Nursing education includes classroom instruction and supervised clinical experience in hospitals and other health facilities. Students take courses in anatomy, physiology, microbiology, chemistry, nutrition, psychology and other behavioral sciences, and nursing. Coursework also includes liberal arts classes. Supervised clinical experience is provided in hospital departments such as pediatrics, psychiatry, maternity and surgery. A growing number of programs include clinical experience in nursing homes, public health departments, home health agencies and ambulatory clinics.
Nurses can advance to assistant head nurse or head nurse.
From there, they can advance to assistant director, director and vice president of nursing. Increasingly, management level nursing positions require a graduate degree in nursing or health services administration. They also require leadership, negotiation skills and good judgment. Graduate programs preparing executive level nurses usually last 1 to 2 years. Within patient care, nurses can advance to clinical nurse specialist, nurse practitioner, certified nurse-midwife or certified registered nurse anesthetist.