The Ambitious Nurse | RN, Nursing Career, Nursing Job Opportunities
Are you feeling stuck in your current clinical environment? Maybe you want a change because you're too exhausted, burned out, or ready for different leadership. Do you want to make a change in your clinical career, but you're not sure what to do next?
You're in the right place. This podcast will help you get the clarity you need to grow so you can have the flexibility and autonomy you want while leveraging your voice and expertise.
I'm Bonnie Meadows a Board Certified Clinical Nurse Specialist, Influential Leader, Career Coach & Well-Being Coach. Since being in the nursing & healthcare profession since 2004, I have found myself ready to make the next step but felt stuck.
I got to a place where I dreaded going to work. I felt burnt out and unmotivated. I knew deep down I always wanted something else. But I had no clue how to even with the hope of a graduate degree to advance me.
I finally realized that growing in nursing is about the journey and not the destination. I finally stopped looking for a specific job to fill my cup.
I developed a framework I frequently implemented to get the clarity I needed for my career and catapulted me into areas of nursing and healthcare I never imagined. I am sharing it all with you.
If you are ready to find career strategies crafted as an experienced nurse using your gifts and abilities,
A guide to help you get clear on your next career steps,
Contentment and joy in your work-this podcast is for you!!
So get ready to kick off those Crocs, pop in those earbuds, and let's chat!!
The Ambitious Nurse | RN, Nursing Career, Nursing Job Opportunities
28// Uncertainty About Career Direction as a Nurse with a Masters Degree or Doctorate in Nursing Practice? My #1 Advice on How to Overcome It
If you find yourself at a crossroads in your nursing career with a Master's Degree in Nursing or a Doctorate of Nursing Practice, even if you are in an advanced practice role such as CNS, NP, CRNA, or CNM, this episode is packed with advice to help you move forward.
There's one easy tool I suggest you use to avoid confusion about your next career step. This episode is your guide.
I explore the art of self-awareness to uncover and tackle your weaknesses, spot growth opportunities, and understand the threats that could impede your career progress. Learn to evaluate the nursing industry's current state, tap into the power of networking, and adapt to the impacts of technology and economic shifts. By the end, you'll have a strategic plan tailored to your professional growth. For those seeking more personalized guidance, I offer one-on-one coaching to help refine and implement your SWOT analysis for maximum career success.
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This episode is a call out to nurses who already have a master's degree, or they already have a doctorate of nursing practice, or what we would call a DNP, and you have no idea what you're going to do next. You have that degree. You feel stuck because the degree was supposed to be it and that's definitely where you want to be as far as schooling is concerned. But you got the degree so that you could have a little bit more to go with in order to grow your career. And so it's a now what? Question, especially those of you who may have a doctorate degree by happenstance, stay tuned and I'll tell you more. Are you feeling stuck in your current clinical environment? Do you want to make a change in your nursing career, but not sure what to do next? Exhausted, burnt out and maybe even ready for different leadership? I'm Bonnie Meadows, a board-certified clinical nurse specialist, influential leader, career coach and well-being coach. Being in the nursing and healthcare profession since 2004, I have felt stuck and unsure about what was next for me. I wanted to be fulfilled in my purpose, to have a voice at the table and to be a resource for others. I kept telling myself I wanted more, but didn't have the direction I needed until I found clarity and career growth strategies for experienced nurses like me. In this podcast, you will find simple tactical steps that allow you to gain the clarity you need, solutions for how to grow even without supportive leadership, and guidelines for setting boundaries at work, so that you can grow purposefully in your career as a nurse with a graduate degree who makes a huge impact in the profession. So get ready to trade your scrubs for yoga pants, pop in those earbuds and let's chat. If you want to hear more about how to grow your career, I want to invite you to continue the conversation. Connect with me and ask any questions you may have about career growth with the Ambitious Nurse Insider Newsletter. I welcome you to become an insider to get weekly emails from me with tips and tools about how to grow your nursing career, as well as be the first to know of any special offerings before anyone else. That is also where I share any links that I discuss on the show. That's where I am building community within that newsletter. So sign up using the URL bitlylink slash ambitiousnurseinsidercom. Again. Bitlylink slash ambitiousL-Y dot link slash ambitious nurse insider dot com. The link is also found in the show notes below.
Speaker 1:As ambitious nurses. We understand that the way to grow is through advanced degrees. It might be by way of getting a master's degree or going straight through to get your doctorate degree. Most nurses who are wanting to go back for an advanced practice role, especially if it's the NP or CRNA track many of your programs do not offer a master's prepared nurse practitioner program or CRNA program, so many of you, by happenstance, have to go back and get a doctorate degree. You don't have a choice to not get a doctorate degree. That is really with the major programs out there. That is really your only choice, which is not a bad idea. I love that idea of improving the profession. That's what I'm here for, with more nurses with a doctorate degree. That's what makes us better.
Speaker 1:However, some of you have a doctorate degree by happenstance because you really wanted to work as an NP or a CRNA, and there are some who do want to use that doctorate to really expand their knowledge and growth in the profession. For those in that position you are realizing, the degree is really just. That's really just the start of it all. It's just the preparation. It doesn't hand you the recipe for growth. Sometimes it does. Sometimes the program is robust enough to show you your options outside of what the actual job the NP job or the CRNA job does. Sometimes they expand beyond that and they give you a glimpse of other things that you can do outside of that role. But you still need to figure out what growth looks like for you, and that's where I come in.
Speaker 1:This really is for the combination of you either have a master's degree or you have a doctorate degree and you are really in a place of being stuck. You're trying to figure out what's your next and many times that happens because you have many ideas of what you want to do and you can't narrow it down. Or you have an idea of what you want to do but it doesn't exist. Or you haven't seen, you don't have a clue. Or you don't have an idea because you haven't seen enough and you don't know that. That's what. That's your reason. I'm telling you that that's probably your reason.
Speaker 1:If you are within the group of I've been working for about at least 10 years or more, been working for about at least 10 years or more you've kind of hit a financial bracket where you can't just do or go anywhere to work Like. Whatever move you make, it has to also be within the financial bracket of where your current lifestyle sits, and so I have come up with a few things that I know of that are important for us with advanced degrees to really dig into when we're trying to figure out what's our next for career growth. I've encouraged you in the past two episodes one for my bachelor's, prepared nurses to go through a path of figuring out what you want to do next. The episode before that, I gave you the red flags of what are those signs that you really do need to leave, because sometimes we're afraid to leave, we're fearful of leaving, but the red flags are there. And so in this particular episode we're now digging into, we've got those advanced degrees, those graduate degrees. What are we going to do with them?
Speaker 1:I do place a caveat here. If you have a master's degree or a doctorate degree, you've gone straight through and you're not necessarily in those roles of NP, crna, certified nurse, midwife, cns. Like coming out of those roles, coming out of those degrees, your path is pretty much laid for you, at least for the first five years. You're trying to look to get that job, to build that expertise. When you've received a master's degree in leadership or in education or other things. Your path is not necessarily laid out for you. Trust me, I know I have two master's degrees. The first one is in nursing leadership. The second is as a clinical nurse specialist.
Speaker 1:I learned this process, this framework, when I had my first master's degree and I needed to pivot, because I was in a job that I liked, but I was also experiencing lateral violence and a bad manager at the same time. So it forced me to be able to figure out my next, but I had had enough time exploring other positions to really be able to, at that point in time, develop a framework for how am I going to step into my best next Not a next, but what is my best next move. And so I'm going to walk you through that process in the next couple of episodes. I don't want to give you a 45 minute episode or a 35 minute episode. I want to do these in quick bites. So I'm going to give you the first point that I came up with today and if you've been a longtime listener to the podcast, you should know what the first one is and it is self-awareness. That's really what it comes down to, but I've given it a new name this time.
Speaker 1:Your first thing that you need to do is a SWOT analysis. Now I am going under the assumption, but I'm going to go into the definition for those who may not know. Most masters prepared and most doctor prepared nurses know what a SWOT analysis is, but I'm going to go into it. So, although the SWOT analysis is not the end all be all, it will help you to have a lane you can stay in for your career growth. That's really what it comes down to Like. What is the lane that I'm swimming in? What is the mission that I'm called to at this point in time in my career? Otherwise, you're shooting in the dark as to what your career trajectory would be, and that's a hard place to be because you can't find joy in work. You're not going to find joy in work. You might think, oh, I just don't like nursing, or whatever the case may be. No, you've probably just not found the right job within nursing or the right mission. Like you are more so waiting on the job to bring you joy versus the mission of it all to bring you joy, knowing that you're going to have politics and you're going to deal with things wherever you go. Now, sometimes the work environment supersedes and it's so bothersome that it supersedes your thought process of the mission that you're there to carry out. But that SWOT analysis really just lays the foundation for what you need.
Speaker 1:Self-awareness really allows you using a SWOT analysis. You can use anything I mean you could use. To me, the easiest route is to go the SWOT analysis. If you want to go deeper, you could do things like the Myers-Briggs. Or there's another test called 16 personalities. There's another test called the Enneagram. Like all of these you can use in your development of self-awareness. If you do this exercise and you're like I want more, then that's one of the places to dig. But I'm going to go into that SWOT analysis.
Speaker 1:But just know that the SWOT analysis is really just a tool to develop self-awareness and allows you to take advantage of your strengths and overcome your weaknesses. If you are a person who enjoys seeing the big picture when making decisions, but not as good as paying attention to the details, you might want to seek out a job that is more detailed or ensure that you have colleagues around you who are more detailed in their work. It's the combination of the big picture oriented person and the detailed oriented person that can result in a high quality product. So once you've figured out and that's just an example of what that self-awareness can bring you when you go through this analysis of yourself it can be very intimidating, especially if you are someone who doesn't like to talk about yourself. But I would encourage you to look at it this way it is better for you to know yourself than for others to continue to tell you who you are and you're trying to figure out.
Speaker 1:Is that not who I am? Knowing who I am and continuously doing some type of SWOT analysis mentally on paper and continuing to do different analysis? I just did a CliftonStrengths finder analysis and someone who is a coach in CliftonStrengths she did a coaching session with me on a podcast and I will attach that link in the show notes, but I'm going to share that with the Ambitious Nurse Insider audience. I have such self-awareness about myself that there was really nothing in the list that took me by surprise. It's just interesting in how the test interprets your answers, but there was nothing that took me by surprise. I think the thing that probably did take me by surprise was what didn't show up, because it shows where I am mentally in the work that I do. I would be very intrigued to know what my strengths were, maybe about five, 10 years ago, compared to where they are now, and so I'm just going to go ahead and take you through a SWOT analysis. I'm also using a link that I will share with the Ambitious Nurse Insider Group. I am sharing a link to just kind of give me a format.
Speaker 1:I've walked people through a SWOT analysis, but I thought it was good for me to just kind of do some research and the research pretty much validated research of some questions using a SWOT analysis. Many times a SWOT analysis is done in business so that they can make a plan for something else, but I've found a few personal SWOT analysis to help me to better articulate the questions that you need to ask yourself under each area. Ask yourself under each area. So take out a sheet of paper, make it into four quadrants. So put a line down the middle and then top to bottom, vertically and horizontally, and in each quadrant I want you to list strengths, the next quadrant I want you to list weakness, the next quadrant opportunities and the next quadrant threats. As you review, note things that may impact your career growth, analyze the areas that stand out that you can take advantage of, to grow or lead you to the next steps in your career. If you want to go deeper, I invite you to jump on a career coaching, a career clarity coaching call with me.
Speaker 1:But we're going to go through this SWOT analysis first. So strengths we're going to start with strengths Under strengths. You're going to write down your strengths, but when you're thinking about your strengths, these are the questions I want you to think about. What am I naturally good at? Again, if you're not a person who doesn't talk about yourself or think about yourself, then this might be a little bit hard. It might take you a little bit more time, but you need to take this time out for you because, I promise you, these sort of things really help to lead to joy in work. It is very important. What am I naturally good at? What advantages do I have that others don't? What would my boss or coworkers say are my strengths? So what has somebody told you or said about you that sometimes takes you by surprise, because it's naturally what you do and you're like oh, I thought everybody was like that. No, everyone's not like that.
Speaker 1:What achievements, skills, education set you apart from your colleagues? And then, what connections and resources do you have that can help you to achieve whatever your goal might be. So please take note as nurses, we have to remember that these are not just clinical skills, but they are also soft skills that you need to implore here. They are technical skills that you need to implore. They are or add, electronic skills that you need, technical, electronic skills that you need to add here. All of those things they need to be added right here in this section.
Speaker 1:So let's go to weaknesses. We all have them. We don't want to always admit them, but here's the thing with weaknesses you don't want to be caught off guard with someone telling you you have a weakness. You want to know that you have that weakness and either articulate yep, I'm working on that, or know that wherever that weakness shows up, you need somebody beside you to kind of help you through that.
Speaker 1:Look at these following questions what are my negative habits and or personality traits? Are there any areas where my education, training or skills is lacking compared to my peers? What skills do I compared to my peers? What skills do I want to improve? What do I avoid because of lack of confidence or for my introverts out there? Or what do I avoid because I feel like I'm too introverted for that thing. Lack of confidence and introvertness are two. To me are two different things. Because I'm an introvert, I really boil it down to where does your energy come from? And so I don't want any introvert to try to use that as an excuse for not growing that particular area of weakness. It could mainly be lack of confidence, and you need to work your confidence in order for you to be able to not avoid that thing. If I think about a time when I messed up at work, what did I do? So that's where the weaknesses questions are.
Speaker 1:Let's go into opportunities. What is the current state? What is the current state? What are the opportunities that are available to me in the workforce and in the industry? What are those things that are available to me? So you're asking yourself what is the current state of the industry? Is it growing? Is this an area, is this a pocket of nursing that is growing? Is it shifting? What is the landscape of this pocket of nursing? Is there more opportunity for me in acute care? And I have an FNP and I probably need to go back and get a certification.
Speaker 1:Education Like which route do I need to go in this route. Do I need to go in that route? The MSN and leadership that's a whole nother ball game. Go in that route. The MSN and leadership that's a whole nother ballgame. And there's so many opportunities within that without even going into operations. But what is the current state of the industry? Is it growing?
Speaker 1:What new technology could help me achieve my goals, skill-wise and planning-wise? How could my network help me take the next step? Networking is crucial. So this is also an opportunity to think about. Do I have the right people around me? Do I have the right network around me? And then what new skills can I acquire to increase my value as an employee? And are there professional moves like a career change, a lateral shift that could help me reach my goals more efficiently? So those are opportunities. That's really just kind of taking a step back at the landscape of your entire career landscape and saying those are questions that kind of really do help you to make the shift into the next the thought process.
Speaker 1:Threats are what is going on outside of where you are that may hinder you from growing or from getting where you want to go. So questions could be is my industry changing direction? Do technological advancements threaten my position? If you've not thought about it before. Every time when we come up with some piece of technology, it has somehow or another reduced I'm not going to say replace, it has reduced the need for an actual human and that's the amount of humans in that space. I don't say this to start a conspiracy theory about AI and technology and nursing, because, at the end of the day, they develop these things because we don't have enough nurses. Let's just start there. We don't have enough providers, we don't have enough people in the workforce, so these technologies will never, never replace the critical thinking that comes from you as a nurse. They could never replace that.
Speaker 1:So let's put that right there. Do any of my weaknesses threaten my career success? That's really the question to ask. And then, what is the current state of the economy? I've seen how the current state of the economy has impacted what we do, what we don't do. For some odd reason, healthcare tends to be on a pretty decent side of that, even with the 2008 recession. The hard part was on new nurses coming. It wasn't hard for an experienced nurse because we were already there. The hospitals had an advantage of being able to hire experienced people over newer nurses, and they didn't need, they didn't have, like no one was going anywhere. Those are many of the questions, or those are the questions that you can ask yourself under the strengths, the weaknesses, the opportunities and the threats.
Speaker 1:If now, from there, you take it and then you analyze it and it should help you to decide what you want to do next, match up your categories Like do I have a strength here to correct a weakness here? What in the strengths category can I optimize for where I want to go? What in this weaknesses category do I need to start working on? Do I start making a plan to work on? This opportunities category is helping you to understand the landscape in which you are dealing with and how to navigate that, and same with the threats. But that opportunities run is really just a position to help you to open your eyes as to what direction you want to go.
Speaker 1:And if you want to go deeper and have me review your SWOT analysis to give you direction and help you think through your process for where this could take you and what options you could have with your SWOT analysis, I have one-on-one coaching calls available. All of my free slots have been taken up. It is still a more reasonable fee for those who are just starting out and just getting used to career coaching. I know that sometimes it's something that's very new in our industry. I find, and many people have told me, that this is a gift that I truly have, and I've had to navigate this on my own. I have coached people informally on this and I'm starting to coach people formally on this process. It just continues to refine itself and gets better and better as time goes on, and so I would invite you to go through the SWOT analysis.
Speaker 1:If you want to dig deeper, please feel free to jump on a coaching call with me. The link is found in the show notes. Right there you can click and it will take you right to a page where you can find a time to sign up and we can go from there. See you next time. I hope you enjoyed today's episode. If so, would you take 30 seconds and share it with another nurse who may be unsure of where to go next in their career or maybe need some career clarity? Also, please leave a quick review for the show on Apple Podcast. It brings me so much joy and so much encouragement to know this podcast is helping you. Now go get the career you want and not the one you settle for, and I'll meet you back here next Thursday for another episode. See you soon.
