Members are discussing the stress levels and compensation in various nursing specialties. Some members mention that nursing is a practical means to earn a living, while others share their experiences in different nursing roles such as hospice nursing, med/surg, and occupational health nursing. There is also mention of the importance of clinical experience, finding one's niche in nursing, and managing stress through coping mechanisms and self-care.
This is my first post here so bear with me. I am a current RN student and while my main focus right now is finishing the program I am nevertheless interested in finding out more about different specialties from nurses who have been there.
I have yet to decide on a nursing specialty for sure. To be honest money is a big motivator for me..but a post I read from forum member THE COMMUTER really struck me as exaclty how I feel. It stated id rather love my personal life and tolerate my job than tolerate my life and love my job. By this I mean im never going to enjoy work, I mostly enjoy traveling, exploring , cars..etc..(hence money motivated).
So begs the question...what nursing specialty out of the seemingly hundreds...would be very low stress on a daily basis and very good pay ( even if masters level as I have considered the NP route after RN school).
Any suggestions? ( I know im kinda asking for the best of both worlds here but im looking for things closest to what I seek). Thanks in advance everyone.
I would think it would be more stressful to decide to seek out such a specialized job as a new grad.
Focus on getting through school and passing the NCLEX. Personally, the low stress job for me was one I could get and in close to where I lived. Nothing low stress about being unemployed...
If you want less stress, don't sign up for a long commute and don't pick up lots of overtime. Overtime $$ is great but in order to earn it you have to pull full-time hours. By the time you get to that overtime shift, you may be tapped out on family members, trips to the bathroom all night, working without a tech, staring with 4 + the first admission, you get the picture.
There will be stress in any job. As other posters have said, there are trade-offs. The job market is not a cakewalk. I was happy to be hired on a tele floor near where I live. Never thought about working tele but I have come to enjoy things about it. I was relieved to get back to working full-time after two years of part-time work. I paid off my consumer debt (phew)! and have a fifteen-minute commute. You decide what your trade off is. I would keep your options open and in a few years you can probably move to something like home health but I wouldn't want to start off there as a new grad.
They are all stressful in some way. I have done almost all of them. No kidding. Well, okay, I missed a few I just thought of. It is subjective. Where you fit best has something to do with your own unique personality and traits.
Specializes in QA, ID/DD, Correctional, Education.
For the record OP I have a fair number of years in the I/DD field and it is not in any fashion stress free for a nurse. There is the on call aspects which can be exhausting, there are productivity expectations, there is dealing with insurance coverage issues when trying to obtain care for the clients. Try spending hours on the phone and internet finding a specialist who is part of the latest managed care network for Medicaid. There are lengthy and redundant reports and meetings. In addition since there is not shift to shift coverage by the nurses the nurse has global responsibility for health and welfare issues which ties into that on call all the time thing. Granted most of the companies I have worked for do rotate the call on the weekends or have an on call nurse but it can still lead to some very long days.
It is not a job for a new grad by any means. Like home health you are assessing things solo quite often with your only nursing resource being on the other end of a phone. You might not do a lot of procedures or hands on care but you need to be sharp in your assessment skills because many clients are non verbal or limited in their ability to describe an issue. If one does this it is because of the hours, the focus being less task driven and, frankly, because of enjoying working with people with disabilities. One last thing unlike a hospital where the patient/family from Hades is only there for a limited time one frequently finds themselves dealing with the family from Hades for years at a time.
IMO OP what you are wanting from nursing is not something a new grad is equipped to handle. You need that "stress" and experience to learn how to be the best nurse possible. That is not a justification for poor staffing or unsafe environments but one cannot just sail through the day and learn how to deal with literal life and death issues without stress and being challenged in the mix. And when one can do that then one has, again in my opinion, earned that "low stress, high paying" job.
Yikes...some kind of biting replies...i guess maybe low stress is too individualized of a description..i by no means meant easy or slack off job..i meant more of a job where ur not constantly worrying, getting yelled at, or worse haha. I guess ive worked with a lott of nurses in the last 5 years and every one of them hated the hospital setting (however i realize some people do love it and its not anyrhing I've counted out at all)
Ayestole by sales training and marketing experiences are you saying that this is a career for nurses who have gone back to school for marketing and sales...or do the pharm companies typically hire former nurses and do all their own marketing sales training in house?
I can see myself enjoying work as a nurse at a group home similar to the one i work at now...i can also see myself enjoying 40-50 dollars an hour and getting overtime pay on top haha! Thx foe the replies so far everyone
Sales training is many times a kind of clinical training. Training non-clinical sales reps to function in a clinical environment, teaching them disease processes, and how products interact.
No need to go back to school for anything but a MPH or MBA does help in leadership positions. Companies hire a ton of floor nurses as they are. They want your clinical experience, not your business experience.
ECMO specialist? Not low-stress. Soooo not low-stress.
I have years of ICU experience, and I can't even run ECMO. I don't work enough hours per week to qualify. My unit trains RNs after a minimum of 3 years' ICU experience, we have to work at least a 0.8 FTE, make a commitment to our unit (can't remember how long), and be willing to take call hours and work without breaks, if there isn't another ECMO RN available to relieve them. They also care for MICU and peds pts on ECMO -- not just adult SICU pts.
The ECMO RNs then only get a pt when we have someone on ECMO, of course. The rest of the time, they're working with any other stressful ICU pt...or stepdown unit boarders. (The folks who go from hospital to hospital only running ECMO -- at least in my area -- are perfusionists, not RNs.)
Also note that ECMO pts have a large blood volume outside their body. One little malfunction, misstep, etc can quickly make that pt a DEAD pt.
Specializes in Case mgmt., rehab, (CRRN), LTC & psych.
Luv2baRNurse said:
If you're already thinking about higher pay and less stress, then are you in nursing for the right reason? Nursing is a calling, not just a job.
For me, nursing is a job and a means to an end. It was never a childhood dream or higher calling. Rather, it is a practical way to earn a living.
I find it curious that no one really expects pharmacists, speech language pathologists, physicians in lucrative specialties, physical therapists, hospital dietitians, occupational therapists, and other healthcare professionals to arrive at the table with that intangible calling.
Let's assume your employer abruptly announced that you'd no longer receive pay for the services you render after today. However, the employer also announced that "compassion will provide a place for you to live and caring will result in food on your table." Would you continue to report to work day after day, year after year without monetary compensation?
I sure as heck wouldn't. If an employer could no longer pay me, I would refuse to provide even one minute of my labor to that entity. Again, I was not called to this profession. Nursing is an avenue to a decent livelihood.
For me, nursing is a job and a means to an end. It was never a childhood dream or higher calling. Rather, it is a practical way to earn a living.
I find it curious that no one really expects pharmacists, speech language pathologists, physicians in lucrative specialties, physical therapists, hospital dietitians, occupational therapists, and other healthcare professionals to arrive at the table with that intangible calling.
Let's assume your employer abruptly announced that you'd no longer receive pay for the services you render after today. However, the employer also announced that "compassion will provide a place for you to live and caring will result in food on your table." Would you continue to report to work day after day, year after year without monetary compensation?
I sure as heck wouldn't. If an employer could no longer pay me, I would refuse to provide even one minute of my labor to that entity. Again, I was not called to this profession. Nursing is an avenue to a decent livelihood.
I agree to some extent but strongly disagree in others.
You know why no one expects a calling from the other healthcare professions? Because none of them have adopted patient advocacy as their primary role to the extent nursing has. There is a reason why nursing is the most ethical and trusted profession in the entire world.
I work to make a living, I nurse to make a difference.
You need three years in an acute setting to even consider yourself independant. Nursing is a career, not a job. Almost every position builds from the acute setting. Can you have a career without acute setting? Probably, but you don't want to limit yourself. I see SO MANY posts from students and new nurses that want the best of everything yesterday. Don't try to live your life in one minute, don't shortchange yourself or your patients. It will come, and sooner than you know it. Nursing is very hard if your primary motivator is $$$, you may outpace your peers early in your career, but you will soon find that nursing is not as lucrative as you think and your peers will be in that top 5% of income after 15 or 20 years and you will have reached your salary ceiling. Hard truths, but easier to accept when you know them. Good luck on your education and your career.
Specializes in public health, women's health, reproductive health.
I am a new nurse, having graduated from nursing school just short of two years ago. My first job as a floor nurse was extremely stressful. My current job is as a clinic nurse. My hourly wage is a bit more than what I was making at the hospital. I work three days a week with no weekends at all, though I do sometimes have very long days. I am a lot happier.
Having said that, I cannot say my job is without stress or even that it is low stress. Nursing, at least where you are directly involved with patient care, is stressful and the ways that it is stressful cannot easily be imagined before you experience it. Before I took my current job I imagined it would be very low stress in comparison to what I experienced on the floor. But I now realize that, for me, no nursing job is going to be low stress at this point in my career. I now look for my stress to be manageable. In the beginning of your career you might be very stressed. But there are different kinds of stressors and you will have to learn what you can manage and what is the best fit for you. How you do that is to gain experience, be stressed, learn to manage it, and make future job decisions more carefully and wisely than you are often able to do with that first job. Best wishes to you.
Specializes in Critical Care, Med-Surg, Psych, Geri, LTC, Tele,.
Until you begin working as a nurse, you won't know which areas are stressful
to you.
Each persons tolerance is different. As for me, psych was awesome! I had a high pt load (over 16 - >50) but the way our facility was set up, with good techs doing a great job, I felt empowered to be able to do a good job.
Stress, for me, as a nurse, arises from feeling like the work load is too much, and feeling like there's no way to ethically and competently complete my work. As long as I'm in a setting where this is possible, I'm not super stressed.
Currently working acute med/surg and it's not too stressful because I have good team members and a very reasonable pt:nurse ratio and my pts aren't critically ill. I stay busy and often worry about whether or not I'm doing what I'm supposed to, but I like my job and feel much less stressed than when I worked in a poor quality SNF with over 30 pts and so much stuff falling through the cracks / not being done correctly.,
Specializes in CCU, SICU, CVSICU, Precepting & Teaching.
Aliens05 said:
Thx cat. I do imagine that stress is in a way subjective..I was kind of thinking of something along the lines of the nurses at my work (6 person non behavioral group home ). They don't wear uniforms..deal with mentally challenged persons who are non behavioral etc,but don't rlly use any nursing skills. Their job is almost the easiest job u can imagine but the pay is relatively limited at 28 an hour salaried no overtime. I wouldnt want to cap my earning potential anywhere near 40-50k.
IDK much about research or nursing informatics. I've heard a little but don't know anything about it rlly. Same goes for CRNA altho low stress would not at all be describing CRNA work.
You're still in school, but that's no excuse. Practice good writing now, and it will come more easily when you're at the end of a very busy shift and staring at a blank box on your computer screen contemplating the nursing note you need to write.
I think it's a little premature to be thinking about which specialty can get you the most bucks for the least effort. Finish school first. Figure out what you enjoy about nursing and what you dread. You probably will have to get an actual job before you figure that out.
As far as what's stressful -- we can't answer that for you. My friend considers anything involving babies to be low stress . . . but even a perfectly healthy baby sends my blood pressure and anxiety levels soaring through the roof. Lots of folks on here think school nursing is the bomb, but anything involving kids stresses me out. Home health is often recommended as a low stress specialty, but if I never have to enter another patient's home, it will be far too soon. Lots of folks consider ICU to be maximum stress, but that's MY happy place. Your milage will vary.
Specializes in med-surg, IMC, school nursing, NICU.
I figured out the highest paying, lowest stress field of nursing there is! I ride there every day on my unicorn.
All joking aside, nursing is a profession where you are dealing, in one capacity or another, with the health/lives/wellbeing of other humans. Stress is part of the job. Every specialty has its demands and like so many have mentioned before, which demands are more stressful depends greatly on the individual.
I don't think you are alone in wanting to make enough money to pay for your hobbies and leisure time. That's a pretty universal desire, I think. It's a little odd to me that you felt the need to highlight that.
Also. This.
Ruby Vee said:
I think it's a little premature to be thinking about which specialty can get you the most bucks for the least effort. Finish school first. Figure out what you enjoy about nursing and what you dread. You probably will have to get an actual job before you figure that out.
chacha82, ADN, BSN
626 Posts
I would think it would be more stressful to decide to seek out such a specialized job as a new grad.
Focus on getting through school and passing the NCLEX. Personally, the low stress job for me was one I could get and in close to where I lived. Nothing low stress about being unemployed...
If you want less stress, don't sign up for a long commute and don't pick up lots of overtime. Overtime $$ is great but in order to earn it you have to pull full-time hours. By the time you get to that overtime shift, you may be tapped out on family members, trips to the bathroom all night, working without a tech, staring with 4 + the first admission, you get the picture.
There will be stress in any job. As other posters have said, there are trade-offs. The job market is not a cakewalk. I was happy to be hired on a tele floor near where I live. Never thought about working tele but I have come to enjoy things about it. I was relieved to get back to working full-time after two years of part-time work. I paid off my consumer debt (phew)! and have a fifteen-minute commute. You decide what your trade off is. I would keep your options open and in a few years you can probably move to something like home health but I wouldn't want to start off there as a new grad.