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There are multiple educational pathways to becoming a registered nurse. Education for an RN can include: To become a nurse is to become someone who improves and saves the lives of others. If you’re looking for a career where you can put your desire to help others to excellent use, becoming a nurse is an excellent career path for you. Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Office of Occupational Statistics and Employment Projections.
If you are looking to become a nurse in Connecticut specifically, you can also look forward to a stable career (and income) with room for growth over the years. The Connecticut Department of Labor ranks Registered Nurses among the top occupations with the most job openings today. By 2028, they predict that nearly 3,000 positions will become available to aspiring RNs in the state of Connecticut. The Demand for Registered Nurses Nurse midwives assist in labor and delivery and provide gynecological exams, family planning services, and prenatal care to women. Compare the job duties, education, job growth, and pay of registered nurses with similar occupations. More Information, Including Links to O*NET There are opportunities to work in a wide range of settings and to progress your career in specialist roles or maybe into teaching, management or research. You’ll need some experience in a more general role before you specialise in an area that interests you, such as intensive care nursing, health visiting or occupational health nursing. Moving into a specialist role may involve studying for further qualifications. Nurses can work in a wide variety of specialties with many different patient populations. They can also work in a variety of settings, including:The committee believes achieving the goal of 80 percent of the nursing workforce having a BSN is possible in part because much of the educational capacity needed to meet this goal exists. RNs with an ADN or diploma degree have a number of options for completing the BSN, as presented below. The combination of these options and others yet to be developed will be needed to meet the 80 percent goal—no one strategy will provide a universal solution. Technologies, such as the use of simulation and distance learning through online courses, will have to play a key role as well. Above all, what is needed to achieve this goal is the will of nurses to return to higher education, support from nursing employers and others to help fund nursing education, the elevation of educational standards, an education system that recognizes the experience and previous learning of returning students, and regional collaboratives of schools of nursing and employers to share financial and human resources. A registered nurse is a nurse who has obtained a nursing degree, has passed the NCLEX-RN exam and has fulfilled all other state licensing requirements. While an associates degree is the minimum education required to sit for the NCLEX-RN exam, a bachelor's degree or higher is becoming more commonly preferred among employers. For more information about becoming a registered nurse, you can read our registered nursing career guide. Explore resources for employment and wages by state and area for registered nurses. Similar Occupations Since nursing is such a highly sought after profession that requires advanced training, education is key to your successful journey to becoming a nurse. Many employers now prefer that nurses have a Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BSN) over an Associates Degree in Nursing (ASN) or RN. Nurses with a Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BSN) develop the breadth of knowledge and clinical experience needed to succeed in today’s complex health care system. Nurses, physicians, and other health professionals have long depended on continuing education programs to maintain and develop new competencies over the course of their careers. Yet the 2009 IOM study Redesigning Continuing Education in the Health Professions cites “major flaws in the way [continuing education] is conducted, financed, regulated, and evaluated” and states that the evidence base underlying current continuing education programs is “fragmented and undeveloped.” These shortcomings, the report suggests, have hindered the identification of effective educational methods and their integration into coordinated, comprehensive programs that meet the needs of all health professionals (IOM, 2009). Likewise, the NCSBN has found that there is no clear link between continuing education requirements and continued competency. 18 A new vision of professional development is needed that enables learning both individually and from a collaborative, team perspective and ensures that “all health professionals engage effectively in a process of lifelong learning aimed squarely at improving patient care and population health” (IOM, 2009).
The nursing job outlook is also expected to grow in other healthcare settings where patients do not stay overnight, such as urgent care facilities, emergency rooms, and physicians’ offices. These patients need same-day care and procedures such as chemotherapy, rehabilitation, and some surgeries. Nurses will also be needed in rehabilitation and longer-term care settings, to educate and care for patients with chronic conditions. From January 2021, some universities are offering adult nursing courses where the theoretical content is mainly delivered online, making it easier to fit studies around home life. You can search for the courses, sometimes called 'blended' courses on our course finder. Other ways to become a nurse Registered nurse degree apprenticeships (RNDA) There is – and will always be – a constant need for healthcare services. In turn, there will always be a need for Registered Nurses and other nursing professionals. Still you may be wondering, why is the nursing field expected to grow so much in the coming years? Clinical Nurse Specialist. A clinical nurse specialist works with patients in a variety of specialties in an advanced setting. To become a clinical nurse specialist, you must hold a master's degree. Numerous sets of core competencies for nursing education are available from a variety of sources. It has proven difficult to establish a single set of competencies that cover all clinical situations, across all settings, for all levels of students. However, there is significant overlap among the core competencies that exist because many of them are derived from such landmark reports as Recreating Health Professional Practice for a New Century (O’Neil and Pew Health Professions Commission, 1998) and Health Professions Education: A Bridge to Quality (IOM, 2003b). The competencies in these reports focus on aspects of professional behavior (e.g., ethical standards, cultural competency) and emphasize areas of care (e.g., prevention, primary care), with overarching goals of (1) providing patient-centered care, (2) applying quality improvement principles, (3) working in interprofessional teams, (4) using evidence-based practices, and (5) using health information technologies.Nurses who receive certification, including those serving in all advanced practice roles, provide added assurance to the public that they have acquired the specialized professional development, training, and competencies required to provide safe, quality care for specific patient populations. For example, NPs and CNSs may qualify for certification after completing a master’s degree, post-master’s coursework, or doctoral degree through an accredited nursing program, with specific advanced coursework in areas such as health assessment, pharmacology, and pathophysiology; additional content in health promotion, disease prevention, differential diagnosis, and disease management; and at least 500 hours of faculty-supervised clinical training within a program of study (ANCC, 2010a, 2010c). A caring and compassionate nature, and the ability to deal with emotionally charged and pressured situations are important traits in a nurse. As nursing education has moved out of hospital-based programs and into mainstream colleges and universities, integrating opportunities for clinical experience into coursework has become more difficult (Cronenwett, 2010). Nursing leaders continue to confront challenges associated with the separation of the academic and practice worlds in ensuring that nursing students develop the competencies required to enter the workforce and function effectively in health care settings (Cronenwett and Redman, 2003; Fagin, 1986). While efforts are being made to expand placements in the community and more care is being delivered in community settings, the bulk of clinical education for students still occurs in acute care settings.
Registered nurses usually take one of three education paths: a bachelor’s degree in nursing, an associate’s degree in nursing, or a diploma from an approved nursing program. Registered nurses must be licensed. PayFor more information about clinical nurse specialists, including a list of accredited programs, visit The future of access to basic primary care and nursing education will depend on increasing the number of BSN-prepared nurses. Unless this goal is met, the committee’s recommendations for greater access to primary care; enhanced, expanded, and reconceptualized roles for nurses; and updated nursing scopes of practice (see Chapter 7) cannot be achieved. The committee believes that increasing the proportion of the nursing workforce with a BSN from the current 50 percent to 80 percent by 2020 is bold but achievable. Achieving this target will help meet future demand for nurses qualified for advanced practice positions and possessing competencies in such areas as community care, public health, health policy, evidence-based practice, research, and leadership. The committee concludes further that the number of nurses holding a doctorate must be increased to produce a greater pool of nurses prepared to assume faculty and research positions. The committee believes a target of doubling the number of nurses with a doctorate by 2020 would meet this need and is achievable.
Did you know nursing is the UK’s most employable type of degree, with 94% of students getting a job within six months of finishing their course?
Online degrees
A registered nurse degree apprenticeship (RNDA) offers a flexible route to becoming a nurse that doesn’t require full-time study at university.
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