Non nursing jobs

[catsmeow1972]

As I have decided that it is too much of a pain in the kazoo trying to work any kind of a nursing job while I have the program ermmm "people" inserting themselves between said position and my dignity (I do still have a small amount of that left even after this awful experience) I am opting to do something else whilst I wait out the time. I am at the roughly 18 month or so mark until I can re enter the market. In the meantime, I have actually gotten a retail job. As retail jobs go, it's not a bad one. Other than the near minimum wage pay, it's with a company that has a reputation for treating its employees very well and were I younger and looking for a career, would be a great place to have a career in.

i just don't know how I feel about working for 1/4 of what I used to make even though I am doing this more for sanity than money. I don't think it's humility because it's not really about the money. It's actually kind of fun. In all likelihood, I may very well stay around a bit after returning to nursing just for something other than nursing to do.

I don't know why I'm bothered. The only thing I can think of is that in spite of it being pleasant as PT jobs go, it's another thing was not exactly my choice so much as forced (not the best word, but it'll do) upon me by the sheer inappropriate application of these programs.

My current effort is to not be so angry because it's not helping the immediate situation and it's just making my ulcer worse, but sometimes it's really difficult......

[SpankedInPittsburgh, DNP, RN]

Yeah. If I was an employer and had a choice between two nurses. The first is a monitoring program nurse He/She cannot work certain shifts, cannot be in charge, cannot pass meds, may need time off to attend "treatment" or submit to random drug tests and (oh yeah) I'm saddled with an additional administrative burden on. Don't forget I also get to read all the gory details of the worst moment in that nurses life. The second nurse is just a nurse and none of the above apply. I'm picking the second nurse 10 out of 10 times

[catsmeow1972, BSN, RN]

I haven't been active in a little while because life & my dreaded DNP Capstone are combining to make me miserable.

As much as this and the Capstone project might both be miserable, I have to ask, how long until we get to address you as Dr. Spanked?

[SpankedInPittsburgh, DNP, RN]

HAHAHA!!!! Spanked is fine. Thank you though. A very happy thanksgiving to you and yours. I graduate in the Spring

[catsmeow1972, BSN, RN]

The other night I was at my reasonably pleasant non nursing job and I saw a tech from my previous med/surg floor job (the one that proved to me that I ain't a floor nurse!) I have never tried to hide behind a rack of chips so fast in my life, as well as praying that she did not come through my line. This particular person was one that had kind of taken a dislike to me and rather took it out on my patients, refusing tasks I asked of her. She was just basically a nasty gossipy individual. I'm not embarrassed at my job at all. I'm working with some pretty cool people. I think I just didn't want her to see me because you know she'd run right back and verbal vomit to the floor what I was doing. I mean, not like I care. I've heard nothing from anyone there in months....so....why do I care?.....

[kbrn2002, ADN, RN]

I think that mental illness and addiction should be treated as diseases and have medically appropriate treatment applied by as medical professional. This is not what we get in these cases. In your case you have been diagnosed with a mental health disease. I doubt very much that sending you to substance abuse treatment, making you go to 12 step meetings and screwing your career is part of any treatment a non-biased medical professional would deem appropriate. Even for people with substance abuse disorders the idea of adding all this unnecessary stress to their lives is counterproductive. Isn't recovery supposed to restore lives for people can live to their full potential and happiness? All this seems to be missed by these programs. This ignores the fact that (in my opinion) recovery is a personal decision which is not imposed on an individual by a 3rd party. Like I say all the time. I'm not in recovery. I do what I must to keep my livelihood but none of this is, or would be by choice. I think this is why so many people in this program count the days down until they can have control of their lives again. If this was real recovery people would be relishing in the experience or at least accepting it as their choice. What I've experienced is people who are counting down the days until they can have an "I'm done with this BS party" that will most likely include copious amounts of mind altering substances. True 12 step & recovery praise every day of their sobriety. For me its just another step on a long road that I don't want to be on.

While I have no personal experience in this I've known a few people both nurses and not that have gone through court ordered or BON ordered treatment and you are absolutely correct in saying it doesn't work. For treatment to truly be successful the individual going through it needs to want it to be successful. Being forced to do it doesn't accomplish a damn thing except sucking up those limited treatment slots thereby refusing entry to somebody that really wants the help.

Case in point is a nurse I worked with whose husband felt he needed inpatient therapy for his addiction. Because all local treatment options had a wait list of literally years since all their openings were taken by people going through court ordered programs he opted to attend a program several hundred miles away. We lost a good nurse when she quit to be closer to him during during his recovery. In the meantime just about every person in treatment locally is jumping through the legal hoops imposed on them by somebody else and counting the days until they can get back to their normal lives.