Help? I need to reinvent myself

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Specializes in Home health was tops, 2nd was L&D.

I have been RN for 23 yrs. I spent last yr taking care of parents who were terminal. Quit 2 good jobs to do it...

I do not feel doing patient care is what I need right now. Nor do I feel I could actually do patient care right now. MY experience is L&D yrs ago, Mostly Home health with several yrs of LTC thrown in. I would like to teach but more staff development than academia. Have ASN, plus all of BSN except specific nursing credits required per university (Have 128 credits). I do not feel getting MSN in Education would be worth the $$ as I am 54 now.

What can I do to get a staff development job? I live in SE TN so not lots of opportunities here. I have done staff development as part of ADON or Clinical Supervisor positions but never as my sole job title.

My favorite part of every nursing job I have had, has been the teaching, precepting, orientating.

Any ideas would be welcome!

I just do not feel I can just return to home health case field manager. I am still mourning and do not feel it would be healthy to push this. Been 3 months since I lost my mother, DR says I am doing fine with mourning the losses and at the things one must do except I have not been able to work. Luckily I can manage financially for awhile. But I am bored to tears. I have volunteered at animal rescue, and at grandkids school... Nothing clicked.

I appreciate any help offered in advance.

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Specializes in Ambulatory Care, Case Manager.

Have you thought about being a Certified Diabetes Educator? I was told they make good money in California. I don't know if you earn the same in your area.

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Specializes in Home health was tops, 2nd was L&D.

Thanks, that at is a good idea. TN salaries are rather low but that is life in TN. I wonder what the requirements are to become one. I will have to check into it.

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Specializes in Home health was tops, 2nd was L&D.

Checked into Diabetic nurse/educator... requires MSN.......

Any other ideas? Thanks for helping!

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Specializes in ICU & ED.

Do you like computers? I teach clinical documentation via an EMR. Informatics is HOT right now, and many health systems will hire and train nurse even without IT experience, because of our clinical focus. Just an idea...

PS the $ is good.

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Specializes in Critical Care.

I'm not sure if you've considered working for a company doing nursing education. For example, when a hospital I worked for signed up with Johnson & Johnson to change the IV catheters they used, nurses from J&J came to inservice us. It's not like a sales rep job as it is in education. I've spoken to nurses at many different companies who all loved their jobs. That might be an avenue.

Another thing I'm not sure you've checked into would be at your local community college. When I lived in NC, with an ASN you could teach at community college level. It may be the same in TN. You also may be able to teach a certified nursing assistant program. Both of these types of positions would enable you to teach and mold upcoming healthcare members.

My husband was able to get a job at the local health department in NC. He didn't have to have his BSN, associate's degree only. That might be an avenue to explore as well.

As someone else recommended, nursing informatics is exploding if that is an avenue you want to explore. You mentioned working as a staff educator. Are you near a veterans administration hospital? They may have openings you could apply for. (I know the VA here in Michigan has a posting specifically for a staff educator. I'd apply for it myself but I'm considering grad school for my master's this fall so can't do it.) I do know many facilities hire staff educators but they have been required to staff for part of their appointment so I'm not sure if that would be what you would want. No harm in checking local facilities though.

Just throwing this out there...have you considered becoming an instructor for American Heart Association or Red Cross? If you become an AHA instructor and can hook up with an active training center, you could be quite busy teaching classes. And you might find you enjoy it. I did that for a while, had a blast.

Ok, out of ideas for now.....hope this might help give you some options. Good luck to you.

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Specializes in Home health was tops, 2nd was L&D.

Computers are okay but I get frustrated by them much too fast. But thanks, I had not thought of that idea before.

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Specializes in Home health was tops, 2nd was L&D.
I'm not sure if you've considered working for a company doing nursing education. For example, when a hospital I worked for signed up with Johnson & Johnson to change the IV catheters they used, nurses from J&J came to inservice us. It's not like a sales rep job as it is in education. I've spoken to nurses at many different companies who all loved their jobs. That might be an avenue.

Another thing I'm not sure you've checked into would be at your local community college. When I lived in NC, with an ASN you could teach at community college level. It may be the same in TN. You also may be able to teach a certified nursing assistant program. Both of these types of positions would enable you to teach and mold upcoming healthcare members.

My husband was able to get a job at the local health department in NC. He didn't have to have his BSN, associate's degree only. That might be an avenue to explore as well.

As someone else recommended, nursing informatics is exploding if that is an avenue you want to explore. You mentioned working as a staff educator. Are you near a veterans administration hospital? They may have openings you could apply for. (I know the VA here in Michigan has a posting specifically for a staff educator. I'd apply for it myself but I'm considering grad school for my master's this fall so can't do it.) I do know many facilities hire staff educators but they have been required to staff for part of their appointment so I'm not sure if that would be what you would want. No harm in checking local facilities though.

Just throwing this out there...have you considered becoming an instructor for American Heart Association or Red Cross? If you become an AHA instructor and can hook up with an active training center, you could be quite busy teaching classes. And you might find you enjoy it. I did that for a while, had a blast.

Ok, out of ideas for now.....hope this might help give you some options. Good luck to you.

Lots of great ideas, thanks.....teaching classes might me just the thing for me. Working for a company like J&J would be great but I wonder if that involves alot of travel. Since I own a home and inherited 4 pets...I just do not feel traveling right now would be best... Does anyone know more about working for companies? I will check with community college and we do have some private schools here that do teach CNA classes. I'll look into that for sure. Thanks again.

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Specializes in pediatrics, public health.
Checked into Diabetic nurse/educator... requires MSN.......

Any other ideas? Thanks for helping!

No, it doesn't require an MSN:

http://www.ncbde.org/eligibility.cfm

What it does require is that you already have 1000 hours of experience doing diabetes self management education, of which at least 400 hours must have occured in the last year.

In other words, you have to somehow get a job doing diabetes education first, so you have to find someone who will hire you without the certification, before you can go on to get the certification. Which seems like a bit of a Catch 22 to me. Although since it only requires 400 hours in a year, and since there's 2000 working hours (more or less) in a year if you work full time, I guess if you could find a job where you're taking care of diabetics and 20% of your time is devoted to educating them, you could meet the requirements that way.

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Specializes in ICU.

You mentioned you were a L+D nurse years ago, what about some sort of educator involving that? I'm thinking more patient education than educating other nurses, but for instance a IBCLC (a certified lactation consultant).

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Specializes in Cardiac Nursing.

Have you checked out the Staff Development forum under nursing specialties on this forum?

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Specializes in Home health was tops, 2nd was L&D.

Yes, thank you I did... and I will post another question there but it is looking like you should have MSN or be in exactly the right place at the right time to get into the field.

I am just a bit discouraged as I did not think changing areas of nursing would be so difficult. The last year has been horrible and has left me questioning my abilities.

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