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Career coaches encourage nurses to always network because you can never tell when the next best job is just around the corner.

Good news! Your nursing career is putty in your hands. But can you shape it into more than the privilege of working nights and weekends for too little pay, not enough respect and living with heartstopping stress?

The answer is yes, if you learn and apply the career management techniques of coaches, placement directors and employment counselors, the professionals who make more rewarding careers their career.

Here today, where tomorrow?

Shelly Field launched her New York-based career-coaching firm, the Shelly Field Organization, to fulfill a promise to herself: If she could break into the music industry with degrees in business and sociology when no one would help her, she would help others with their careers, she said.

She's the author of more than a dozen career-oriented books, including Career Opportunities In Health Care: A Comprehensive Guide to Exciting Careers Open to You in Health Care. She speaks about career development at least 100 times a year and has an affinity for nurses and the medical community because it is the field in which her parents made their living.

"What I tell people to do is sit down periodically with paper or a computer and write down what your goals are, what you really wish you could do with your career and your life," Field said. "Your career and your life are so intertwined. I'm a big advocate of writing down what you want, because then you can look at it and see how to get there."

It's a road map, said Sarah Peters, MSN, CNS. As director of recruitment and placement at the University of Texas at Austin and coordinator of its RN-to-BSN program, Peters is an expert in launching and advancing careers. She works with new graduates, midcareer and advanced practice nurses.

"Twenty years ago, I don't think nurses were thinking forward so much," she said. "But at this point, I certainly think they're looking at their lives in terms of 'Where do I want to be in three years? Where do I want to be in five? Where do I want to be in 10?' "

This new forward thinking also is changing the nursing education model, Peters said. More nurses are going directly from a bachelor's degree to graduate school to prepare for their career, forsaking the long-standing cycle of school-to-work-to-school-a bachelor's degree followed practice, then a master's degree and more practice and finally, a doctorate and practice.

Visibility and vision

"Always network because you can never tell when, even if you love your job, the next best job is right around the corner," Field said. "The more you network, the more people you know, the better your career will be and the better your life will be. You want to set yourself apart from other employees in a positive sense. Sometimes you have to go back to school to get some additional training. Make yourself visible to your supervisor for promotions. Make yourself visible so potential employers can see that you're a hot commodity. I stress to people that in any job, they should volunteer or mentor people."

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