Is Anyone afraid to leave bedside nursing?

[Caffeine_IV]

I have a PRN job in acute care and outpatient settings. I sometimes wonder if the FT nurse were to retire which she has mentioned if I would want to do outpt FT.

I'm right at 6yrs of RN experience and have yet to figure out a long term path but I always go back to med/surg (as much as I complain) because I'm scared of not being an acute care nurse.

[annie.rn]

Totally feel your anxiety. I never worried about leaving Med/Surg and trying something else out until the market for nursing became so competitive. I really need to work my way into something new b/c physically it's getting harder and harder to do med/surg. The difficulty is compounded by the fact that we rarely have PCA's anymore and the patients are sicker and sicker. It's the devil you know vs. the devil you don't. I'm going to have to bite the bullet one of these days and find a new area to work. I just don't know what area..... hmpfh!

[imintrouble, BSN, RN]

As the above poster said, it's the devil you know vs the one you don't.

I know med/surg. It's the only thing I've done in a hospital. I'm afraid it I go to another department I'll be even more miserable, with somebody already working my job on med/surg.

To be honest, I just don't want to do nursing anymore.

At least not acute care.