Looking For Your Next Career Step as a Nurse Practitioner?
Posted on 24th May 2023
After the Covid-19 pandemic, it’s become clearer than ever that medical professionals are the backbone of our society, whether we’re in the middle of a national health crisis or not. Understaffing led to serious burnout amongst many medical professionals, including nurse practitioners – and those who stayed can now command incredible wages for their work, helping to ensure that communities across the nation have access to high-quality medical care.
In particular, nurse practitioners are highly sought after, as they have the experience to seamlessly occupy a number of different positions within the medical industry. Nurse practitioners have the knowledge of a registered nurse plus additional training and clinical education; they may work as a generalist or in a specific practice area, such as psychiatry, paediatrics, oncology, or emergency care. Their focus on holistic healthcare, including preventing diseases at work and home, makes nurse practitioners invaluable as the American population ages and more individuals embrace a healthier lifestyle to avoid disease.
If you’re already a nurse practitioner or are looking to jump into this hot profession, which the US Bureau of Labour Statistics estimates will grow by 40% through to 2031, you’ve likely been using general job boards like LinkedIn, Indeed, or Monster to find your positions. While these are definitely a good place to start, they’re not the most comprehensive guide to industry-specific positions, as many hospital systems may not even consider using a job board that might attract applicants from outside the healthcare field. Today, we’ll discuss some of the benefits of using nurse practitioner job boards, as well as tips for how to stand out once you’ve applied.
You won’t have to wade through pages of irrelevant job listings
If you’ve trained as a nurse practitioner and would like to work in your field, it makes little sense to use a job board that hosts listings from every industry imaginable; even with the strictest filtering protocols, you’re bound to get numerous listings that have nothing to do with nursing. Worse yet, the jobs you do find might actually be scams, as there’s a lower threshold for quality with these more general job boards.
However, when you search through a career-specific job board, you’re guaranteed to find real job listings by legitimate hospital systems or private practices.
You’ll get more specific results
If you’re a nurse practitioner who has specialized in a particular subfield, you might be frustrated that you can’t easily search for your specialty on a general job board. If you add the title to your search, you might accidentally block out useful results that don’t have the exact label, because some hospital systems list their positions slightly differently.
On a career-specific job board, this isn’t a problem, because the jobs are categorized by profession and specialty. These websites are specifically set up to assist hospital systems and private practices find qualified healthcare professionals,
Many sites include helpful career advice and links to job fairs
Because industry-specific sites are made for healthcare professionals, they can provide specialized information regarding career advancements for nurse practitioners and others in the medical profession. Sites like Indeed or Glassdoor usually provide only general career advice, which may or may not be helpful to a nurse or doctor, but industry-specific job boards will have information tailored to your needs.
Get the most out of a nurse practitioner job board by following these tips
First, make sure that you work with a reputable job board. If you’re already a nurse practitioner, ask your colleagues if they used a career-specific job board to get this position and whether they found it useful. Look up the reputation of a career specific job board you use, making sure to note any particularly egregious complaints.
Input your CV so that it will autofill on listings to save you time, and be sure to upload a PDF version of your CV and cover letter so that its formatting will stay consistent.
Finally, sign up for job alerts if the website allows this. You’ll be able to quickly apply to positions as soon as they are made available, which boosts your chances of getting the job.
Career-specific job boards are a lifesaver for nurse practitioners seeking new employment. When you’re ready for your next position, skip the general job boards and get right to the heart of the matter by choosing a specialized website.
