Future career plans...need some advice

ruralgirl08 · Jul 14, 2011

Some floors in the hospital offer self schedule, which a lot of nurses with young families can appreciate. Also it depend what your spouse's schedule is like, sometimes 12s work better for childcare. But yes, I think a day job would be a lot easier, especially when your children are in school. I would think a MSN or MN, might be a bit more flexible then Public Health. But that depends on what your career goals are. You could become a NP who specializes in palliative care. I can definitely see a big need for this in the future. But a Masters is a good idea, maybe also better to get before you have a family, because when the babies come they are your #1 priority.

Fiona59 · Jul 14, 2011

Nursing is a 24/7 job. My hospital doesn't self-schedule. Our casual pool is our major problem. They all want M-F day shift. That leaves the parttimers and full time staff to pick up MORE evening and night shifts, not to mention the ever popular weekends.

I don't mean to sound like a witch but cut some of us old timers a break. We'd love to be able to just say "I'll self schedule days only".

The Masters may permit you to wind up with a CNE's job that is M-F, but Palliative, I've seen their NPs on all three shifts. NPs in hospital settings just don't work days, at least not in my health region

ruralgirl08 · Jul 14, 2011

On our floor, self schedulers still have to pick up a # of weekends and nights, but they choose which days they want to work according to what is needed to be covered, and they need to work a certain # of shifts per pay period. They don't get all days. But they can have all nights if they want:) True, not all hospitals would have this type of scheduling, but its probably the best family friendly schedule, I've seen working as a floor nurse.

ajaxgirl · Jul 14, 2011

Hi nurses!
I have been working in my first nursing job for 6 months now and enjoy it on most days. Since I don't have a regular schedule, I get called in to work a lot of night shifts.
I know that when I have my own family and kids in the future, I want to be able to spend quality time with them and I don't think working nights would be the best. I am looking into doing a degree in Masters in Public Health or work in Palliative Care/Hospice.
I have a passion for Palliative Care but I know it's likely that I would have to continue shift work if I choose this path.
I have thought about the possibility of continuing working as a casual/on-call instead of being tied down to work rotations with a part/full-time position. Working as a casual would allow me to turn down evenings/weekends but this would probably affect my pay check. On the other hand, a master's degree will probably allow me to have evenings and weekends off.
For those of you who are have kids and do shift work, how do you balance your time between work and family?
What do you think? Thanks for your input! Much appreciated!

If you are in Ontario, what about CCAC? Mon-Fri days is the norm. you need a BScN though.

I have never had trouble finding straight day shift jobs. I used to work in the OR and worked days also.

The day shift jobs are out there, you just have to find them.

ajaxgirl · Jul 14, 2011

Nursing is a 24/7 job. My hospital doesn't self-schedule. Our casual pool is our major problem. They all want M-F day shift. That leaves the parttimers and full time staff to pick up MORE evening and night shifts, not to mention the ever popular weekends.
I don't mean to sound like a witch but cut some of us old timers a break. We'd love to be able to just say "I'll self schedule days only".
The Masters may permit you to wind up with a CNE's job that is M-F, but Palliative, I've seen their NPs on all three shifts. NPs in hospital settings just don't work days, at least not in my health region

At my hospital, MOST NP's work days. Maybe some don't.

Anyway, the beauty of being casual is that you get to choose.

The FT or PT staff do get the guarantee of hours. The casual don't. There needs to be some benefit for someone to choose to be casual.