Nursing with little to no hands on patient contact? More critical thinking?

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Hello,

I am 27 and have been a nurse for 5 years, 4 years med surg tele travel and 1 year hospice. I have been pretty unhappy with my nursing jobs through the years. I finally realized that I love the mental part of nursing and healthcare, I always love learning and educating patients. However, I hate the hands on part of nursing, I hate wound care and incontinence care, heavy lifting, always being on my feet. It burns out over and over again even though I keep changing jobs and trying different things. I want to work more with my knowledge and brain and less with my body. What should I do? I'm willing to go back to school. Thanks!

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Specializes in Psych, Addictions, SOL (Student of Life).

Have you thought about psych nursing?

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public health, or podcasting, writing, or social media.

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Specializes in NICU/Mother-Baby/Peds/Mgmt.

Get a nursing education Master's and then a nursing education job.

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Telephone triage.

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Insurance companies. Worked for me!

Good luck.

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In addition to nursing education jobs, there are also patient education jobs for nurses (i.e. Diabetes Educators).

Also, many NP roles might fit your criteria. Yes, you still have 'patient contact' in that you're doing assessments, relaying information, and providing education. However, it's a much less physical, more 'cerebral' role than bedside nursing.

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Specializes in orthopedic/trauma, Informatics, diabetes.

I am in a long term research study and the nurse that is my contact, has been a research nurse for 33 years. She has some patient contact, but most is learning about new treatments or medications and then implementing the study.

The study that I am in is NIH study to determine best second line treatment for diabetes (T2) after Metformin. She knows more about diabetes medications than anyone I know. And she knows research protocol (IRB processes and documentation).

If I didn't like the patient component so much, I might have looked at research nursing.

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Have you looked into utilization review? I'm also not a big fan of bedside and would not mind UR but I lack the experience.

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transplant coordinator! ?

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Case manager? I am starting as one in 2 weeks for similar reasons...

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Specializes in Med-Surg.

Consider case management or ultization review.

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