Thinking Outside the Box

Formerly know as "be the square peg in the round hole". There comes a time in most every career as a nurse when one is at a crossroads. What at one time was exciting, high octane nursing was a thrill. But with every thrill, there comes a time when it gets old. When the need to be all you can to so many can be more stressful than satisfying. Then comes the question...where do I go from here? Nurses Announcements Archive Article

Thinking Outside the Box

When feeling that you are stuck in a rut, that things are not as easy or exciting as they once may have been, the feelers go out for a different direction. You can feel torn. Your happy place of complex problem solving, technical savvy, and constant running to be a part of the "good stuff" may come to an end.

As a nurse, it is often after many years in one place, in one specialty or many years of bedside nursing.

And alternate process is a management team that is not as thrilled with your performance as former management teams may have been. There's "talk" of changes. You are in a place where perhaps the other shoe could, and sometimes does drop. You have been in a place for such a long period of time is has become second nature--and you weary at the thought of exploring educational opportunities to be in the same place where you are now. And grow weary of a "do over".

So where to go from this point on?

It is an interesting experience to put together a resume. Once you think about all of your skill set, your experience, your "have done's" it can be satisfying.

On paper, you can seemingly do it all.

I find that the resume builder websites are the spin doctor of the employment seeking world. And it can be quite comical to see what experience you put into the program, and what it spits out.

(Able to leap tall buildings in a single bound!! Evidence based practice marvel!!)

If you ever doubt your abilities, update your resume. The experience in itself may have you looking in places you never thought of before.

Not everyone in nursing wants to be a manger. However, there's a lot more to choose from, and lots of specialties or alternate forms of nursing that may strike your fancy. There's a great deal of telecommuting jobs for nurses. Lots of consulting occupations. Lots of management--of patients, not of nurses. There are quality assurance, risk management lines of nursing. Explore options that perhaps you never dreamed you would ever want to do.

When your star starts to fade as well as your will, you may need to know that there can be a place for you and your experience that may not be what you ever originally intended. There are new nursing opportunities around every corner. Sometimes, in nursing as well as in life, you need to take a road that you never thought you would. And it can be the most gratifying experience imaginable.

Life is far too short to be unhappy. To be constantly stressed. That after a multiple career in nursing on perhaps the same unit, in the same specialty, with the same patient population you really CAN re-invent yourself in your career to be able to work as you need to in an alternate choice that you may love. It is never too late to change direction.

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jadelpn

About jadelpn, LPN, EMT-B

jadelpn, LPN, EMT-B

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That after a multiple career in nursing on perhaps the same unit, in the same specialty, with the same patient population you really CAN re-invent yourself in your career to be able to work as you need to in an alternate choice that you may love. It is never too late to change direction.

thank you Jade!

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That's one thing that's always amazed me about this profession of nursing. All of the opportunities that are available and all of the different paths you can take. Not all lines of work are like this - in many lines of work, you start as a (whatever) and you finish your career as a (whatever). Not so with nursing. We really are blessed. :saint:

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