I'm curious to see if there are any nurses on this site that have successfully left the nursing profession. If so, what career do you now have and how difficult was it for you to switch careers? If you are seriously planning on leaving the profession, what do you want to do?
After less than a year in nursing, I want out! I'm willing to do whatever it takes, but I am finding the process very difficult. First of all, I'm finding it hard to narrow it down to what I really want to do. I think this is because I was too reckless in my decision to pursue nursing and I want to get it right this time, to the point that I am being obsessive about it. There are many other careers that I am interested in, but I find myself picking them apart and comparing them to the things that I dislike about nursing. I am terrified of ending up in another career that I don't like. For example, I was interested in pharmacy for awhile, but then I thought about the hours. Many pharmacists work evenings, nights, weekends, holidays, etc. I'm sure that there are jobs out there where they don't, but like nursing, it may take years to get there.
Another difficulty that I am running into is the fact that I have a BS degree that lacks the basic sciences required for most of the programs in which I am interested. I would have to go back to school for 2 years in order to complete the prereqs for many of the programs! One example is a nutrition program that I looked into. The admission counselor intially told me that my BS degree would be all that was required for the program. After checking out my transcript, she seemed shocked that I didn't have courses that are required for most life science-based BS degrees- calculus, organic chem, biochem, foreign language, physics, etc. It is very frustrating.
I'm just looking for some support from fellow nurses who have been through this process. I guess I can see why so many nurses who are unhappy stay in nursing. It is difficult to get out!
I was originally in school for nursing, taking all of the pre-reqs but switched to BS degree in mortuary science when I was able to walk on the football team at the University of Minnesota. The funeral business is not a bad lifestyle but not much money unless you own the joint.(start in low 30's with little room for advancement) I left to have a career in Law enforcement in which I was injured and retired at 35 I am now currently halfway thru my Accelerated BSN. Mort Sci's pre-reqs are the same as nursing and most states don't need a bachelors degree to be a Mortician/Funeral Director although state of MN did.
Your job as medical transcriptionist sounds good, how does one get into that?
Thank you.
If I were to do it today I would certainly look at the 2 top internet schools. They are Andrews and M-TEc. It seems as if these graduates have very little problems finding jobs and they have very good placement assistance.
Mom23RN - how much does a medical transcriptionist make and how do you go about doing it??? Did you have to market yourself? How did you find doctors to transcribe? Charge by page or hour? Different formats for different docs? I have an acquaintance who knows someone in that field - said she even does transcription at the beach on her laptop!! I've thought of it before because you can do it from home and I love secretarial work but I'm afraid I won't make as much as I do now. Any advice is helpful.... Also, one might consider medical coding or billing as it can also be done from home... however, you need to market yourself because most docs who work in hospitals have a signed contract that they will use the hospital for stuff like that. Thanks in advance for the help with above...
Dear Pyrolady,
I only work for one group of doctors. I actually "fell into" the job. My gf does it and had been bugging me for about 3 years to try it. I just didn't think I could do it. Finally I tried it and WOW! It LOVED it! It is really easy for me (my specialty practice was one that I had some clinical experience in as a nurse for a short time). I had really no problem with terminology or understanding the docs. But.... it is a group of all americal doctors who all speak english as their first language. We rarely have english as second language doctors and they're much tougher!!
I literally make between $30 and $50 an hour depending on what I'm doing. I only transcribe for two of the 11 physicians in the group (although I will fill in for others). I get paid by the line. Now... my group is VERY generous wiht their line rate (that is what they first offered me) and my lines are counted as each line I type (age: 48 = one line). Many places figure that every 65 characters you type = 1 line. Boy, that would make a HUGE dent in my rate! Also remember that I do have to pay my own taxes. For us it was a wash becuase we could also start writing off a ton of stuff we couldn't before (health insurance, internet, mileage, etc.). For our practice I'm also fairly low paid. My gf has been with them for almost 9 years and she will make close to 6 figures this year (working only about 40 hours a week).
I truly don't think I could market myself at this point nor would I want to. As I said, my docs are VERY generous and I would never think of leaving them. I'm sure I would have a VERY hard time finding another job doing this as I have no training, other than on the job. I'm sure after another year or two maybe just my experience alone will get me something, but as I said, I hope I can stay here for the rest of my life.
Yep.... I could do it out on the deck while the kids are in the sandbox, on the beach, and even some do it while crusing across the country in their RV!!! How much fun does that sound like?!!
Good luck! If you have any other questions please ask.
You can make big bucks once you break in and you dont need any other degree. They want nurses because they are familiar with the environment and medications.
If I were to do it today I would certainly look at the 2 top internet schools. They are Andrews and M-TEc. It seems as if these graduates have very little problems finding jobs and they have very good placement assistance.
Yes, I left after 14 years. Just got fed up, still paying my dues, still working nites. That was 15 years ago. I went to pharmacy school and graduated in 1991. I am now making about 3x what i was making when I left. Not bad. I started nursing in 1974, in San Diego Ca, making $5.25/hr. No kidding. When I graduated HS there just weren't many girls going into non-traditional careers. We still had the "but I wanna get married" tape playing in our heads, I guess. I really did not like nursing from the beginning, but I had invested so much time, I was reluctant to bail out (at least to my 21yo brain it seemed like a lot!). My 1st job was a disaster. I got canned after just not doing well-night shift, med surg. We had to do everything as it was the advent of all the "primary nursing", and to this hospital that meant "fire all the aides, let the RNs do it all". I spent more time than I care to remember emptying trash, filling water pitchers and giving enemas. Plus the actual nursing part. And getting in trouble because I didn't do one of the above, ran out of time. It was a hideous nightmare. All for $5.25/hr. Every 3rd weekend off. Within 24 hours of ending this job, I had another, equally as horrible. Most of my career after that was L&D, and OR, which I really did like, just couldn't picture doing another 30 years, w/the working conditions, rotating shifts and slave wages. My spouse just never did jive w/the "shift work", weekends etc. He has a regular M-F job. The rest of the world works in a paralell universe.
I am now employed in the mail service pharmacy industry. I have a desk job, no weekends or nites (or at least very,very few). I would actually be able to support my family, very comfortably if my husband croaked, God forbid. I love my job and I am much happier. I would recommend nursing to very few people, it is not for everyone.
Thanks for all of the replies so far! It is comforting to know that I am not alone in this.
Mlurca, I found your story especially interesting, as I have thought about going into pharmacy. Is pharmacy a career that you would recommend? How easy is it to get a desk job like you have?
I have seriously put a lot of thought into this. Actually, I only finished my RN in hopes to get into ultrasound (part of the prerequisites is to have an allied health degree). After my first year of school I knew nursing was not what I thought it was going to be. Has anyone else gone the ultrasound route? Does anyone have any friends in the ultrasound profession, and are they as stressed as nurses?
I imagine most will think this one is a real crazy but after my husband passed away suddenly at age 34 from an brain stem aneurysm I found I was suddenly a single parent of 2 boys. I was then working medical case management for the worker's compensation industry in Pgh, PA. When I returned to work 2 weeks after his death I came home to find my case load was DOUBLED. We had a new manager in charge of the RNs who was an Associate degree in Psych! Knew nothing about being a nurse that's for sure. When I approached her regarding the new work load considering I was part time and previously was already carrying a fulltime case load her response was "get over it as it's been 2 weeks and that's plenty of time to grieve. He's dead time to get back to work!" I quit right then and essentially told her to stick her case load where the sun dont shine. I then relocated back to Florida and opened up a cleaning company doing residential and post construction. Surprisingly I made more than I did as an RN!!!! I've been doing this for 8 years now and it has supported me and my 2 sons enough to be home when they get up for school and when they come home. No holidays, no weekends or nights. Take off when I want or if one of the kids are sick. Now my youngest is graduating high school and I plan to return to the clinical setting as they dont need mom to bandage scrapped knees any longer. The thing I am going to hate the most is working for someone else again and dealing with all the bs politics! I keep procastinating going back also sorry to say lol.
Lacie - OMG, what a nasty person she was!! I'm glad you got away from her! I'm so sorry about your hubby - I knew a young fella back here in Iowa, that happened to his wife.
Specializes in ICU/CCU, Rehab, insurance, case manager.
I have cut down my hours by selling adult novilties for Passion Parties, I goto peoples homes demo products and have fun. No heavy lifting, no one complaining, no spinters that are "killing" people. Just all around good time. I make 40% on total sales. I have been able to drop shifts when i have parties booked! E-mail me if you are interested at [email protected] or you can visit my site at partiesbyjamie.com
oh for the record I was a Agency ICU nurse, I am currently out d/t having a Laminectomy 2 weeks ago.
:bow:
cinja
140 Posts
I was originally in school for nursing, taking all of the pre-reqs but switched to BS degree in mortuary science when I was able to walk on the football team at the University of Minnesota. The funeral business is not a bad lifestyle but not much money unless you own the joint.(start in low 30's with little room for advancement) I left to have a career in Law enforcement in which I was injured and retired at 35 I am now currently halfway thru my Accelerated BSN. Mort Sci's pre-reqs are the same as nursing and most states don't need a bachelors degree to be a Mortician/Funeral Director although state of MN did.