Hey everyone! I'm currently a travel RN whose background is in Med-surg/tele. All the units I've worked on so far have been very busy, very fast paced, just busy busy busy all the time and I hate it! I'm currently looking for something that's a little slower in pace and doesn't have me running around like a chicken with my head cut off but completely a desk job. Also, all those hospital rounds, discharge rounds, meetings, meetings, meetings! It's so annoying! When I was a newer nurse, I felt this was all a need to know and must do, but as I gain my experience, I'm starting to see it's not exactly necessary for my growth but is all part of the politics.
Does anyone have any ideas of what a good specialty that has a slower pace and less of all this stuff would be?
Extended care home health puts forth only one patient, however, you have maximum contact with families, some of whom go way overboard with antagonism. You can control this by insisting that your agency only place you on night shift (family in bed), or on cases where the family members work away from the home, or otherwise are gone from the home, during your shift.
Specializes in Nephrology, Peds, NICU, PICU, adult ICU.
There is less family interactions on nights, particularly if your facility has designated visiting hours but pace usually isn't any slower and you might have a larger patient load than during day shift.
Maybe look into an out-patient ambulatory care setting?
I had a professor in nursing school who said working oncology nursing at a cancer center was slow-paced. I have no oncology experience, so I don't know personally.
My experience with travel nursing is we call in a travel nurse when we're short staffed and already up to our elbows in alligators. So we were busy, busy, busy before you got here and expect you to bring your own roller skates!
The cliche "PACU is where burnt out ICU nurses go to die" has some validity. You are paid more for what you know rather than what you do. If I am really that busy for more than 20 minutes at a stretch there is sumtin up and I better get on it! I use my ICU experience to prevent rather than deal with crisis. Can't let that routine surgery turn into an ICU admission. Explaining that to upset family members makes for unsatisfactory survey scores.
If you're not adverse to taking call, that's where it really gets sweet. One patient at a time, two PACU nurses required to staff the unit and you get to wear hospital provided pajamas (scrubs), all for time and a half.
I had a professor in nursing school who said working oncology nursing at a cancer center was slow-paced. I have no oncology experience, so I don't know personally.
Oncology was one of the toughest places I worked. Pain meds, chemo, ports, precautions, families, emotions, vomit, diarrhea, PAIN MEDS, dressings, blood draws on crap veins and OH, did I mention the pain meds?
That being said, Onc nurses were some of the best I've ever worked with.
Oncology was one of the toughest places I worked. Pain meds, chemo, ports, precautions, families, emotions, vomit, diarrhea, PAIN MEDS, dressings, blood draws on crap veins and OH, did I mention the pain meds?
That being said, Onc nurses were some of the best I've ever worked with.
Agree 100%. Did oncology for nine years and while it was the best experience as far as using my nursing skills, the pace almost killed me!
Oncology was one of the toughest places I worked. Pain meds, chemo, ports, precautions, families, emotions, vomit, diarrhea, PAIN MEDS, dressings, blood draws on crap veins and OH, did I mention the pain meds?
That being said, Onc nurses were some of the best I've ever worked with.
Isn't there a difference in pace and acuity between acute and out patient centers? I've gotten the impression that our local out patient clinics don't resemble inpatient nursing.
Having worked both day shift and night shift in the hospital, I can say in my experience nights is also busy. But its a different kind of busy on nights. Rarely is there a shift that I am actually sitting for any period of time. I'm constantly up and moving getting pain meds for this patient, helping the PCT toilet or position another, answering call bells, charting etc.
While we don't have the constant in and out of family members and visitors or the other staff (MD, PT/OT, etc) around like on days, we do have a lot going on. We also have a higher nurse to patient ratioand patient care techs to patient than the other shifts. We also get a lot of admissions throughout the night.
Isn't there a difference in pace and acuity between acute and out patient centers? I've gotten the impression that our local out patient clinics don't resemble inpatient nursing.
I've only worked inpatient besides one clinic for 2.5 years, but that was OBGYN.
caliotter3
38,333 Posts
Extended care home health puts forth only one patient, however, you have maximum contact with families, some of whom go way overboard with antagonism. You can control this by insisting that your agency only place you on night shift (family in bed), or on cases where the family members work away from the home, or otherwise are gone from the home, during your shift.