Author Topic: Recareered nurses  (Read 1870 times)

Typhoid Mary

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Recareered nurses
« on: October 25, 2016, 06:07:21 PM »
I'm 35, I've been a SAHM for a number of years and I recently returned to nursing.  I've been in healthcare for 17 years, starting with my first CNA job at 18.

I'm typically not a complainer, but I'm hating being back.  I thought maybe I was having trouble returning to work after being home with kids, but it's the actual job itself. I have no qualms with working, but I daydream about potting up plants at Earl May or working for a florist for minimum wage because I'm just so over the stress.

I know most mustachians recareer for max earning potential.
Anyone out there downsize their career or completely recareer to save sanity in your remaining working years?


ender

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Re: Recareered nurses
« Reply #1 on: October 25, 2016, 06:12:39 PM »
Don't miss the trees for the forest. If you have to work 10 years at a job you hate and instead could work 12 or 15 at a job which is tolerable (or, gasp, even enjoyable) it should be a no brainer.

It's possible working and burning out as a nurse may be the equivalent of trying to buy a forest, without ever stopping to realize all the trees are dead or dying.

Bracken_Joy

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Re: Recareered nurses
« Reply #2 on: October 25, 2016, 06:16:10 PM »
I'm 35, I've been a SAHM for a number of years and I recently returned to nursing.  I've been in healthcare for 17 years, starting with my first CNA job at 18.

I'm typically not a complainer, but I'm hating being back.  I thought maybe I was having trouble returning to work after being home with kids, but it's the actual job itself. I have no qualms with working, but I daydream about potting up plants at Earl May or working for a florist for minimum wage because I'm just so over the stress.

I know most mustachians recareer for max earning potential.
Anyone out there downsize their career or completely recareer to save sanity in your remaining working years?

Posting to follow! Nurse who is taking time off for kids here. The stress thing... I love being a nurse, as in I love what I know and having done it. But many days I still wish I could go back and just... work as a barista or something. Calmer, social but with low stakes, etc. Matters of life and death, every day, gets really tiring =\

lizzzi

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Re: Recareered nurses
« Reply #3 on: October 25, 2016, 06:23:14 PM »
RN here for 45 years, and in health care for 47 if you count my teen-age years as an aide. I'd suggest changing jobs rather than changing careers entirely. After 20 years or so of floor work in hospitals, I was quite seriously going to go into real estate, when a neighbor who was a nurse talked me into trying home care. What a revelation! I loved it--always said I would have done it whether they paid me or not. And when my mother, also an RN, started burning out on hospital nursing (head nurse on a VA ortho-neuro floor), she just told her bosses to find her something less stressful, or she would leave. So she finished out her career doing Mon-Fri daytime hours in one of the VA clinics--dermatology I think. You'll make a lot more in money and benefits if you can find a nursing job that doesn't do you in, rather than going into retail. And also you'll be using your education, and helping people in ways that most folks can't.

pbnj

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Re: Recareered nurses
« Reply #4 on: October 25, 2016, 07:20:09 PM »
Like above poster mentioned consider an out patient clinic, or if you no longer want direct pt care there is care management, discharge planning, nursing education,  various QA departments.  If I had to do it all again I would learn Coding, most of ours (major hospital system) work from home.  Check out your options on your internal job postings.  Keep an open mind, go to interviews to learn about the job! 

Classical_Liberal

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Re: Recareered nurses
« Reply #5 on: October 25, 2016, 08:05:04 PM »
I was in banking and actually BECAME a hospital nurse about 4 years ago, after 3 more years of expensive schooling.

Yikes, right?!

Currently a traveler.  There are certainly days where I long for time behind a desk and wooing clients at happy hour.  At least as a nurse, I get to be honest and sometimes actually help people.

I see the burnout factor though, it's actually what brought me into the fold here.  I realized my plan of finding a second career that would simultaneously let me be honest, helpful, save some lives, earn a living wage, and bring fulfillment until the day I die would likely fail.  I'm still OK with nursing, but my years are numbered, for full-time at least.  Trying to save lives while dealing with unrealistic management expectations, horrible hours, minimal sleep between shifts, etc.  It ain't for someone who no longer finds the joy.  Since becoming a traveler I have found management pretty much ignores you, which has probably increased my longevity by quite a bit.

Others are right, there are plenty of slower, less stressful things for an RN to do.  I think if my FIRE plans get delayed, I'd do urgent care or clinic work.  Maybe something fun, like work on a cruise ship.  You could always get a desk job, personally It'd drive me insane.

lizzzi

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Re: Recareered nurses
« Reply #6 on: October 26, 2016, 05:56:18 AM »
Forgot to mention my cousin, another hospital floor nurse burning out. She found a job in another hospital, but it's a paper-pushing job mostly...something to do with the insurances. I think she might have to do some physicals, but that's the only hands on care involved in the job. Otherwise, it's all paperwork.