Congratulations! You’ve graduated from Uni with a Bachelor of Nursing. But now you’re wondering “What’s next?” There are so many opportunities at your fingertips that it can be tricky to know which path to take. This is especially true after you’ve had a year of experience after your graduation. But with a lot of choices, it can be tricky to know what to choose. Many graduate nurses will work at a hospital or other healthcare facility in a graduate role at first. But after that first year of experience, so many new pathways open that you can take. To help you find the best career path for you, we’ve detailed a few of the many options available so you can find the best route forward. Benefits of nursing Nursing is an incredible career path. Many people who become nurses do so because of their love of helping people. But also, there are other benefits to becoming a nurse. A key thing about choosing the right pathway is ensuring that it maintains all the reasons and benefits you expect and desire for becoming a nurse. The common benefits you’ll receive across most career paths are job security, professional growth, a variety of specialties and work settings, and competitive salaries. Each career pathway offers these benefits to a varying degree. We’ll touch on the availability of these benefits within each opportunity below. Career paths: As you’ve likely seen or heard, there are a lot of career paths for nurses. There are too many for us to cover in just one article. So, we’ll be looking at some common employers and specialisations to help you get started. Let’s break down the top 5 career paths you could take! Nursing Agency Agency nursing is a highly diverse, flexible, and exciting career path that allows you to experience many different aspects of nursing on your own terms. You won’t find a more flexible career path. Agency nursing involves working for an agency where you’ll be placed in a variety of different healthcare facilities to fill available shifts. The key thing with agency nursing is that you can pick the shifts that you want to work, in your preferred facilities and roles. It allows you to work around your schedule and take full control of your career. Agency nurses tend to have the highest pay rate, excellent opportunities for personal growth, variety of specialities and work settings available. As with any casual work, there are peaks and troughs in the amount of work available, but there is always enough work to fill your month with shifts. Staff nurse Becoming a staff nurse in a private healthcare facility, aged care home, school, or more is a very common pathway for many nurses. It’s extremely popular for its job security, stability, and ability to make a positive impact. You’ll find a lot of variety in locations and roles, many in unexpected places. However, once you’re in the role, there are far fewer opportunities to find variety without leaving your current role. Many nursing facilities will have training programs in place. But, some nursing roles outside healthcare facilities may have fewer opportunities for professional growth. So the availability of education and upskilling will vary depending on your role. As well as this, job security and pay will vary depending on your employer. Public nurse Public nurses work in public health facilities like state hospitals, Medicare facilities, and more. It’s a career path with a tonne of job security, professional growth pathways, and plenty of opportunities to make a positive difference. Pay is consistent and set by established awards. This is the perfect option if you want stability in one facility and one role. Public health can be harder to get a job in with more competition per role. So, a great option for nurses looking to put their foot in the door of public health is through a nursing agency. You can pick up public health shifts, explore different facilities, and build connections. Travelling Rural & Remote Nurse If you’re looking for the most variety in work settings and roles, then you’ll love travelling as a rural and remote nurse. Rural and remote nursing also offers some of the highest salaries and benefits as these healthcare facilities look to entice nurses to these locations. You’ll have the opportunity to deliver high-quality healthcare to communities in need. The variety of challenges, opportunities, and scenarios you’ll work with offer excellent on-the-job professional growth. We have some partner agencies that offer a wide variety of rural and remote contracts across the country. You can pick up a contract for a few weeks in one town, then move across to another. When you’re back in the Gold Coast you can just pick up some shifts with Carestaff and keep on going. It’s perfect for those looking for the ultimate amount of flexibility. Following specialisations Beyond different employers, there are a lot of specialisations to follow. Each will lead you down a different path with different facilities and different employers. Specialisations are great for taking your nursing career to a new level, allowing you to follow the path you’re most passionate about while becoming more valuable to employers. Options in nursing like emergency room, operating room, clinical, aged care, and so much more, allow you to focus on the aspects of nursing you love the most. You can get started by taking relevant training courses and working in facilities or nursing agencies that offer roles in your chosen specialisation. Conclusion Nursing is a varied and exciting career path. Once you’ve graduated from nursing and have gained some experience in healthcare facilities multiple different pathway options open up. We hope the information we’ve provided will help make your choice clearer as to the direction you want to take your career. If you want to get started in agency nursing, feel free to reach out to us.

Congratulations to our Nurse of the Month for April, Faye! She’s been loving making a positive difference in the lives of her patients, while being supported by Carestaff’s friendly team. We love having you on the team Faye. You can check out her interview below! What do you enjoy the most about working with Carestaff? I like really enjoy working with the agency because Carestaff are friendly and caring. Tell me about a rewarding experience you’ve had whilst working with Carestaff? Facilities that I work at asking for me to come back to work for them again because they are happy with my nursing What makes you passionate about nursing? I love my job! Helping people with different needs. Receiving feedback from patients/clients saying that I made a difference and helped them. I feel like I am making a positive impact on people’s lives If you had to sum Carestaff up in one or more words how would you describe Carestaff? Wonderful, everyone is amazing