Something Positive: Your 5-Year Plan

Nurses General Nursing

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Hi all,

I was hanging laundry at 4 am last night (can't get off that night shift schedule) and thinking about the future.

next year or two: get my PCCN certification and precept. I'd like to have the solid knowledge base before I get a really sharp new grad who drops a ton of 'what if...' questions on my head.

3-5 years: go get my MSN and start teaching ADN or BSN students. We have several awesome ADN programs around here that I'd be willing to work for in the clinical setting.

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maybe take a detour and go work in the ED or CTICU for a few years, and see if I'm really cut out for this trauma/flight nurse business.

What is your 5-year (nursing) plan?

In 5 years I hope to be finished with my BSN and working in the hospital. My 10 year plan involves my MSN at some point. I wanna say it will involve me becoming an FNP, but I will most likely end up in the most unlikely of places. I always tend to do that.

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Specializes in ICU.

In five years I will hopefully be working PRN somewhere while I'm in med school, in 7 years I should be about to graduate med school, in 10 years I should be almost done with residency, and in 13 years I should be done with fellowship and looking for a permanent job. 13 years is a long way off. :dead:

Alternatively, I hope to win the lottery within the next five years and just travel around and run a food blog.

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Specializes in family practice and school nursing.

Retire (maybe a 10 yr plan). Move south where the sun actually shines and there is no snow!

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Specializes in Psychiatry, Oncology.
Retire (maybe a 10 yr plan). Move south where the sun actually shines and there is no snow!

Oh yes, yes, yes. Forgot to mention this important detail in my plan.

Certainly a dream of mine:)

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Specializes in Pediatrics, Emergency, Trauma.

My future goals are:

Take TNCC within the next year;

Gain adult ED/Trauma experience within 1-2 years in a PRN position;

Take the CPEN exam and take the ECMO course within 2 years;

Return to school and get a post baccalaureate certificate in teaching

Become a charge nurse within 5 years; after that take steps towards my semi-retirement plan of being an NP and a clinical instructor.

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Let's see.

30 days: pass the semester with my brain intact.

6 months adjust to the fact that I will have a child in kindergarten

1 year: pass the NCLEX and secure a job in L&D. get in shape/lose baby weight from #2 before I get pregnant. Working on that now.

2 years: complete my RN to BSN online and possibly baby #3.

3 to 6 years: get accepted to and attend Frontier University to be a CNM. Maybe be a surrogate. If we get #4 we both think we'd want to adopt.

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Specializes in Pediatrics.

I'm hoping to switch to days in the next 6 months. Nights makes it so hard for me to regulate my emotions. Next year I'd like to sit for my CPN (certified pediatric nurse). My husband and I are hoping to move in the next year and a half - we're currently looking at Seattle or South Carolina. I'm not sure where I want to work - I'd love clinic hours, but the PICU and pediatric ER both call to me. I crave fast paced thinking and quick decisions, so we'll see where I end up. I think I'll stay in peds though. We'd also like to start a family in the next two years. :)

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Specializes in geriatrics.

1) Finish graduate studies (MPH) within 5 years.

2) Pay off my mortgage (10 years).

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Specializes in Renal, Diabetic.

1) Graduate and pass boards in 1.5 years

2)Secure a job in a residency, hopefully in an ICU somewhere on the East Coast or back home.

3)Take my husband to Tahiti like I promised him I would once I finished nursing school

4)Pop out at least one munchkin

5)At the end of 5 years of being in an ICU setting, apply for CRNA schools.

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1) Currently: just finished my first year of nursing in the ICU. I moved to take this job, to skip some of the steps that others listed as 2-3 years out, and it's going even more wonderfully than I could have anticipated.

2) Within the next 3 months: I'm doing something right, I think, because I'll be training as a preceptor in a few weeks. Not a preceptor for new grads, initially, but for practicum students. I just completed training to take patients on balloon pump, and soon I'll be taking CRRT training. May will include my level 2 clinician training.

3) By the end of this year: I'll have had the opportunity to train as a team leader (charge nurse). This is the one that I'm anticipating and looking most forward to, but it's also the training that makes me the most nervous. Also, TNCC training is obligatory by the end of this year.

When I realized that I wanted to work intensive care, and before that, really, I thought CRNA was the next step. I have a CCRN book in my locker, and I know that this summer I'll have time to crack it's spine. CRNA possibilities are still in my mind but no longer at the forefront.

Anesthesia still holds its obvious appeal, but recently I've been looking into business schools and MBA/MSN programs.

4) 3 years: this is the amount of time I feel will minimally prepare me for graduate school. By this time, I don't feel like I'll be applying to programs for school, but the fantasy will only be a year or two until realization.

5) Between my third and fifth year of nursing: what I'd really like to do is challenge myself in a new ICU. Maybe a higher level of care, a destination hospital, a research hospital, or a hospital with specialty ICUs. Who knows?

6) 5 years: Grad school. Maybe that MBA with a healthcare focus. I want/crave leadership training. My goal is to work in a large urban area again, but this time to work for a non-profit that benefits the underserved.

Personally, I want to travel more. Nursing in just a year has already allowed me to do that, but I'm realizing more and more about myself through this wonderful vocation that I'm less interested in material and more interested in experience.

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I realize this thread is a few months old, but it was so fun to read I had to comment! Here are my ever-changing 5 year plans:

Year 1-2: * Work in cardiac progressive care for 2 years, graduate with BSN next spring. Get PCCN certified after I have enough hours. Help mentor and precept new nurses/students, cross train to ICU. At the end of two years, transfer to ICU.

Year 3-4: * Start teaching clinical for nursing students in the ICU after 2.5 years, become a rapid response nurse (specific role at my hospital), get CCRN certified, cross train to cath lab and PACU. Transition to PRN in ICU, PRN in PACU, and part-time in cath lab around the 4 year mark. Continue working as a rapid response nurse and ICU clinical instructor.

Year 5: * Apply for a combined adult-gerontology acute care NP/CNS program (DNP - 3 years). Continue working PRN at my hospital (PACU, cath lab) while in school. After graduation, work as a CNS in the ICU, and ACNP in a cardiology practice or possibly the cath lab. I would like to come back to my current hospital as an advanced practice nurse, maybe teach at my community college as well.

So many options! I was thinking about CRNA for awhile (and I still am), but I think CNS/NP would be better for my current area, and I love where I live (for now, I might change my mind during the winter lol).

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