Susana Moraga ⋅ Hayward, CA California State University East Bay ⋅ 20 years experience

Lyra,
It appears that you truly need to decide what you want to do and develop a mentor to help you move forward. Start with informational interviews with people in roles that you aspire to.

Many people pursue education without a goal, more education may or may not help you.
If you are not managing this is a skill you need to develop if this is your goal.

Once you have a target it will be easy to know where you need to focus your energy.

FRANCIS TEPEDINO, ESQ. ⋅ San Diego, CA THE CONDOR GROUP ⋅ 30 years experience

I am impressed with your evident drive, and educational background, etc. Here is my "two cents". To gain, a Senior - "executive" management position in your field - get a Juris Doctor. Caveat: - not so you can practice LAW - ( most all organizations have Law Staffs), but so you can rise to where you aspire, and impress the others sitting around a conference table that you are well grounded - not only in what they know, but in what they probably do not know. You have a wonderful background in nursing, however: Your field is so heavily regulated - and will become more so - that senior executives with a legal background are required to run the larger organizations.

Feel free to contact me if you wish.

Francis J. Tepedino

Rex Conger ⋅ Gilbert, SC Perry Memorial Hospital NR NH Pensacola ⋅ 50 years experience

Congratulations - you have everything going for you! My thought is to continue to follow your military career - the networking you can do there and experience you will continue to gain is all marketing of yourself that you will be able to use in the military and in the civilian world.

Next is to make sure that you are keeping your accomplishments updated in your resume - that updated document will always be available to share with your network when opportunities appear.

The beauty of Nursing is that there are so many doors and career directions that you can take any time in your life. You need to decide what makes you "feel" best at the end of the day and makes you want to get up and go to work the next day. Is it Clinical (taking care of patients or helping guide and direct others taking care of patients) - Is it Teaching (in a university environment or in a large healthcare organization where you also have the opportunity to do hands on or direct educational programs) - Is it Administration (If you really like responsibility guiding and directing organizations and people - there are so many opportunities available - Hospitals, Public Health, large healthcare organizations or even the insurance industry).

The sky is the limit!

Best wishes

REX

Rick Glanz ⋅ Charleston, SC NaviHealth ⋅ 1 years experience

Lots of options from. Whatever you choose, make it be known to your boss that you would like to move towards management positions. Get them to tell you what the next steps would be and perhaps get them to mentor you. In whatever job you are doing, pay attention to detail and make the extra effort to do the little things that will make you stand out.

If you are in a hurry, you can probably advance faster in a postacute setting (like skilled nursing facility) or if you like a more hands off role think about working for an insurance company.