The journey to becoming a nurse feels long. You begin as a starry-eyed freshman, and over the course of four years, literally learn how to save lives. It’s an exciting path that paves the way for even more rewarding experiences to come. And yet, despite the thoroughness of modern healthcare education, many nurses graduate not fully understanding what to expect.

So, what is it like for new nurses? We’ll take a look at what the journey looks like from your senior year of college into your first few years as a professional nurse. Read on to learn how to get your first nursing job.

Senior Year

Senior year sees you immersed in your clinical rotations. Where before they were occasional, they now become the bulk of your classwork. You’ll be interacting much more directly with established members of the healthcare community.

Doctors. Nurses. The patients they treat. You’ll have a deeper role in providing care for those patients. This initial responsibility may feel daunting, but it will give you a good primer on what it will be like to work as a full and independent nurse.

At this point in your education, you’ll feel more like a working nurse than a student. That can be exciting, but it’s also important to understand that no matter how much independence and autonomy you have as an undergraduate, you’re still not quite there yet. There’s always that safety net. The instructor. The supervisor. The university.

Though the work itself is very similar to what you’ll be doing as a fully-fledged RN, being independent is an entirely different beast. Before you can experience that reality firsthand, however, you need to graduate. Then, you need to pass nursing’s big standardized test.

If you’re in this position, use as many of your school’s resources as you possibly can for the NCLEX. They may have access to practice materials. Some schools will even put you in contact with students who have recently taken the NCLEX, so you can ask direct questions about the exam in its current form. The more effort you put in, the easier time you will have.

Passing the NCLEX

Here’s the good news: the NCLEX has a relatively high pass rate of about 85%. That sounds pretty good—until you realize it means that 15% of people who graduate with a degree in nursing aren’t eligible to actually work as nurses.

Now, if you do happen to fail, you can retake the exam. Still, the pass rate dips significantly for second-time test takers. Either way, you want to get it right the first time.

The good news is that you’re not reinventing the wheel here. This exam covers material you’ve learned throughout your education. The bad thing? That includes your entire nursing education.

Four years of studying. Four years of work crammed into one big, bad test. The bite, at least, is often worse than the bark. If you’re smart enough to graduate from a nursing program, you’re also smart enough to take and pass this test.

Just give it the respect it deserves. That means using your time well. Don’t cram the week of the exam. Instead, develop a moderate but efficient study strategy that runs alongside the rest of your responsibilities. Ideally, in the few days leading up to the NCLEX, you should be able to relax, confident that you’ve done everything you need to do to get ready.

Finding Your Placement

Once you pass the NCLEX, you move on to your career almost at once. Note that this requirement is universal across all fifty states. Requirements are standardized, which means that becoming a nurse in North Carolina is basically the same process that nurses in Illinois or California experience. 

Finding a job is usually not very hard. That said, this is still a “beggars can’t be choosers” situation. Your credentials are still entry-level, which means that you’ll be working in some kind of general placement. If you’re one of the many students who have exited college with loans, there’s also the ticking clock of a payment deadline. 

These factors combine to lead many people to choose based on practicality, or even the first available offer. You don’t have to go quite that far, but remember: Your first job doesn’t have to be your last job. 

Start making money. Get experience. Find out what you like about healthcare. Figure out what you don’t like so much. A world of options opens up eventually, but you do need to spend some time at the bottom before you can think too seriously about what is to come.

Working

Once you get your job, you’ll begin almost at once, though not completely on your own. The hospital that hires you will have some kind of onboarding experience, which generally ensures you spend your first few months learning procedures and working closely with more experienced nurses. This part of the process often comes across as tedious, but it’s an important component of getting you off to the right start.

One of the things you’ll probably find is that the hospital where you now work operates a little differently from the ones where you did your clinical rotations. These nuanced differences are a notable component of the healthcare world and something you’ll need to get used to throughout your career.

The first year or so as a nurse will be primarily characterized by adjustments and learning. By the time you’re entering your sophomore year as a working nurse, you will have learned the ropes and most likely gained full professional autonomy.

A World of Possibilities

There are tons of different experiences available to nurses. Some people like working in situations that feel almost hopeless, knowing their contributions add even just a touch of light to an otherwise expansive darkness. Others do their best in environments where they can facilitate primarily happy outcomes. 

These differences alone could mean that being placed on an oncology floor, for example, is a wildly bad idea, while working as a grade school nurse could be the best job available to you.

There are variations of experience across the healthcare field. For example, if you really are unhappy on an oncology floor, you can request a transfer and expect, with reasonable certainty, to be accommodated. However, your greatest access to new professional experiences lies in credentialing.

There are many graduate degrees and dozens of specialized certifications available for RNs. While these might sound daunting, a year or two out of school, the more experience you collect, the more a specialized career might appeal to you.

The paths ahead could easily fill their own article, but briefly: graduate degrees are the route nurses take to enter advanced practice careers. These roles—like nurse practitioner or similar advanced positions—play a bigger role in shaping the overall trajectory of patient care.

Specialized certifications are a little different. With these, you remain an RN but shift the focus of your work to a more specific aspect of care. These are all careers you can typically begin with a base RN credential. Once you complete all the certification requirements—a process that can take up to two years—you’re free to work with full professional authority in your new role.

These jobs are good for increasing your salary, but most people choose them because they want to do work that interests them the most.

You’ll find in your early years as a nurse that while the job has many challenges, it’s also full of incredible opportunities. Here’s the thing: those opportunities won’t necessarily come to you. In many cases, you need to go out and look for them. 

That could mean getting an advanced degree or certification. It could also just mean advocating for yourself—asking for the day shift instead of the night shift, moving floors, looking for work at a hospital closer to home, putting your hat in the ring for a promotion, and so on.

Find a way to make your healthcare career work for you, and you’ll live a long, happy life as a nurse.

With a Bachelor’s in Health Science along with an MBA, Sarah Daren has a wealth of knowledge within both the health and business sectors. Her expertise in scaling and identifying ways tech can improve the lives of others has led Sarah to be a consultant for a number of startup businesses, most prominently in the wellness industry, wearable technology and health education. She implements her health knowledge into every aspect of her life with a focus on making America a healthier and safer place for future generations to come.

Disclaimer: The viewpoint expressed in this article is the opinion of the author and is not necessarily the viewpoint of the owners or employees at Healthcare Staffing Innovations, LLC.