Hello! I am a 27 y/o former firefighter-EMT and ED tech, now new grad RN. As a tech and a firefighter, I worked for companies that didn't exactly have cultures of back safety. As a result, I was straining my lumbar muscles about once every 2 months. Just before nursing school, I got an MRI and found out I had 3 bulging/protruding discs and mild stenosis in some of those areas. Fast forward to nursing school and all of a sudden I wasn't pulling my back regularly (probably because I wasn't pulling up/lifting patients daily by myself). I was feeling great and I realized how much bedside care and poor body mechanics at work really had screwed up my back. Nursing school taught me a lot of tricks to save your back (e.g., raising the bed) that I had never been taught as a tech, and I've been doing my best to apply these lessons in real life nursing.
I just got a night shift job on a really awesome cardiac unit for a hospital that discourages lifting of more than 35 lbs. Unfortunately, I haven't seen this lift policy played out in reality, and night shift lift resources (e.g., Hover mats) don't seem to be readily available. Plus, we all know how strenuous bedside nursing is even with a no-lift policy. After only a few weeks on the floor, I severely herniated a disc and required emergency back surgery. In addition, my updated MRI shows worsened bulges in the other areas, and severe stenosis in the herniated area. I know I won't be able to survive a long career of bedside nursing. I'm not entirely upset by this, because nursing school really peaked my interest in 3 areas: nursing research, nursing informatics, and advanced practice nursing.
My preference is to become a NP and work in a more rural setting. However, I don't know how strenuous this type of advanced practice nursing actually is on the back. For those working in clinics or offices as FNPs or PNPs, would you say that advanced practice nursing is easier or harder on the back than bedside floor nursing? What are the most common lifting/bending moments? Given my back history, would you advise for or against an APN career?
