Advice for Career Advancement

[ArtisticNurse]

Hi! I'm an RN-BSN currently deciding on how I'd go about advancing my career. I have 6 months of experience in the Emergency Room. A lot of years experience with a managerial position in retail pharmacy. I've also been a creative designer and marketing director.

I would like to know an inside perspective from someone who has already been and dealt with specialization.

Major factors that I'm trying to consider in deciding is return of investment through job satisfaction, job demand, salary, time and costs.

I am very interested with pediatric development, the structure of executive administration and the pace and skills of the emergency room. I also have an above basic knowledge of computers. I design websites and interested with software programming.

What field do you think I fit in--where I could utilize my skills and interest the most? Thank you very much.

[llg, PhD, RN]

Your interests are so varied that you will probably need to decide which arena appeals to you more than the others. And only you can answer that.

The only field that combines all of those things that I can think of is pediatric ED managment. For that, you would need to get more ED experience -- preferably in a children's hospital or in a large ED that had enough pediatric patients to have a pediatric section where you could concentrate your experience. Then you would need to start being a preceptor, charge nurse, shift coordinator, etc. to start moving up the career ladder in that field. At some point, you would need a Master's Degree (either in nursing administration, health care administration, or MBA -- or a combination of those).

You might also want to consider nursing informatics, ED Clinical Nurse Specialist, or Staff Development Roles. They would give you opportunities to further some of your interests, but not others.