As a professional nurse, what are your goals in your job?

like for improving your career

My professional goals have started to change a bit. I am really torn between my focus for my grad degree. I wanted to be a NNP (neonatal nurse practitioner), but lately I've been thinking about Nursing Leadership & Management or Nursing Education.

I want to have a job that is rewarding and fulfilling, and while staff nursing at the bedside is that, it is also sometimes stressful, and I don't know how many years I can dedicate myself to that kind of stress. Not that leadership or education wouldn't have it's stress of course, but it would be a good change of scenery.

I want to contribute as much as I can in the areas of Women's Health or Maternal Newborn Health. We'll see where that takes me.

To ease suffering and make life more comfortable for my clients (frail elderly).

To ensure they feel cared for and to relieve distressing symptoms in terminal care.

To drink as much tea as possible during breaks!

being a professional nurse means being competent and caring...it is not about how much you've earned but how you deal with people who is need of my service...

The nursing profession is very diverse. A nursing student learns the basics of a number of categories within the profession and then is tested on these categories when taking licensing exams for their R.N... The categories I am referring to include; medical nursing, surgical nursing, pediatric nursing and psychiatric nursing. Each category has a number of subcategories. For example medical nursing would include; cardiology, neurology, endocrinology, infectious disease, geriatrics, emergency medicine, and ICU to name a few. While surgical nursing would include; general surgery, orthopedics, gastroenterology, GYN, wound care and ophthalmology, again, to name a few. Pediatrics could be broken down into; newborn care, well childcare, adolescence as well as neonatal ICU. Psychiatric nursing can be broken down into; In-patient acute care of patients who have become a danger to themselves or others due to acute psychosis such as schizophrenia, and suicidal or homicidal ideation. Schizophrenia alone is broken down into several subcategories such as paranoid schizophrenia and catatonia. Other types of psychiatric nursing includes outpatient treatment of patients with depression, anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorders, and substance abuse. Substance abuse can be further broken down to include alcohol abuse or abuse of opiates, cocaine, amphetamines, and cannabis. There is also geriatric psychiatry for the treatment of patients with dementia due to Alzheimer's disease or vascular diseases of the brain.
Keeping in mind the vast diversity within the profession, the first goal of a new nurse is to attain competence in the practice of general nursing through experience. Working on a medical-surgical unit, in a general hospital, usually offers the diversity needed to attain this competence.
During these first few years of a nurse's career, each individual nurse finds a nitch in the big picture to pursue further. It is during this time that a nurse begins to identify aspects of the profession that she/he is particularly talented in and/or has a greater interest in. From there, most nurses seek employment in the type of nursing that she/he is most suited for based on these factors. Many nurses pursue advanced practice degrees in a specific nursing specialty, while others settle into a long career of general nursing practice.
The possibilities in a nurse's career in this day and age is endless, in which new goals can be identified and pursued for a lifetime.