College Experiences That Helped a Registered Nurse at Providence Saint Joseph Succeed

I went to community college and completed a program there. Afterward, I pursued an online bachelor's degree. You can become an RN with an associate's degree and practice as a registered nurse, and then later complete a bachelor's.

A bachelor's degree is super helpful. While you can practice with an associate's, getting a bachelor's will prepare you for more advanced roles and open up additional opportunities.

As an undergrad, I focused on balancing work, school, and single motherhood. Balancing is crucial for success. It involves managing your schoolwork to ensure good grades and maintaining your personal life.

If you can work while studying, that's also very helpful. When you enter nursing, you'll need to balance a 12-hour shift and care for patients. In acute care settings, like the hospital where I work, you're responsible for a patient's well-being throughout their shift, whatever their condition may be.

So, balancing everything and building good connections is important. Customer service skills and other aspects integrate into what a nurse does. Making good connections means making a good impression during clinical rotations. Befriend nurses, management, and nurse educators. Learning to balance all of this will set you up for success as a nurse.

This will make it easier to step into the role, get trained, and flourish as a bedside nurse. There are many career paths with a nursing degree that can tie into previous non-healthcare experience. You could work at a desk, from home, in case management, hospice, or for insurance or medical device companies.

You could sell medical devices or train doctors on them. Having good people skills, customer service skills, and balance will help you succeed in any nursing sector you choose.