Curious1alwys

Thank you so much for taking the time to reply and providing this info. So, would you say it's more administrative than hands-on clinical? Seems so.

Does anyone know specifically what transplant coordinators do? Is it acute clinical skills or more clerical/administrative? Would appreciate any feedback. Thank you!

Similar trajectory. I also went back for my RN-BSN to be more marketable after taking time off to care for my children. That said, I still did a refresher course. First, actually. Still couldn't get jobs. Once I got the BSN + refresher, I got lucky, finally. You have already spent the money on a BSN, I feel like you will have to somehow take the hit for the refresher. Or risk taking a job you will feel unsafe in. It's a hard place to be, I'm sorry. I ended up getting an educator job making pretty good RN pay but my position was recently eliminated. So I might be forced to do a refresher again if I can't get into case management or something else like that. Home health scares me without pretty advanced clinical skills.

With an active RN license, if I wanted an easier gig (albeit lower paying) is it possible I could work as a non-medical caregiver for a while? What is the liability of that? Anyone know the answer to this question?

Thank you all for your responses. I appreciate it.

Currently working in inpatient/outpatient cardiac/pulmonary rehab at a Level 1 trauma hospital but most of my job is non-clinical, mostly patient education, even though I am in an acute care hospital on the floors. Generally I'm not passing meds or starting IV's or anything like that. I have done this for 7 years and prior to this I had varied shorter experiences (ASC, school nursing), but only approximately 1.5 years of acute bedside/inpt rehab where skills were heavily used. My job is considered a clinical nurse specialist role but is it possible for me to go back to acute bedside without having to go through a refresher course? I'd like to try something other than cardiac though for a while. Also, do you think case management would be an option with my experience? Thank you for any feedback!

How are you liking it now? Glad you made the change?

I did a refresher after staying home for 5 years. It did help if you can afford it and devote the time. I agree with the previous comment to stay home as long as you can because once you do the refresher you don't want to have to repeat it. You'll have to stay in at that point, generally. I still had massive anxiety when I returned but that's just me LOL

Was it hard to get a bedside job after being in school nursing for so long? What was your previous experience that perhaps helped you get back in? You did not experience any difficulty going back after 5 years out of bedside care? Was getting the ED job difficult or was it your old employer and that is why it was so easy to go back?

I'm super curious about this too but I guess you are not going to get any answers.

Awesome! Preceptors can always be risky, I hear you. I think I only had a couple nice ones in all of my orientations, ever, LOL. At least you are trying something new. All the best to you!

Did you take the job? How is it going?

Don't do it. It essentially happened to me but I had no alternative at the time. I feel like it really ruined my nursing career in many ways. I have work anxiety to this day that I feel stems in part from such a complicated start in nursing. You need to make friends and know others have your back! Moving around all the time you never get that and you DO get the worst, heaviest assignments, which can be horrific as a new grad.

Can you elaborate on the kind of experience you needed to submit for the CDCES exam? I work in cardiac and pulmonary rehab doing inpatient education and do educate diabetics as well. Would this count or does it have to be super specific? I was reading somewhere that you have to keep track of the total hours educating each and ONLY the diabetic patients. Thank you for any insight you can provide!

I didn't even know there were jobs out there where insurance was 100 percent covered....meaning NO premiums, even with your kids? FWIW....school nurse jobs are historically low paying in certain parts of the country, but acuity is going WAY up. Also, schools are packed. So the number of kids you are actually responsible for can be outrageous. Everyone thinks the job is mints and band aids but it can actually be very acute and overwhelming. At least this is what I have heard from my colleagues. I'm sorry it didn't work out as your dream job.