If you have been a nurse for a number of years, you might have started to wonder about specializing and how it could help you and your career. Learning a new nursing specialty may at first seem like a daunting prospect that is not worth the extra time and energy investment.
However, there are a number of reasons why learning a new nursing specialty is worth it. Below are some of the many ways that learning a new nursing specialty can open doors for you in your career.
Increased job opportunities
Perhaps the most obvious reason why a specialist nursing degree is worth the investment is that it gives nurses increased job opportunities. Depending on where you work and the specialization you are interested in, a specialization may give you the opportunity to have better hours with more certainty and structure – or the specialization could give you the opportunity to make a higher salary or transfer to work in a different hospital thatyou prefer.
A specialized nursing degree could even allow you to take up an exciting nursing roleor travel around the world. The possibilities are nearly limitless. A nursing specialization can also open up nurses to completely new career paths, which will be explored in more detail below.
Following your passion
Many nurses find that they are particularly interested in one area of the profession and want to develop their skills and pursue their interests. Although a new degree or diploma may seem like a significant move to take in order to follow your passion, the truth is that a degree such asthose offered through Wilkes online can be completed while you are still working. This means that the course is more flexible, and you will still be able to work or pursue other interests during the course, thus making the entire process seem less daunting.
Moreover, even if following your interests seems like an inefficient or excessive pursuit to take up, it will likely increase your job satisfaction. We all spend so much of our lives working, and if you are able to find an area that you are particularly interested in, you might as well pursue it and then enjoy your work that much more for the rest of your working life.
New career paths
Along with providing nurses with better job opportunities and allowing nurses to follow their interests, specialized nursing degrees also open up a number of different career paths to nurses. A specialized nursing degree could help a nurse to become a nurse manager, nurse advocate, informatics nurse, oncology nurse, perioperative nurse, and much more.
Postgraduate nursing degrees such as master’s degrees and PhDs also give nurses the opportunity to venture into fields such as research and academia. Now more than ever, the healthcare sector is in need of qualified, trained and experienced nurses. As the demand for nurses grows around the world, the opportunities available for nurses will also grow, especially if they have a specialized nursing degree.
