Need advice!

Nurses Career Support

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Hey guys! So I've been an RN for the past 4 almost 5 years now. I've only worked in postpartum/mother baby couplet care nursing. And when I first started, I LOVED it! Working with babies? I was in heaven. But almost 5 years of working night shift, weekends, holidays, and no prospect of going to days any time soon has me feeling pretty burnt out. I'm starting to dread going to work, and when I work 3 days in a row I find myself requesting to be cancelled (if staffing permits). I feel tired all the time. I used to feel like I loved the 4 days off but some of those days I'm sleeping all day, or I'm waking up after only sleeping 3-4 hours in hopes that I'll have a normal day and sleep at a normal time, but I'm finding myself grumpy, agitated, not happy at all. I don't have kids yet and I used to love working with babies, but taking care of other people's babies all night makes me more hesitant to start my own family because I am SO tired. I have the opportunity to take a day shift position. It's M-F 0730-1600 no weekends, holidays or call. It's home care but for moms and babies. I would checking in with families, educating and seeing how they are transitioning into motherhood. I would also get to teach some newborn basics classes. I honestly feel like I would LOVE this job. It's way less stressful than my current job, I would still get to work with moms and babies, and it's days! It's also really secure and has a pension plan which my current job doesn't have: The only two downsides I can think of is 1. Pretty significant pay cut (about 20,000$) but the salary is still very liveable and would be considered pretty good for California. The 2nd downside is obviously not having as much time off. Sometimes I really appreciate it when I can take 7-8 days off and not use PTO and just go on vacation. I'm just not sure what I would like better. I am a pretty routine person and like structure and knowing when I will be home and having a set schedule. I also do not like high stress situations either and do not tend to do well under pressure. What do you guys think? Has anyone switched from 3 12s to the M-F grind and really liked it? Regretted it? Any advice helps guys! Thanks for hearing out my story!

I haven't done it, but it sounds like you really want to and just want some reassurance. So, go for it! If you are worried about hating it and wanting to go back, stay on as PRN....but I don't think you'll need to.

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