How to blend nursing and fitness/nutrition?

[Love911Nursing]

Hi all - I'm a RN BSN with 3 yrs of experience solely in the emergency department. I'll be honest, I'm starting to get burnt out. My main passion lies in fitness and nutrition. To be honest, if I could go back and do things over, I would have found a career path that aligns more with that.

As it is now, I'm wondering if there is a way to blend the two. Is rehab an area I would enjoy? I'm picturing rehabbing patients (such as those affected after a traumatic injury, or cardiac event, etc) using a multidisciplinary approach to achieve wellness again. In what setting does this exist? What can I do to transition to something where I can fuel my other passion? ER nursing has been good to me but I'm finding myself imagining myself using my degree in other ways. I am working towards getting my NASM personal training certification but this is limiting. I know there's got to be something else out there. Do you have any advice for me?

Thanks for your replies.

[CrunchRN, ADN, RN]

Find a job in a corporate or insurance wellness program or cardiac rehab

[allheartnewRN]

I work on an acute rehab unit located within the hospital. We see a variety of patients ranging from TBI & CVA to orthopedic patients. We work pretty closely with PT/OT but we as the nurses don't really get to exercise the patients.. Recreational therapy also does a lot of cool activities with the patients such as working in the kitchen and cooking.

I would recommend looking into physical therapy or occupational therapy if you'd like to advance your degree. PT/OT seems to be more aligned with what you're looking for.

[Dalla]

Totally agree with last poster. Nurses in rehab don't get to do those "fun" sort of things. They are too busy passing pain pills, changing dressings, suctioning, changing colostomies, helping patients on/off the potty because the CNAs are swamped.

[sunnyskies9]

If you feel pretty confident with telemetry/various cardiac interventions and diagnoses, then you really should get into cardiac rehab. you would absolutely love it! you get to exercise the patients, build relationships with them, gain their trust, educate them on their diagnosis/procedure, nutrition, their risk factors, exercise, etc. cardiac rehab is considered secondary prevention. if you don't have a strong cardiac background, it would be greatly beneficial for you to get it, even if it's just a year on a cardiac unit. Also having your ACLS would help, and whenever you get NASM certified, that would be helpful, too! I will say, a lot of hospitals are looking for ACSM CPT as opposed to NASM. Good luck! I found my niche with cardiac rehab after only 4.5 years of being an RN :)

[rehab_nurse, LPN, RN]

I would definitely agree with Dalla, BSN.

[TheCommuter, BSN, RN]

You can blend nursing with fitness/nutrition by working at a bariatric center of excellence. You'll be dealing with patient populations who want to lose weight and need extensive nutritional education to make their goals happen.

[Love911Nursing]

Those are all great suggestions, Thank you!