No Boundaries
Embrace the diversity of career opportunities nursing offers

By Carol Bradley, MSN, RN, California Editor
August 27, 2001

Upon making the decision to go to graduate school to become a clinical nurse specialist, I remember a colleague asking why I was leaving nursing. I was perplexed at her interpretation of my career goal. Nothing could have been further from the truth, as I felt I was pursuing expertise in clinical nursing.

Fortunately, I benefited from the wise counsel of a mentor who encouraged my goal at a crucial time in my career. She gave me tangible examples of how advancing my education would improve my ability to be the kind of nurse I wanted to be. Several years later, I again chose to be a nurse in a different kind of way-in management. Once again, a mentor encouraged my choice.

As with thousands of nurse colleagues, as my career progressed I chose again and again to be a nurse, but in different ways. Often, I think my career will come full circle and I will return to the bedside in the future. My career path, while self-directed, was greatly influenced by mentors who took a personal interest, offered support and helped push me into new and different experiences.

I have often heard the narrow view expressed that nurses who are no longer at the immediate bedside are somehow less of a nurse or have deserted their profession in some way. When nurses express a desire to change their position or move into another area of nursing, however remote from the actual patient, the choice can be viewed by some as abandonment of nursing. In fact, it is far more likely just a natural and expected progression of the career of a nurse. To be fair, it is someone who is simply pursuing different experiences, challenges and opportunities.

Career progression also is no longer a linear process. Lateral movement across settings of care, industries and geography is more common than the traditional hierarchical career moves of nurses in the past. Increasingly common today, nurses can create and control a full-time job made up of different part-time roles pieced together.

From my perspective, it seems that the public and nurses alike benefit from the positioning of nurses within every aspect of our society. Nurses make important contributions to schools, churches, industry, manufacturing, business, law, academia, etc. It could only be beneficial to nursing to be defined in a much broader way. Given a much expanded, broader stage, it is far more likely that the nursing profession can and will change the world.

At NurseWeek, we try to shine a spotlight on the nurse heroes in all possible roles and settings. Wherever you choose to be a nurse, don't let anyone tell you that it is only nursing at the bedside that counts. Nurses are needed throughout our society. Each role contributes either directly or indirectly to the well-being of patients and our society's health in general. Purpose, choice, diversity, flexibility and what I like to call "the joy of the job" make nursing a career for the future that almost defies boundaries and definition.

Whether your career lies ahead of you or behind you, know that other nurses can use your encouragement and support in making career choices. Be a mentor to another. We need each other regardless of how or where we choose to be nurses.

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