Has anyone ever escaped?

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Have any of you ever successfully escaped the oppressed occupation of nursing and gone on to have a more satisfying and rewarding career? Please tell us your story and what you are doing now.

I've been in nursing for more than a few years and I hate it. It's like being a gazelle on the African Serengeti, only the fast survive; the rest get eaten. I have mild autism, ADD, and an IQ of 145; but I can't keep a job in nursing. I'm just too slow. In the ER, I could easily handle 3 patients, but 4 patients continuously made me feel overwhelmed. I tried MedSurg and ICU and the results were the same. Unfortunately, no one wants to hire a nurse that can't keep up when the herd is sprinting full speed. I've had enough and would like to get out, but nursing seems like such a dead end street. I don't want to go back and for yet another bachelor degree. How can I move forward from here without starting over from scratch? Other than retiring or starting over, has anyone ever escaped this dreadful occupation and moved on to a happy career?

Specializes in Med nurse in med-surg., float, HH, and PDN.

Private Duty earns my vote. I work through an agency and get to say yes or no about type of patient, shifts, days of week, etc.

Mostly calm shifts, don't bring my work home with me.

New cases, I may agree to one-shift , with an option to stay on with the patient as a regular, or forego future shifts.

The downside is if the agencies caseload is low, which happens a few times a year.

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Have any of you ever successfully escaped the oppressed occupation of nursing and gone on to have a more satisfying and rewarding career? Please tell us your story and what you are doing now.

I've been in nursing for more than a few years and I hate it. It's like being a gazelle on the African Serengeti, only the fast survive; the rest get eaten. I have mild autism, ADD, and an IQ of 145; but I can't keep a job in nursing. I'm just too slow. In the ER, I could easily handle 3 patients, but 4 patients continuously made me feel overwhelmed. I tried MedSurg and ICU and the results were the same. Unfortunately, no one wants to hire a nurse that can't keep up when the herd is sprinting full speed. I've had enough and would like to get out, but nursing seems like such a dead end street. I don't want to go back and for yet another bachelor degree. How can I move forward from here without starting over from scratch? Other than retiring or starting over, has anyone ever escaped this dreadful occupation and moved on to a happy career?

ADD/Mild autism/IQ145.

I am honestly shocked that you made it through nursing school. I am a bit anti-group (I didn't hang out after classes and clique little restaurants with the rich kids. Noone in my family is a medical job holding type, etc.), and my instructors singled me out and tried to make me quite.

That aside, have you considered research or law aspects of nursing?

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Specializes in Med nurse in med-surg., float, HH, and PDN.

There is thread on this site about nurse's dealing with ADD/ADHD, and it is quite good and extremely enlightening. Can someone help me out here an post a link?

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I was responding to "the oppressed occupation of nursing", that sounded like a broad brush stroke to me.

I work somewhere between being oppressed and Mary Poppinism so IME it does exist.

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This is my last word on this as it's clearly not wanted, I'm a literal person and honestly the use of the word oppression is an extreme exaggeration and says either drama llama or skewed sense of reality.

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There are an incredible amount of specialties within nursing, I cannot believe people would simply give up on the profession with only trying one or two of them.

Bedsides, bedside nursing is not the only type nursing. Not only is there administrative stuff but there is also education etc. My wife works from home for an insurance company and I work on the medical sales/industry side.

Both of us are in only one specialty of an entire field of specialties within our different industries, all while being registered nurses.

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I have, and it's always like this: Home Health nurse wanted. Must have at least x number years experience in home health. Hospice, same game... I don't know what it is with companies and their demand for prior experience at everything. The entire concept is pandemic ignorance.

:roflmao:

What they want and what they get are two different things.

Apply to them no matter what the qualifications required say. What's the worst they can say, no?

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I always used to say that I didn't mind working hard but I hated running up and down hallways all day, and that's why I went into ICU where I never had more than one or two patients at a time. Worked for me when I was a younger woman.

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Specializes in Med nurse in med-surg., float, HH, and PDN.

Has anyone ever escaped?

Pssst! I hear their is a tunnel in the east end of the building that leads to a large drain which empties out in the marsh; I can have a green VW bug waiting there behind the bushes on the South bank of the river........

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Specializes in ED, ICU, MS/MT, PCU, CM, House Sup, Frontline mgr.
I have, and it's always like this: Home Health nurse wanted. Must have at least x number years experience in home health. Hospice, same game... I don't know what it is with companies and their demand for prior experience at everything. The entire concept is pandemic ignorance.

You need to network! Those are just broad descriptions/wish lists. Hiring mangers make exceptions for people whom they know and/or like. With that said, stop being victimized by your negative experiences and take power and control over your life and career! If you want a job in nursing away from bedside, start networking with nurses and hiring managers who are working away from bedside. Otherwise, go to the nearest temp agency, unemployment office, or look at online job boards for non-nursing positions.

By the way, you want to know if anyone successfully escaped nursing, but you posted to this board. You will need to find another forum because most outside of nursing no longer would be interested in reading a nursing forum. Good luck.

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Specializes in CVICU CCRN.
There is thread on this site about nurse's dealing with ADD/ADHD, and it is quite good and extremely enlightening. Can someone help me out here an post a link?

Here it is...at least I think this is the one you were referring to. Really great information, in my opinion....I don't have a lot else to add as a new nurse, but I'm currently pursuing an OR program and it seems to be a great fit for me. Mentally stimulating a and challenging,but one patient at a time...a different type of multi tasking. I also really enjoyed my time as a hospice volunteer and my hospice rotations. I don't know what the market is like in your area, but here, hospice is an area that welcomes nurses from a variety of backgrounds. Additionally, there seems to be a great deal of schedule flexibility for the nurses who choose home hospice care versus working in a hospice facility. Best wishes to you, OP!

Thread on nurse's dealing with ADD/ADHD:

I'm not flaky, lazy, or stupid

https://allnurses.com/nurses-with-disabilities/im-not-flaky-951199.html

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Specializes in Prior military RN/current ICU RN..

How can you move on to a new career, but not put in the work in school? Is that the question?

You "escape" (love the drama) by going out and finding what you want to do.

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