Nursing Student Lifetime Lifting Restriction?

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Hello All,

At the age of 50 I realized a dream and returned to school to become an RN two years and a 3.91 gpa later I will enter the program in September. I have recently been diagnosed with a stage 3 cystocele and the surgery to repair it has a 3 month 10# lifting restriction and also a lifelong 20 - 25# lifting restriction. My plan is to get a pessary and then schedule the surgery next spring when the semester ends and have 4 months to recover before my second year in the program.

Are there nursing jobs that don't require heavy lifting??

I'm devastated to have worked so hard to realize a dream and then begin to feel it slip away..

Any input/suggestions would be greatly appreciated..

Thank YOU

Lynn52

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Specializes in Hospital Education Coordinator.

Sure. Nurses can be coders in a hospital, work in medical library, school nurse (although I can see where some lifting might come in play, but perhaps you can get assistance), working in MD offices, for insurance companies---I wish you lots of luck! We have a nurse in utilization review in a wheelchair, but of course she had floor experience before MS progressed to this stage

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There are TONS of nursing jobs outside of the traditional bedside role. A few that come to mind... being a nurse or patient educator, doing admission assessments for a psych hospital, or you can complete a short course and become certified in legal issues to help investigate malpractice. That last option actually pays extremely well.

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Specializes in Peds, School Nurse, clinical instructor.

I would check with your program. While you probably would not have a problem finding a non bedside job, your school may require a physical with no restrictions. I know where I teach, the students cannot attend clinical with any restrictions. I hope this works out for you.

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Specializes in Home health was tops, 2nd was L&D.
There are TONS of nursing jobs outside of the traditional bedside role. A few that come to mind... being a nurse or patient educator, doing admission assessments for a psych hospital, or you can complete a short course and become certified in legal issues to help investigate malpractice. That last option actually pays extremely well.

I did that legal schooling and set up business and worked my heart out for long enough to realize I obviously do not live anywhere near where those people are needed or wanted. It was alot of $$, but I did learn from it. Yes, I talked to supposed real nurses who made a real living doing that. So maybe somewhere someone can but not me and I was top in the class.

But I agree there are many areas of nursing where you do not have to lift but many of those required preve=ious experience. Best of luck to you. You may find you need more education as it does seem to be relative to how much lifting is needed. :)

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Hmmm, that's good to know about legal schooling. Thanks for sharing - I'll be sure to do tons of research before I would consider doing it.

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Specializes in ER.
Hello All,

At the age of 50 I realized a dream and returned to school to become an RN two years and a 3.91 gpa later I will enter the program in September. I have recently been diagnosed with a stage 3 cystocele and the surgery to repair it has a 3 month 10# lifting restriction and also a lifelong 20 - 25# lifting restriction. My plan is to get a pessary and then schedule the surgery next spring when the semester ends and have 4 months to recover before my second year in the program.

Are there nursing jobs that don't require heavy lifting??

I'm devastated to have worked so hard to realize a dream and then begin to feel it slip away..

Any input/suggestions would be greatly appreciated..

Thank YOU

Lynn52

school nursing, office nursing, insurance company nursing.... education..... lots of options...

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Informatics - companies like Cerner hire tons of RNs to help design nursing-friendly software and travel to hospitals to teach clients.

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Specializes in Home health was tops, 2nd was L&D.

I did tons of research, I truly believe I was sorta scammed into their stories. Like I do believe some can actually make money, but the one in a million is really one in a million and they have some sort of in ..like legal background with family etc. The concept is wonderful and if attorneys cooperated it would be a great job.. but I got interviews and each one ended up picking my brain over some make believe case til I said Okay, you can hire me if you want more. I am sure someone will come on here and flame me as there is always the exception to the rule but this is truly what I found. I was on the east coast. Would have been better doing paralegal , less money and with some experience would have made nurses salary, but not $150/hr..of course that claim does not say how many hrs you will have work!!!!

And also I ended up having to take it off my resume as two places questioned if I could be a liability..little knowledge..dangerous thing scenerio.

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Specializes in NICU.

I rarely lift over 10 pounds in the NICU. My heftiest patients have weighed around 12 pounds.

Will school work with your lifting restrictions though? We couldn't have any physical restrictions where I went to school.

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Good to know about the "legal" nursing careers. I didn't know much about it - only heard a nurse friend thinking about doing it. Glad to be forewarned now. I will definitely pass on it - thanks!

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Please do check with your school. We also had to have no lifting restrictions. I hope they can help you.

good luck to you!

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