Does anyone regret leaving acute care?

Nurses General Nursing

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At the stroke of midnight tonight, after almost 25 years at it, I am officially resigned and done with acute care. I am in another phase of nursing now, one that isn't hospital based. I feel very free, free at last!!! But I wonder if I will be missing the excitement, the fast pace, the gossip:coollook: and most of all the patients. Anyone here leave hospital nursing and regret it?

Thank you solneeshka. I think you all are right. "My" memories of acute care (mid 1980's) have very little to do with the reality of today. They say "Time heals everything" and I must have forgotten what it was like to not eat, not pee, not sit down, have an overload of patients who I could not SAFELY care for, have family members crying out for answers and cares asking ... "When is the doctor going to be here?" I was just thinking that as an older (and wiser) nurse, with better communications skills, I would be an added bonus to an acute floor. But I guess I am kidding myself. Who has time to talk to patients? At least with my triage job, I still handle lots of patient complaints on the phones, but at least I get an hour lunch, work M-F, get to pee, and can hang up the phone! I need more than $28 per hour, though, to LIVE!!! I am the sole income earner for my family. My friend works pre and post-op eye surgery, a union job in Twin Cities, and makes over $43 per hour. Is there anything in between???

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I do miss some of the skills, but not enough to go back. I don't miss pagers going off, constant call lights, and the hustle and bustle of the everyday life of a high acuity unit.

It was such a blessing to leave!

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Wow! I guess I shouldn't want what everyone doesn't miss! I have been OUT of Acute Care for 18 years-raised my kids then got divorced and had to take an RN Recertification Course to get my license back. Took a job doing telephone triage the last 3 years but have such a desire to get back INTO Acute Care. I am so sick of sitting on my butt talking and typing all day long! I THINK I miss Acute Care, but do you think I have simply forgotten what it really was like??? Was it less ACUTE 20 years ago? I know patients were not as sick as they are now and we even had patients who were admitted for 'tests' back then. I have interviewed with Nursing Recruters and they sort of laugh at me-being 53 and WANTING to go back into Acute Care?! Can anyone remind me what I shouldn't be missing???? Deb

20 years ago-VERY different than now-if hospital nursing was the same as 20 years ago, I would STILL be at the bedside.........

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Specializes in CVICU, Obs/Gyn, Derm, NICU.
My friend works pre and post-op eye surgery, a union job in Twin Cities, and makes over $43 per hour. Is there anything in between???

Might be worth having a look at Ambulatory. Those that are part of a hospital should pay similarly to floor work.

Daystay haematolgy and cardiology can be interesting.

Best wishes to you :heartbeat

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Well, yes and no. I left my unit about 4 months ago that I'd started on as a nurse to go to a rehab acute care facility. While it's still supposedly acute care, we send everyone out who has a problem and all we really do is a lot of heavy moving, lifting, and not much else besides giving lots of pills. And I really don't care for it, nor do I care for the a lot of the staff. It's also very boring.

What I miss about acute care are the co-workers and the zany crazy camraderie we often had ... THAT is all, though. I don't miss the stress or the headaches.

Tonight I had a very busy day at our rehab place, close to what a typical day on the unit was like. i walked out w/ that old intense headache I used to get everyday on the unit ...and i left because I was getting those headaches way too much. I am near 50 and it just scared me to get them so often.

So I guess I do miss acute care a LOT -- I just can't take the stress - or my body can't take it. If I was a bit younger, I might have been able to stick it out a little longer and would not have been so fearful of everything. I toy often with the thought of going back ....but then I reconsider. PRN is too hard, as I agree that you can't keep up with all the updates and changes.

I'm thinking of taking a break, getting back into top shape, and then trying the ER. I think I'm pretty much done w/ floor nursing, but would like to try ER or ICU. I'm tired of fetching tissue boxes and being told I have less than 2 minutes to answer call lights. Screw call lights.

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