Today, it’s more opportune than ever that we establish our professional and personal presence as nurses. As the trajectory and impact of nursing continues to evolve, we as modern nurses are seeking and exploring new and uncharted career growth.
We no longer perceive growth within our profession to be as simple or bee-lined as pursuing nursing management, a position in healthcare administration, or getting an advanced practice degree. While those options are absolutely still of interest and on the table, we are maneuvering on a career lattice, rather than a ladder.
Concurrently, the world needs more nurses.
That’s more often than not talked about from the perspective of sheer numbers—the broadening gap between supply and demand from a clinical standpoint. Even more dire, but seemingly less acute, is the need for nurses in various capacities and from a variety of experiences and backgrounds.
As nurses, we have such a unique combination of soft and hard skills that are undoubtedly transferable or highly valuable to businesses and organizations across industries or verticals within healthcare. The opportunities for nurses to apply these skills and knowledge in new ways while gaining new exposure and skills will be fundamental for nursing and global healthcare to reach its potential.
Nurses are needed in boardrooms, startups, in finance, design, technology, and during planning processes, discovery, and market research. Yet, we cannot expect to simply be considered for or included in these opportunities without making ourselves known, or discoverable.
Being discoverable simply means others are aware of you or are able to locate you. We tend to have bias toward action for this personally but not specifically or integratively for our professional presence.
Being discoverable means that others are able to gain insight into your experience, perspective, passions, projects, and expertise. They’re able to understand your skills and what you’ve accomplished professionally and what you do and can offer.
Being discoverable creates opportunity. It enables doors and people to appear that didn’t know existed or were seeking. It presents you as a solution, partner, mentor, or ally someone didn’t know they needed. It’s putting yourself out there, even without a specific intent or knowing exactly what for, but trusting that it presents opportunity.
In fact, 20% of the company here at Trusted Health is composed of registered nurses. And a great majority of those nurses had made themselves discoverable to us.
If they can’t find you, they can’t possibly know how you would be an asset to their organizations or movements. It’s also a way for fellow nurses to understand what types of opportunities may exist for them as a result of the experience they’ve had.
Being discoverable requires action, proactivity, and intentionality. While the internet and social networks make this more easy and convenient than ever, it doesn’t just end there. Below are some ways you can start making yourself discoverable today.
Are you a professional? (Hint: If you’re a nurse, the answer is yes.) Yes? Make a LinkedIn profile, please.
It’s so simple and the ROI is huge. For the minutes that it takes to create a basic profile, you’re suddenly discoverable to almost 600 million others. While you’re at it, do some quick searches for people you might be interested in connecting with.
Connect with and follow mentors, leaders, and people and companies whose mission and vision you’re aligned with. Discover people who are currently working in capacities that interest you.
Share your thoughts—either by commenting, re-tweeting, or through an original thought.
Spend a few minutes each month exploring organizations that seem interesting. Say yes to invitations. Extend an introduction to those with whom you share common connections and interests, offering your time. They’re forums to share your thoughts, opinion, perspective and work while learning about the work others are doing.
We run a group called The Modern Nurse on Facebook, where anyone with a Trusted profile is able to join to socialize, network, and learn more about what's happening in the nursing world.
The good news? We’ve built out a platform and tools to help you do all of this, from one location.
With a Trusted profile, you can create an application-ready resume in minutes with our simple resume builder and real-life examples; discover where a nurse’s salary can take you with our average pay and cost-of-living explorer; and, explore facilities in cities across the US, and save the ones you want to apply to to your short list.
What are you waiting for? Get out there and get noticed! Sign up.
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