Career progress opportunities for nurses

After training and practicing for a particular moment, it is essential to make an effort of moving your career to a new level. It is something that professionals anticipate including people in the nursing profession. After you study to be a nurse, you should commit yourself to learning to keep your knowledge and skills current.

It is also necessary for maintaining your registration with Nursing & Midwifery Council (NMC) as you have to revalidate it every three years. Revalidation is a straightforward process that helps nurses and midwives to demonstrate that they practice efficiently and safely.

Further training is one of the good ways to advance your career. When you work for National Health Service (NHS) and wish to enroll for further training, it is essential for you to talk to your line manager. A discussion around education and career development opportunities should be part of a personal development plan.

Career Development Opportunities

After you qualify and gain clinical experience, there are various routes that you can take to your next position in the nursing career. Advanced training also allows you to specialize in certain fields such as intensive care, operating theatre or care for the elderly. The following are some of the areas to aim for when developing your career.

Clinical Manager

Some nurses also get a chance of moving into clinical management. As a clinical manager, you are likely to be the head of a department leading your professional team. You can also be in charge of a multi-disciplinary team where nurses, doctors, and therapists work as a team in certain areas such as maternity service.

NHS Leadership Academy runs various programs supporting adult nurses to leadership to leadership roles. They include the Mary Seacole program. The program is purely for the frontline nurses and midwives so as to help them to develop skills and build confidence.

Nurse consultants

Consultant nurse role is one of the highest paying jobs in NHS. The work of a nurse consultant is to identify problems and developing solutions. A nurse consultant role is specialized because it depends on the local communities' health needs. You can operate the consultancy as a business operating from a different location then create reports and send them to customers. You also do some work at the health facility of your customer.

When you visit the facility, a nurse will direct you to your work. Some of the tasks require you to spend a minimum time 50 percent working directly with the patients. The nursing consultant comes with other responsibilities and roles including:

Educating, training and developing of next generation nurses are essential for patient care delivery. A nurse, a midwife and a specialist community public health nurse might involve themselves in these roles.

Mentors: A mentor or an assessor is responsible for learning and various activities for nursing students such as quality of learning in practice setting. It is a mentor who assesses the competence of a student.

Preceptors: A preceptor offers support and guidance to recently qualified nurses. It requires you to be a qualified practitioner and experience in an area of practice in which the practitioner requires support.

Practice Educator: Practice educators are in-charge of teaching and development in a practical setting, unlike a lecturer who teaches the theory part in a classroom. They guide and support mentors working with students and provide a connection between practice setting and universities.

Lecturers: Lecturers are responsible for teaching students in higher education institution. Lecturing is similar to the role of a practice educator as both roles have an equal standing.

Nursing is a profession that develops continuously. It is essential to take advantage of this factor to improve your skills and start making progress in your career.