Examples of Professional Nursing Goals: Skills, Education, Earnings | Coursera

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Discover examples of educational, competency, earnings, and nursing career advancement goals to help you plot your way forward on your nursing career path.
Professional nursing goals include earning an advanced nursing degree, moving into a leadership position, or becoming competent in a specialized area.
Registered nurses and advanced practice nurses earn a median total pay of $99,00 and $105,000, respectively [1,2].
Short-term professional nursing goals may focus on skill development, and long-term goals may include earning an advanced degree in the field.
You can set professional nursing goals to help you advance your career, measure your progress, and enhance your sense of purpose.
Discover examples of nursing goals that you can use as inspiration to develop your own. If you’re ready to enhance your nursing skills, consider enrolling in the University of Minnesota’s Integrative Nursing Specialization. You’ll have the opportunity to learn about integrative nursing principles and therapies in as little as two months. Upon completion, you’ll have developed in-depth knowledge that may help you as you advance your nursing career.
Setting goals establishes a process for evaluating and monitoring progress toward your nursing career objectives. Your goals outline a career path roadmap guiding you to obtain the skills, experience, and education you need to succeed.
Goals help you measure progress: Specific goals, such as earning a certification in a specialized area, are much easier when you set actionable steps and deadlines for yourself.
Goals help you build your resume and develop the right competencies: Get focused on precisely which certifications and licenses you may need to boost your resume and move into a specialty. This can include taking classes, attending workshops, and participating in conferences for additional credentials.
Goals increase your sense of purpose: Setting goals is a motivator for keeping track of your progress so that you evaluate your career against your own achievements. Learning and building skills builds confidence.
Goals can set you up for career advancement: Whether you want to become a director, move into a more laid-back nursing opportunity, or start your own health care business, setting goals helps you progress faster.
Your goals can focus on anything that helps you in your professional nursing career. Establish goals that fit your nursing career path and commit to achieving them.
Develop a list of experiences you want to gain. What do you want to achieve in your first three months of practice? This can help you make the most of your time and become competent more quickly. Setting a tangible goal can give you the courage to put your hand up to volunteer, even if it is challenging.
• Assess and plan care needed for a specific type of patient
• Care for patients in both pre-surgery and post-surgery settings
• Measure and administer controlled drugs
• Take blood from a patient with difficult veins
• Do a patient handover to a senior nurse
• Supervise staff in a ward
• Care for patients in an acute medical setting
• Mentor a support worker or health care assistants
• Support patient families through an emotional time
For many nurses, success in their career is synonymous with advancing to progressively higher nursing levels. From nursing assistant and nursing assistant II to registered nurse (RN), nurse practitioner, and clinical nurse specialist (CNS), you can move up the ranks and achieve greater autonomy and responsibility. As you gain experience, you can also move up the pay scale.
The following are some roles and median total pay to shoot for:
Certified nursing assistant (CNA): $47,000 [3]
Licensed practical nurse (LPN): $77,000 [4]
Registered nurse (RN): $99,000 [1]
Advanced practice nurse (APN): $105,000 [2]
Executive director of nursing: $132,000 [5]
All salary information represents the median total pay from Glassdoor as of October 2025. These figures include base salary and additional pay, which may represent profit-sharing, commissions, bonuses, or other compensation.
The nursing profession offers you many career paths. You can work in clinical roles, research, education, management, public health, or consultancy. When mapping out your job progression plan, it’s a good idea to look at the resumes of people doing the job you want. Reviewing LinkedIn profiles can help you gain insights to plan your nursing career path.
Being a nurse is more than just a set of technical skills like drawing blood and taking a temperature. A good nurse is a critical thinker, an ethical problem solver, an expert at time management, a team leader and builder, and overall, a patient, detailed, and compassionate human being.
You can set goals to build your workplace skills and practice them in your work.
To maintain competency in your current role, you'll want to stay up to date with new equipment, advances in health care technology, and treatment options. By increasing your technical nursing competencies and mastering new clinical procedures, you can advance your nursing career.
You may set goals to develop competencies such as:
Using urgent and emergency care equipment
Checking, monitoring, and assessing vital signs
Being proficient in compassionate patient and family education
Using medical information systems