Bright Outlook For RN Jobs

The employment outlook for RN jobs in the United States is on the upswing. Up until the year 2016, it is predicted that the job market for registered nurses will be so wide open, that the RN will basically be able to "write their own ticket." The nursing field has always been a popular career choice because it pays very well, it offers flexibility, and there are a number of different avenues the registered nurse can take while pursuing their career.

The registered nurse who is newly graduated will most likely want to seek employment in a hospital setting. Most new nurses want to get their feet wet in a clinical setting that allows them to their perfect their skills and continue the learning process with lots of hands on experience. There is no other setting that prepares the RN to work in any capacity better than in the hospital. With hospital experience under their belt, the RN can easily function in any job capacity that they may consider.

The hospital provides many different experiences for the registered nurse. The inexperienced nurse may start out on a general medicine floor to gain valuable experience, and then if they choose, can move on to a specialty unit such as ICU, CCU, Labor and Delivery, Dialysis, Emergency Medicine, Orthopedics, or any other number of specialties available at the hospital.

The hospital nurse may even consider a non clinical position. Hospitals have utilization review departments that employ registered nurses to oversee worker's compensation and insurance. Other non clinical RN jobs in the hospital may be hospital bill audit. The nurse auditor compares the patient bill with the hospital bill. This position can benefit both the patient and the hospital because the experienced nurse auditor can find overcharges on the patient's bill and undercharges on the hospital bill.

Registered nurses may decide the hospital setting is not for them. They may find the stress level is too high or they may not be confident in their clinical skills. For these nurses, a long term care setting might be more suitable for them. The long term care nurse can enjoy much flexibility in their schedules, and a lower acuity level. The long term care nurse will still need to utilize their clinical skills, especially if the long term care facility is a skilled facility, however, many of the residents are clinically stable and do not require skilled care.

The registered nurse has many career options from which to choose. The RN may find job satisfaction in a doctor's office where they utilize their social skills with patients while assisting the physician with the office flow. The RN may enjoy patient interaction and telephone triage. Many nurse's have reservations about choosing employment in a doctor's office because historically, the salary of the office nurse was not equal to that of the hospital nurse. Many doctors however, do compensate their office nurses very well, because good skillful nurses are an asset to their practice, and they want to retain them.

It is a comfort for the RN to know that if they are unhappy in their current position, there are many more from which to choose. It's easy for the nurse to suffer from nursing "burn out." This is very unfortunate, but can be easily remedied. With the variety of different specialties the nurse can choose from, the nurse can keep a positive attitude about the professional and this will transcend to their patients for whom they went into nursing to begin with.