Getting a job is likely the top priority for every nursing student as he or she gets closer to graduating from school. It's never too early to start looking for job opportunities in your city and even around your state. If you're in this situation, you might immediately think about jobs at hospitals, urgent care centers, and family clinics. Each of these venues has a need for nurses and can be worth investigating. What you might not realize, however, is that there are many other places that you may be able to find work. Here are some additional options to consider when you're looking for a nursing job.
Home Care Agencies
Home care agencies employ many types of healthcare professionals, including nurses. If you like the idea of working with your patients in their homes and helping them to continue to live independently, this may be a job for you. There's a lot of variety when you work as a nurse for a home care agency. For example, you might visit several different homes throughout a given work shift, administering a wide range of care for your patients, or you might spend much of a shift with a single patient. There's also a good chance that you'll be able to develop long-term relationships with some patients, which may be desirable to you.
Schools
Many schools have on-site nurses who are responsible for providing care to students. Whether a student has suffered an injury in gym class or a student has a suspected case of food poisoning after lunch, his or her first stop will likely be to the nurse's office. There are many reasons that you might favor this job environment. For example, perhaps you want to work at your old high school to give back to the community, or maybe you feel as though you'd relate well to high school students if you're only a handful of years removed from high school.
Shelters
Another venue to consider for a nursing job if you're looking for something unique is to see if any shelters in your community have current openings for nurses. Homeless shelters, for example, will have nursing professionals on-site to administer care for those who use the shelter's services. In such an environment, you can expect to deal with a wide range of physical issues among your patients — and you'll take pride in improving the quality of life for some of the community's most vulnerable residents.
