Had baby, need 8-10 hour shift, can't decide SNF/doc office/homecare/other

Nurses General Nursing

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Hi everyone,

Thank you for reading. I just had a baby but figured out I wont be able to work 12 hour nights shifts anymore. 12 hour day shifts wont work either for me because day care around here open at 630 am and closes the latest at 7pm, and shifts usually are 7a-7p or 6a-6p (and these shifts always run late because of giving report and needing to finish up documentation..nobody ever leaves on time). Baby's father wont be able to pick up the baby at all because he can't leave work early to pick baby up in time. I can't find a baby sitter willing to do 12-13 hour shifts with the erratic weekly schedule of a nurse (sometimes I work Mondays, other times it's Tuesday or Thursdays...my place doesn't guarantee a steady weekly schedule and it rarely works out that way). So I basically have to give up my stepdown job because I have to make things work around day care. I'm a bit sad about it because I worked hard to get the skills and experience I have, but I just have to find something that will work for the new family life.

I find that the only places with 8 or 10 hour shifts are nursing homes, skilled nursing facilities, doc offices and surgery centers. I don't qualify for surgery centers because all the ones I checked want prior periop experience. I'm not really interested in school nursing because I worry there can be politics with the parents and for whatever reason it might feel unpredictable to me. So i've been applying to doc offices and endoscopy places but no luck. There seem to be openings for skilled nursing facilities. I''ve heard about CareOne and such.

Should I keep applying for doc offices or try looking into skilled nursing places (SNF)? Are there other 8-10 hour day shift nursing jobs that could be a good idea but not too stressful? I have heard that SNF can be super stressful, but there are a lot of open positions I see, and i'm used to having had 8-9 patients as a prior medsurg nurse, and although it was a unsafe and toxic workload, I was able to wing it. I don't want to totally burn myself out so am trying to find something that maybe isn't so stressful. But I can't spend months looking for something perfect. The baby's father has psych issues and we likely will get divorced soon and that's why I need to find a job asap because I want to at least have a good financial situation and a workplace that works with the baby's day care schedule so that I don't have to deal with extra headaches from her insane yelling father and figure out scheduling. Thank you for your help

Home health (intermittent visits) worked out wonderfully for me as a single mom. I never missed out on anything related to my kids because of having a flex schedule. You would have to be willing to endure a rough first year though as nothing prepares you for the home health skill set and it's a challenging learning curve.

Home health would probably be more flexable. How about dialysis? They do 10 hour shifts around here and have nights, Sundays and holidays off.

LTC/ SNF... if you have a choice in your area, do some research on the facility.

Good luck, I have heard that home health is flexible but you have to bring home paperwork.

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