Low/moderate stress nursing jobs???

LPNtoBSNstudent, BSN, RN · Aug 6, 2004

I was thinking that a job doing pre op health checks and teaching would be nice. I am having a tubal ligation next week and yesterday I had my pre op appointment with the nurse only. She did lots of teaching and took vitals, etc. She went through lots of paperwork and asked me lots of questions. It seemed pretty low stress to me, of course I don't know what she does the rest of the day.

Angelica · Aug 7, 2004

I love my Hospice job. Where I work the stress level is pretty low. And I couldn't work with a nicer group of people. The job is very autonomous. I make my own schedule and take a break my break when I want to. I spend a fair amount of time in my car, which I enjoy. If I'm stressed I just turn the radio on and relax (just installed XM satellite radio--100 channels--no commercials--best purchase I ever made.) The very best part of the job is helping people to get the most out of the time they have left--very rewarding. Downside: lots of call.

timewood · Aug 7, 2004

I have a friend who got tired of the shift work that she was being offered. She went back for her BSN and then got a job at a wound care clinic that is affiliated with a local hospital. The hospital paid to send her for two weeks of training at Emory univ. before she started. The hours are practically banker's hours and the pay and benefits are super (BSN BSN). She also gets to build relationships with the patients that come in and with their families. So it is a combination patient care/healing/teaching position. She is very happy.

Good luck to you... :)

Hellllllo Nurse, BSN, RN · Aug 7, 2004

I am not a nurse yet (a long way to go).
How about Hospice Nursing (stress may not be low however), ........-Dan

I was an inpt hospice nurse for four years. VERY high stress.The families and pts can be some of the most needy, disfunctional, stressed and demanding pts and families. The work of getting intractable pain and sx under control can be very intense. Trying to help pts through the stages of death and dying, as well as their families is very hard. You can't even imagine some of the things that happen in hospice.....I'm curious- what would make anyone think that working with dying people and their families would not be stressful? :confused:

The only low stress nursing job I ever had was as an independant RN consultant for four adult day care centers. I got lunch and full breaks every day, pt contact every day, and was treated with the most respect I have ever received as a nurse.

I thought I had found my niche.

No weekends, no nocs or eves, no major holidays. I only had to spend 4 hrs a week at each location. The time or day of the week did not matter. I could show up whenever I felt like it and could leave whenever I felt like it. for example: I could work a location one hour a day for four days, four hours all in one day, or one hr Mon, Three hours on Thurs, etc. Most of the pts were in very stable condition.

However, we had to relocate, re: dh's job, and there are no adult day care centers in the area where I live now.

Angelica · Aug 7, 2004

.....I'm curious- what would make anyone think that working with dying people and their families would not be stressful?

It certainly can be a very stressful job. I think I just happen to have a high tolerance for stress so I don't notice it as much.

Hellllllo Nurse, BSN, RN · Aug 7, 2004

Inpt hospice is very different from home care hospice. Inpt is for pts who are so ill, with such severe symptomology, and incapable families, that they cannot be cared for at home. Plus, in inpt, you have all your pts at once, not one at a time as in homecare. I had worked home care hospice briefly and it was nothing like inpt.

jayebug · Feb 13, 2008

I'm also looking for a low stress nursing job, and although my co-workers and I have had many conversations about what type of speciality could provide such an enviornment, I honestly don't know where to start. My Mom was an RNAC for a long time in a long term care facility, and said that that job wasn't really stressful, but I don't know if that's the ticket because of the paperwork. Paperwork is one of the things about this job that stresses me out the most. I've been a nurse for almost six years now, and, although I started out in critical care, I have been working pretty much the whole time in med-surg acute care. Right now, I live in CA, but I got my education and worked for four years on the East Coast. I woked on a predominantly cardiac floor-like post caths and ablations and stuff, and I didn't realize how good I had it. Back there, I wasn't even doing half the hard labor I'm doing now working on a med surg/tele/renal floor. I'm not saying that it's really geography, as much as it is the types of patients you work with (renal pts I think are the most diffcult in the acute care setting because they usually have soooo many co-morbidities that they are rendered virtually helpless, and I used to think you were doomed when your had heart problems-oh no, it's your kidneys!!) But since I've been a travel nurse (that's how I got to Cali), I'm also realizing that your stress level also has a lot to do with co workers, and bosses, and the actual facility itself. It seems to me that no place is perfect, and it almost scares me into thinking that no matter where you go, or where you work, every job has it's drawbacks, so what's the point of trying new things? I know-really negative huh?! I got into this because I really wanted to help people, but I'm finding it difficult to help when I'm buried under mountains of paperwork, feeling pressure from mgmt to worry about a budget that I know nothing about, and dealing with patients who are mentally ill who, via external circumstances, do not have the resources or the education to help themselves so the hospital just becomes another institution with a revolving door. Aaaah!!! And I do have to say that all this stress makes us turn on one another to boot. There's always somebody in my bosses' office complaining about another co worker, and from what I see, these complaints rarely have anything to do with patient outcome, but are more about petty little things like how you turn your hospital corners, or whether or not the patient has had a bath on a daily basis. I kid you not-one of my co workers got written up for eating cookies that were left out and unlabeled in the break room. Another nurse who witnessed this alleged cookie incident was apparently appalled that someone would eat cookies that were not specifically designated as their own. (what the heck???) Honestly, I'm sooo busy I can't figure out where anyone would have the time to pay attention to things like cookies, let alone write a note to the boss about it. And it also makes wonder what's NOT being done for their patient while this person is perseverating about baked goods. I was thinking that maybe if I got my master's (I have my bachelor's now) things would get better, but I was a CNA for 7 years before I got my BSN, thinking that once I had a degree I would feel much happier and more fufilled. So do I want to incur more student loans just to find out that no matter what you do, it's all really stressful? I'm even starting to think that I'm not cut out for this, which makes me sort of sad because I realize that I do have a BSN which is helpful, and I received some really top notch training, so I do have a lot to contribute, plus I really enjoy science-A and P was my favorite class-I thought it was so cool. . I just think I'd be able to serve my patients better if I wasn't so stressed out. Even if it's boring, I would like a job that's 9-5 (or some variation of it) where I could clock in and clock out and feel like I've actually done something for someone, and that I'm not going to take my work home with me and worry about it until I have to return in the morning. Does that job exist-or is it just a pipe dream?

RN007 · Feb 13, 2008

I am curious as to whether any of you have experienced "low to moderate stress" nursing jobs??? I imagine that there are no "low stress" nursing jobs...I'm not looking for no stress...just a LOT less than what I'm experiencing in acute care.
I am also looking for some of the following perks (maybe I'm a dreamer, but let me have that dream anyway):
* Mon - Friday regular daytime hours
* No holidays
* a real meal break guaranteed every work day (without 1,001 interruptions)
* working directly with people/patients at least some of the time
* being able to collaborate with peers or colleagues
* a slower pace (not a slow pace...I don't mind busy, I just am tired of the frenzied pace of hospitals)
Okay, now nurses, quit laughing! :rotfl: Am I crazy? Is there such a dream job? Do you have it? now fess up, because I want to know!

I have that job. I am an occupational health nurse for an auto-parts manufacturer. I work Mon- Fri, no holidays. We're off the week of Christmas, too. While I sometimes get interrupted during lunch, I have ample opportunity to eat otherwise. There are other nurses available for collaboration and the pace is nice. Some days we get busy, but nothing like the floor. Crazy thing? I miss the hospital and am going to work in the psych unit PRN. :lol2:

PMHNP10 · Feb 13, 2008

I am curious as to whether any of you have experienced "low to moderate stress" nursing jobs??? I imagine that there are no "low stress" nursing jobs...I'm not looking for no stress...just a LOT less than what I'm experiencing in acute care.
I am also looking for some of the following perks (maybe I'm a dreamer, but let me have that dream anyway):
* Mon- Friday regular daytime hours
* No holidays
* a real meal break guaranteed every work day (without 1,001 interruptions)
* working directly with people/patients at least some of the time
* being able to collaborate with peers or colleagues
* a slower pace (not a slow pace...I don't mind busy, I just am tired of the frenzied pace of hospitals)
Okay, now nurses, quit laughing! :rotfl: Am I crazy? Is there such a dream job? Do you have it? now fess up, because I want to know!

My job to a tee. I do substance abuse treatment research in a clinic. We are a fairly slow clinic--too slow at times, but when I'm in school, I get to spend my day writing papers, but I suspect if/when we get busier, our busiest day is probably a average/slighty less than average busy day compared to a nurse working on the floor of a hospital.

NurseCherlove · Apr 29, 2008

Well I finally bit the bullet...just this morning in fact. Yep, I put in my notice on the tele floor where I work. I'll be going to work in a cardio office. While I'm scared of missing that direct, hands on patient care at the hospital, I am so looking forward to this much needed change. I'm so sick of feeling stressed out most of the time at work. Going back to 5 days a week is going to be an adjustment, but I still think I'm gonna love it.

RoachieRN123 · Apr 30, 2008

I took a job about 3 years ago as a Worker's Comp Case Manager, they trained me from "scratch", taught me well & even assisted me in getting my CCM. I worked from HOME!!! It was an insurance company. I enjoyed the job working M-F, 8-5, Holidays off, able to make my own schedule etc... I was even able to go to my kids school functions in the middle of the day. It was a great job but I started to bleed my day into night, working on my computer all of the time, always on the phone. I got burned out on Worker's Comp so I applied for a Trauma Case Manager in a Level I trauma center. I GOT IT!!! Apparently all of my history of ER, Tele, ICU, PACU etc.. paid off. I have been a nurse for 16 years now. The hours are 7-3 M-F, rounds w/the MD's. Lots of learning oportunities. AWESOME, interesting & flexible.

It was the route I took, good for me, maybe not for others. I am happy. Best of all, my day ends at 3pm most days. I go home & enjoy the rest of the evening w/my kids, hubby & can be a mom.

I can even work a Saturday here & there in the PACU, when I feel like it.

Good Luck!!!:typing

GadgetRN71, ASN, RN · Apr 30, 2008

Either a Drs office or OR nursing. My MIL works in the OR and she works from 6-5 four days a week no weekends no holidays.

:banghead:I just knew someone was going to say OR nursing. OR nursing is NOT low stress. Granted, many ORs do the bulk of their surgeries M-F but there are emergencies and there is call, which you are expected to take.

Perhaps your MIL works in a surgicenter but holidays and weekends in most ORs are covered by call. Depending on where you work, anything can come crashing through those doors. I've left rooms covered in blood and had patients code on the table.

Please, OP, don't think that OR nursing is low stress. I love it, but many of my coworkers are on antidepressants,or anti anxiety meds and I have my days where I've been very close to losing it.

Honestly, I think there is no such think as a low stress nursing job and I'm not sure I'd want there to be. I'm at the stage now where I'm becoming an adreneline junky!