Nursing Certifications and Specialization (RN)

00:01 We've mentioned nursing specialties on here a few times, so I just wanted to clarify what those actually are.

00:07 After you have been working in any particular area for a few years, you will be eligible to sit for a specialty certification exam, basically saying that you are very good at that kind of nursing.

00:19 You will usually attend a review course for this and do practice questions and the whole nine yards.

00:25 And if you do get your certification, some hospitals will give you, like, a small raise or let you climb, like, the "clinical ladder".

00:33 Which basically means you get a small raise at some point in the future if you jump through this hoop and maybe a few more.

00:40 Specialty certification, the whole purpose of it is it kind of it looks awesome on a resume, and it gets you involved with other people in your specialty.

00:49 And this is particularly help you if you want to join like a local association for other people in that specialty.

00:55 It also advances your learning and knowledge in your specialty area of choice and gives you more fancy letters to add to the end of your name, basically making you more of a leader in that space.

01:06 If you aren't feeling like doing the certification thing, you can also learn more about your chosen area of nursing by joining nursing societies, attending conferences to network, and you can also get involved on your unit based committees. And that's something that can kind of incorporate furthering your knowledge without having to take more tests and stuff.

01:27 There are a lot of different ways to advance your knowledge and just your career in general without going back to grad school.

01:35 But if you are curious about grad school, we will finish up this course by talking about that in the next playlist.