Professional Development
Whether you are in nursing school, job hunting, or out in the work force, professional development is a great way to stand out. It’s also especially great to include as part of a NCLEX ® study plan! There are many ways you can use professional development to network. Here are some reasons why and how to go about it.
Continuing Education
Even after you have created, executed, and completed a boss NCLEX ® study plan, some states require nurses continuing education (CE) credits comes time to renew your nursing license. Whether your state does or does not require continuing education, obtaining CEs will help you continue learning and meet some really cool people. Als0, some employers even allot yearly money for nurses to fulfill their CE requirement how and where they want. Did someone say VACATION?? I mean…conference in another state!
Medical Conferences
As mentioned above, conferences are a way for nurses to obtain CE credits. More importantly, they are an opportunity to continue learning. Medicine is always evolving and as licensed professionals we should keep up too. Also, conferences are also an opportunity for to learn about topics that are of interest to you!
Join a Professional Association
Joining state or local associations or professional organizations looks great on resumes. It also gives you a voice on matters that are important to or directly affect you. This is an easy step to include on your NCLEX® study plan. There are associations on a variety of special interest and they can be nursing related or not. Often you are able to set the tone of involvement of the organizations and can vary from attending monthly meetings and casting votes to receiving newsletters. There may or may not be a yearly fee associated with the association and ones with fees often come with perks like discounted conferences and organization swag- all the pens and totes!
Volunteer
The three day on four day off schedule of a hospital job is one of the perks of being a nurse! Volunteering is a great way to explore other areas of medicine you might want to practice and even travel. Medical missions allow you to get to know other health care systems and directly help people in need while traveling locally or globally.
Get Involved at Work
Does your floor/ unit or hospital have ways for you to get involved? Some places have committees nurses can help serve on, voluntary based classes available, or even volunteer opportunities. Volunteering to take nursing students or help training new graduates is fulfilling and gets you extra help with patient care. When review time comes around your employer will notice and getting involved can pay off- literally!!
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Marlee Liberman, RN, Master Nursing Scholar
As a registered nurse, Marlee understands the struggles that nursing school throws at you – not to mention the overwhelming pressure preparing for the NCLEX®! Marlee brings a unique skill set and perspective to Picmonic with her previous degree in broadcast journalism, her creativity in video production, and her wandering nomad lifestyle. Her blend of talents provides her with the knack for simplifying complicated concepts and demystifying the world of nursing.
