While certain hospitals and healthcare facilities will enforce strict dress codes for their staff, others will allow their people to express themselves with pieces of any design and color from cute ciel blue scrubs to crazy and comical character scrubs – as long as they’re hygienic and identifiable. That said, the nature of the landscape demands a certain amount of mindfulness and even policy to ensure that each and every healthcare worker outwardly represents the seriousness of the role and is perceived positively by patients.
These common dress codes have created the standard image that has survived for centuries in most people’s minds of healthcare workers – and is what people expect and want to see! Healthcare workers have an ethical obligation to wear proper attire that befits their vocation and patients. But what are the benefits? And how do you achieve them and follow one of the strictest dress codes around?
Nursing rules and regulations apply to behavior as much as appearance, but both result in an overall professional image that commands respect and offers comfort through:
A hygiene and infection control perspective
The perception of professional ability (along with actual improved ability thanks to ease of movement, lack of clothing getting in the way, access to equipment from scrub pockets and more)
Ease of identification by colleagues and patients alike
The perception of being a close-knit and high-functioning organization and/or unit
Dress Comfortably
First and foremost, you’ll want to dress comfortably! This isn’t just a good idea but an actual part of your dress code. Especially on your first day before you fully understand your dress code, wearing something comfortable can help you settle into your new role and environment much more easily and inconspicuously, and will allow you to focus on your tasks and avoid unfortunate wardrobe malfunctions and distractions.
Play It Safe
While style and fashion are all about taking risks, your hospital dress code is not. If you’re considering wearing something questionable, opt for a safer choice or the addition of a cover-up. You can always establish what’s appropriate over time by watching what your colleagues wear, but it’s best to play it safe for your initial days on the job.
Keep Your Options Open
Especially when you’re just starting out, you won’t always know what to expect in terms of temperature and tasks at your facility, and you won’t always know how a new brand of scrubs will feel for the day. Wearing layers is a great way to combat all of these challenges and give yourself options – plus, it looks great! For layering, pieces like warm-up jackets, vests, cardigans, undershirts and leggings are all excellent ideas for nurses.
Select Your Scrubs Mindfully
While some facilities may provide a scrub uniform, there is also a chance that you may have to purchase your own scrubs. You’ll want to actually go into stores and try them on – even if you decide to order them online after that in order to use coupon codes or take advantage of online-only sales! Because although most scrubs admittedly do look similar, they absolutely aren’t. Take your time when you try on scrubs and identify what materials, styles and fits you like best. After all, what’s a bit of time shopping when you’re going to spend all of your time from here on out in these scrubs? Sought-after brands like Dickies, Cherokee and Grey’s Anatomy™ scrubs are favorites for nurses for good reason and come highly recommended, so if you’re not sure where to start, this may be a good place!
You’re ready to switch your nursing specialty or start down your path — but how do you figure out where the best place to go is? Or maybe you have an idea of where you want to go, but you don’t know how to tell if it’s the right decision. Either way, you’ll want to ask yourself the questions below and stack your insights up against the specialties you may be considering, or even to discover specialties you may have overlooked.
Are You a True People Person?
You may care for and have dedicated your life to helping people, but there’s no shame in admitting that you don’t love directly interacting with them all the time if that’s the case. There are plenty of nursing specialties that offer quieter environments and more isolated tasks that are suited to introverts. Likewise, a perfect specialty exists if you’re SO much of a people person that you want to not only interact with people but go as far as to lead a team of them.
Introverts Should Consider: Specializing in research-based roles or those that require less frequent patient interactions like Informatics Specialist, Forensics Nurse or private duty nursing.
Extroverts Should Consider: Specializing in high-touch and patient-facing roles like Pediatrics Nurse, Medical-Surgical Nurse, Critical Care Nurse or a frontline specialty where you can embrace travel nursing.
What Pace Is Right for You?
Are you amongst the thorough and methodical nurses who find comfort in slower-paced environments, the agile and challenge-craving nurses who thrive when working in faster-paced facilities or somewhere in between? Just like running, pacing yourself in your work environment means no long-term injuries, limited straining, maximum effectiveness and, most importantly, the ability to keep going! Though achieving this will depend on both your specialty and your place of practice, there are certain complementary combinations to consider.
If you like a Slower Pace: Becoming a Home Health Nurse in patients’ homes, an Occupational Health Nurse in companies and organizations that appeal to your personal interests or aiming for nursing research roles in colleges and universities may all be great ideas.
If you prefer a Faster Pace: Nurses who thrive on action tend to rate hospitals by the caliber of their trauma care. If you’re a fast thinker with a cool head and yearn for an exciting work environment, look into critical care nursing in trauma centers, ER nursing in hospital emergency departments, or OR nursing (in none other than the OR)!
Where Do Your Passions Lie?
Put your best foot forward, and your best Littmann stethoscope to the bright and beautiful hearts of patients who have stolen yours. If you’ve got a respect for and feel a connection to the older generations, consider a specialization that’s geriatric-focused. If you have a soft spot for pregnant women/soon-to-be mothers and babies and believe that you could add to the wonderful moments before, during and after childbirth, then consider specializing as a Labor and Delivery Nurse!
What Job Setting Is Best for You?
Although it doesn’t take specializing to get you out of the hospital as a nurse, it can certainly open some interesting doors. Whether it be schools, correctional facilities, job sites, offices, clinics, rescue helicopters, or research centers, nurses are needed everywhere — it’s a matter of where you want to be as a nurse. Even if you do gravitate toward a hospital setting, though, you’ll want to make sure that you’re paying close attention to the specific units or departments you’re interested in as much as the hospital environment as a whole.
If you know that your favorite nursing shoes for women were meant to hit the halls of a hospital emergency unit, you may be starting to realize that you are suited for pediatrics or you can picture a lot more than one specialty that would be perfect for you. The best way to confirm or narrow it down will be by asking yourself…
How Is the Job Market Where You Want to Live and Work?
Nurses are in demand across the globe and specializing as a nurse still tends to leave you with fairly open options. That being said, it is important (ESPECIALLY if you don’t want to relocate) to ensure that the specialization you choose to pursue is currently in demand and/or is expected to be in demand in the future where you are. If you like the idea of relocating, it may be worth looking into the demand for your specialty not only in locations that you’d like to live and work, but for travel nursing roles of these types as well.
What Additional Certifications Will You Need?
You’ll likely need to upgrade your education and demonstrate relevant experience in order to specialize. Not only may this be a major undertaking depending on the area of specialization, but even once this has been completed, there may be additional requirements to meet in order to maintain your status, such as annual recertification. Though meeting and maintaining all of these requirements may well be worth it, you’ll want to look into exactly what they are, and consider if it’s a feasible and wise decision in the short-term as much as it’s worth it in the long term.
Will You Be Bound to Your Location?
You’ll want to take a good look at the licensure requirements of the state you live in, yes, but it’s a good idea to see how far this will take you as well. While you may complete your schooling and achieve your status in a specialization that allows you to practice independently, you may require physician supervision when it comes to practicing in other states, or your license may not be transferable when it comes to others. While this may genuinely never be an issue for some, it’s worth looking into even if you don’t expect to relocate anytime soon!
Is Your Specialty Going to Stay Special to You?
Your specialty will always be special to the people around you, but when you’re able to work at your perfect pace, commit yourself to an environment that you love, work with the people and patients you prefer and do the tasks that you excel at, your specialty will truly feel special to you! Admittedly, you’re going to have bad days sometimes… But by choosing the right nursing specialty for your personal specialties and preferences, it becomes easier to feel enthusiasm before, engagement and enjoyment during and fulfillment after each shift.
Nursing school is a rewarding and exciting experience, but it can also be demanding. Students will be required to take classes in challenging subjects such as pharmacology and pathophysiology, all before they ever get a stethoscope in hand. Long hours of studying are often balanced with a part-time job or family life, which means it can be difficult to find time to socialize outside the home.
As students advance through their coursework, they will participate in practicums and internships where they must demonstrate their mastery of healthcare knowledge and patient care. They will also have to prepare for licensing and exams like the NCLEX-RN. All of these responsibilities and challenges can make it difficult to slow down long enough to enjoy the experience and make a few friends. However, getting to know your schoolmates is worth it in the end.
If you are studying to become a registered nurse (RN), the intensity of your program may cause you to put extracurricular activities on the backburner, but making friends with your fellow nursing school students has many benefits. While you will have other people to study with, you can also count on them to understand and support you throughout your educational career. The following guide will help you to reach out to other students to build a rapport with them.
Arrive Early
It always helps to arrive early to class, especially when you first start nursing school. This gives you time to find a parking spot, walk to the building and get comfortable in your seat. Plus, once your classes start, your instructors will dive straight into coursework. Since it will be impossible to talk with classmates during a lecture, use the few minutes before class to introduce yourself to other students.
Tell everyone a little bit about yourself and then listen to a few others. Ask follow-up questions to show you are interested in them. You may find that you share common ground with someone who sits next to you. Arriving early also allows you to socialize once you do break the ice. You can discuss what you were studying the night before or make plans to do something after class.
Join a Study Group
Since coursework is so rigorous, most nursing programs will offer free study groups for their students. The school may also encourage peer study groups or study sessions for certain classes, such as biology or anatomy and physiology. Since it depends on the size of your school and the types of programs, it is helpful to ask your academic advisor.
Study groups are commonly held in the weekday afternoons or evenings, but you may be able to find some that are in the mornings or on weekends. Try a few groups to find the one that is best for you. Select programs will offer online study group options. When you choose virtual study groups, you will meet through an online meeting room or a video chat. Even if you are a good student, the more often you are learning with the same people, the more likely you are to develop a rapport and make friends.
Hold a Social Event
If you are an excellent organizer or planner, consider holding a social event of your own. It could be in-person or you could hold a virtual event. Invite members of your class, study group or even your entire nursing program. Hold the event on video chat, a public park or, if allowed, on the site of your college or university.
Ideas include exam “trivia” sessions, nursing-themed shopping meetups and group trips to museums or state parks. Create friendly competition among classmates and get to know each other while shopping for new scrubs on sale. Forget about some of the stressors of class while learning about new and exciting subjects. If you enjoy yourselves, consider swapping out planning duties. Meet once a month at the organizer’s site of choice and give yourself a chance to meet a group of lifelong friends.
Be Patient
In the first few weeks of school, students may still be getting used to new subjects and routines. Give your fellow classmates some time to settle into their schedules before they begin to socialize and make friends. A meaningful relationship may be made during a lab, a study session or an internship. You may even find a friend who is in another year of nursing school or who is in a different set of classes.
Another way to make friends includes finding professional nursing associations in your area. Search online for accredited groups or ask your nursing school about the organizations they recommend. You could also consider forming a private study group of your own. This group may be virtual or in-person and could be made up of students from different universities or colleges.
Make Lasting Friendships in Nursing School
If you are interested in making friends with your fellow nursing students, there are many ways you can go about building a relationship. Try some of the ways above or use them as inspiration to come up with your own idea. Everyone has their own style of socializing and relating to others, so you will eventually find a person or a group that truly clicks with your personality.
As you focus on your classes and the excitement of being a future nurse, you may even develop a natural friendship. It does not necessarily have to be from your chemistry or statistics classes. Some lifelong nursing school friends report that they first met by seeing each other in the hallway every day, by parking in the same lot before class or working in the same part-time job while going to the same college. No matter how you find your comrades, the memories you make will be a part of your nursing story.
If you got pinned (virtually, perhaps) during the COVID-19 pandemic, then you’re likely facing a whole slew of challenges nursing school didn’t cover. The fact of the matter is that the pandemic completely rocked the medical world. We watched as our colleagues, coworkers, and classmates were forced to adapt to a massive demand for intensive care, learn a whole new world of protective gear and, worst of all, deal with contracting the disease themselves on the frontlines.
All of this is just one more thing reinforcing the ever-growing nursing shortage. Before the pandemic, the lack of nurses loomed large. With a big chunk of the workforce aging into retirement and a more significant need for nursing than virtually any other field, the experts say there’s a need for over a million new registered nurses to make up for the loss. Indeed, the field is growing and the market is secure. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) projects a growth of about seven percent over the next decade, with over 100,000 jobs available annually.
But just because there’s clearly a massive demand for nurses doesn’t mean you’re guaranteed a job as a recent grad. Sure, you’ll probably be able to get a job relatively quickly, but you want to do everything you can to make sure you land within a solid health care system and position yourself to earn top-dollar now and down the road. Here are some things to consider on your job search.
1. Be as Adaptable as Possible.
If there’s one thing we learned in 2020, it’s to never take anything for granted. This is especially true in large, complex health care systems, which had to make do with staff shortages, budgetary constraints, and a lack of space. For these reasons, hiring managers want to see adaptability and flexibility as a feature of any new employee. Here’s how to express in your interview that you’re willing to adapt.
Be open to working in the intensive care unit. This year, critical care was, well…critical. The growing number of COVID-19 cases filled up beds across the nation, and nurses who previously had no ICU experience were forced to spring into action.
Consider travel and crisis nursing. Another thing we realized during 2020 was that shortages are more apparent in some regions than others, which triggered a whole slew of positions offering hazard pay and crisis pay for nurses willing to travel.
Understand the new needs. Hospitals and health care systems as a whole were forced to create brand-new positions and roles for nurses that are likely to linger. Emphasize that you’re willing to learn on the fly and cover whatever is necessary every day.
2. Show Your Tech-Savviness.
In today’s constantly changing world of telehealth, being tech-savvy is a requirement, not an option. You’ll be considered quite a valuable employee to any team if you’re comfortable working in highly digital environments. If you feel that this is one area where you could use improvement, express your ability to pick up new technologies fast and emphasize your commitment to lifelong learning. If you’re comfortable with the idea of working from home, be sure to express this during the interview process. With more and more health care systems offering telehealth services, you may be able to work remotely some of the time.
3. Show Your ‘Soft’ Skills.
In addition to the many key skills we learned in nursing school, success in this career path relies largely on soft skills, like good communication, a positive attitude, and a willingness to be a team player, as well as the ability to empathize, solve problems, and be patient where needed. If the person interviewing you asks you questions such as “What was your biggest challenge in your previous job?” use these questions to highlight your ability to properly communicate and work as a team.
4. Be Willing to Work to the Top of Your Skill Set.
One major trend in nursing involves empowering nurses with full practice authority. To emphasize this, Johns Hopkins recently launched its #ItCantWait campaign to help strengthen the health care workforce and make changes that would allow nurses to practice at the top of their skill set. With a potentially detrimental nursing shortage on the horizon and care gaps all over the country, especially in rural and underserved communities, it’s crucial that you emphasize your willingness to raise the line and be a leader in nursing where needed.
5. Consider Working with a Recruiter.
Make sure your profiles on LinkedIn, Indeed, and other job boards are well-optimized and up to date so that nursing recruiters might seek you out. Working with a recruiter can be extremely beneficial because he or she will be able to pair your skill set with a health care system in need. Recruiters have spent the entirety of their career figuring out how to get nurses placed, and that includes over the past year-plus that has been the COVID era. You can always ask your recruiter for tips on specifically how to land a job during this time.
As a new nurse, you’re in an excellent position to help fill an essential need within your community and to follow a stable, high-paying career path that could serve you through retirement. So, start stocking up on some affordable scrubs, and follow these tips to set yourself up for a long, rewarding life as a nurse.
Nurses are some of the busiest people around, which makes time management that much more critical for them. If you’re a nurse looking to master time management, try implementing these 11 strategies to take control of your schedule.
Create a calendar.
To get in the habit of managing your time, create a calendar that keeps track of your commitments. Put in your work shifts, appointments and anything else going on in your life. Don’t forget to account for transition time, such as getting ahead to commuting to and from your destination. Some nurses prefer a physical day planner, but this can make it hard to move events around, especially if you prefer to write in pen. You might want to explore digital calendar apps if your schedule changes a lot.
2. Prioritize, prioritize, prioritize.
As a nurse, you simply can’t get everything done that you would like to. As you plan out your schedule, you’ll need to be rigorous about setting your priorities. Identify what actually needs to be done, plan out blocks of time for all of those and then reassess what else is on your list. You might also need to get creative about when you get things done—for example, you might be able to get your news fix by listening to podcasts while cooking or exercising.
3. Arrive early.
In the nursing world, early is on time and on time is late, which is why you should aim to arrive 15 minutes before your shift begins. By arriving early, we don’t mean walking into the building 15 minutes before your shift starts. We mean actually walking onto the floor, ready to work, 15 minutes before it starts. Give yourself plenty of time to change into your scrubs, put things in your locker and do whatever you need to do so that you can walk onto the floor without being rushed.
4. Think ahead.
As you gain more experience as a nurse, you’ll be able to better anticipate what tasks you need to complete and what items you’ll need to do them. Instead of making multiple trips to the supply closet back and forth, anticipate the patient’s needs and try to take all the supplies you’ll need on your initial trip. Over time, you’ll become more and more efficient at predicting what you need to do, which will free up time for other important tasks.
5. Estimate your time commitments.
A fundamental cornerstone of successful time management is being able to accurately estimate how long a task will take you to complete. Many people underestimate how much time it will take them to do something, leading to a lot of stress when they miss their self-appointed deadline. If your estimates tend to be rather inaccurate, try timing how long it takes you to do various tasks to get a better sense of how long it actually takes you.
6. Plan for the unexpected.
While creating a schedule and sticking to it is important, surprises will happen that disrupt your calendar. Make sure that you have some wiggle room in your schedule that can accommodate unforeseen circumstances like traffic jams and coffee spills. If you schedule everything back to back, with hardly a minute of cushion, you will end up being late unless everything goes perfectly—and as we all know, life rarely goes perfectly, so you shouldn’t depend on that to be on time.
7. Learn to say no.
You know that you can’t do everything. So why do you keep saying “yes” every time someone asks you to do a task? Practice turning down requests that you really can’t add to your plate. This may be a little bit tricky at work, especially if you’re new and less experienced, but you can practice it in other areas of your life, such as family and social commitments.
8. Get organized.
We’ve all wasted time looking for our last clean pair of scrubs or our missing Bluetooth stethoscope, but some of us do it much more often than others. If you constantly spend your time trying to find missing items or make sense of your chaotic schedule, it might be time to reorganize your life. Get rid of unnecessary clutter, give everything else an assigned space and do your best to put every item back where it goes when you’re done using it.
9. Practice delegating.
If a task is essential but doesn’t have to be done by you specifically, see if you can delegate it to someone else. When you’re early in your career, you might not have reports that you can delegate to someone else at work, but there might be opportunities in other areas of your life. For instance, maybe your partner can help out with some of the household chores instead of you cleaning by yourself each week.
10. Reevaluate regularly.
The demands on your time will shift from month to month and possibly even week to week. Make sure that you’re regularly checking in on your calendar to ensure that it accurately reflects your various commitments. A calendar is supposed to be a dynamic document rather than a static one, which is why it’s so important to choose a format that can be edited easily when your priorities shift.
11. Take breaks.
As a nurse, it can be tempting to schedule every spare minute of your time so you’re making the most of your days off. While that may seem efficient, it’s a sure recipe for burnout. Resist the urge and make sure to leave yourself plenty of time to rest and recuperate. Having to take a bunch of time off because you overworked yourself into an illness is sort of the opposite of smart time management.
If you feel like your schedule runs you rather than the other way around, it’s time to take back control. Follow these 11 tips to master time management for nurses.
