I want to leave bedside nursing

Surfin USA · May 1, 2021

Home care isn't bad. You do a lot more driving and the hours are longer. Otherwise, its super nice to be able to focus exclusively on one patient at a time.

I switched to home care and I couldnt be happier.

❤️

JKL33 · May 2, 2021

On 4/30/2021 at 1:21 PM, jrb1201 said:

Hi, I have been a nurse for 3 years in inpatient rehab. I am experiencing extreme burn out. It is an extremely physically demanding job. I am looking to step away from bedside nursing and try something different. I have been considering the ED, urgent care, non bedside etc.. I am seeking some advice. If anyone here who work in the ED, urgent care or other non bedside nursing positions can share your experience or any positive words of encouragement. Your help would be greatly appreciated.

I am most familiar with "non-bedside" being used to refer to roles that are not directly or not mostly patient-facing. As you know, staff roles in either ED or UC are going to interact with patients.

If you using bedside/non-bedside to refer to whether or not a patient is actually in a bed, you will get a lot of patients in beds in the ED (stretchers) including those unconscious or who otherwise cannot safely move themselves independently for whatever reason.

I'm not sure the exact physical demands you are facing in rehab. But in the ED, yes, there is a fair amount of the same old pushing/pulling/dragging/boosting/lifting just like any other nursing role where the patients aren't all ambulatory.

Also, are there other things contributing to your burnout besides the physical demands? That's important to think through. If you're just looking for a change then the ED is certainly stimulating and there is a lot to learn. But it has it's brutal aspects, too.

Good luck ~

mrssunday, BSN, RN · May 14, 2021

On 4/30/2021 at 12:21 PM, jrb1201 said:

Hi, I have been a nurse for 3 years in inpatient rehab. I am experiencing extreme burn out. It is an extremely physically demanding job. I am looking to step away from bedside nursing and try something different. I have been considering the ED, urgent care, non bedside etc.. I am seeking some advice. If anyone here who work in the ED, urgent care or other non bedside nursing positions can share your experience or any positive words of encouragement. Your help would be greatly appreciated.

Hi jrb1201,

I understand what you mean regarding extreme burn out. Just to give you a quick insight to my nursing background, been a nurse for 11 years and been every where. I did work in a rehab facility before as a PRN and I do understand your pain. I also worked in the Emergency Department and now working as a ER case manager (little interaction with patients).

My first concern is have you been going on trips or vacation? As a nurse we experience a lot of stressful situation (eg. workload acuity, patient's family, management) you name it we have it! You need to know how to manage these things and still do something for yourself. If you have been working as an inpatient rehab nurse for a while, maybe a change of settings would be appropriate?

Thinking of ED nurse, you have to know that patients come and go and a constant acclimation to different settings would be presented to you once you go into this track. If you are a type of person that would like action and stressful situation this is a perfect route for you. You will learn a lot as an ER nurse and would understand a different perception into things once you enter the ER world. This is almost the same thing as urgent care (not a lot of learning though).

In the non bedside part, you need to be aware that there will be a limited even no interaction in this part. It's more off the paper works and management issues (eg. log reports, meeting, deadlines, office work). If you can manage to work infront of the computer and receiving phone calls all the time this the route that you should take. Mind you the pay is not that high unlike bedside nursing and sometimes there are limited learning curve when you work in this area.

My advice for you is take a look in what you wanna do in the next six months? then next 2yrs? Make a career goal, I think you have worked a while in the rehab facility and would need a change thats why your getting burnt out.

Hope this helps!

Editorial Team / Moderator · May 22, 2021

Inpatient rehab often needs case managers and discharge planners, perhaps that could be a step away from the bedside? A friend of mine does admission review for acute inpatient rehab and loves it!

Nienna Celebrindal · Jun 16, 2021

I do 16 to 18k steps a day in my level 1 trauma ER and have anywhere from 6 to 20 patients over the course of the day. I don't think the ER is where you want to go if you are burned out. I loved hospice!

dennis8, ADN, BSN, CNA, RN · Jul 7, 2021

I'm still early in my nursing career but I've tried long term care, medsurge/tele, and I've been in hospital case management now for 2 years. I wasn't burnt out in medsurge but I was still at the stage where I wanted to find something I would enjoy doing and would play to my strengths and personality. Case management is very up my alley. No physical patient interaction. Lots of phone calls, faxing, and talking to patients face to face for DC planning. If you are physically burnt out, I think case management would be a good fit. I'm not sure what your job prospects are where you live but in my area it's quite difficult to land a CM job. I got lucky because I applied for the job at the same hospital I was already working at. Good luck!