Career Change for Nurses

A career in nursing is extremely satisfying for many people. After all, what can be more rewarding than helping others? However, stress associated with a career in nursing can get overwhelming. It’s not uncommon to hit severe levels of burnout as a nurse too, which is far from healthy in every way.

When it comes to your nursing career, are you satisfied? Are you making enough money? Do you feel fulfilled? Do you have enough energy after your shifts to enjoy life? If your answer to any of these questions is no, it may be time for you to take action and consider a change in your career.

Many of us start to contemplate our  career choices at some point in our lives. Our current role may not  feel as rewarding financially or emotionally as we expected it to be. It’s completely natural to feel this way, and it’s okay to change your mind. We know change can be stressful, but it can be the best thing for you.

We want to make your life easier, so we’ve created an in-depth guide with 10 career paths you can change into with your nursing background. Let’s get started.

10 Best Career Transitions for Nurses

Physical Therapist

From helping someone alleviate the pain of arthritis to teaching someone to regain mobility, a Physical Therapist’s life can be challenging, yet exceptionally rewarding. As a Physical Therapist, you’ll be responsible for diagnosing and treating people who suffer from conditions that restrict their ability to move. You won’t just help patients restore mobility and other physical functions, but also play a key role in improving their quality of life. You’ll need to have thorough knowledge of kinesiology as well as human anatomy. In addition to this, you should  be able to motivate and encourage patients struggling with limited  mobility. Physical therapists, in many situations, play the role of both a medical expert and a cheerleader. As a former nurse, you’re likely used to these main roles, so a career in physical therapy could be an excellent choice for you.

Digital Marketer

It’s safe to say that over the last few years, marketing has undergone a paradigm shift. What was once accomplished with flyers and posters is now done through Facebook posts, paid advertisements on the web, and other digital strategies.  

According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, employment in advertising, promotions, and marketing is projected to grow by 6%. Digital marketing may not be a conventional career change option for nurses; however, given the very promising job outlook, it’s certainly a field worth considering.

Because of your healthcare expertise, you’ll be able to land a ton of health-related work. Once you understand the basics of digital marketing, you can incorporate them with your nursing  knowledge to support health-based companies. If you’re interested in going this route, check out our Digital Marketing Bootcamp.

Speech-Language Pathologist

Speech-Language Pathologists are also known as Speech-Language Therapists. They're clinicians who are responsible for evaluating, diagnosing, and treating language disorders, speech disorders, swallowing disorders, cognitive-communication disorders, and voice disorders. They also collaborate with psychologists and pediatricians for diagnosing and treating the autism spectrum disorder. As a Speech-Language Pathologist, you may also opt to run your own clinic or work for local, state, or national agencies and associations.  

This may be a good option for you if you want to continue in the healthcare sector. You’ll be required to obtain a master’s degree in Communicative Disorders or Speech-Language Pathology to land yourself an entry-level job in speech-language pathology. However, the good news is that you can often achieve a master's at some schools while you still work.

Medical Writer

Medical Writers are skilled wordsmiths who compose scientific documents. These documents include research-related and regulatory documents, informative materials about drugs, articles meant for publication in medical journals, content for healthcare magazines, websites, and newspaper columns. The information contained in these documents should be presented in a way that matches the level of comprehension of physicians and patients alike.  

One of the major requirements for being a Medical Writer is sound knowledge of medical terminology and concepts paired with excellent writing skills. As a nurse, you've got the medical terminology knowledge, and if you’re concerned about your writing style, there are plenty of courses online that can help. So, this can be a promising career path for you.

UX/UI Designer

As a UX/UI designer, you’ll collect, research, investigate, and evaluate user requirements. Your goal is to provide the best user experience online. You’ll collaborate with the design and marketing team to ensure seamless implementation of UX/UI design practices. You may also need to help with UX research, and test activities for analyzing and predicting user behavior.

As a nurse, you’re probably quite empathetic. For this reason, you have a good understanding of people, and you’ll be able to use that to your advantage in this role. In your current position you probably try to make your patients as comfortable as possible, and UX/UI designers do that as well, but in a digital setting.  

Transitioning into a technical field from healthcare may seem daunting. However, with readily available resources, you can equip yourself with the necessary skills in no time. We offer a UX/UI Bootcamp to help you learn everything you need to transition into this exciting field.  

Corporate Wellness Consultant

As a corporate wellness consultant, you’ll be responsible for guiding and educating your corporate clients on how to improve their health and lifestyle. You’ll help clients meet their health-related goals by training them personally and counseling them on weight management. You may also be responsible for creating, implementing, and managing fitness related programs and events, monitor contracts with fitness vendors, and manage wellness websites.  

While a degree in nutrition in preferred, it isn’t mandatory. You may have to take up training to be eligible, however. You may choose to be associated with a firm who provides these services or be a self-employed wellness consultant.  

Pharmaceutical Sales Representative

As a Medical Sales Representative, you’ll promote your company’s products like prescription drugs, medicines, as well as medical devices. Your customers will include general physicians, doctors, nurses, and pharmacists. You’ll be tasked with servicing existing accounts, obtaining orders, and establishing new accounts. In addition to this, you’ll create sales presentations after conducting thorough research on the potential sales outlets and other factors. You’ll also gather marketplace information to monitor competition, answer queries related to the products you’re promoting, and more.

Transitioning into medical sales for a nurse is quite easy as long as you’ve got a persuasive personality.

Teacher

If serving people was the driving force for you to take up a career in nursing, teaching may be an excellent alternative. As a teacher, you’ll work in close proximity with children, educate and help them sail through the struggles of young adulthood, and prepare them to face the world. With a strong science and medical aptitude, transitioning into teaching will be simple for a nurse.  

You can choose to be a high school teacher or join a nursing school to teach and train aspiring nurses; that way, you can stay in touch with your medical world if you so choose.

Nutritionist  

Nutrition’s one the most popular fields for nurses who want to transition into a different career. As a Nutritionist, you’ll be responsible for advising your clients on matters related to food and its possible effects on health. You’ll assess the health conditions of your clients and create personalized diet plans for them accordingly.  If you want to become a Nutritionist in a hospital setting, you’ll need to go to school for Dietetics. However, if you’d like to work elsewhere, you can take a certificate program.

Health Service Manager

Health service management can be an excellent alternative career for nurses. Health Service Managers are also referred to as Healthcare Administrators or Healthcare Executives. As a Health Service Manager, you’ll be responsible for planning, directing, and coordinating the healthcare services in a single department or an entire facility.  

Being a nurse, you most likely know about laws and regulations related to healthcare, billing and budgeting, healthcare services, and so on. If you’re not fully aware, then there are certification courses you can take. This knowledge can take you a long way, should you choose to pursue a career in health service management. More than one-third of Health Service Managers work in clinics and hospitals. Most facilities ask for a bachelor’s degree in health service administration, but this varies among facilities.  

If You're Not Happy in Your Nursing Career, Make the Switch

If you’re looking for a change, we hope that you can now see that you have many options. In fact, there are more options than we’ve listed, so don’t worry. Start to imagine how you’d feel in each of the positions above and see if any excite you.  

If something interests you, it’s time to research it and see what steps you need to take to get there. We’ve got tons of options in our bootcamps, which can be taken part-time while you work. Our bootcamps can be super helpful because even if something’s completely unrelated to nursing, we teach you all the skills to land good jobs in the field. Plus, if you don’t land related work within 6 months of graduating, you don’t pay a cent. So, take a look at what we offer and we hope you find what you’re looking for.