You want to make sure that you get the right job when you first leave nursing school. Using the skills that you have learned, you want to be able to make a difference in a patient's life and truly help others. But just like any other job, you need to prove to people that you are the one that is best qualified to handle the challenge. Here are some steps you need to take in order to get your first nursing position.

Go to the Best School You Can

Since nursing is a professional degree, you need to undergo professional training at a community college or local university. This will help you meet the requirements, as set by your state, to become a licensed nurse. Research your area to find the best nursing school. It is important to find a school that you can afford and that includes services for helping you get a job once you graduate. To help expedite the process of getting a job, you may want to look for a nursing school that is directly affiliated with a local hospital. This will give you a better chance of getting hired at the hospital in which you trained.

Meet and Exceed Your Requirements

It goes without saying that you will want to do your best work in order to get the nursing job that you want. Try to do well in your classes as well as volunteer. Volunteering shows your commitment to nursing and to helping people. You might also want to take classes outside of your nursing curriculum to further enhance your nursing resume.

For example, you might want to look into:

• CPR and Heimlich training

• Disaster response training

• First aid classes

• Relief volunteering

• Hospital volunteering

By taking the time to study hard and to further see how you can help in the health field, you will begin to show others just how valuable you are in terms of being hired.

Network, Network, Network

It never hurts to network along the way when you are in nursing school. Try to talk to as many people as you can about the fact that you are a soon to be graduating nurse that wants to get a job when you're out of school. Talk to your own doctor's office and send out your resume to hospitals and offices where you would like to work – even if you haven't graduated.

What you're trying to do is get your name out there so that when you graduate, you will be the first person they think of when they need to hire someone. Or at the very least, you might be directed to other potential opportunities that can help you get a job.

Be Open to Opportunities

During all of these steps to getting your nursing degree, you will want to be open to any and all opportunities that you might come across. This means that if people want to offer you jobs or tell you where you might be able to get a job, be sure to follow up with these leads and see where they might take you. Even if you end up interviewing for jobs that don't appeal to you, you might end up meeting someone who can help you in the future.

There are ample positions within the nursing field due to the current nursing shortage, but it is important that you find the best position you can for your first job. You never know where this first step might take you.