Time for an upgrade

Data from the the Occupational Employment Statistics Program showed Registered Nurses that are employed in hospitals yearly salary is on the average 79,400 and they were the largest occupation in the hospital The largest ancillary staff in the hospital were nursing and medical assistants, these jobs had an yearly average salary of $32,550 for the Nursing Assistants and $37,170 for the Medical assistants. Registered Nurses are also the largest Healthcare occupation with over 2.4 million workers in the United States.

The number of people in the Healthcare industry has almost doubled within the past 20 years, with that in mind, the Healthcare work force should consider conventional and unconventional ways to keep up to date in their skills set. One conventional way of keeping up to date in your skills set is advancing your degree by returning to formal education. If your are an LPN consider advancing your degree to an RN, if you are an RN with an associates consider a BSN degree. Also, license renewal of your CPR certificate, your Pediatric advanced life support and your adult cardiac life support certificate will enable you to advance in your knowledge. These are conventional ways we keep our skills sharp, renewed.

Keeping our skills set sharp via a nursing simulation lab can be considered unconventional because this method has just been introduced into nursing education in recent years. During a nursing simulation training session you practice your skills in a mock scenario, say a code blue scenario. High tech life size patient simulator manikins are used, staff members use roll play. Not only do you get to practice your nursing/medical skills on challenging scenarios you may encounter in the healthcare setting, but you get to collaborate with your peers about your mock patient, this can enhance your learning experience. Finally, online learning has grown within the last 20 years. You can work at your own pace and update your skills anytime of the day or night, which is a perfect situation for the healthcare industry because of our shift work. Our ranks are growing, Let's grow with it and always improves our skill set.