nursing career without touching people

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I am about to graduate with my BSN and I absolutely do not want to be a nurse that has patient contact. My second semester of nursing school I had an exposure at clinical and I have since been diagnosed with PTSD and OCD. I have been taking medication and I am currently going to therapy but I am absolutely terrified of anything relating touching people of any nursing tasks. I was wondering what I can do with my degree that would not entail touching people (preferably office work) with no experience. Thank you so much

Specializes in FNP.
You could always try telephonic nursing, although that would require speaking into a head-set...(which someone else may have already touched).

I just laughed out load and woke up my husband. And when he said "WTH?" I blamed you.

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Specializes in FNP.
legal nurse consultant? not sure what experience is needed.

expertise is needed. The OP doesn't have any.

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Specializes in Psychiatric and Mental Health Nursing.

The OP most certainly has a "BS" N, lol!! My diagnosis: FOS

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Maybe since the NP thing wasn't working, decided to try touch-free nursing?????? :eek:

IF it's legit, my apologies.... and feel free to PM....

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Specializes in ER.

If you find that job the ask them if they have another one would fit my wishes. I want a hospital job that will pay me my salary but let me stay at home, so not only no patient contact but I don't even have to go in. THE perfect nursing job.

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Specializes in Critical Care.

How have you been doing clinicals if you are afraid of touching people?

The focus of therapy is to help get a person over the fear/anxiety. If you avoid what you are afraid of it only becomes more powerful and you end up more afraid. Your therapist should be working with you to overcome your fear, perhaps you need a different therapist if you are not making progress.

If you can't overcome your fear of touching people, maybe you should do something else such as a medical coder or secretary, of course, the pay is a lot less, that's the only problem with those jobs!

Good luck and I hope you are able to overcome your fears and find a job you feel comfortable with!

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Specializes in Medical.

Like other members, I'm surprised you were able to finish your clinicals. As has been made clear, all non-clinical nursing roles require experience and are highly competitive.

I'm not sure what the situation is like in the US but here you could conceivably (if your grades were good enough) do an honours year then a Masters and end up in nursing academia without any clinical experience - only two issues with that, though: 1) how to pay for it if you're not working, and 2) do we really need more nurse acadamics out of touch with floor nursing?

A better choice is to pursue therapy, to allow you to expand your PTSD-induced limitations. I imagine this affects other aspects of your life, too. It would be a shame for all your hard work (and fees) to be for nothing, and recovering from this experience may well make you a better nurse in the long run than you would otherwise have been. Good luck :)

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Specializes in SICU.

My how entitled we have become....

Going to nursing school then upon graduation " I don't want to touch anyone"

Trauma and mental issues aside, the sooner the OP realizes how ridiculous the post is, the faster they can switch majors....

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Specializes in Critical Care, ED, Cath lab, CTPAC,Trauma.

Since the poster hasn't returned....I think I see a troll.:rolleyes:

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Specializes in LTC.
Since the poster hasn't returned....I think I see a troll.:rolleyes:

Or because we scared him/her away. :eek:

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Maybe the OP was touched by all of the replies.....:specs:

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Specializes in School Nursing.

Someone mentioned coding...that is a possibility. The RN would probably not mean much but knowing medical terminology and procedures will help.

Or, continue with school and get a teacher's certificate to teach Health, or maybe biology.

How ironic is it that the OP is getting slammed by other nurses, who should know better than anyone that PTSD is a real disorder. Sure, the OP could have changed majors when this came up, but I would guess she was hoping to overcome the challenges. Since she is still working on that, she is trying to find some way to use her degree and have an income....and we slam her for that? I guess it would be better for her to file for disability since she is psychologically unable to work in her field. Would we be acting the same towards someone who was unable to work due to major depression?

I will never understand how nurses (making a broad generalization here) are so mean to each other :(

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