Grad school/work/life balance blues

[Guest382916]

I am in a dilemma. *Sigh*

I have a somewhat spotty resume owing to moving 4 times in 10 years for my husband's job, and will likely move again in the next year. I returned to nursing after a nine year break that was full of working in other jobs (including scrub tech), moving, going back to undergrad to do more general ed stuff (I have a foreign nursing degree), being a SAHM before finally sitting NCLEX in 2009 to get my first US license (even though I moved here in 2001 & graduated in 1994).

Our last move was in August last year, and I had to leave my rather nice ambulatory surgery center job in our old state. Because of my foreign degree, it took me 4 months to get a license in the new state. A week after getting my license, I had a job working in Recovery (I was previously an OR nurse) of the local hospital. Did that up until April this year, when an opening in the OR came up & I transferred. I hated Recovery. Loathed it. Thought my stress level would go down when I transferred back to OR...but it hasn't. If anything, it has intensified & now I feel nauseous & am having intermittent heart palpitations thinking about work. I have come to the conclusion that I love healthcare but hate bedside nursing, and have felt like that since nursing school, but couldn't voice it. I want out of clinical nursing for good.

I have a six year old daughter who is rather intense. I started grad school in January (doing a Graduate Diploma of Public Health via distance ed), and did very well because I worked really hard. I am considering maybe seeing if I can do a PhD instead of a masters, not sure. We have no family within a 12 hour drive (and all mine are on the other side of the planet). I have little social support network here. On the upside, we have no debts apart from what I borrowed from the government back home for my tuition, and we can live on what my husband earns if we have to without too much bother.

My dilemma is this...

Do I quit my current job now, or wait until we move? (Could be less than a year, could be more.) Would it be a good idea to try and line up a telecommute kind of job now, and bail once I have one, or wait until we move? December marks one year on the job at current place - I am thinking that one year looks vastly better than less. Am I correct? I'd like to think that I can juggle it all and keep smiling, but my current feeling of nausea and dread say otherwise.

Ideas?

[Marshall1]

If you can afford to leave your job..leave it..yes, I know many on here or some on here will disagree but since you are getting physically ill from even thinking of your job//state you hate it, can afford not to work and are going to school..why stay? You can always tell the next employer that you left in order to ramp up your time to complete you higher educational level degree or that your daughter was having some struggles and for that time period it was best you were more present to her needs.