Being a nurse is in demand now more than ever. There are nursing jobs available no matter where you look because nurses will always be in demand. In the middle of a pandemic where hospitals are full, nurses are more important than ever.
If you have recently graduated or are planning to graduate soon, you may be wondering where your career path will take you. There are five nursing jobs in particular that are in high demand and could result in a great salary and offers right out of the gate.
1. Registered Nurse
If you want to talk about the most widely recognized nurses out there, you start with the registered nurses (RN). There are more than a few paths that can lead to becoming an RN, and they remain in high demand no matter where you look.
That said, they do require passing of the boards to become fully registered. Still, it is an in-demand job with competitive pay right from the start. If you want to become a nurse, you could do a lot worse than pursuing a registered nurse position.
2. Cardiac Nurse
When you get away from the RN, which is kind of a jack-of-all-trades style of nurse, we start getting into the more niche areas of nursing. With a cardiac nurse, they work specifically in the areas of cardiac medicine and care.
Of course, the more specified the role, the more advanced the requirements and education to get into the role. This position typically requires an advanced degree to help treat and care for patients that have heart disease and other heart conditions. They also tend to have the largest top-of-the-range salaries, leaving the biggest room for growth of earnings as well.
3. Critical Care Nurse
For those who aren’t aware or aren’t familiar with hospital settings, there are different areas of the hospital depending on need or condition. The intensive care unit (ICU) involves patients who are either very unstable or sick.
A critical care nurse works with these patients in particular. This position requires having RN certification as well as a degree in nursing. That said, most candidates typically require some kind of life support certification. Not only that but it generally requires at least a couple of years’ experience in nursing before advancing into the critical care areas of nursing.
4. Clinical Nurse Specialist (CNS)
This is one of the most advanced nursing jobs out there and with good reason. Wherever you find this role, it will come with leadership responsibilities and a more advanced role than most other nursing positions out there.
This type of nurse is considered an Advanced Practice Registered Nurse (APRN) because they have graduate-level education credentials. They also have specific areas of focus such as medical setting, patient population, type of patient care or type of patient problem. The role could include overseeing specific care needs systems and providing expert-level knowledge on certain medical issues.
5. Family Nurse Practitioner (FNP)
This is another of the more specialized roles that require an advanced degree and a certain type of specialized training. This is to be able to serve patients not in a hospital setting but in a family practice situation instead.
It is a great way to continue to work with adults and children without some of the chaos that can come in a hospital setting. Not only that, it comes with a lot more flexibility than some traditional nursing roles while providing a more diverse range of patients as well as medical issues that can be treated. It is a perfect mix between a specialist role and an RN.