change of career specialty

Era · Oct 30, 2006

Hi,
I have been a perioperative nurse for 16 years, I am currently in a senior management postition in a perioperative environment. But I have become increasingly dissatified with where I am. I feel that I have not really fulfilled the reasons why I became a nurse 20 years ago, and my current career is taking me further away from patients. So after a lot of reflection and discussion amongst my friends I am thinking of going back to university to become a midwife.
So my question is:
Has anyone moved from one specialty area, after being in that specialty for a very long time, and moved into another specialty area? And if you did, have you found it fulfilling?

I'm not in a senior position like yourself... coz I'm comfy where I am ( band 6/Senior E-grade ) but I am beginning to loose interest in what I am doing but because of what's happening in the NHS I don't want to go anywhere else till at least after the holidays. I have moved from one specialty to another though ie. from Cardiac to HepatobiliaryPancreatic ward which was definitely a positive move for me as it presented new challenges.

Good luck with becoming a midwife.

mysticalwaters1 · Oct 30, 2006

Hi,
I have been a perioperative nurse for 16 years, I am currently in a senior management postition in a perioperative environment. But I have become increasingly dissatified with where I am. I feel that I have not really fulfilled the reasons why I became a nurse 20 years ago, and my current career is taking me further away from patients. So after a lot of reflection and discussion amongst my friends I am thinking of going back to university to become a midwife.
So my question is:
Has anyone moved from one specialty area, after being in that specialty for a very long time, and moved into another specialty area? And if you did, have you found it fulfilling?

Well I worked on a crazy respitory med surg unit for 3 years. Not as many years as you did but enought that I felt totally stagnated. Was not interesting. Limitted staff. Extremely needy pts and families with not enough help to address concerns. Sicker pts but still same conditions. Issues with coworkers that built up year after year. Finally a bunch of us all left to other areas. I moved to the ER and while I've been there 6months and does get crazy it's a different busy and I am much happier there. I do find it fullfilling. I learn new stuff and see interesting cases all the time. It's challenging and allways changing. I feel like I really help my pts. I feel more apprecitive there. My iv skills, and foley insertion improved DRAUMATICALLY. As well as seeing a multitude of different pts. It's wonderful. I tend to stay in my comfort zone so if my previous position was not driving me nuts I may have stayed and turned very nasty and depressed.

Anyway back to someone working for many years and moving, another nurse on the same floor I worked on worked there for 20 long years and finally moved to short procedural unit. Does lots of colonoscopies, egds, and same day surgery stuff. She seems to really enjoy it. Also another RN left too after like 15 years there to just a float nurse. She would never have thought to float and she did and loves it. Mostly b/c she's not involved on politics on the floor and if she has a bad night she is usually some place different anyway!

So anyway it seems in nursing you do have to move around. It's a hard job.

Good luck to you hope you enjoye becomming a mid wife!

Pompom · Oct 30, 2006

One of the benefits to being a nurse is the ability to experience different working areas. If you are bored or burned out, change can be good.

joannep · Oct 31, 2006

I'd like to thank all the people who responded to my post, it was great hearing that I am not alone!