In a 2011 survey by the American Nurses Association, three out of four nurses cited stress and overwork as a top health concern.

Any nurse knows there is risk of burning out, but how do you know when you’re ready to try something besides direct patient care?

Whenever you reach the point of exhaustion, you remember that you became a nurse because you wanted to help people. You don’t see yourself doing anything else. So if you’re still passionate about nursing, what can you do? Is it possible to remain in the nursing field but still get some sort of reprieve from the fatigue and stress?

If you could pick a short phrase that describes the field of nursing, what would it be?

A true calling? Lifelong learning? Or, what did you get yourself into?

Whatever phrase you thought of, chances are ‘guessing game’ is definitely not one of them.

As a professional nurse, you read, interpret and evaluate information every day before you make a single decision or take any step. Whether you do that in a split second or spend hours in collaboration with other health team members, you know it’s because quality patient care is only as good as the existing evidence it comes from. Your role, then, is to identify the best evidence available and use your critical-thinking skills and clinical judgment to direct your practice. Simply put, the more reliable the information you get, the better the patient’s outcome.

For decades, the most common path to become a registered nurse was to earn an associate degree. In fact, up until 2010-2011, the latest data provided by the National Center for Education Statistics, shows that almost half of new nurses still graduated with less than a Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BSN) degree.

However, trends in nurse employment and education have shifted since 2011, and the bachelor’s degree has emerged as the most accepted academic credential for registered nurses. Take the Bureau of Labor Statistics for instance: they now list a bachelor’s degree as the entry for qualification for professional nurses, replacing the two-year diploma and associate degree.

Two roads diverge in a forest. Many people are encouraged to take the one less traveled. Doctoral applicants, not so much.

For those interested in a nursing doctorate, the answer depends on what nursing path you want to take. Are you more interested in advanced practice or scientific investigation?

Doctoral programs in nursing fall into two categories: practice- and research-based. The practice-focused track grants the Doctor of Nursing Practice, while the research-focused program offers the Doctor of Philosophy Degree (PhD) or the Doctor of Nursing Science degree (DNS, DSN or DNSc).

One is not better than the other. Both are terminal degrees that assume complementary approaches to the highest level of nursing education. Both are demanding and rigorous. However, understanding key differences between the goals and competencies of each program will guide you along the nursing career path meant for you.

Nursing is changing. 

Today’s nurse leaders are needed to make decisions and identify problems yet to emerge. They are called upon to lead healthcare organizations. And they must demonstrate enhanced knowledge in advanced nursing practice, organizational leadership, economics and finance, healthcare policy and technology. 

The Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) was specifically designed to prepare nurses to meet these changing demands and improve patient outcomes. But the degree can also offer higher earning potential, career security and more advancement opportunities within nursing. In fact, employers have quickly recognized the unique contributions these expert nurses are making in the clinical and organizational level, and the demand for DNP-prepared nurses continues to grow.

Healthcare is changing. Systems are moving. And the need for doctoral-prepared nurses has taken on a life of its own.

Since 2004, when the American Association of Colleges of Nursing (AACN) identified a need for clinical nurses to have a higher degree in education, professional nursing organizations and institutes of medicine across the nation have bolstered their efforts to increase the number of doctoral-prepared nurses. But a fragmented U.S. healthcare and public health system has not made this an easy task. Nevertheless, by 2020, the Institute of Medicine recommends that a critical solution to meeting these future health needs is to double the number of nurses with doctoral degrees by 2020.

But will you be ready to meet the demands of this new and complex healthcare environment? Or will you take on a leadership role?

Do you know what it takes to land your first entry-level nursing job?

There are, of course, the obvious qualities you need to possess to get a job as a nurse: excellent patient care skills, ability to work as part of a team, and being ready and eager to learn new things. 

But do you know the “most correct answer?”

Eileen M. Horton, MSN, MSM ‘00, RN, vice president of patient services and chief nursing officer for Capital Health in Hopewell, N.J., began her career as a maternity nurse and knows what nursing students need to do to launch a career in healthcare post-graduation.

A good book grabs your attention in the first page and leaves you wanting more. But if you were presented with hundreds of books, and could only choose one, you would pick the one that grabbed you immediately, right?

This is the same dilemma many scholarship judges face when making their way through piles of nursing scholarship applications.

Nursing is a profession of lifelong learning and dynamic practice. Rooted at its core is the clinical rotation, where skills and knowledge gained in the classroom is applied to hands-on clinical practice.

Nursing students begin an immersive clinical experience in the simulation lab and classroom. After demonstrating proficiency in the fundamentals of nursing, students move into the clinical practice setting and continue to take courses that build upon previously learned concepts and skills. In Thomas Edison State University's Accelerated 2nd Degree BSN program, every clinical experience is based upon an in-class curriculum, so a lesson in maternity nursing or mental health is mapped to a clinical experience scheduled in that area. Eventually, nursing students are exposed to a variety of experiences and can then decide to which specialty area they are best suited. Through this involvement, many find a specific nursing path is enjoyable and intend to explore it further.

Kristin Tilbury, Accelerated 2nd Degree BSN Student

Nothing about an accelerated nursing program is easy. In fact, many students with non-nursing bachelor’s degrees who want to transition into nursing are surprised at how intensive it can be.

Chances are, your experiences as an undergraduate are vastly different from an accelerated Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BSN) program. On top of attending class, there are critical-thinking and leadership skills to master. In addition to classroom discussions, you must learn how to make quick, sometimes life-and-death decisions, all while understanding a patient’s symptoms and treatment options.  After a long day of clinical work, there will most likely be an assignment or deadline looming.