Student nurses and professional RNs (registered nurses) can learn, connect, and find new career paths thanks to a range of resources available at their fingertips. At each stage of your nursing career, there are pages like the ones below, plus forums, journals, and more to provide you with nurse-created insights.
Nursing School and Post-Graduate Resources
Scholarships.com lists dozens of available scholarships for nursing programs.
The United Healthcare site contains an easy-to-follow guide to obtaining healthcare insurance while you are a student.
Drugs.com houses an unmatched pharmacological database of drug information. Particularly handy is the Pill Identifier, which searches for a specific medication that matches the description of the pill you provide.
Nursing Exams and Licensure
When you are nearing the end of school or curious about when to begin studying for the NCLEX-RN, visit the resources below:
NCLEX-RN Prep Course, which provides over 2,200 questions and adaptive testing, just like the real NCLEX.
Once you are licensed, it may be helpful to know which states participate in the Nurse Licensure Compact (NLC). These states have all agreed that a nurse licensed in one of these states is also valid in the other compact states. If you are licensed in a “compact state”, you essentially have a multistate nursing license. States participating in the NLC are displayed below:
Figure 1: NLC States. Accessed on NCSBN.org June 2022
Nursing Certification
Nurses often specialize in a specific area of nursing over the course of their careers. If you are interested in pursuing specialty certification, there is likely an organization for you! To see a full listing of nursing certifications with the sponsoring organization and contact information, head to the Lippincott Nursing Center Nursing Certification site. Each certification has specific requirements, but most have eligibility requirements that include the following:
Current RN or APRN licensure
Current clinical practice in the specialty area
Written verification of practice
Successful completion of the certification exam for the specialty
Nursing Continuing Education
Most states require continuing education in order to maintain and renew your nursing license. Even in those states that do not specify a certain number of continuing education units (CEUs), it is expected that as a professional, a nurse will stay up to date with evidence-based learning and practice. Institutions also may require annual education hours for nurses to complete. Fortunately, there are many online sources for free or inexpensive CEU courses.
The Nursing CEU Directory is a great starting point to search for CEUs. This site pulls from other sponsor sites to offer recently updated courses for nurses and other healthcare professionals.
Although the Learning Nurse website does not offer CEUs, it’s nonetheless a great resource network for “all levels of nurses to assess, maintain, and enhance their professional competence.”
The Practical Clinical Skills site offers interactive practice modules on EKG interpretation, blood pressure, heart sounds auscultation, lung sounds, and even ultrasound.
AllNurses is a robust, dynamic resource for connecting and networking with other nurses and nursing students, including nursing articles, job listings, and discussion forums.
Nursing Jobs
One of the best things about being a nurse is that your skills are transferable to essentially anywhere in the world. Travel nurses are paid to help institutions facing staff shortages and get to experience life in other locales. They typically spend a few months in a location before moving on to the next adventure. Travel nurse employers commonly require a minimum of one to two years of professional nursing experience in a hospital. You will be expected to “hit the ground running” when you begin a contract.
As your nursing career progresses, you will likely need to make a decision that determines the path you want to follow. The choices are plentiful, and only you can decide what fits best.
Do you want to work in a hospital? Long-term care? Public or community health? Hospice? Teaching? Or some other position entirely?
Do you want to do hands-on nursing – or would you rather be in a leadership position?
Do you want to move into advanced practice nursing? If so, you may want to consider going back to school for a master’s degree. Check out Types of Nursing Degrees and Careers for guidance on which nursing degree may be best for you.
Nursing Organizations
A professional organization exists for every nursing specialty area. These organizations range from the general, like the American Nurses Association (ANA), to the very specialized– for example, the American Association of Heart Failure Nurses. New organizations are being developed and launched every day, and you can find one focused on your interests or specialty in healthcare by using your specialty as a keyword in an online search.
Online Nursing Journals
Professional nursing journals now exist in both paper and online form. For a complete listing of nursing journals (including journals for most specialties in nursing), consult Medscape. The following list, although not comprehensive, provides a good sense of the breadth of specialties and topics these journals can cover. Note that some of the journals provide free content, some are by subscription only, and some are a combination of the two. All of them, however, are peer-reviewed and contain accurate and current information.
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