smartphones. There are different apps created for specific nursing classes. Find a good app with further breakdown that follows the chapters in your textbook. This way you can avoid confusion of getting questions of topics that aren’t discuss yet. Start testing yourself a week before the exam to help you gauge how prepare you are.

Nursing Study Guides

Nursing apps might have a limit on how well you will understand the reasoning for the correct answer. You will find a good study guide will offer the complete package to help you understand better. It will highlight information you need to know and have questionnaire with rationales. Critical thinking questions are challenging because you need to find the best answer out of the option of good answers. You will want to understand why that is the best answer to help you learn how to process questions for future (the NCLEX).

The smart way to approach this is to not over test yourself and loose confidence in what you know. Instead use it to help you gauge what you don’t know or understand. The tip is to understand why you got that question wrong and use your textbook to clear up the information.

10. Ask Others What You Should Focus On

When you look at the mountain of information in your textbook, you could get lost on what to focus on. Sometimes even with good study notes, you are still not sure if you’ve covered everything. There is just too much information in the textbook for you to memorize it all. You need to find a way to narrow your focus to what is important.

A proactive measure is to actually ask what you should be focusing on. You can ask your professor, your study buddies and even nursing students who are more senior than you. By find out what you should look for will give you the hyper focus you need to retain the information. This will also save you a lot of time and energy.

Content shared from Nurses Fix website

How to Study in Nursing School: 8 Tips from an Expert Nurse Educator

Blog shared from Nurse Jannah’s Osmosis webinar on successful study habits every nursing student should adopt. 

As you’re about to enter into an awesome and powerful field, you’re probably wondering about how to study in nursing school so you won’t get overwhelmed. Adopting smart study habits early on in your education will set you up to be a successful learner, test-taker, and practicing RN. Why not get them right from an expert nurse educator?

Why getting into nursing is a big deal

Did you know that, according to AACN Fact Sheets, nursing is the largest healthcare profession in the United States, with 3x as many RNs as physicians? This really speaks volumes about the big role nurses play in healthcare, but also about the challenging road to becoming one.

Nurses work in so many different settings and are in charge of a lot of things. They collaborate as a team, but they operate independently of medicine or other fields.

No wonder there’s tons of information to master in nursing school!

All of this can be overwhelming and confusing to any student: maybe it’s too much to learn in a short time, or maybe you’re not sure where to start. Maybe you feel like things aren’t sticking to your memory, or you don’t know what to use to learn, with so many resources available.

As our expert nurse educator shares in our Osmosis webinar: “This happens to a lot of us”. Here are 8 key tips that Nurse Jannah recommends on how to best study for nursing school.  

→ Watch the full webinar.

1. Get a head start on your course material

Try to stay ahead of the game before you even have a lecture. Read the chapters or watch videos and get familiar with the content—whatever the preparation looks like, it’s important to do it ahead of time.

The reason is that it’s really hard to catch up with the study in nursing school, as there’s a lot of ground to cover, and it goes by fast.

Some of the material you’ll learn is easier to understand than others, and that’s OK. Putting in the work ahead of a lecture is the most important part, as you teach your brain to set the right foundation for gaining knowledge. And even if you don’t understand everything, you build on that and let the lecture or next piece of learning help fill in the gaps.

2. Try making concept maps

Instead of going with the classic way of taking notes—highlighting text and rewriting pages of notes—concept maps are one fun and easy way to study for nursing school.

A concept map is a visual representation of knowledge on a subject that helps you to organize your thoughts on it. Besides being much easier, it’s also an efficient way to understand the information (rather than memorizing it).

Start with the topic you want to learn about and, first, build on it with what you learned. After that, use your notes, videos or other resources to fill in the map and get the whole picture of that topic.

3. Meet your learning objectives

This is something that probably many often ignored as students, which you definitely shouldn’t. When you stumble upon your learning objectives (LOs), paying attention to them is one smart way to study in nursing school.

Although it seems just like a list, LOs act much like your guide to studying, because they outline exactly what you should be able to do or competently discuss after successfully learning about them. This is a really good guide to follow especially when you have a lot of content and don’t know what you’re supposed to focus on.

You can find more practical and visual examples of these tips in our webinar.

4. Make a schedule (and stick to it)

Another tip Nurse Jannah has for you is making a schedule that really sets you up for success. This means one that is realistic and adjusted to your life, your time, your responsibilities.

There’s no standard timeframe for the best learning, so the key here is to focus on quality rather than quantity. If your daily schedule allows you to study for nursing school two hours in the morning or three hours in the evening, both are fine as long as it’s according to your real attention span.

Another important thing here is to make sure you can stay committed to your schedule for studying just as you commit to other obligations in life, in a practical way. This will keep you accountable as well.

5. Teamwork makes the dream work

Speaking of accountability, another tip on how to study for nursing school the better way is finding a study partner: a friend, a tutor, or joining a study group to keep you connected.

The best thing about study groups is that you can listen to different perspectives while discussing a topic. Actively listening to how other people think and apply knowledge helps you hone your critical thinking skills. This is one important skill to have in nursing school, as you’re taking different tests and answering different types of questions.

6. Find your learning style

Everybody learns differently: some students are visual learners—and Osmosis makes that easy with 1800+ animated videos for you!—while others learn better by listening to lectures or doing activities.

Try to practice a bit of self-reflection to discover your learning style and find resources that represent it, as primary learning tools. The earlier you discover how you learn best, the easier it becomes to study and not waste your time the wrong way.

7 Practice, practice, practice

Of course, it is also about practicing NCLEX®-style questions during nursing school. Not only it challenges you to apply all the knowledge you gain, but also your ability to think at a high level and analyze data in different ways.

NCLEX®-style questions are unlike any other type of questions you’re used to seeing, which is why practicing them helps to reinforce your understanding of a concept and prepares you for the final exam: the licensure examination.

8. Don’t forget the basics

Understanding the basics is the biggest starting point in your studying. You need to have a solid understanding of foundational sciences first, such as anatomy and physiology, because all the knowledge you learn in nursing school is based on these and it’s also what makes learning more complex concepts along the way much easier.

And finally… you got this!

And don’t forget to watch the full webinar here: Study for Success: Habits Every Nursing Student Should Adopt.

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Content shared from Osmosis

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