For most nurses, our career planning begins and ends with the statement, I want to be a nurse. We may tag on more detail, such as, I want to be an Informatics Nurse Specialist, or I want to be a Family Nurse Practitioner. But nurses who actually have a plan for their careers with specific and measurable goals are rare. Career planning is not something we are taught and instead must figure out along the way. I firmly believe every nurse, including Informatics Nurses, should have a career action plan to guide us.

Getting lost in your nursing career

Career planning is not taught in most nursing schools. The primary guidance I received was to learn about the different types of Nurse Practitioner I could become. There was little discussion about the many other areas where nurses build careers. I heard about nurses working in technology, public policy, starting their own companies, and leading entire health systems. But there was no career counselor at the school to help me think through where I wanted to take my nursing career, or how to create a plan to get there. I was told to get a year of medical-surgical nursing experience, and then think about what to do next. Even though this is age-old advice, it is not a substitute for career planning.

It is no coincidence that Nursing both lacks career guidance and has a high rate of burnout. Nursing is the #2 profession for burnout rates, right under physicians. And according to a survey of nurses from earlier this year, 61% of nurses are concerned about burnout, and 1 in 5 is planning to leave bedside care or the Nursing profession.

I know there are many problems that contribute to our profession losing nurses. But the lack of career guidance does not help. We release nurses from school with no map and no compass, and tell them to ‘figure it out.’ It should not surprise anyone that when nurses reach their limit at the bedside, they say goodbye to Nursing altogether instead of looking for other nursing career options.

What a career action plan can do for you

If there is one thing most nurses have in common, we like organizing what we need to do into a checklist. Maybe you have been doing this without realizing it, but if you start your shift (or your vacation planning, or your shopping trip) by making a list of everything that needs to get done, and you get a sense of satisfaction each time you cross something off, you are one of us. If that is true about you, then you will really enjoy creating a career action plan.

A career action plan is simply a way of organizing your long term goals into smaller, achievable tasks with specific steps and time-frames. Even if you are not a list maker, a career action plan has many benefits. Here are just a few:

Benefit #1: Creating a sense of purpose

The reason why so many nurses are natural list makers is because having a clear path of what we need to do gives us a sense of purpose. We like to outline what is expected of us in a given period of time. A career action plan is no different – it creates a clear, high level goal and a set of steps to get there. It helps us to wake up each day with purpose knowing we are heading somewhere.

For many nurses, we got into this profession to help people. But then we actually start helping people, and realize this job is way more complicated than we could have imagined. The work of a nurse is not as simple as just helping people, and having that as our only career driver is not sustainable. But how different would you feel if you knew you were working towards a specific goal? That each day you were taking steps towards a bigger, brighter future? Having that sense of purpose is a game changer.

Benefit #2: Staying focused

You know those nurses who not only create a checklist at the start of their shift, they also color code it in order of priority? Oh, you are one of those nurses? Why am I not surprised… Well, then you know the main reason to order tasks by priority is to stay focused on what is most important.

A career action plan plays the same role in keeping you focused on the tasks that will actually move your career forward. There are many ways for nurses to get sidetracked on the path towards bigger goals. We may be offered extra shifts, a per diem side gig, or a certification in something having nothing to do with our larger goal. A career action plan helps to keep us focused on the main goal so we can weigh other opportunities that come up and whether they are worth our effort.

Benefit #3: Gaining a sense of accomplishment for achieving goals

Oh, the joy that comes with crossing something off the ‘to do’ list! Is there anything better?

Why yes, yes there is. It is the joy that comes with crossing something off the career action plan that took you months or years to accomplish. When you actually do something you said you would do in the next six months, or achieve a 5-year goal in 3 years…that is some serious life satisfaction!

How to create a simple nursing career action plan

When I provide career coaching for others, I help them create a career action plan through the following steps:

Step 1: Define where you want to be in 5 years.

When you picture your career in 5 years, what does it look like? What type of work do you do?

What types of skills, experience, and qualifications do people in this role have? Which of your skills, experience, and qualifications do you have now that will help you in this role 5 years from now?

What do you need to get to your 5-year goal?

Step 2: Set SMART goals.

If you have not heard for SMART goals before, SMART is an acronym and these are goals that are:

• Specific
• Measurable
• Attainable
• Relevant
• Time-based

The idea of setting SMART goals is to break your 5-year goal into smaller goals that you can tackle. These goals will create the path in a way that is achievable. Take a look at what you outlined as things you need to get to your 5-year goal, and create smaller SMART goals for each of those items.

Step 3: Make a plan for the next 90 days, 6 months, and 1 year

Organize your SMART goals into a short-term plan you can start working on now. I like organizing them into goals for the next 90 days, 6 months, and 1 year so I can see exactly what I need to work on first, second, and so on.

Key Takeaways:

As nurses, it is rare for us to be taught how to plan our careers. Most nursing schools are so focused on getting nurses trained and out into the workforce that little thought is given to where we may want to take our careers and how to get there.

A career action plan is a great way for nurses to set longer-term goals and organize the steps we need to take to get there. Every nurse, not just Informatics Nurses, should have a career action plan.

If you are a current or aspiring Informatics Nurse and would like more hands-on career guidance, please check out my Services page for career coaching offerings. In addition to helping you create a career action plan, my services cover:

• Reframing your past experience so it is is relevant for Nursing Informatics
• Resume and LinkedIn page review
• Interview preparation
• Networking and job search strategies

Again, check out my Services page for more information.

Looking for an easy place to start learning about Nursing Informatics? Check out From Bedside Nurse to Informatics Nurse: A How-To Guide, available in our online store.