Texan_Gal

sir william, i commend you for caring such a great deal about leaving your nursing position. i have worked with nurses that never return to work, let alone give notice, so trust me, you are one caring person. as for giving notice at work, i'd say the best advice anyone can give you is to follow your company's resignation policy. if the policy is for rns to give at least 2 weeks notice, then i'd suggest following those guidelines. also, i've been in management positions & i can tell you that most states do not allow potential employers to request subjective feedback on the type of employee you were; all they can ask is for confirmation of your employment dates and whether or not you are re-hireable (in other words, did you give ample notice according to your company's policy). that's it. rest assured that regardless of the type of employee your boss thinks you were, that information is not permitted to be shared with future employers since it is subjective in nature. i would suggest checking your state's labor laws regarding this though just to be sure that it also stands true for your state. best of luck & i hope you find your dream job in your new state!

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Hey Juliette, The wellness educator position I held was part of an Employee Wellness program that the hospital system I worked for had developed.It was a new program geared towards helping hospital employees stay healthy, and because I was already employed with the hospital system, I transitioned into that position relatively easily. The position was basically a case management one, but it wasn't labeled as such & that's really what I was doing, managing medically complex cases. The "cases" just happened to be hospital employees rather than a typical case management caseload. The reason why this job was such fun was because I had the opportunity to develop it on my own; I could do whatever was necessary to get these folks healthier. What I did was create care plans that included a large variety of activities including exercising on the beach! I remember taking one gentleman out to a golf course for a game of golf & the golf course overlooked the ocean! It was an awesome job!! I loved every minute of it! The only reason I left it was because I relocated to another state. I know that both the Case Management Society of America & the American Holistic Nurses Association have information on certification in specialties such as wellness education & case management so you may want to check those out. Both of these associations also have job listings, so you should be able to find some information on those as well. Just be patient & use your imagination, and you'll find your way! Best of luck to you! -DJ

Well you know, I was a Wellness Educator while living in North Carolina & that job was by far the best one I've ever had in nursing. My job was to counsel hospital employees on health & wellness topics. I covered 6 hospitals within a hospital system, 2 of which were directly on the beaches of the Atlantic ocean. Of course, I took full advantage of the natural setting & took my employees out to the beach for some wellness sessions. Needless to say, I had the BEST time with that job! So you may want to consider becoming a wellness educator, that might be right up your alley! Best of luck in your search!

Interesting dilemna you have as I was in the same boat a few years ago as you are now. I've been a BSN-prepared RN for nearly 2 decades & wasn't really clear on what direction I wanted to go. I knew I wanted a master's degree but I too wasn't sure which degree I wanted to pursue. What I did was invest some time to assess my interests and my strengths . I used a variety of tools to accomplish this including a book called "What color is your Parachute" , which I used to focus in on my strengths, interests and future goals. I'm so glad I invested that time and energy into a thorough self-assessment because it paid off in a big way. Ultimately, I decided to earn my master's degree in Occupational Therapy and I'm so glad I did. Now, I work for myself and am building a lucrative business using my combined nursing and OT skills. So my suggestion to you would be to: 1) Gain some nursing experience in a community, inpatient or other clinical setting.Not only will you master your critical thinking skills, you'll also find out what you like & don't like. 2) Take your time & do your own self-asssessment. If you jump into a master's program too quickly, you'll lose focus & become lost. No one hires anyone who doesn't know what they want (and trust me, I've done some hiring & I can tell you that I've never hired anyone that didn't have a vision or focus). 3) Use online tools or visit a career center to determine your interests. While I was taking my pre-requisites for my master's program, I took advantage of the career center on campus & used their tools to narrow-down my focus of interests. That decision was one of the best ones by far as it truly helped me see myself from an objective angle. Best of luck to you! Just take your time with this decision as it can be a costly one if you jump into something you end up not enjoying. -DJ

This is an interesting topic of discussion because I too faced similar challenges while I was practicing in the clinical setting. I've been an RN for over 20 yrs & decided that although I was good at my job, I had skills that reached well beyong the clinical setting. My point is that sometimes, limiting oneself prevents you from exploring other ways to practice nursing. My advice to you is to keep your mind open & think well outside the proverbial box. You may be surprised that you can perform very well as an RN in a different setting, such as Community Health, Education, Case Management, Public Health, School-based nursing...and the list goes on. Try it, you might be surprised at what you discover! Good luck!

Do you think that gynecological nursing should become its own specialty in nursing? These two specialities have always been linked but in my experience, there is an enormous difference between OB nursing & GYN nursing. For one thing, the demographics of the US population is shifting and more women are entering menopause and perimenopause than ever before. Thanks to the aging of the baby-boomers, there is a dire need for comprehensive care for women beyond child-rearing years, and it doesn't seem fitting for a general OB-GYN nurse to care for a woman in menopause undergoing specialized care. So what do you think-separate OB from GYN nursing or keep them together?

Ok so considering nursing is rapidly moving towards a DNP as the basic standard to practice in the future, would it be prudent to apply for a MSN to DNP program even if I want to be a nurse practitioner? I've already earned an MS degree in another healthcare field & don't really want an other MS degree, but I want to practice as a nurse practitioner & also want to make the best use of my resources. Any thoughts or ideas to share?