According to the projection of the US Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), United State is going to run short of over 200,000 registered nurses in 2010, the number is expected to increase to a staggering of 800,000 unfilled nursing jobs. If you are interested to start your career in nursing field, then this is the signal of great opportunities for you to pursue a promising career in nursing. You need to equip yourself with the necessary qualification in order to success in this career and online nursing degree can be your fast track to pave a start for your nursing career.

Online education has been introduced for a long time and it has been well accepted in the job market, no exception in nursing field. You have options to choose to pursue a nursing degree online or following the traditional education path through campus-based university. However, pursuing an online nursing degree has a few advantages that may benefit you.

How Online Nursing Degree Will Benefit You

The enhanced internet technology makes thing easy. Online education has utilized the advantage of internet technology to enable online students to learn from a remote location, meaning that you can pursue an online nursing degree offered by any school, regardless where you stay except if you stay at a place where you can’t access to internet. Hence, if you have decided to start your future career in nursing field, what you need to do is finding an online nursing degree of your interest offered by your selected school without the need to consider factors such as school location and relocation if the school is located far away from your home.

Most online nursing courses are conducted asynchronously, allow you to study at your own pace and logon to the classes at the time your preferred. These online learning features will benefit you especially if you are a working individual who likes to pursue a nursing degree for your career advancement or career switching to the promising career in nursing field.

Pursuing a nursing degree online can be the best option for you when you have a tight budget, which is the common situation for most people due to economy recession. By earning an online nursing degree, you will save money in various forms such as transportation to and from the school (you reach the online school through internet) and the purchases of printed books and references (most materials are in digital format). Besides that, with a proper time management, the flexible learning schedule of online education enables you to even work to earn your income while pursuing a nursing degree online.

Health care careers especially in nursing field are among the hottest careers that will keep booming even in the time of recession. You will be in right career path if you choose nursing as your future career. However, you need to prepare yourself with the right nursing degree to kick start the nursing career you are interested in. Online nursing degree can be the fast track to achieve your career goal.

There is a critical shortage of nurses in America that opens up many career opportunities for those who are interested to join the nursing field. If you are one of them who think of starting your career in nursing field after your graduation, then you need to major in a nursing related degree at your college study. Although becoming a nurse is rewarding and challenging, it may not be your right career if you are not ready to face the challenge of the job. Then, how do you know if becoming a nurse is the right career for you?

Before you sign up a nursing degree, you might want to do a self assessment to see whether you are the right candidate for a nursing job. There are many self assessments on career selection available online where you can find questions to ask yourself and determine whether a career is right for you. A nursing career will be your right choice if you find yourself has below characteristics

1. You are able to deal with traumatic situations

Nursing is a stressful job and a lot of time, a nurse will encounters tough situation such as traumatic situation, suffering and death. Are you able to face such a tough situation with very stable emotionally and without causing yourself a personal harm? If yes, the nursing job is right for you, and you should realize your career goal with a nursing degree.

2. You are a responsible person who care for others

A selfish person can’t be a good nurse because the job requires you to take care of others who need a medical care with patient and able to assume accountability and responsibility. You also need to be a good listener and have unbiased compassion for others.

3. You are willing to work overtime and unfixed working hours

Most nursing jobs are in shifts, you will not have a fixed working hours or a fixed day job if you choose nursing as your career. Sometime, work at off hour or overtime is avoided due to emergency needs. Hence, you must prepare to work at unfixed and long working hours if you decide to start your career as a nurse.

A nursing degree will provide you with the education qualification to pave your career path in nursing field. Nursing is a rewarding and challenging career as long as you are ready to face the job challenges.

Healthcare careers especially in nursing are the ever booming career fields; the demands for nursing expertise are continue to growth in 2 digits projection rate toward year 2012. The high demand has created the best career opportunity for registered nurses to advance their nursing career to next level with a bachelor in nursing degree. The available of online bachelor nursing degree programs provide a flexible and convenient learning channel for registered nurses to pursue their nursing degree online while continue their existing nurse’s job.

You become a registered nurse after clearing the NCLEX-RN or the National Council Licensure Examination. This examination enables you to obtain a license to practice nursing within the state where the license was issued. However, if you really want to advance your career in nursing field, a bachelor degree (BSN) in nursing will pave your career path toward a brighter future. Although earning a bachelor degree in nursing won’t get you promoted immediately, but a BSN is a pre-requirement for many higher positions in nursing profession.

There are many prestigious online schools that offered BSN programs which you can choose one that best suit your career goal and enroll to start your courses online. The best thing to earn your degree online is flexible and convenient because it allows you to plan your time that best fit your busy schedule and you can attend the online classes from your comfort home. Most of online BSN programs will take you 2 to 4 years to complete but a registered nurse is eligible to apply for an accelerated RN to BSN program which only takes 2 to 3 semester to graduate. Many online schools allows credit transfer and your job experience may earn you additional credits which will help you to skip some courses.

Some of the important factors you need to consider when searching for your favorite online BSN program. The program must be accredited and offered by accredited online school where the accrediting agency is recognized by Department of Education. You can check about accreditation information at CHEA.org and make sure your preferred online nursing school is listed in the accreditation database before your sign up with the program.

As most of online BSN programs require practical and lab works in order for you to complete your nursing degree program. You should also consider the online nursing schools that have partnered with hospital or health care centers near by your place so that you no need a long travel to complete your practical or lab works. The best option is the online school can allows you to do your practical at the hospital you work.

Once you graduate from your BSN program, you may start to move your career to advanced practice nurse job and pursue your career as specialties such as nurse midwives, clinical nurse specialists, nurse practitioners, and nurse anesthetists, these are the four nursing profession that is the pinnacle of most nurses’ career. BSN will equip you with the necessary knowledge and skills in critical thinking, leadership and management, which make you to be a strong candidate for top managerial positions and of course earning higher income.

Summary

The high demand in nursing profession creates a good job opportunity for you as a registered nurse to advance your career to higher job position. And online BSN program provides a perfect solution for you to earn your BSN online to meet the pre-requirement for many high positions in nursing profession.

For those who are interested to start your career in nursing field, imaging your career opportunities in next 8 years down the road based on the statistically projection that the medical profession will create another 3.6 millions new jobs, which 60% of them will be open for those with nursing degrees of one kind or another.

By holding a nursing degree, you career opportunities not only limit to hospitals, many private medical centers and health care organizations are looking for expertise in nursing field to fill their job positions which have very attractive salary and employee’s benefits. Here are 5 rapidly growth nursing career fields that are open to you with a nursing degree:

1. Pediatric Home Health Care

Pediatric Home Health Care is one of the growing nursing professions to fulfill the demand for the needs of Early Intervention Programs. Early Intervention Program is a special program to identify children under the age of three years with special needs. The growth of demand for Pediatric Home Health Care has opened the door for nursing degree students to create their career success in this field. It gives you the opportunity to work with children and parents and help those children with special needs to make a real difference in their lives.

2. Elder Home Health Care

The America nowadays has gone into the phase of “Aging”, which mean more and more senior citizens require special care in their homes. Nursing assistants, registered nurses and licensed nurses are the candidates who can help this senior group to maintain a higher quality of life by providing a few hours of medical care a day or week at their home.

3. Critical Care Transport Nurse

Critical Care Transport nurse is one of the most interesting and fascinating nursing jobs available for those who are pursuing nursing degree. The job itself requires multiple nursing degrees with specialization in various nursing and health care field. The main job function of a critical care transport nurse is accompanies patients who need to be transferred from home or a nursing facility to another nursing facility. The nurse is responsible to take care of the patient in the back of an ambulance and handle any emergency that happen to the patient along the way of transfer.

4. Blood Donor Center

Working at Blood Donor Center with any position will makes you part of the life-saving network. For nursing degree students with specialization in phoresis are highly in demand for the job positions in Blood Donor Center which can command high salaries. Base on the nursing degree specialization, you can choose to join the management team to ensure the smooth operation of the Blood Donor Center or be a technical stuff to do the research and blood collection.

5. On-Site

Another widely open opportunity for medical workers with nursing degrees is be an on-site nurse. If you like to work in places like amusement park or zoo; or in the medical office at state national park, or provide medical backup for the emergency workers at a beach, then you definitely like to be an on-site nurse. In conjunction with the growth of travel industry, the demand for on-site nurses is increased. This is good new for nursing degree students as they will have more choice on their nursing career selection.

Summary

Nursing career opportunities has increased tremendously in conjunction with the demand for health care expertise in various fields which fierce for well paid nursing job positions.

Your future is guaranteed bright if you choose nursing as your future career after you complete your degree in nursing because the nursing employment opportunities will continue to grow in next 10 years down the road. Basically, you have 2 options to complete the degree, either though online nursing degree program or follows the traditional campus-based nursing program. Online degree program may be a good option for many students looking at it advantages that can benefit most students, but you may not be a right candidate for online education. Hence, before you enroll into an online nursing degree program, you should ask yourself whether pursuing your nursing degree online is right for you.

Being an online student is not as easy as most people think of. Many online students failed to complete their online degree program just because they are not prepare to be a success online student. Hence, if you intend to pursue your nursing degree online, you should consider whether online study is right for you or you may learn better at campus-based classes.

Most online nursing degree programs allow their students to have some extends of self-pace learning. It will benefit students who like flexi learning environment and students who are working while pursuing their nursing degree. But, it can be the factor that causes students who do not have self-discipline to fail in their online study. If you are a person that needs somebody to look at your back or tell you when to complete a task, then earning your nursing degree online may not be a good option for you.

You may need to explore the features and how to use the online learning system of the school. Although the school will provide you with the “how-to-use” guide on their learning system, you still need explore each feature and try them to get yourself familiar with the online learning system. If you are a person that hates to learn new things by yourself without a guide from another person, then you may not effectively use the online learning system to complete your online nursing degree program.

Another key difference between online learning and campus-based study style is you need to read a lot of text materials from computer or printouts, whereas in campus-learning environment, the lecturers will explain the course materials and you just need to sit, hear and take some notes. Which learning style do you prefer? If you prefer the campus-based style, then you should not consider online nursing degree.

Can you communicate effectively through online media such as online chat, discussion board, web video conference or email? These are the major communication channels for online learning environment; you need yourself familiar on how to use them effectively before you consider getting your nursing degree online.

Summary

Basically, you have 2 options to pursue a nursing degree, either online nursing degree program or campus-based nursing study. You should always consider which option works best for you so that you have the best learning environment to earn a nursing degree.