Lawyer to Nurse

Nurses Career Support

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I am considering a career change from law to nursing. I am a practicing attorney and am very unhappy in my current career. I am actually one of the lucky ones who did very well in law school and, as a result, have a very "good" law job, with an excellent salary. However, I dread coming to work every day and count the minutes until I get to go home, only to do it over and over again.

The law is an isolating profession. Many days I interact with no one all day except my secretary. Everything is done online over e-mail. I also want my time away from my family to be worth something - to make a positive impact on someone else.

Has anyone else made this career change? Am I crazy?

The hard part is realising that the ability to do a better job (and aptitude) is often right there in the staff nurse group (with its mix of ex-business, law, engineering etc)....but never being asked for input.

If you are a creative thinker .... then bad, bad fit with nursing

I'm an ER nurse for 6 years...and I get asked for input daily..usually by the doctors!! And if you are NOT a creative thinker then nursing is NOT for you!! It rarely is the "NCLEX" hospital. Every day I have to tailor fit my job to each patient. I've worked in situations that I had to MAKE the equipment that I needed, talk about getting creative! I do agree that the suits upstairs don't have a clue of what I do, and they definately can't come down to the ER and take my place. But I have found that my peace is in taking excellent care of my patients, working as a team with other nurses and the doctors...not with dealing with admin. Like I said, its not like they can do MY job, but I'm pretty sure I could do theirs if I wanted to!!:nurse:

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I just discovered this thread now - what a great topic, and certainly one I can relate to! I have been a lawyer for 6 years. Similar to layne, I was fortunate enough to land a "great" law firm job out of school, and I now work with a smaller firm. I decided to leave the legal profession because I was not happy, and because I have always wanted to become involved in healthcare and take care of patients - for this reason, I applied to several direct-entry NP programs in the Boston area, and I was accepted to several. I will likely be attending MGH.

I noticed that there was little mention on this board of NPs, which surprises me given several people's concern about the loss of autonomy when leaving the legal profession. While an NP is by no means entirely autonomous, an NP will generally have more autonomy than an RN. Has anyone else thought about the NP route?

Good luck to all of you, and thank you for sharing your experiences!

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Grindaholic - I meant to post this above, but thank you for the link, I am definitely checking that society out! I am intrigued by the JD/DNP you met, since I would also love to hold a faculty position at a nursing school someday (the profession definitely needs good faculty in the future considering all those people we are losing in the next 10 years). Did you end up pursuing a career in nursing?

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I have considered the NP route. But unless accepted into a master's NP program by the end of the year it will be a doctoral degree...and lots of nurses are not interested in THAT much more education. I would have pursued it, if it had stayed at a master's level degree, but I have to be doing my education at this point part time and just cant get through the BSN before the end of the year. And having already obtained a BS in Rehabilitation prior to becoming a nurse not that motivated for another bachelors. Just me though.

But nurse's are notorious for inhibiting ourselves in ways such as requiring NP to become phd... we are short on nurses and general health providers - so lets make it harder and less desirable to become one? classic.

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Specializes in Critical Care, Education.

If nurses are going to be taken seriously in the competetion to be providers of choice for primary care, they need to have the requisite educational background. Currently, NP education is already much more than a typical masters & it is not too much of a jump to take it to DNP level.

FYI, Physical therapists have been the most successful at advancing their entry into practice. They increased it to Masters degree several years ago, and it only added prestige to their profession.

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FYI, Physical therapists have been the most successful at advancing their entry into practice. They increased it to Masters degree several years ago, and it only added prestige to their profession.

Many PTs have Doctorate degrees as well, and the difference I have

seen is their mobility out of the hospital setting. They have set up their

own businesses and the ones in our area have practices that have

grown steady each year.

In contrast, the NPs are still connected in our area directly to an MD,

who in turn is connected to a single hospital. On some level I am

not seeing the autonomy that initially was intended. For example,

for an NP to practice independently in their own business.

My question is-with a Doctorate in Nursing, will nurses have more freedom

to establish an independent practice??

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Specializes in being a Credible Source.
My question is-with a Doctorate in Nursing, will nurses have more freedom

to establish an independent practice??

In short, it depends on the legislature in each state. Some states are willing to allow NPs to practice independently, others are not.
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My thanks to you all for the great insights. I'm 48 and am thinking about nursing after struggling for the last 10 years to make a living as an attorney. Unfortuantely, a couple of things are holding me back. First - money! I'm currently unemployed (again) and am the main wage earner in the family. Second big problem is that husband feels that I should keep concentrating on finding a better attorney job. (He blames me for not having a stellar legal career making lots of money so I cannot expect any support from him.) Anyway, I'm glad to find that others have had some similar experiences. Glad also to learn of taana.org.

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Specializes in ICU / PCU / Telemetry / Oncology.
My thanks to you all for the great insights. I'm 48 and am thinking about nursing after struggling for the last 10 years to make a living as an attorney. Unfortuantely, a couple of things are holding me back. First - money! I'm currently unemployed (again) and am the main wage earner in the family. Second big problem is that husband feels that I should keep concentrating on finding a better attorney job. (He blames me for not having a stellar legal career making lots of money so I cannot expect any support from him.) Anyway, I'm glad to find that others have had some similar experiences. Glad also to learn of taana.org.

I am almost 42 and in the same boat as you. I practiced for 10 years before I called it quits and moved on to education, which I consider my "limbo" job because it was buying me time to figure out what I really wanted to do. Once I discovered it was nursing, I pursued it head on. I got into a great accelerated BSN program and will be starting that next month, graduating in one year. If this is what you really want to do, make sure you plan for it and find ways to make it happen. You're not the first attorney-to-nurse and you won't be the last I am sure. Like I said, the accelerated BSN is only a year, it's the best option for people with our credentials and the fastest career change track into nursing. But if money is really an issue, you can always pursue a 2-year program (ADN or BSN) and work part-time while in school. Not sure where you live, but know that the BSN is increasingly becoming the preferred degree in hiring new grads, so you will want to consider that one first. Of course, new grad hiring is pretty competitive right now, but not 100% impossible. Good luck!

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Perhaps a bit of a similarity between law and nursing is that once you have the degree/license/credentials to be a lawyer or nurse, it can feel difficult to justify moving into a completely different field. So many people envy the qualifications of RN or JD (for different reasons generally, but envy nonetheless) and can't understand someone turning away from the opportunities those degrees potentially afford, especially when there's such a wide range of types of work such as found in law and nursing. I haven't sensed this same type of incredulousness when someone with a teaching credential wants to leave teaching.

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Grindaholic - I meant to post this above, but thank you for the link, I am definitely checking that society out! I am intrigued by the JD/DNP you met, since I would also love to hold a faculty position at a nursing school someday (the profession definitely needs good faculty in the future considering all those people we are losing in the next 10 years). Did you end up pursuing a career in nursing?

Hi choco80,

I had to wait until my hubby was done with his CPA testing and busy-season travelling. We also moved back to Florida, it made more sense to wait once I arrived here.

Now that I'm back in S. Florida, my interest in nursing has only increased. I plan to start my pre-reqs this Fall and then apply into an accelerated BSN next year. I asked my best friend for advice. She pursued nursing after working in HR for years. She has a bachelors in a computer-related field, and later earned her ADN. Her advice to me was to do the BSN straight, (no LPN, no ADN) because of the marketability and competitiveness in this area.

I also have another good friend currently in a BSN program...which is also a career change from her many years in sales. She is scratching her head and thinks I'm nuts to go from law to nursing. But I can see myself as a caring, quick-thinking nurse. My personality is more apt to healthcare as opposed to law, which is always adverserial and not as rewarding.

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Specializes in ICU / PCU / Telemetry / Oncology.
She is scratching her head and thinks I'm nuts to go from law to nursing. But I can see myself as a caring, quick-thinking nurse. My personality is more apt to healthcare as opposed to law, which is always adverserial and not as rewarding.

The hell with naysayers. I have only received positive vibes from people for my decision to leave law for nursing. Your description of your personality leanings are spot on with mine. Follow your heart, it's the way to go. You will be happier in the end. And your legal training will be an asset nevertheless in nursing.

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