What can nurses do to be more happy in their career? - Page 3

Don't do it, if you don't love it. (No, that doesn't mean that you will love it everyday. There will be bad times and days, but overall, you should love what you do, care about people, and you should make it your business to continue learning and practicing with excellence.)
If you don't love it anymore, go into a different area or do something else. Gotta pay the bills? OK. Start making a exit plan/strategy or do this as you work per diem.

Miserable, insecure, and lazy nurses make for miserable, insecure, less productive, and potentially unsafe environments.

Yoga keeps me from killing people.

Yoga heals all. Seriously.

I make sure I take my 1 hour lunch break every workday. In 3 yrs this happened less than 10 times I know for sure. When I take lunch I LEAVE THE UNIT. Play games on my phone, call friends, browse the internet.

When I leave work if I had a stressful day I am able to "offload" to my hubby, who is very understanding or other RN friends. Any issues I have with management or coworkers I take directly to them at the time it happens so there are not lingering problems or hostility in the workplace.

Some days off I sleep all day if I want. Some days off I go on mini vacations and excursions.

I do know that the majority of ppl that I KNOW that hate nursing are those that work multiple places in short periods of time (unstable), always work overtime, can't seem to stay out of trouble, lack the personality it takes to get along well with others, drug addicts/abusers, and those that are accident prone/negligent.

Video games.

For myself it was returning to school and pursing a MSN-Nursing Informatics...Learning is a powerful tool. I figured if I'm going to continue in nursing to keep goals that are reachable. Focus on your own health, I know we have patients to care for...But don't forget to treat yourself well. Just a few of my favorite things in my down time rest, travel, movies, going out to dinner with a few close friends, laugh often. Reward yourself often.

I'm not working currently...but I think sitting and talking to my loved one relaxed me some, when I did work. Sitting outside where I could breathe fresh air and look at nature was good too.

What can nurses do to be more happy in their career? The answer is simple: stop looking at nursing as a job and look at it as a career. If you're not happy with what you're doing, do something else. Nursing is one of the few fields that offers so much diversity in practice, location, hours, education, etc. A career is a life and a life well-led implies change and growth.

Work less. I don't enjoy working full time hours, so I don't do it anymore. I need a good balance between work and home.

Yes and no. I agree with you main idea. The reality is, you have to be able to work. Thus, as I have suggested in other threads, it is wise to have another position, whether it be per diem or PT. You really do have to protect your ability to work. I have seen the goofy stuff within nursing politics. It never ceases to amaze me--never, and that is after 20 years.

But I would say, in looking at nursing as a career, yes. Do things that will move you toward your advancing goals in your career.

Thing is, you have to do this, while also staying active and making some sort of living. In say, going back to school in order to advance, you may have to take a position or two that isn't your ideal position, but it keeps you active and helps pay the bills. You can deal with it b/c hopefully it gives you flexibility in achieving the academic goals, even if you end up making little less money or are doing what you ideally want to do in nursing. It's about the big picture.

You have to stay current, make a living, and continue to work on your goals. So if that means finding to positions that meet these criteria, that's what you must do. It may not be your ideal setting or area, however, since you are actively taking courses to move toward your goal, it's alright. You make the most of it specifically b/c it allows to work toward your goal, whereas working in other settings and with problematic schedules and needless stress would interfere with say your study time and GPA, thus affecting your future goals.

You are right. You have to look at it as a career, and you must continue to strategize, all while combining your work-life balance. It's tricky.

I remember throwing everything into my higher paying, highly specialized nursing positions that sapped up so much of my time and energy--and sucked the life out of me. I loved those places--the actual clinical work I did, but the more specialized, often times, the more politics--and the positions were often demanding and stressful enough by their own nature, without all the added political BS. I remember having to make a choice about doing what I loved, which meant working environments and schedules that were not conducive to a balanced life and top academic success versus getting better work/life balance and maintaining academic success. I truly missed what I did in those environments, but I did not miss the stupidity of the scheduling or the inane nursing/hospital/unit politics. In order to move ahead, however, there are times where you have to make a choice. In terms of long-term survival, I think it's about maintaining your ability to work as a nurse as you move toward your overarching goals.

So it's yes and no. It's a career, but it's also a job. How you balance and counter-balance that depends upon what is most important at the moment in order to help move you toward your future goals.