Alternative Nursing Careers

If you want to care for patients outside of a hospital setting, you have more options for alternative nursing careers than you might think. Organizations, large and small, continue to recognize that nurses play a clinical role within the health-care sector, and the skills nurses offer can be applied in multiple settings. 

You can use a BSN degree to become any of the following:

• Clinical research nurse: focus on individuals participating in clinical trials
• Cruise ship nurse: take to the high seas to care for travelers
• Flight nurse: care for individuals before, during, and after air transport
• Hospice nurse: help terminally ill individuals (and their families) face death
• Forensic nurse: assess, screen, treat, and collect forensic evidence from victims of crime
• Informatics nurse: find the best ways to utilize technology to improve patient care
• Legal nurse consultant: collect, organize, audit, and maintain health records to apply relevant medical information to legal cases
• Nurse recruiter: help organizations find applicants for job openings in nursing
• Private practice: care for individuals in a private practice setting
• School nurse: promote student and staff health and safety in educational settings ranging from K-12 and even into higher education, meeting the needs of these groups
• Travel nurse: serve populations across the nation and potentially around the world, helping to alleviate temporary nurse shortages