Xance

We are RN here and not star-eyes idealists. Age is only a number? Sure it is indeed a number but it’s a very important one. We know age increases risk for all sorts of major ailments, and higher age generally means less endurance. Sometimes older folk can surprise you, but they are certainly not the norm. You are quite motivated, but your situation is definitely not the norm for your age group. There is a difference between Ray Croc, and other elders who started successful businesses and going to school to acquire a job. Businesses can scale up according to input and can compound upon themselves rather wuicklynif done right. A job is not that way, and sometimes people fight tooth-and-nail to get a meager $2/hr raise. If the OP desires to start a business of some sort I’ll join the crowd of their cheerleaders. But RN school is generally not a great option for older folk close to retirement due to all sorts of things but mostly financial. Unless the OP desires to work into their 70’s+ and never retire then perhaps. But again, most people do not wish to do that and the OP will force that situation on themself if they do itndue to lost opportunity costs and increased costs as I have previously mentioned. Idealism is fine and all but we just take the financial picture into it as well.

If those two options are your only two options then the choice is obvious; you should pick psych. You mentioned you liked it better, to include your potential boss and the salary/benefits that go along with it and you mentioned that medical benefits are especially important. That means your choice is obvious, but don't think that it is 'career suicide' to go to psych. Saying that is demeaning to the entire psych specialty, and any experience as an RN is good experience. A third option would be to continue looking to see what else you can find but if those two are your only two options then the one with an overall better package is the obvious choice.

Job hopping that much makes me seriously doubt that they even considered organizational costs. Most likely the OP is a very young person to be acting so irresponsibly, or they are an immature adult. Either way they will likely have to take a job and stick with it for longer than a year to show some form of consistency, or they will have to leave the field of nursing to do other types of work they find comfortable. That is assuming they continue to wok at all, and if this trend continues that will become more and more difficult.

Most of these suggestions seem to gravitate towards you going to nursing school. I will be the voice that says no you definitely should not, but there are valid reasons for that. 1. More than likely you have decades of experience in another field and also likely that you are making as high or higher salary in that field than a new RN will make, and your retirement/benefits are vetted. Should you leave for RN school you will be putting 7+ more years of work (at least 2 for school and 5 to get vetted for retirement in another job). This point is moot if your IRA is well-funded and/or you are already wealthy from other means. This is on top of the time to actually get thru RN school so if you are seeking benefits/retirement from an RN job you won't be able to draw on them until at least 75. 2. You will face ageism. You will likely be 67+ by the time you graduate nursing school and thus would be able to draw social security and be able to retire anytime. Employers will be extremely hesitant to hire someone who they might feel is a liability as you will be able to suddenly retire whenever you want to. You might not want to retire yet or at all, but employers will think of these things making your first job as an RN very difficult, far more so than usual for a new grad. Regardless if you are as healthy as someone half your age or not, these will be concerns for someone in an HR office somewhere who you will never meet and they will never meet you except your resume and application. They will have concerns like these, but might rationalize these concerns as other things to avoid the appearance of ageism but do not think that these types of concerns aren't being considered by all of your potential employers. They'd see you high school graduation date and decades of experience and be able to piece this together, they don't even need to know your exact birthdate. 3. Costs of school. There are more costs to school than simply the money and time. You will face mental and emotional challenges that you may not be prepared for. As mentioned in point 1, you most likely have decades of experience in another field and thus would be used to a certain level of mental/physical exertion from that career. RN school is rife with challenges that many people your age are simply unwilling to face as at that point in their lives they desire the well-earned comforts of retirement and not the hectic challenge of schooling right before retirement. Nursing school instructors will not take it easy on you because of your age and you will be expected to keep up with students half your age or younger. This means being able to lift heavy patient/objects and being on your feet for 10+ hours with little opportunities for rest and possibly being at a fast walk/slow run the majority of that time. Do you think you can physically handle that? Sure in many SOP's it's said you can simply go get a lift assist device. In actuality those aren't used much and you will be expected to move heavy patients by yourself or with 1-2 other people. Can you imagine yourself and 1 other person lifting a 200 pound person deadweight from a bed to chair or vice versa? Do you want to spend 8-10 hours a day at school and then study for 1-3 hours after that each day? Do you want to be full of stress and anxiety right before you reach retirement age and constantly be stressing about the next test or some assignment? These are the types of questions you need to ask, and I advise talking to the school counselors at programs you are interested in to get a glimpse of what to expect and then evaluate yourself if you want to go thru that. 4. Time is against you. Evaluate why you want to go and try to modify your plans accordingly. If your plan is to treat patients and/or try to do good for others than going to LVN school may be better as it's cheaper and quicker than RN school. You will be able to get out there working quicker and thus be able to have at least a few years of work before you hit retirement age. RN school usually requires some prerequisites in addition to the 2-4 years required to complete the curriculum. That means if you are 63 now you most likely won't be a new-grad looking for work until you are 67-68. How many years of your life do you expect to be working? As mentioned, you must begine drawing social security within a few years of that and you'd be eligible for retirement during nursing school. You are trying to maneuver yourself into disappointment by going thru such a long program that close to retirement. I seriously advise you to consider LVN instead if you are dead-set on becoming a nurse as the program is far quicker at usually less than a year with little/no prerequisites. 5. What is the reason for the sudden career change? If you simply want the letters "RN" behind your name then definitely do not do it. If you simply want to become an RN to fulfill a life goal, but don't plan on reasonably using such license then go ahead. If you want to get that license to try and get more money for retirement then you will fail. You will have lost opportunity costs from the years of school. Assuming average US income of 40k/year and your schooling takes you 5 years you would have lost out on 200k on income you could have gotten from your previous job. Assuming the average income for a RN of 70k, that is a 30k boost, but you'd then have to make up for that initial 200k lost income, AND THEN add the actual costs of schooling on top of that. I won't go further, but suffice to say you will have to work several decades to make up that lost income and increased expenses and that probably isn't what you originally intended. If you simply wanted to go help out somewhere then I suggest volunteering at a hospital. That will take care of any altruism wants of yours and allow you to keep your current income/benefits/retirement. Sorry to be the dissident one here, but many seem to be advising you from an idealistic point of view. The reality of the situation is that unless you already are wealthy this would be a terrible decision for you to undertake being so close to retirement. If you are already wealthy and simply want a change of pace then think about what I said and then go according to what you decide is correct.

I think OP ran off due to the criticism. Some job-hopping is ok, but 7 in less than a year, with several walk-offs? Unacceptable. Eventually the OP will run out of places to apply to, having left/fired from all of the others. The OP should seriously consider what the problem is with them. It's not with the world, it's not the units either. In all of those cases (save the touchy feely one) it was the OP fault for leaving by handling each case badly, with the ICU one being the worst. Leaving due to having to spend a measly 5 weeks on orientation? Did they honestly expect facility orientation as night when few managers work? The OP acts as if they can find a job by pulling them endlessly out of a hat, but they will soon find out that eventually the hat will run out of names and then they will be screwed.

The second option would not be wise imo. If you were to transition to the reserves most of those are in the US somewhere and you would then have to travel internationally every month. the only way the second option would work is if you can guarantee a reserve job somewhere in the UK but I have never heard of such a thing. The first option would be the better one, but as for you becoming a practicing RN you would have to check with the UK board of nursing to see if your education will even allow you to use your US education to get a UK RN license. If an ADN program is insufficient, you would then have to either make time for a full fledged BSN program, or do something other than nursing when you go to the UK. There are programs where you can use a bachelors in something to get a BSN in just a year, but that would be something you might have to delay until you get back from the UK. I'm facing that same issue (I work overseas on ships), my experience is not recognized by hospitals so it's difficult to get a hospital job. I suggest a hybrid approach. Get your BSN now and ask if he can delay going to the UK until that is finished. Then get your RN and apply to US hospitals over there in the UK with the military, that would ensure your licensure is recognized. There are VA hospitals over there, as well as Army and Air Force so that might be your best approach. Otherwise I'm not sure what else you can do.

Many people are drawn to the field for a 'higher calling', but do not think only those can gain entry into the field. In fact many RN's I meet like to spout off those common things that you mentioned, and yet when talking about another position it always comes down to money. Nursing is an excellently paid field, and you have relevant experience to draw upon and expand. The whole idea of 'doing what you love so it won't be considered work' is fine and all, but usually unattainable and unrealistic. Do what you are good at and can see yourself doing for a long time and you will be fine. I suggest you look into different RN types, as there are far more things you can do as an RN than simply bedside. Outpatient stuff like your own pain management clinic would be an obvious choice of using your RN experience as your new license and past experience would be quite valuable, and it would be quite familiar to you with an added bonus of higher salary. In the end it's your life and do what you can tolerate doing. If you can truly find your passion for something like you said (writing, education, etc) then go for that, but you can do those same types of things in nursing too so don't discount that. Most LPN to BSN programs aren't too costly either, far less than many typical bachelor degrees. So if you truly dislike the field on nursing it won't be too difficult to transition out into another field. RN's even have some parts of it merged with computers and IT type work now (informatics RN). So it's an excellent idea to continue to your BSN because you will become exposed to many other types of nursing that may in fact interest you that you may not have heard about before.

What do you mean you 'couldn't pick up on things'? What exactly were those 'things'? That question is directed at everyone here. Sometimes it depends on what that thing is, and should it be expected to be basic or not. I have seen people struggle to place IV's by themselves, yet were great nephrology RN's working in dialysis clinics. Those RN's didn't place any IV's, those were already there and obvious targets so they thrived. I have seen some RN's struggle at other 'basic' tasks, yet were exemplary elsewhere. As was said prior, do not point the finger and say 'it was all (insert person/organization here) fault! I was blameless in this!'. Saying that will get you nowhere except a first class ticket to Bitterness City. Examine yourself and figure out what exactly went wrong, doing that will make you a better RN and perhaps even steer you to use your strengths in another specialty.

Most likely it would be best for you to pursue OT in the current hospital you are at, whether in the same department or elsewhere. If you go outside the hospital network any work you do is straight time, yet if you found additional work in the network you work at it would likely be time-and-a-half. Few side gigs pay anything close to what a shift or two of OT at your hospital would pay.

Disciplined for what? What could you have possibly done in your less than 3 weeks in the unit that warrants such punishment?

Public transportation vary wildly from city to city, and in many cases a car would be a requirement or a hindrance as LilPeanut said. I've been to cities like Singapore where if you used a car it was purely a status symbol as it was far more difficult to get anywhere with a car than using public transport in most cases. Opposite with places like San Antonio, where the busses take quite a while to go places and do not run everywhere so a car is most likely needed unless you live really close to your job. Even in that case food/entertainment/etc is probably not easily accessible by bus so would require intense planning/a lot of travel time to get somewhere that a car could reach in minutes. It all depends on your own city and what the landscape looks like. In cities where the local government places a high value on public transportation you will see a well-funded and efficient transportation system that makes owning a car not necessary. Other cities may place a low-priority on public transportation and thus the system is inefficient or otherwise not entirely a accessible as it should be.

Excellent breakdown of how things can be done in SF or other comparable city LilPeanut. Hearing things like that put in that way causes me to rethink how I view the higher costs of living in CA. However my current job would not allow me to live there as my overseas job salary is independent of where I live so it's far better for me to remain in a cheap place like TX because my salary would be insufficient for CA but its excellent for TX. Perhaps I'll casually look into RN positions in places like CA now keeping what I have heard in mind here. I'm still leaning toward what some have suggested; travel RN. That would get me a higher salary than I can get here in TX but I would still get the lower Tx cost of living.

I believe this was mostly due to manning issues and for some reason HR thought it was best to keep the applicant in the dark. Be that from a workload standpoint, or simply apathy the applicant was kept in the dark about a position. The real issue to me comes from a written offer letter AND THEN they deviate from it. That happened to me only once, but it was certainly a surprise when that happened although I could not back out of it as it was too late (I was in Navy boot camp, so my *** was already government property). Your have a few options I think. First; accept their altered offer as is. Second; attempt to renegotiate and possibly lose that job. Third; not take the position at all and search elsewhere. Only you can decide if that location was really what you desired and you don't want to start a job search over. But know this; it's easier to take a little extra time to find what you really want than it is to work there for a little while and quit, only to start over.

I'd say run from that employer, and fast. If a mistake like that doesn't rate AT LEAST some sort of corrective action on the part of the other RN then there is more to this than you may realize. Some politicking was probably done and she was probably someone's favorite or 'knew someone' and the mistake was swept under the rug. If they would rather do that than actually correct the problem with some sort of systemic change, and/or corrective action on the part of that RN then what do you think they would do the next time? Or the next? The BoN might finally catch on to a track record such as that, and pity the RN's who work at that facility when the BoN brings the hammer down.

If the hospital controls all of the hospitals in the area you may consider moving. Go to another large city in your state and you won't have a problem finding a job there and you won't have to deal with that stuff you are dealing with. I suggest that as you mentioned you have a nice financial position which was a really wise action which allows you this option. You have a year of experience, don't like the job, and find it difficult to work elsewhere in your city. It might be time to move where the job market is better. Alternatively you can try to bypass your unit manager. That might not be advisable but it can be done by going over and around their head. Talk to other units department managers or go to your unit managers boss. Mind you that option can potentially be a bridge-burner but you would have to do that action tactfully and carefully.

BSN would be slightly more difficult I imagine to get yourself away from the bedside unless it would be a different specialty like informatics or the like. To get away and stay away regardless of specialty I would suggest getting your MSN in education or administration. The former would place you in a school most likely, or the training department of a hospital. The latter would put you in a leadership role and paperwork would become your life, although if the department faced a critical manning shortage you still may be expected to jump in if it's bad enough and your hospital encourages that. Some leadership roles are still expected to be a bedside RN in their department for a few days a month as well.

I am not a traveler, but given your high salary I would suggest staying put for awhile and saving up a cash reserve for when you do wish to pursue travel nursing. In almost any situation, going forth without some sort of cash cushion could lead to some very desperate situations and/or financial decisions made for only short term gain/long term loss. Eliminate your debts (except mortgage) building a cash reserve for at least 3 months, and THEN go look for travel positions as then you would be in a very good position to look for what you want, and not for the first thing you see (which may not be such a good position). Anyone really can use advice like that now that I type it.

I also do not like bedside nursing so it sounds as if the OR might be a suitable place for me in the future. That's something I haven't heard before about the 'remolding' thing. To my understanding everyone goes thru a long orientation in the OR regardless if they are a new-grad or have 20 years of non-OR experience as it is such a different beast than other bedside positions. It sounds as if you found yourself something you might enjoy using your new BSN and RN license (soon enough).

As a new grad I applied to 4 different hospitals in my area (large city) different positions at the ER and ICU in each one. I received 2 interviews followed by 2 job offers and I took the one I liked more. That was as a new grad, but it still took almost 2 months to get to that place even after I had my RN license in hand. The point I'm making is that you should apply the second you graduate the program. Many hospitals (depending on area) offer something called a 'critical care specialist'. From what I can gather it's a special position that mimics an ER tech's job description but is specifically made for GN before they get their licenses and they will be expected to move up to a unit RN afterwards. It allows time (usually 3 months) to get let the GN get their license and you even get paid slightly higher than tech wages to boot. I figure that is something also worth looking into and you can apply to those types of positions. Alternatively you can simply go applying to tech positions now. Some states allow nursing students to work as a tech in hospitals without requiring a CNA or EMT-B certificate, and this will give you a backdoor into that hospital once you get your license. You could remind the ER at that hospital you work at for example that you are a nursing student and want to work in that unit. That's a prime example of networking and if your studies allow it, working part-time or full-time as a tech in a hospital allows excellent networking. Hospitals are keen to advance you to a unit RN once you get your license as you would be a known entity, and they are more apt to have someone working for them as an RN using that license instead of a tech who happens to have an RN license.

I am pro-union, so go into my suggestion with that in mind. It surprises me that the benefits of that union are so small compared to non-union. As some may point out, a very select few employers offer better benefits than a union does simply because they have the resources and low-turnover to support increased benefits. If you have found such an employer than I recommend going non-union in that situation. In most cases joining a union is the better option, but if the pay is the same, no added benefits for union membership, and non-union is offering better than I suggest that. Before you make that decision since you have the luxury of time, check pay differences, like who gets what raise and how often. What the benefits are, and any possible premiums for those, and any additional perks that you may not be aware of.

Perhaps I did, but the point still stands. There seems to be 2-3 subthemes running around in this thread now.

I would suggest you do neither one until you can find another option. NEVER perform care at a job that you personally do not agree with, your patients and your work ethic will suffer. Example; an RN that thinks drug-users are the scum-of-the-earth would be a terrible fit at a drug rehab facility. In that example the RN would be too busy disliking the patient population and their work performance would suffer to the disservice of that patient population. Look for something else if you can stomach it. If you cannot stand a day longer than the choice is an obvious one; the research position. At minimum if you dislike it, it would still probably be less of an ordeal than your current 'wonderful' position so you would be able to begin the search anew but not have to suffer as much.

You are missing a key element; time. There are more to consider when filing a legal claim than simply the staggering legal cost. Time out of work is a huge factor as well for the lawsuit could take months or even years. Few employers in their right mind would hire someone in the midst of a legal battle such as that so once you were terminated you have to sit there unemployed waiting for the legal battle to resolve. On any employment application you have to list convictions and ongoing legal issues so they will see that issue and avoid you like the plague because they know you will have to be gone often and sometimes without warning. Not everyone has the resources to pursue such action, as many here have said. Even IF they can secure 'free' or 'low cost' counsel the hospital can afford to drain you of your savings by playing legal games in order for you to drop the case or settle for a pittance as you probably won't have a job. Your previous year's W2 income is also likely too high to qualify for food stamps or welfare so a small unemployment check would be all you could hope for and that doesn't last long nor is it a large amount in most states. So you would rely on whatever savings you may have and most Americans don't have much savings. Your second point simply adds to what many have been saying here the whole time, that is a huge boon for union protection; you are far less at risk of sudden termination.

That is unfortunately true, and is why on the news you'll hear about cases that involve wealthy individuals or corporations, and celebrities are treated far differently than when a less wealthy individuals, or corporations are involved. Large organizations like hospitals can afford legions of attorneys and can extend those cases for years. Whereas the vast majority of their employees do not have such resources so even with a legitimate case they cannot take it to court most of the time and instead must accept whatever deal the hospital offers if they offer one at all. This is yet another value of a union; they have the resources to help you and it's in the union's best interest to do so to show strength, else they lose their image and thus membership. At the end of the day this is America, and those of us who value union protection and benefits will seek it. Those who don't want group protection and instead want to ride solo and have no help should the time arise are also free to do so.

Even so I would consider being a travel RN to California with that in mind. Texas has a low cost of living so if I were a travel RN to California I would get the benefits of both states; TX low cost of living with CA high salary. I'll bet many travel RN's do that exact thing for that similar reasons.