advicenurse1

I did hospice for about 10 years and its a challenging job. I tried home health for just a short period of time but the pay method is less stable than hospice so I only did it for a few months so i'll comment on hospice pros and cons. Pros- No call lights, no 12 hour shifts, you work alone so no dealing with lazy, messy coworkers, flexible schedule, good pay, you go into patients homes so no "holiday Inn" mentality, Cons-frequent oncall (at my agency I did oncall about 3 times a month and you may have to go out at 2-3 am to see a patient), alot of nasty, roach infested houses, tons of charting, extensive driving (I drove 60-70 miles some days and had to use my own car, alot of drug seeking (mainly from family members caring for the terminally ill patient) I personally would never go back to the hospital. My worse day in hospice is better than my best day when I worked in the hospital.

I worked bedside nursing for 10 years. I left about 11 years ago due to burnout. During my break from bedside nursing, I did hospice and am currently doing telephone triage for the past 2 years. I just took a PRN position on a med surg unit about 3 weeks ago. Im still in "orientation" and have done 2 shifts so far, I try to remember what I did to survive for 10 years previously and I think organization is going to be key. As soon as I get report, I go make rounds, find out what they need prior to getting started with meds or assessments. Generally I have found if you do that at the beginning, it gives you more time to get things together. I only plan to work 2-3 days a month so as not to burn out again. I can honestly say I'm glad to be back on the floor and back in the "real" nursing world.

I worked 2-12hour nights for about 5 years, honestly I was always tired, I never really felt like "myself" when I worked nights. Even on my days off, I would be up most of the night and tired all day but I had several coworkers who have done nights for 10 plus years and say they would never work another shift. It was just not for me.

I worked med surg for about 10 years, left about 10 years ago and just started a new PRN job in med surg at a local hospital about 1 week ago. I was nervous at first because I have been out of bedside nursing for so long. Im starting to get a feel for things and a lot has come back to me since starting the new job. Of course after 10 years of being gone ALOT has changed. Im only brave enough to do 2-3 days a month, My full time job is a desk nursing job with no face to face patient contact. I enjoy my 2-3 days a month on the floor, it pays extremely well but I would never go back full time. Think that decision through before you act. A lot has change but a lot has not (short staffed, call ins, rude patients and families, holiday inn mentality, rude physicians). Good luck

I worked full-time ER and Med/surg for a long time and was totally burned out. Why don't you try some type of telephone nursing job? that's what I did. I work fulltime, 8-5, mon-fri doing telephone triage where the only contact I have with patients is over the phone, I sit and am not on my feet all day. As a side job I do med/surg. I only work on the floor 2-3 days a month so not to get burned out and if I don't feel like going, I don't schedule myself. Its limiting to make up your nursing salary with other jobs. The good thing with nursing is that you have many options.

As a nurse who worked bedside nursing for about 10 years, ambulatory nursing is definitely my niche. No call lights going off, no bedpans, no incontinence care, I don't have to worry if I'll get the pt who is on the call light all day and best of all...no weekends, nights or holidays! I don't have to worry if I'll get xmas or thanksgiving off this year because" we are closed"! Never thought I would ever say those words in nursing. It gets busy but not hospital busy. You'll love it and wonder why you didn't make the move sooner.

I did telephone triage for about 1 1/2 years for neurology. It is a very demanding job and you are so right about the caller getting upset with the messenger. Ive been cursed out more times than I care to mention over pain meds mostly. I dealt mostly with the NPs and PAs and they would escalate to the doctor if they couldn't handle the issue. I found most of them more arrogant and sharp tongued than the physician. After a year and a half I had enough and transferred to another office position. I work for a large teaching hospital and opportunities are limitless. I'm much happier since I left telephone triage.

Unfortunately being a new nurse, weekends are more than likely going to be required on all hospital units. Maybe you could look into ambulatory care or doctors office.

I did hospice for 8 years and left about 2 years ago for a office nursing job. I had no problem obtaining medication for my patients. The opiod crisis was awful when I left hospice. We had addicts taking care of their dying loved ones and some even stealing the patients narcotics. I have had all kinds of reasons why the morphine was gone before refill time( cat jumped on counter and knocked the bottle over and all pills went down drain-true story). My physician would refill in a reasonable timeframe but not too soon. I do believe that the pharmacy is bound by laws where they cannot refill narcotics if its too soon. A lot of this is out of the doctors hands.