Help, I need to find my niche in nursing!

CEN35 · Jul 5, 2001

ambulatory surgery? pacu? dpc? those are about the only places in our hospital, that are m-f days, with only like one day of call per month.

fergus51 · Jul 5, 2001

What about school nursing? Great holiday time...

MollyJ · Jul 5, 2001

Having a child with high demands and trying to be a consistent, reliable worker can be a real challenge. Unfortunately, if your resume shows that you change jobs yearly you are really narrowing your attractiveness as an employee even in this job market.

You and your ex need to do now what you probably could not do while married for the good of your child. You need to cooperate. What does your ex want you to do more, take your kid to treatments or earn a pay check? Which one do you want to do more? Which one does your kid need you to do? THE MOST.

When I did CM for tech dependent kids, in two parent house holds, one parent became the care giver (often very absorbed by that world) and the other became the wage earner (often very absorbed by that world). Often the care giver parent would complain how easy the wage earner parent had it; I frequently imagined that the wage earner parent's friends and colleagues heard the same plaint. The fact is neither job is very easy and the demands of both are pretty relentless since wage earners frequently end up saying yes to OT and other projects to bring more money into the house because of uncovered expenses.

I am not saying you can never take your kid to her treatments, but she needs you to earn a reliable wage for her and her mom's child support, too. Your love and support needs to be shown in a way that is not that visible and won't get you the sympathy and support of the primary care giving parent.

Suck it up and realize that no employer will perfectly accomodate your child's needs. They are there to run a business. Find work you like (within or without the nursing field) and stick to it. If you have attendent problems with your own health or coping, get help and support for them. For many of my clients (particularly single parents), they had terrible times being dependable employees. They coped with attendant care available through my program, extended family, friends and a willingness to be flexible with their employer [i need today off, but will work tonight], but most of them simply had to keep working at it.

You and your ex need to find a way to cooperate on this issue that probably divided you previously.

My thoughts go with you as you cope with this "devil and the deep blue sea" dilemma.