Bedside career with hand tremors?

[poweringthrough, ADN]

Hello,

I am a recent grad who was licensed as of June 2019. I have been looking for a job, but haven’t had a lot of luck. I am trying to avoid bedside due to a hand tremor I have which is noticeable and gets more severe when I am overtired and/or anxious. I am currently on beta-blockers, but this has not made a very big difference .

Because of the tremor I nearly was failed in school during my final semester (I was put on academic probation and had to get disability accommodations in order to pass ... it is a long story) but I managed to graduate. However, the instructor who attempted to fail me put the fear of God in me by stating that she hoped I would never go into bedside as a career.

Honestly, bedside would not be my choice of field, but it seems that in order to be eligible for a desk job I have to put some time into direct care first. I have been terrified of applying for a bedside job due to my experiences during school. I feel like I would be unsuccessful and possibly even contaminate equipment or hurt someone due to my shaking hands. I have been looking for work now over a year, and so far have had no offers to work other than from home health jobs (which again are bedside jobs). I feel like maybe I wasted my time in school, and am not sure where to go from here. What can I do with shaking hands? Where would I be successful in life? Can I be a nurse at all?

Thanks

[llg, PhD, RN]

What kinds of jobs were you planning on getting after graduation? What type of nursing career was/is your goal? What are your major areas of interest? If we knew a little bit about the general direction you would like your career to take, it might help people give you some suggestions.

[poweringthrough, ADN]

I was really interested in care management, maybe with an HMO or clinic. I had no wishes going into school for a career in bedside. I do have prior HMO experience from before I got my license. However, there seems to be an ongoing requirement of direct care for at least a year as an RN at every job I apply to. I figured out that I could use my bandage scissors during clinicals at school to open oral meds more easily, but drawing up injections and keeping IVs sterile always end up going rough for me in particular due to my hand jerking involuntarily.

[Ele_123]

Your tremors are probably worse than mine., but I've learned to rest my hands/arms on the counter or wall with injections/ivs. The pandemic was a key for me to land a job. Previously at interviews they would somehow ask if I was nervous d/t hands shaking or indirectly make a comment about how I walk. In the Spring interviews switched to video/phone so I got a couple offers and no one knew anything until my first day. 

What about a Rehab unit/hospital? Less If meds & more gross motor activities.

[hppygr8ful, ASN, RN, EMT-I]

On 5/11/2020 at 11:11 AM, poweringthrough said:

I was really interested in care management, maybe with an HMO or clinic. I had no wishes going into school for a career in bedside. I do have prior HMO experience from before I got my license. However, there seems to be an ongoing requirement of direct care for at least a year as an RN at every job I apply to. I figured out that I could use my bandage scissors during clinicals at school to open oral meds more easily, but drawing up injections and keeping IVs sterile always end up going rough for me in particular due to my hand jerking involuntarily.

Have you considered Psych. RNs at my facility don't give a lot of meds, No IV and very few sterile fields to contaminate.

Hppy