More Autonomy?? No more hourly wage grovelling!!

Published

Does anyone have any thoughts on nursing positions with more autonomy? I've been in the hospital system setting (including clinic) for 10 years and am starting to feel annoyed at having to have someone approve my every little move! My son is getting older and so am I! I am not sure I want to spend the next 10 years of my nursing career like this. I actually really like my work environment, however, I don't like having to grovel for permission to attend a school function ir go to an appointment!!

Any thoughts? Insight? Advice?

Specializes in kids.

School nursing allows for a very planned out of work time. You go home (almost always) after the last bell. You are often the only medical person in a alarge community. Often the pay is not great but it IS a trade off.

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in Med Surg.
Does anyone have any thoughts on nursing positions with more autonomy?

I have orders of magnitude more autonomy as a Med Surg RN than I had as a Project Manager in my previous career.

Up Vote Up Vote ×

Resource team, nights. Pick your schedule and enjoy the variety!

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Everybody works for somebody. Go start a business and grovel for 80 hours per week. with 100% autonomy

Lol. Good point! Yeah, not sure if there are many flexible come and go as you please type nursing jobs. Maybe doing some kind of QA chart reviews from your home position, if something like that even exists. Here's a website that may be helpful:

Flexible & Telecommuting Work from home Jobs

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in Psych, Addictions, SOL (Student of Life).

About 8 years ago a left hospital based nursing ( I thought forever) to do "Community Based Mental Health Nursing". On paper the job looked great spemd an hour a week with each of my 32 patients. Assist with their needs, Dr.'s appts, medication compliance etc....... Choose my own hours, have time for the kids, good pay.......Turns out I was on-call pretty much 24/7 and my clients called with regularity at 2 am needing something right away. Be careful what you wish for. I am back in the hospital working inpatient psych. But my boss love me so I usually don't have to grovel for things. Still I have one day off during the week and every other weekend. I schedule all my appointments for my day off. As for my kid - I work 8 hour shifts and don't work overtime on game days - so I am able to go to all his games.

Hppy

Up Vote Up Vote ×

Home Health nursing can be very flexible, you just need to have good discipline and keep up with the paperwork. Very easy to shift a schedule forward or back to accommodate your kids' needs.

Up Vote Up Vote ×
It is indeed regarding my nursing career.

I'm curious about if their are nursing roles out there that allow the nurse to have a bit more autonomy with scheduling.

I have 10 years of experience working in child maltreatment/forensic nursing, pediatric emergency nursing and most currently, pediatric epilepsy.

All areas have really shaped my nursing practice, but, have always kept me in the typical clock in, clock out, 12 hr, 8hr, 10 hr, find your own replacement, working holiday type schedule......

My current role gives me quite a bit of autonomy making nursing decisions.... But.... I'm looking for something that allows me, as I said in my previous post, autonomy to make choices about my schedule without being micromanaged. Does that nake sense?

So, do you have any insightful feedback to give based on your own career and practice?

You actually did not say in your original post that you want freedom re: your work schedule.

You could do things like Mon-Fri day hour clinics, school nursing, teaching, doc's office.

But any area that cares for live patients 24/7 forget it.

How about part-time work?

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Indeed!! I'm just curious about roles that are a bit more flexible. I used "a bit" and "less micromanaged", mind you. I didn't say I wanted to be paid to do nothing. I have been with my hospital for 10 years and for the most part, have appreciated the leaders I have had. And despite working all kinds of imagineable and hard shifts (night, swing, day, mid, and 8-5's) The work and experience that has come out if those weird hours is immeasurable.

That said, as I edge into my 40's I'm wondering about new ways of doing things and don't think it's unreasonable for good nurses to have some flexibility as they get further into their career. What Thanks!!

OR, Legal Nurse Consultant, Weekends only

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in Critical Care and ED.

I work in informatics. I start work when I want, leave when I want, take lunch when I want, and take a day off when I want. I even work from home when I want. 100% autonomy.

Up Vote Up Vote ×
+ Join the Discussion