Explore nursing careers you can pursue with a BSN, MSN, or DNP from UL Lafayette, plus the career services to help you land your first job.
There has never been a better time to pursue a degree in nursing. Whether you're earning your first bachelor's degree, advancing from an associate degree in nursing, or ready for a master's or doctorate, nursing offers job security and opportunities in nearly every setting. Whatever your goal or passion, there's a place for you in the nursing profession.
What Can You Do With a BSN?
As a new registered nurse, you might start in a hospital to gain clinical experience, in specialties such as:
- medical/surgical
- oncology
- psychiatric/mental health
- pediatrics
- critical care
- emergency
- labor and delivery
- the nursery
Others work in surgical areas (preoperative, intraoperative, or postoperative units), home health, outpatient surgical centers, or clinics.
As you gain experience, you might earn certification in an area like critical care or inpatient obstetric nursing; become a flight nurse, diabetes nurse educator, or case manager; work in a correctional facility; or move into leadership as a nurse manager or director.
What Can You Do With an MSN?
Master's-prepared nurses work as advanced practice registered nurses (APRNs), nurse educators, nurse executives, and in other specialized roles. At UL Lafayette, you can earn your MSN as a family nurse practitioner, psychiatric/mental health nurse practitioner, or nurse educator — preparing you to provide primary or mental health care in your community, or to teach the next generation of nurses as nursing faculty or a clinical instructor. Explore our MSN concentrations.
What Can You Do With a DNP?
The Doctor of Nursing Practice is a terminal degree focused on clinical practice. Nurses with a DNP become leaders in clinical, administrative, and health policy settings to advance health care and improve outcomes. DNP graduates work in hospitals, outpatient settings, schools of nursing, and government, in roles spanning clinical practice, management and executive leadership, academia, health policy, research, risk management, and quality improvement. As the population ages and health care becomes more complex, nurses with advanced degrees are needed more than ever. Learn about the DNP.
Get Clinical Experience
You'll build real-world skills in clinical rotations at hospitals, clinics, and health care agencies across the state, starting with your first clinical course. See our clinical partners.
Find Jobs and Plan Your Career
We want to help you build your career, starting while you're in school and continuing after you graduate. UL Lafayette Career Services can help with your resume, interview practice, and internship and job searches; find current openings on Handshake.
Not sure nursing is the right fit? Explore majors and careers at UL Lafayette.