coldnclammy

To get right to the point, I am burned out and have been for years. I have been a nurse for 7 years doing mainly med/surg and tele positions. I am currently a traveler on a medical floor. I have worked the hardest I have ever worked as a nurse and in seven years I have not used any sick time. I am worried that I have waited to long to get into something different within the profession because I wouldn't mind leaving it all together to pursue other goals outside of nursing. I have done a minute amount of work in ED, ICU and stepdown. I mention that b/c I have no interest in specializing in those areas, I feel they are still to close to what I am doing now. Which brings me to why I am posting. Before leaving the profession to wait tables (I wish I were joking), what are some non traditional options in nursing that you may know about that I might be able to possibly pursue? I am not concerned about taking a paycut. I like the education role but can't stand managment. Nutrition interests me. I might be able to tolerate working in an office but that might be way to routine from what I've heard. I would be willing to check out OR and cath lab, and recently heard information about RN health coaches. Anyone have ANY advice for me? Any information regarding the aforementioned positions? Close to desperate.

and these reasons of course

Unfortunately no. Let's all focus on prevention/education and healthy minds. You can't fix someone with 10 major comorbidities especially when there is absolutely no accountability. What there is though, is a feeling of entitlement among most patients, what I like to describe as the culture of sick. It's sad and depressing. A pill can't fix everything, but maybe changing some minds can, but you have to get through to people way before they are obese, diabetics with heart disease or substance abusers. Habits manifested over several decades don't die hard, they die when the patient dies. Thats been the majority of my work and my word.

Oh and nobody ever told me to get nursing home experience before I started In med/surg....HAHA. So it makes NO SENSE AT ALL that someone should say to get NH experience before critical care. If it made sense it would be policy everywhere but it's not. It's only policy in hospitals run by "senior management" with the "pay your dues" mentality. Scary when management doesn't think outside of the box.

I'm with you my friend. I've been a nurse for 7 years, doing mainly bedside med/surg and tele. It is high paced and usually, generally speaking, not glamorous and not as respected as critical care. Until minds change in the profession as a whole my recommendation is put your MINIMUM time into "paying your dues" (as someone in these posts put it), AND GET INTO SOMETHING ELSE. Also, there are plenty of hospitals in the US that take new grads into critical care, albeit they are hard to find. I understand the concept of getting acquainted bedside on a med/surg floor first, I believe it's true, But I know many successful crit. care nurses that dove straight in. There are benefits to that as well and nobody ever talks about it because they think you need to "pay your dues". This concept is toxic. There are benefits to both.