I'm Done With Nursing.

[RegNurse1987]

I'm a 52 year old single male RN with 29 years nursing experience primarily in psychiatry and neurology. I currently work in an outpatient psychiatric clinic serving the indigent, uninsured, newly paroled, and homeless populations. I love my patients and feel privileged to work with "the least of these". I left a good neuroscience position of 15 years at a university affiliated Magnet certified teaching hospital with great benefits, and good working conditions because I was literally drowning in paperwork. Patient care was a top priority, but so was the "paperwork" that was endless, and relentless. New forms, after new forms were added almost monthly, and there were repercussions for imperfection as declared by " the chart audit police". I found myself depressed, unmotivated, and stressed out not only at work, but on my days off.

I took a sabbatical, taught English in a foreign country for 6 months, returned refreshed, took a summer off, and landed my current position approximately seven months ago. Now it's deja vu all over again. If I have to fill out another medicare/medicaid override, another PAP (patient assistance program) form, deal with another passive aggressive borderline personality disordered psychiatrists and LPN -who take great delight in watching you crumble under the weight of paperwork- I might well put in a months notice and never return to nursing again.

In my life I've been very financially savvy, and I'm frugal, so with the right connections, and planning I could possibly transition into something new and different. I dream of driving a bread truck.

Does anyone else feel like I do?

[Chocolate_RN85]

I'm in the same boat , I'm thinking of nurse aesthetic

[NurseGirl525, ASN, RN]

Do bread trucks even still exist??

Most jobs are paperwork these days, even the bread truck. He has to prove he delivered the bread at what time, showed how much his bread costs, bill the person he sold it to, and the reconcile that.

Paperwork is not exclusive to nursing.

[caliotter3]

I can picture myself sitting in the back of the truck gorging myself on King's Hawaiian rolls. Heaven. But, as Viva said, very hard to get hired at advanced age. Good luck finding something that works for you.

[sailornurse]

Start your own business? How about a lunch truck? With 30 years experience I can certainly understand that one of the reasons I went back to school I don't know if that's an option for you or not.

[nutella, MSN, RN]

Paperwork and regulations related to it are everywhere in nursing now And the EHR does not make it much better either, people just click through whatever they are supposed to check off without even realizing at times that they are using the wrong pain scale or check off nonsense....

The worst kind of documentation was in home palliative care and hospice - no kidding.

I work in a hospital now and there is paperwork and regulations of course. The time I spend with documenting is huge.

I think that in the future at some point there will be a position to deal with the regulation/paperwork for certain things or it will be more automated...

However, I can see how you want to get out and do something else. I would start to polish the resume and look around what else is there. There are community based psych nursing jobs as well (also require paperwork of course...).

If you do not depend of a certain income explore other areas or jobs that offer good benefits.

[westieluv]

My husband retired from Coca-Cola and has known many bread truck drivers over the years. They have an incredibly grueling schedule that involves getting up in the middle of the night and starting their routes at around 3 or 4 am. Their days off are usually Wednesday and Sunday and they work every Saturday, so they don't even get two days off in a row. When my husband retired from Coca-Cola but was still young enough to work, he said one job he would never seek out would be driving a bread truck, based on the reasons above.

I took a break from nursing about seven years ago and went to work at a major outdoor retailer for $8/hour, thinking that I would leave all of the stress of nursing behind. All I discovered was that low end retail jobs have their own kinds of stress and I was so spoiled by making RN wages that I ultimately could not cope with the idea that my time was only worth $8/hour, because I was still working hard and dealing with the public anyway.

Have you considered being a hospice case manager nurse? The paperwork is not nearly as bad, although you still have your documentation to do of course, and the patients and families are often times so appreciative that it is very emotionally fulfilling as well. I have never felt as appreciated as a nurse as I did when I worked in hospice.

Another field that you might consider is dialysis nursing. Chronic dialysis clinics offer stable hours, because they actually close at some point and everyone goes home, the paperwork is manageable, you get Sundays and holidays off, and dialysis is a skill that once you're trained in it, you will never have to worry about finding work, even if you are one of us "over 50 types", lol.

All the best to you, I definitely know where you are coming from. Whenever I begin to pine for a simpler job outside of nursing, I remind myself that it will probably be just as stressful, just in other ways, and that I will be making a fraction of what I make as a nurse. Money isn't everything, but why not get paid what your education and experience are worth? It makes life a whole lot easier.

[pookashellz]

If you're really wanting to shake things up maybe working for a global health organization that provides mental health services in underserved countries might be something new while still utilizing your skill set. There's also flexibility with some groups of doing 6 month to a year contracts.

Definitely take time to regroup and consider what you would like to do because you might be surprised at what doors are open to nurses with your experience. It's not all clinics and hospitals for nurses anymore. There are opportunities in global health, biotech, government agencies, teaching, and basically anything related to health so it's just a matter of taking stock of your skills and what yore looking for in role and then going for it.

this is absolutely brilliant advice :)

[HouTx, BSN, MSN, EdD]

I'm envisioning RegNurse1987, ADN, BSN walking away in slow motion - silhouetted against a huge background explosion of computers, monitors & paperwork taking place. He stops, takes one look back at the the debris raining down into a towering swirl of flames before shaking his head and turning away .... Just like a scene in a John Woo movie.

[NurseCard, ADN]

Yes, I do. See my new post. :)

[target98765]

I am with you, I would walk away, right now, this minute if I could if I could find a job that pays what nursing pays. At some point I let go of "walking away" and decided that this is IT, this is my life and you either spend your time regretting you ever became this or you embrace it and do the best you can. I agree with others here, look for something else in nursing that will allow you to stay a nurse, but be more manageable for you. Also, a few here refered to you as being of advanced age; 52 is not an advanced age.

[Cultmember]

Dear RegNurse1987, I thought you had taken a page out of my own journal! Yes I feel like you do and with only 5 years of experience in acute under my belt. The double speak is what gets me the most. The alleged patient centred care that is supposed to magically happen when management continually increases the workload, paperwork, and other hoops for auditing purposes. They think patients are a philosophy rather than people who in most cases need help peeing. Bedside nursing is the backbone of nursing in general but it has become something else over the years... if Nightingale could see us now she would raise holy ****!

[EmergencyNurse2012]

I have no where near the amount of years in as you, but I feel burnt out too. I have my ADN and will graduate with my BSN next summer-but I'm soooo over school and working and all the demands on my time-just want to be able to breathe and not have to do anything for anyone else for a bit. I love the idea of taking six months off and just doing something enjoyable like baking, write a novel, travel and just BEING. I wish you and the Hostess truck well!