Career Change .. can't do nursing anymore :(

Why do people have to keep using the phrase eat their young...???I get so sick of hearing that, and I don't even think a lot of people who use it realize what it means.

At any rate, I want to get out of nursing for a lot of the reasons you describe, only you forgot to add that, yes, the patients can be and are an issue too. A lot of the snotty nurses I have had the misfortune to meet are snotty regardless of what setting they are in. But you know, I've met some good people in this profession, too.

Wish I could do something else, but it isn't always an option, especially when you live in Hooterville, USA.

Commit a med error, somebody can die, poor assessment skills
and somebody winds up intubated. I don't think anyone has ever died from an accounting error or had permanent paralysis from the wrong choice in carpets

The one thing that has consistently shocked me during my twelve years as a nurse is the fact that so many nurses are unprepared for the stress of the actual job. Inpatient nursing in any setting(OR, PACU,ICU, med-surg,etc)
is quite literally a life or death business on a minute to minute basis for 12 hours a day. Commit a med error, somebody can die, poor assessment skills
and somebody winds up intubated. I don't think anyone has ever died from an accounting error or had permanent paralysis from the wrong choice in carpets
so it's understandable that many professions are less stressful than nursing. I've found that the people who come to nursing as a second career seem to grasp this much better than those who choose nursing straight out of school due to their greater life experience and maturity. Again this is only my experience. I came to nursing from the Army where I was taught that preparation, training, and teamwork would get the job done and allow you to handle the stressors of the job. I've been fortunate to have been trained by tremendously compassionate and caring nurses and to have worked with people who understand that the only way to provide safe quality care is to work as a team and to abandon the nursing school mindset that I am responsible only for my patients. I think if nursing schools would teach teamwork and cohesion rather than promoting competition and comparison the results would be far fewer shell shocked nurses and a nursing community that could change patient care for the better. Off my soapbox now and congrats on your newfound happiness.

Firstly...congrats you!!

I have been weaning myself out of nursing for awhile now. No more OB, no ED or surg or LTC. It's still my source of income, but thank goodness for my nurse consulting job. I sincerely think that MOST nurses are only really good till about mid 50's and then it's a very good thing to move on. Sure, you can stay "good enough", but not really at the top of the game. I call it 'old nurse syndrome'...still plenty smart, but just time to go. So many have to stay in it for the income and want to go, but get stuck. I think that is so with many jobs, but especially in nursing. An old realtor or an old accountant, not such a big deal, but an old nurse? Cops, firemen; our male stereotypical counterpart, get out of it in time. Not too many 60 year old cops on the beat or fireman risking their skin at that age. I wonder why we generally don't give it up when it would be better to do so? The money? I think so.

The money and the health care. When you can't receive Medicare until you are 65, how are nurses supposed to retire, when they have bad back, neck, shoulders, knees, and will need medical care, when there is no medical care to be had until then. Few hospitals in this country provide medical benefite to retirees, let alone a pension that one can actually live on in retirement. How then are nurses supposed to retire when they are 50? The only ones who can, are the ones who were in the military, and can retire after 20 years with full benefits.

I worked with a nurse who had bilateral knee replacements, and desperatly needed to retire, or find a desk job. She was an old diploma grad, and was not in a situation to go back to school and earn a BSN, which would have given her the needed college degree to be competitive for one of these jobs. She is trapped in a hospital job because she needs the higher pay that she would not receive in a doctors office.

Lindarn, RN, BSN, CCRN
Spokane, Washington