Need A Sedentary/desk Job !

Nurses General Nursing

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I used to be a very active, outdoors person. One thing I loved about nursing was being able to get up and move around pretty much ad lib, balancing the paperwork with the patient care, etc. I loved the greater autonomy of working nights and long-term care. For five years, I've had a very painful organic illness (Interstitial Cystitis)which has almost entirely disabled me. But recently, on a temp job giving flu shots, I realized that yes there is still work that I can do, as long as I'm sitting down all the time (in between half-hourly bathroom breaks!) I have no special training in QA, UR,etc although I've done my share of JCAHO-mandated databases, MDS's, and such. Any suggestions?

I have varied experience over the past 26 years, and used to be good at Hospice care, but I cannot go to people's homes for a couple of reasons, including the bathroom issue. (Yes, I have extensive information and experience with various approaches to IC; was very blessed to find an informed urologist and pain specialist early on. Also the awesome people and resources at http://www.ichelp.org) Thank you all for being here - I "should" be doing more zine-surfing: maybe now that Christmas cards are out and a dear one has passed on.:Melody:

Check out your state level medical assoc., they are starting to take over the auditing of MD medical files on behalf of insurance companies. The nurses call the MD offices and set their own schedules, they have p/t and f/t positions, there are plenty of bathrooms in an MD office. The offices treat you like a queen in hopes you won't find anything wrong with their charts (LOL) and the money isn't bad. The Arizona Medical Assoc. is but one example. They might be able to give you links to others states that are starting to do this.

Pharmacy auditing. Insurance co's are hiring nurses to do Rx audits. The pharmacy will have already pulled "X" number of Rxs in advance, knowing exactly which Rx's you will be checking. You verify they are actual Rx's written by the docs by calling the MD offices, etc. You also look at their invoices for drugs they have purchased and make sure they have ordered enough drugs to cover all the Rx's they have submitted for payment to the insurance co. They too, treat you like a queen. For every mistake you find they have to pony up the $$.

Take a look in your local paper and see all that is available. The possibilities are without limits.

I share much of your concerns - I have been a nurse for 20 years - 18 years ago I was paralyzed from a work related back injury and told I'd never walk again by 3 medical specialists. G-d and my chiropractor and the faith of my wonderful husband had other ideas and within the year I was back at work - but taking 1200 - 1800 mg ibuprofen TID to allow my back to deal with the bending and occasional lifting that working MedSurg and ICU required. Then after working Hospice for almost 2 years we found cancer in my ® lung which was happily completely removed but not before it was found that 8 years of massive ibuprofen was destroying my liver. Not able to use NSAIDs to undo the inflammatory response that "normal" nursing caused in my back, and thus having a 20# lifting restriction, and unable to tolerate bending enough to even do a cath, I've had to find other ways to nurse. I tried Admin a couple of times but am not smashing at it :)

Then about 6 years ago I was in a head-on auto collision 7_2_110.gifwhich damaged my neck and upper back which I had used to offset some of the weakness of my lower back. Now even that is not possible. I work hard to prevent the pain and spasms that easily accost me, but this requires that I limit the kind of activity and nursing that I do rather drastically.

I've done in-home equipment installations and education for insurance programs through a nursing agency, insurance in-home assessments and post event need assessments and am currently doing school nursing full time.

My income has significantly decreased over the years as my ability to do more hands on nursing has diminished.

My next challenge is that I am trying to purchase a house in North Carolina and will have to look for work in the more rural areas. I hope I can find something to support me that my back will allow me to do.

I, too, am open to suggestions and the input from the experience of others.

b'Shalom

Henaynei

Specializes in med/surg, telemetry, IV therapy, mgmt.

Hi, increasingly degenerating back problem here. I did telephonic nursing for awhile. I went to school to learn medical coding some years ago and worked as a coder. The nice thing about coding was that (1) it's desk work and (2) in many companies you can either do the work from your computer at home (if they're computerized for it), or you can bring charts home and work at home at whatever time of the day you want to do the coding. If you are certified in coding you make more money. If you go on to get an AA degree in Health Information Management (HIM) (your RN license automatically lets you out of A&P, Disease Process and Medical Terminology, plus you transfer in general education credits from your nursing college) you can do all kinds of desk work, including getting into Utilization Review and just oodles and oodles of stuff like birth certificate registration, cancer registry, medical staff office work, and the list goes on and on. An RN combined with a degree in HIM makes you very, very marketable. Check it out.

TO BIPLEY AND DAYTONITE:

Thanks very much for your timely responseS. I will look into these possibilities. Sincerely, Marie RN:Melody:

TO HENAYNEI:

Thanks for sharing so much of your story with me; I think we can find encouragement sometimes simply from being survivors. As for your move to N. Carolina, my cousin moved there recently - near the coast. He says many areas are no longer "rural" as in down-home, lower cost of living, but that it is becoming an upscale retirement haven. I hope you will find what you want and need. Peace to you and yours, Marie RN:Singing:

Specializes in Case mgmt., rehab, (CRRN), LTC & psych.

One of my instructors at LVN school was a 63 year-old woman who could no longer work as a staff nurse due to post-polio. She was basically wheelchair-bound and needed to adapt by taking a more sedentary job. I don't know about your exact level of educational attainment; however, several of my instructors held ADNs and one was an LVN. If you think you might like teaching, you may wish to consider becoming an instructor.

Specializes in LDRP; Education.
One of my instructors at LVN school was a 63 year-old woman who could no longer work as a staff nurse due to post-polio. She was basically wheelchair-bound and needed to adapt by taking a more sedentary job. I don't know about your exact level of educational attainment; however, several of my instructors held ADNs and one was an LVN. If you think you might like teaching, you may wish to consider becoming an instructor.

To be an instructor the standard is a MSN or at the very least, your BSN with some credits towards your MSN.

:Melody: Thanks for responding! I have considered teaching.

Specializes in med/surg, telemetry, IV therapy, mgmt.
One of my instructors at LVN school was a 63 year-old woman who could no longer work as a staff nurse due to post-polio. She was basically wheelchair-bound and needed to adapt by taking a more sedentary job. . .you might like teaching, you may wish to consider becoming an instructor.

When I was in nursing school we had an instructor who was an emeritus for all the things she had accomplished over her nursing career. She had been a very productive naval officer during her nursing career with a lot of theorizing and writing to her credit. However, she had MS. She was a tough instructor too (her tests were hard!), but she was such a great person and so well liked that you often knew when she was up and moving from her office to lecture because there was usually a gang of nursing students around her, holding her notes and books, and assisting her to make sure she got where she was going safely. The last time I saw her she was getting pretty wobbly and barely able to stand on her own anymore. As long as your brain is still alive and active, there is something you can do.

To be an instructor the standard is a MSN or at the very least, your BSN with some credits towards your MSN.

I taught in an LPN program and I have neither a BSN nor an MSN.

Specializes in Case mgmt., rehab, (CRRN), LTC & psych.
To be an instructor the standard is a MSN or at the very least, your BSN with some credits towards your MSN.
Here was the educational attainment of my theory and clinical nursing instructors at my LVN school. You'll notice that only one-third possess MSN degrees.

1. Mr. D: ASN

2. Mrs. S: BSN

3. Mr. K: ASN

4. Mr. C: LVN

5. Mrs. W: MSN

6. Mrs. R: BSN

7. Mrs. J: MSN

8. Mrs. T: ASN

9. Mrs. DW: MSN

In addition, the Director of Nursing of this school was a BSN. The Assistant Director of Nursing was also a BSN. An instructor does not need to be MSN-educated if (s)he is teaching at a vocational school or community college nursing program. Only the NLN-accredited nursing programs require that the instructors be MSN-prepared.

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