career advancement

[mjbsn2006]

I have seen people graduate, and within a year or two become charge nurses, head nurses, etc. One of my instructors was certified CC, got her MSN, the director over an entire CC department, and an instructor in only 2.5 yrs. Is it that easy to adjust after graduating? Most people tell me to wait 5 + yrs before trying to advance beyond the floor. What's your advice? THanks

[eak16]

depends on who you talk to. My school strongly encouraged us to go straight for our masters and even doctorates (large, very highly ranked state school) The floor nurses I worked with all told me to get at least a year experience on the floor first. Still, about a fourth of my classmates went straight to grad school, several sent into ICU settings, and even lowly me :chuckle on the floor will have the opportunity to train for charge within six months.

From what I have heard it is easy to advance.

[llg, PhD, RN]

There are plenty of opportunities to advance -- but not necessarily in every unit in every hospital, etc. A lot depends on the particular setting.

In some units (some of the best), there is not a lot of turnover, which means that there are a lot of experienced nurses around to fulfill the leadership roles. However, within the same hospital, there may be units with lots of turnover -- which means that there are fewer experienced nurses around to fulfill those leadership roles and therefore lots of opportunities for younger nurses to move up the ladder quickly.

Personally, I recommend beginning graduate school soon, but not immediately after, graduating with your BSN. If you wait too long, you may get distracted by other aspects of life (marriage, kids, etc.) and never get around to it. However, I do recommend completing your transition from student to staff nurse before you start -- and that takes most people about a year. As a student, there is so much about nursing that you don't see that it is difficult to make a good decision about what you really want and what graduate program you should be doing. After you get a little experience, you'll be able to make a better-informed decision about your long term career.

Also, as someone who has coordinated a lot of orientations in my lifetime, I have seen that people who try to divide their attention between getting oriented and starting school often end up doing a bad job of both. A new grad orientation is the equivalent of a semester (or year) of school. To do a good job of it requires your full attention. When your attention is divided, you are not giving it 100% and that usually shows up in the quality of your performance at your job.

You are better off focusing on your orientation and role transition ... then start your MSN classes when you are comfortable with your staff nurse job and you can focus on your grad school. I don't think it is necessary to wait 5 years, but I think it IS a good idea to wait a year or two.

Good luck,

llg