When you go into nursing, there’s no one singular path you can take, nor do you need to remain in your current job role if it’s not fulfilling or what you want. Once you have the relevant experience and qualifications behind you, there are numerous opportunities for you to move and mold your career exactly how you want it, so you can apply your skills and expertise in different ways, work in different sectors, and build the life you want.
If you’re looking for a new challenge, let’s take a look at some nursing roles that could be exactly what you need.
Flight Nurse
A flight nurse is a physically and mentally demanding job and is ideal for people who thrive in high-pressure environments.
Flight nurses can work in both routine and emergency scenarios, from emergency care in helicopters to providing nursing care to people being flown out of or into the country for treatment. Both require a steady head, the ability to think on your feet, and the aptitude to deliver care in a unique setting while dealing with trauma, a critical illness, and high-risk transfers as they come up.
The thing here is you don’t have the same level of support you would in a hospital, so you need to be able to make quick decisions, use the limited equipment to the best of your ability, and assist doctors and other care providers to treat the patient both in the air and on the ground prior to and after takeoff and landing. This role is ideal for those coming from an ER or ICU background.
Emergency and Trauma Nurse
Similar to a fight nurse, but you’re not working in the sky, and you’re in trauma-facing roles and environments to deliver care when time is critical. You might find yourself working in the ER in a hospital, or you could be out in the community working with communities to assist those who need help on the ground, or providing care to critical patients who need to be moved across cities or the country with specialist teams.
For nurses who need a fast-paced environment and work well in different situations, want to keep their clinical skills in shape, and keep learning, then EMS nurse job opportunities could be the perfect next move for you and your career.
Clinical Nurse Educator
This is the next step for nurses who have built up experience and want to pass it on. Clinical nurse educators train the next generation of staff, support ongoing development, and help maintain standards across teams.
It’s not so much stepping away from healthcare but being involved in a different capacity. You still get to use your skills, knowledge, and expertise, but instead of being patient-focused, you’re training others by teaching practical skills, running training sessions, or helping new nurses adjust, for example.
Being an educator means you need excellent communication skills, and you enjoy teaching others and can be objective to offer support where and when it’s needed at any stage of a nurse’s career, whether they’re just starting out or looking to move into a different type of nursing. And the more specialist your skills are, the better, as you can help train others moving into the same area of expertise.
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