Career change contest

lostinthedesert · May 5, 2012

I became a nurse very late in life. After divorce at age 50 I attended a nursing program and graduated in 2004. I worked HARD to achieve this, and as the reader can imagine, it was one of the most rewarding things I have ever done. Right out of nursing school I started night shifts in the ICU of a very busy and very acute community hospital. After sleeping at night and working during the day for about 32 years of my life, this was an excruciating experience.

6 months after starting this new job and finally getting into the swing of things I injured my back while lifting heavy patients. I had back surgery and returned to work after about 3 months, working in the Recovery Room. I changed jobs several years later to work in recovery in a mostly outpatient surgical hospital. As time went by and I approached my 60's, I realized more and more that my body just wasn't used to the wear and tear of a job that is extremely physical. As the economy continued its nose dive, the hospital cut back on aides and RN's, which made our work even more difficult. I ended up re-injuring my back and developed arthritis in my hips and hands from the constant stress of working with inadequate support and out of date equipment.

I started to research options to change jobs: Case management, home care, travel nursing, and many other possibilities. This month I finished an online course on Legal Nurse Consulting, which seems like a really good idea. At my age I don't really have the option of lengthy continuing education, especially with the constant physical challenges I face every day.

I think the message I am trying to convey is that when you reach the age of 60 and over, changing careers is a challenge, and if you have plans to advance your education, you should consider doing that as soon as possible rather than waiting until it's your only option. I didn't really have that option, because I HAD to work and did not really build up enough expertise in my field to feel confident about returning to school. My energy levels are not the same as they were even 10 years ago, and the injuries make it difficult to work out to increase them. For me, hindsight is 20/20, but any young RN reading this might benefit from this advice.