Is it too late for a Residency?

[GwenBear]

Hi all...

I'm feeling stuck and I need some help. I graduated last May with my BSN, passed my NCLEX, and got a fall Residency at my dream hospital in my dream specialty - a crazy busy ER at the county hospital. It was amazing, until my herniated lumbar disc got reinjured, and I was in so much pain that I couldn't possibly continue. (Standing for 11 out of 12 hours a day on concrete apparently isn't my friend...) I mean, I was in so much pain I could barely get to my car at the end of a shift. I was also in the grace period for a 3-year contract, so, if I had quit after a certain date, I would have owed the hospital a TON of money. I decided it was safer to cut my losses and quit before I hit that date.

I've been trying to keep the wheels on the bus financially since then, as it took some time for my back to recuperate, but I can't support myself the way I am any more. I trained to be a health coach, which I LOVE, but that is not the most stable kind of income when you have student loans to repay. For a while I had given up on hospital nursing, because of my back, but lately I've started thinking that I could handle something like an ICU setting, with a low patient load and not a lot of sustained running around like in the ER.

But I don't know what my options are. I've been an RN for a year, but I only have two months of experience. Who is going to want to hire me? Is it too late for me to do a residency? Of course, now that I'm looking again, it seems like there aren't even any residencies open...except at the county hospital I left before. I left on really good terms with the residency coordinators, but I'm scared of that contract - what if my back isn't as healed as I think it is?

Any advice or tips would be great. I'm really frustrated, but I don't want to give up on my passion for nursing. Thanks!

[Lemon Bars]

I'm sorry to hear about your back pain. Hopefully people with experience will reply and give you good advice. I just got my RN license yesterday morning and I'm looking for my first nursing job. In school I didn't really take to the hospital setting, so I've been looking into alternatives. My advice to you (which is based on absolutely zero post-school nursing experience) is to have an open mind and consider some non-hospital work settings such as home health, public health, school nurse, clinic nurse, prison nurse, etc. There are a wide variety of nursing jobs in a wide variety of settings, so I recommend looking at these options if the prognosis for your back is not good. Good luck to you.