Advancement Opportunities of Professional Nursing

At a time of the global economic recession, the healthcare professions, including nursing are experiencing an unprecedented upsurge in enrollment. The competition for the most lucrative of nursing positions are on the horizon, not only from US-trained professionals, but from foreign-educated nurses as well – the foreign nursing experts from the Philippines, India, Pakistan, among others.

There are two tracks which a professional nurse may pursue in relation with his work – the clinical and management tracks. The former is involved in pain management, beside care and assisting the physicians in surgical operations.

The latter is involved in the day-to-day administration of hospitals and clinics, assisting management in the way these medical institutions are being run.
The management track is involved in ensuring full efficiency in the deployment of nurses to the different departments of the hospital, and in providing contingency support in the event of a lack in human resources in a department.
On the other hand, there are many ways by which nurses may advance themselves in their profession. At present, one of the more lucrative specializations in the nursing profession is being a nurse-anesthetist. He is involved in the general pain management of patients, under the direction and supervision of the physician-anesthesiologist.
Being a nurse-anesthetist involves greater care and discretion in handling patients compared to regular non-specialized nurses, because it entails the administration of potentially-fatal anesthetic drugs.
Meanwhile, nurses uninterested in greater pay can opt to involve themselves in international nursing work, as part of the staff of international medical organizations such as the Medicins Sans Frontieres (Doctors Without Borders), a most recognized international organization of doctors and nurses deployed in the most depressed areas of the world.
Another field that may be pursued can be that of being a nurse-lecturer in a nursing school, especially now when there is great demand for highly-trained nurses to fill the positions of old nurses about to retire.
For my part, I would pursue the clinical track of the nursing profession, because I believe that it would continue honing my bedside skills further and it would provides a sense of greater fulfillment in view of the fact that I shall continue being in constant interaction with patients whom I serve to the best of my abilities.
References:
Work in the Field. Doctors Without Borders. Retrieved from             http://doctorswithoutborders.org/work/field/ on April 8, 2009.
American Association of Nurse Anesthetists. Education of Nurse Anesthetists in the United     States – At a Glance. 2005. Retrieved May 23, 2007, from http://www.aana.com/educuscrnas.aspx