I will be graduating nursing school next year, and I am trying to figure out what I want to do. I was wondering what kind of positions there are out there that I do not have to work every other weekend, and a holiday. I am a huge family person, and being with my family at night and holidays is very important to me! I do not want to make a lousy salary as well.
I do not care about working one weekend a month, but the every other is something I am not interested in. What kind of jobs do you guys have and the hours? Is the pay okay as well.
Are you kidding me? Is this a joke? Sweetie, you are going to be a NURSE. That means you clean up poop, vomit, work weekends and holidays and sometimes, depending on your position, are on call. Did you honestly NOT research this field before you went to school? If not, then I can only say you are incredibly naive. Nursing is NOT just a JOB. It is a profession and a calling. It is not for everyone, and sadly, as an older nurse and now an NP, young graduates are totally NOT prepared these days to be nurses, unless they are highly motivated. Expect to WORK..if you want a cushy job, go train for an office profession!
This thread had about two pages of responses giving the OP a rather hard time about asking a question that has been asked before plus asking about a job that would fit in with family needs. Some were wondering if this was a troll as well. I simply wanted to encourage her to at least give some areas a look.
The experiences I posted are true - maybe not common - but they happened. I wanted to share something more positive for the OP. Be more welcoming.
AN put this thread on Facebook too and the comments there are even a bit more caustic like "suck it up buttercup" as well as almost every comment saying a variation of "you must pay your dues".
Obviously having experience will help you get the job you really want but there are exceptions to every rule and again, I've never liked being told I must do something or else.
I worked bedside for 9 years after becoming a nurse at 40. I spent way too much time away from my kids. If I'd like to encourage the OP to find a job that will not interfere with being a mom and wife.
I am now a hospice nurse (per diem) and a school nurse (24 hours a week). I'm leaving the school nurse job after 5 years because of all the bureaucratic paperwork nonsense. I rarely get the chance to be a nurse caring for a child. That goes to the school secretaries. But I'm in the process of interviewing a brand new BSN graduate with NO prior medical experience who is very excited about what school nursing can be and I'm so far leaning her direction from talks I've already had with her. This job, working Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday with weekends off and holidays off and the summer off is a pretty good deal if school nursing is what a person wants to do.
There can be a job that fits this new nurse who took the time to ask the question. If she wants to look in places besides bedside nursing, I'm not going to tell her she shouldn't do that. There is no reason she can't be warned about how hard it might be but it seems like people were jumping on the OP with both feet with incredulous comments.
I'm not a fan of "Nurses Eat Their Young" or "You gotta pay your dues and work bedside for at least a year" or many other generalizations I've encountered in nursing.
I wholly agree with these sentiments. It has been stated over and over again this business of "paying your dues" as though there's a requisite waiting list and a hefty fee to gain admission to the exclusive day shift club. In Silicon Valley, bright twenty-somethings or even recent high school graduates are applauded for working hard to showcase their ideas and start their own companies because they decided that they did not wish to work a traditional salaried position at Apple or Google first. The OP was simply expressing an opinion about a work schedule preference that perhaps would have been received differently had the post exclaimed, "Seeking Nights, Weekends, and Holidays only!" It's wise to work as a floor nurse for at least a couple of years as a new graduate, but its virtue lies in the rich acute clinical experience. Consistent with the law of supply and demand, more RNs are competing for the same positions, so by default it is easier in more popular geographic areas to find less-sought-after posts. But at the end of the day, the goal is simply to be a clinically sound professional with good judgement and if someone demonstrates this in their work in public health administering travel vaccines to healthy people in the daytime, well then, wonderful! Suggesting that people can or should only follow a prescribed pathway to their desired job description is of questionable value. Such seems removed from the essence of nursing which teaches to compassionately accept others' choices and objectively disseminate information without judgement or making personal which ultimately is not.
I believe if the OP really researches the job market in her area, she may just find what she's looking for. There is no prescribed pathway in nursing and "paying your dues" is starting to become an ugly term just like the overused "bullying".
I have no doubt they are true, and never wished to intimate that they weren't. I believe you were looking for a positive spin to put on the OP's quest, and I applaud you for that, honestly.
But I do believe that wherever you are ("in the mountains" according to tag line!) must truly be an anomaly where nursing is concerned. To be frank, the school nurses I have known (four personally) and from what I'm reading here on AN as well, have a VERY high need for the kind of skillset that would only be acquired after spending a good amount of time in an acute-care setting, ie: hospitals. Based on only what they have TOLD me, I cannot imagine a new grad doing well in such a setting: PEG tubes/feedings, indwelling urinary catheters; PICC lines, insulin pumps/diabetic crises, cardiac arrest (yep, in a kid), and a whole host of other insanity. I wonder what you mean by the real school nursing goes to the secretaries...? That sounds like a nightmare in action! Unless, of course, the acuity at the school is more like bandaids and cold packs :)
At any rate, I think while a positive spin is certainly nice, it's probably just as useful to hear "you're looking for the Holy Grail", so as not to be shocked upon graduation and finding the distinct possibility of unemployment, regardless of hours sought.
Bottom line is if this new grad is in an area where opportunities are available, no doubt she will find them. But if not.....forewarned is forearmed!
I have plenty of acute care experience and occasionally volunteer as a camp nurse. I feel extremely ill prepared for it. It's one thing to be able to tell a sick adult from a stable adult in a hospital setting. It's another thing to try and do it at camp, with kids, without the benefit of labs or pulse ox or physicians available or RT's available, or other nurses to run things by, etc. I'm full of anxiety the whole time I'm there. I avoid it now.
Okay hopefully you are joking. If not, I hate to break it to you but you just wasted thousands of dollars on the wrong profession. You want top salary but don't want to experience any inconveniences to earn it? We are ALL about our families!! And guess what? Working those weekends gives you time off during the week so you can care for children, elderly parents, etc. I suggest you keep going to get your master's so you can do something else because we don't need people like this at the bedside, dragging down the rest of us who have been making sacrifices for a long time!
A little over the top, don't you think? Maybe she should now be drawn and quartered??
I have plenty of acute care experience and occasionally volunteer as a camp nurse. I feel extremely ill prepared for it. It's one thing to be able to tell a sick adult from a stable adult in a hospital setting. It's another thing to try and do it at camp, with kids, without the benefit of labs or pulse ox or physicians available or RT's available, or other nurses to run things by, etc. I'm full of anxiety the whole time I'm there. I avoid it now.
I think, for the most part, people tend to think of certain specialty areas as "easy" or appropriate for someone with zero experience in nursing, when in reality they don't know what really goes into it. Such as suggesting a new grad do Home Health: from what I've seen (and by seen, mean discussed with those who DO it) it's not a task for the faint of heart, or someone who is not rock-solid on assessment skills. IMHO, NO new grad is rock-solid on assessment skills; that's honed over time, by seeing many cases of exacerbations, decelerations, etc....and then knowing exactly what needs to be done....WITHOUT the benefit of another person in the room who has a clue! Frankly, I think I'd be just as anxious in home health as you are in camp nursing. And now after your post....I think I'll avoid camp nursing
Every other weekend isn't really that bad. You adjust and learn to celebrate the change. Get to know the coworkers that work opposite weekends, some may be willing to trade off if you need a day off. Schedulers frown on making it a habit. But if you're willing to give and take, you get used to it. I won't make any comments to put you down, but you have been given a great privilege by becoming a nurse...embrace it bad scheduling and all. 😊
Unfortunately as a new grad, you'll have to work your way up in most places and "pay your dues." Seniority in nursing is what gets you the primo positions. Home health, day surgery, and Dr offices are pretty much the options for a typical Mon thru Fri schedule. But I know a lot of home health nurses who take paperwork home with them after hours, and they do have to rotate after hours and weekend call. And they don't pay as well. Weekends, nights and holidays are where the money's at in nursing as far as differential pay. And most administrative positions also require after hours call. It's difficult in nursing to completely avoid a non-typical schedule. I've been a nurse for 22 years and have had a lot of different types of schedules...I've done the Mon thru Fri thing, worked, days, night, holidays and weekends and had to take call. It's virtually impossible to avoid in this profession.
I worked in a hospital setting right after graduation for a few years - we had self scheduling - yes we had the policy of working every other weekend and a certain amount of required holidays, but I was lucky in that there was a good balance of us - some liked to work every weekend/most holidays that the schedule was rarely an issue.
I now work as a school nurse in a decent paying district - looking at school nursing seems like I took a pay cut, but not really - I am paid to work 187 days per year (8 hour days) so in the end I am basically making the same as the hospital when you factor in all the time off. Yes - I do push alot of paper and I know I am "losing" some of my skills, but I am a whole lot happier and my family is alot happier with me home.
It's not that nursing is some secret club with dues that have to be paid, it's the reality of the job market and profession. Acute care facilities and SNFs never close therefore someone has to work the undesirable shifts.
Yes, the OP may luck out and find a job with a schedule she likes. I really hope she does. But if she doesn't, she (and other prospective nurses) need to be prepared for the fact they may have to work those off hours It's not bullying or young eating to point that out.
ElaineNeidert
1 Post
Are you kidding me? Is this a joke? Sweetie, you are going to be a NURSE. That means you clean up poop, vomit, work weekends and holidays and sometimes, depending on your position, are on call. Did you honestly NOT research this field before you went to school? If not, then I can only say you are incredibly naive. Nursing is NOT just a JOB. It is a profession and a calling. It is not for everyone, and sadly, as an older nurse and now an NP, young graduates are totally NOT prepared these days to be nurses, unless they are highly motivated. Expect to WORK..if you want a cushy job, go train for an office profession!