Why Many Nurses Don’t Get a Clinical Promotion…

Undoubtedly, the most frustrating thing I experience as a coach, is when amazingly talented clinicians want to apply for new roles yet haven't done the work!

You see, I have been described as a master wordsmith. Yet, that only really works when my clients have the experience for me to draw out and communicate their awesomeness.

If you don’t have the experience or haven’t done the work – you still have a chance but it’s a much harder sell.

In order to get ANY promotion in healthcare, you need to do these four things.

If you want to work in education, team leadership, NUM, policy, ADON, DON, CEO, you need experience in these four things to set yourself up for success.

Grab your note pad and start brainstorming how you can start taking action now!

1. You need leadership experience.

Many of you think that you need to have leader in your title to be considered a leader. Then, there are a few of you who might be thinking “If I am not being paid a leadership allowance – I ain’t leading”. If you're the latter, this post is definitely isn’t for you!

Everyone is a leader in healthcare. If you are working a weekend shift and you want to develop your leadership, buddy up with the team leader and ask them if you can lead half the ward. Work alongside them and learn the ropes. Create opportunities within your work to lead. There are so many options available and they will be invaluable when it comes to your application and interview.

2. You need to have educated others.

This could be in a formal or informal capacity. Either way, you must educate and share your skills and knowledge with others. This could be presenting at the weekly quality board huddle or maybe even 10 mins at handover. For those keen to be all fancy, you could present formally, develop content, book it into the wards calendar, and invite all your nurse buddies! All of this counts towards demonstrating that you are contributing to the workplace and the development of your peers! PS this experience needs to be more than educating students.

3. You need to have engaged in and completed or developed your own quality improvement project.

Quality Improvement is a critical component of any healthcare senior role. Whether you work in policy or clinically as an educator. So, how do you go about creating change within the hamster wheel that is your ward, where no one wants to change!

You find something that is sub-par within your unit. Something that is prevalent with scope to improve practice around.

You must make sure it links directly to the national standards for safety and quality in healthcare. You know those standards that NUMS harp on about all the time that no one actually knows anything about – yes those!

Some key topics/ideas for you to consider:

- Falls reduction

- Reducing pressure injuries

- Improving patient experience

- Medication safety

- Hand hygiene improvement

- Educational initiatives (patient and staff)

The ins and outs of the QIP process should be discussed with your educator/manager to assess suitability and a plan. First things first, come up with an idea and explore any local incident reporting data to confirm if it’s an area that needs to be improved.

4. You need to have shown that you are committed to professional and personal development.

Completing in-house mandatory doesn’t count – I’m sorry.

If you want to climb the ranks – anything you can do that sets you apart and above the rest is worth investing in!

Do you need that master's before you apply – no, that’s not what I'm saying.

However, if you haven’t done anything extracurricular in your career for more than 1-2 years, this is a red flag. If you are applying for a management role and the last time you did any PD was 5-10 years ago, they will see right through it!

For example, if you apply for a research role and you have never done the research it's kind of obvious. People interested in research would have done some form of training in this space – you get my vibe?

So, there you have it!

You need to activate the above in advance of applying – not the week before! Please, it happens all the time and it’s dead obvious!