As a nurse there are so many opportunities to grow your career through temping. In fact, as you gain exposure to different scenarios and ways of practicing patient care, administrative duties, and working with different people, you not only broaden your nursing knowledge, you open your mind. An open mind and a caring heart, combined with experience make you unstoppable in your nursing career.
Temping is the ideal way to gain experience in other healthcare environments. Especially if the job you’re in right now, and the specialty you’ve chosen, are growing a little stale. If you’re in Orthopedics and crave a change, you don’t necessarily have to jump long-term into an entirely different specialty that may produce regrets.
Temping allows you to take your time and sample other situations. Maybe you want out of the big hospital environment, or would like to experience the hustle and bustle of an urban setting. You might opt for a stint in a skilled nursing facility, or an emergency clinic. There are plenty of opportunities available to you through temping.
Growing Your Nursing Skills Through Temping
In any career the best way to grow your skillset is through hands-on experience. Nurses probably understand this better than anyone. What you read in a book or manual, and apply even in a staged scenario in nursing school in no way prepares you for the situations and events you’ll encounter in a clinical setting. Experiencing all that you can in a hands-on manner will only make you a better nurse. Here are some other ways temping can help you grow in your career:
Exposure: One of the biggest ways for you to grow through temping is by your exposure to new settings. You’ll become knowledgeable about practices and techniques previously unfamiliar. You’ll meet and work with all different sorts of personalities-both patients and coworkers. Administrative duties might be more efficient and you may be able to take the things you learn to your next position.
When you’re temping not only will you learn about the facility employing you, but those in charge will get to see you at work. You bring your own unique way of doing things and you have the ability to impress those decision makers who could very well offer you a permanent position.
Experience: When you cast your temping net you can find many different opportunities you may not consider otherwise. A different specialty will allow you to pick up new skills, or hone those skills you already possess. A new environment will grant you the opportunity to provide patient care under different circumstances than that with which you are familiar.
Relocating, either to a new medical facility, or a new part of the country, will introduce you to communities and cultures that are possibly new, and different from your previous position. This allows you to provide care and work with patients you may not have been exposed to otherwise. When you begin tempting you see your career in a new light. You become re-energized with each and every new opportunity.
Flexibility: As a temporary staff member you learn to be flexible, a valuable trait for any employee to possess and something hiring managers look for, especially in a hospital environment. A willingness to compromise, to cover for a coworker when called upon, and to change shifts when need be, isn’t something all nurses are eager to demonstrate. When temping the very nature of your job is to be flexible, to a degree. You learn to adapt and adjust to certain policies and procedures. The protocols you practiced at your prior job may not be practiced at your new position. You’ll need to rise to the occasion in order to have a successful temping experience.
Leadership Opportunities: Temping locally, and throughout the country, affords many nurses the opportunity to develop leadership skills. The above mentioned flexibility is key to leadership, as is experience. You have made several new acquaintances and upped your pool of networking connections. For those nurses serious about growing their career, partnering with a professional staffing service can help you move up the ladder much more rapidly than if you were to stay in a permanent position and advance through the ranks.
Temping Can Also Jump-Start Your Nursing Career
Recent graduates of nursing school will find temping can help you build your resume. You may even find your dream job through temping. Also, temping through a professional staffing agency will enable you to “test the waters” and find out the types of skills new employers hold valuable. Temping is never dull and your professional staffing service will do everything possible to ensure the best match between you and the medical facility for which you’re working.
The Future is Bright for Nursing Temps
There’s no shortage of available jobs in the nursing field, that’s for sure. And the future of healthcare is nothing less than a nod toward job security for those in nursing. The “Baby Boomer” generation is beginning to get older, causing a rise in the need for quality patient care. Nurses will be counted on to provide that care. Temping provides you an opportunity to grow your skills as a nurse, and develop an aptitude for patient care. Temping also allows you, as a nurse, to find the exact right place to realize personal job satisfaction. And that makes it all worthwhile.
