Bored with my job, now what?

[NTPinky]

Hi all,

I feel like I've hit a wall professionally. I'm 43, have been an RN for 10 yrs (my second career, before that I was a technical writer), mostly in the outpatient setting as a diabetes educator. I work for a big HMO and feel stuck, there's no real opportunity for advancement, and am not learning anything new. Most of our patients just have poor eating habits and don't want to change. Also, most of my time is spent on the phone with patients because the HMO wants it this way, so I've never even met the majority of my pts (the only time we see them face-to-face is to teach insulin injections).

I have a master's in nursing, and have thought about getting a post-Master's FNP certificate but the job market here (I'm in the SF Bay Area) is very competitive. Plus I'm not sure if I'd even like it, so I'm hesitant to spend all the money to risk ending up not being able to find a job. A coworker said to go for the DNP, but honestly I'm still not even sure what a DNP actually does or how the job market is for them here. Nursing informatics seems even tougher in terms of actually getting a job.

I don't get any support from mgmt either. I speak Spanish but barely have any Spanish-speaking pts despite my asking them for 2 yrs to give me more of them. A coworker suspects this is because of another RN (native Spanish-speaker) who doesn't want to transfer any of her pts.

Sometimes I think of going for the FNP or other academic program just for the opportunity to learn more, even if I don't get a better job. That's how bored I am.

Thanks for letting me vent!

Pinky

[RunBabyRN]

I can guess which system you must work with.

What about doing diabetes education in another specialty, like L&D? Working in a nutrition clinic? Might be a good change of pace. Or if you want to leave the diabetes behind entirely, there's always changing specialties. Getting more education isn't the worst thing, but like you said, there isn't a ton of advancement unless you change something up. Once you are the DM nurse educator, that's it, unless you want to leave the specialty behind and go into management or NP/DNP.

One thing I did was start just putting out feelers. Don't take anything that doesn't make your heart sing, but interview even if you're not sure. I did end up finding my dream job this way (granted I'm earlier in my career than you are). It's not the worst approach, and I know a lot of nurses who have done this.