How to Improve as a Nurse in the Medical Field

This content was produced in partnership with Archer Education.

The medical field is one where you constantly need to learn and upgrade your skill set. The reason for this is not necessarily because the industry itself is extra competitive, although it can be, it is rather because medicine is constantly changing and evolving and in order to help patients, nurses and doctors need to do what they can in order to facilitate a safer and more supportive environment, which they can do through various methods.

This article aims to shed light on how a nurse could improve themselves in the medical field. So, if you are a nurse looking to improve or if you're somebody just interested in the medical field and how these industries and occupations work, then this article might be interesting for you. Without further ado, it's time to jump in.

Study More and Improve Your Education

One of the most straightforward ways that you can improve as a nurse in the medical field is by studying more and therefore improving upon your existing education. If you are already in the nursing field, chances are that you already have your bachelor's and are licensed to practice. Therefore, the next step would be doing your master's in nursing, which is typically considered a master's in science.

There are many different nursing courses out there so you need to find one that suits your needs best. The nurse practitioner programs Kentucky have quite a few different options that you can pick from, with different time variations and ways of setting it up. Being one of the most reputable options out there, this might be a helpful starting block to propel you towards improving your education.

Do Research to Stay Updated on Medical Trends

In addition to improving education, you can also try to do more research and stay updated on medical trends to create a more robust structure beneath you as a nurse. As mentioned in the introduction, the medical field is constantly changing, therefore, if you do want to evolve as a nurse you need to be willing to study for the rest of your life. This may sound a little bit daunting but this is typically what many psychologists, psychiatrists, doctors and yes, you guessed it, nurses have to do because the body and the mind and everything in between are constantly evolving and medical professionals need to keep updated with this.

Therefore, reading medical journals that have been published on new findings is advantageous and will allow you to better understand your medical field as well as new ailments that your patient comes with.

Volunteer When You Have Time

Another way that you can improve as a nurse in the medical field is by volunteering. Now, if you are already a nurse and also trying to study on the side, chances are that you do not have a lot of free time. However, even if you only have an hour or two a month to volunteer at an old home or hospice, this can massively have an impact on your experience as a nurse.

Typically, when people volunteer, they go out of their shells and they go out to help. Although the nursing career is already one where you're typically helping, volunteering takes away some of the pressure and some of the everyday routine tasks that you have become accustomed to at your workplace and therefore allows you to roam through the processes with patients in a different way. It also allows you to engage with them a little bit more, as you have more time and therefore gives you a better understanding of what patients are really feeling and going through.

Being a nurse is not just about knowing the medicine or giving injections, there's also a big emotional and personal side to it and volunteering can bring in this humanistic and people-centered focus.

Try to Teach Newcomers to the Field

If all of this wasn't enough, so if you weren't already tied up with studying, doing research and volunteering, another thing you can do is you can try to teach newcomers.

There is a saying that goes something along the lines of "If you can teach it to a toddler, you've understood it". The nurses coming behind you, typically don't have as much education and experience as you do, therefore, staying on-site and teaching them certain things that you've learned in your nursing career, allows you to not only go through the procedure once for yourself but also allows them to ask questions that you may not have otherwise considered and give you a broader understanding of the procedure itself.

Also, by teaching those new to the field, you are helping up-skill individuals and creating a welcoming atmosphere in the department.

Becoming a Nurse

As you can see from the above, there are quite a few steps involved in the nursing occupation. It's not a one-stop shop and then you're done – the road never really ends. But, a lot of nurses enjoy this. A lot of them take a lot of pride in constantly learning and developing their skills. Furthermore, they also have a lot of purpose behind what they do because they know that with everything that they learned, they're able to help a new patient and this can have a massive impact on the health and livelihood of the patient.