After working in the corporate setting for about 2 years now, I have decided that Monday morning (and I will be at work in a few hours as it's 4 am right now), I am going to turn in my notice. Rather than do 2 weeks, I will likely tell them I am leaving at the end of February so my official first day of unemployment begins March 1st.
I work in accounting and have become so tired of the atmosphere and work environment here. Everyone is worried about losing their jobs, so that the office has become a culture of individuals looking out for themselves only. Even before this though I found the job, while monetarily rewarding, to be almost completely void of any rewarding feeling or even the accomplished feeling that accompanies an honest day's hard work. While I've enjoyed the low stress job functions and freedom to go to the bank, go take a walk, or eat lunch whenever I feel like it, this weekend I realized the cons have outweighed the pros. Certainly I will miss the easy hours and being able to browse the internet online, but nevertheless, it is time for a change.
Over the weekend, at my college, while taking an express speech course, one student talked about the advantages of switching to the medical field. I had already planned on acquiring my CNA over the summer and working my way up to the ER until I finish school (I am only a college freshman working on a 4 year degree), but have decided to go ahead and get started. I found a CNA training program which costs roughly $800 and offers a 2 week M-F express course. I will hopefully start it March 1st and by April 1st be working in a hospital.
In high school I worked in the patient cafeteria, not the one which served visitors, but which prepped and wheeled the huge delivery carts to the nurse stations. So I am not totally unfamiliar with the environment, although this was nearly three years ago. I have heard my share of horror stories about being a CNA, and while I am confident I will in time find a place that I do not have to deal with too much crap, metaphorically and literally, I have decided I am willing to work my way up to an ER position where I will eventually work on being able to do phlebotomy. I realize this will have to be a long term endeavor and that a job in the medical field will have its fair shares of ups and downs. However I have assessed the market and financially now is one of the best times to get into the medical field as ever, at least compared to the corporate world. I also look forward to working in an exciting and actually rewarding environment.
My friends have offered mixed critique. Most have said I should just wait because I do make very good money for my age at the office job I have now. However my gut and intuition are telling me to go through with this, so in just a few hours I will be giving my boss the news. She is not the best boss in the world or anywhere close so I can only guess she will be very upset to learn she has to deal with hiring and training someone to fill my position. But I have humbled myself too many times in interest of the company and not once has it paid off personally in any way shape or form. So despite my own nerves and financial concerns, I am going to just go through with it.
Financially I have put some money away, largely from my decent sized apartment refund I received, my upcoming tax money, my quarterly bonus, and my incoming pell grant money for school. Additionally my credit card is for the most part paid off, meaning I have a couple thousand dollars to tide me over on bills and whatnot until I find the new job. I am a mix of scared and excited.
After working in the corporate setting for about 2 years now, I have decided that Monday morning (and I will be at work in a few hours as it's 4 am right now), I am going to turn in my notice. Rather than do 2 weeks, I will likely tell them I am leaving at the end of February so my official first day of unemployment begins March 1st.
I work in accounting and have become so tired of the atmosphere and work environment here. Everyone is worried about losing their jobs, so that the office has become a culture of individuals looking out for themselves only. Even before this though I found the job, while monetarily rewarding, to be almost completely void of any rewarding feeling or even the accomplished feeling that accompanies an honest day's hard work. While I've enjoyed the low stress job functions and freedom to go to the bank, go take a walk, or eat lunch whenever I feel like it, this weekend I realized the cons have outweighed the pros. Certainly I will miss the easy hours and being able to browse the internet online, but nevertheless, it is time for a change.
Over the weekend, at my college, while taking an express speech course, one student talked about the advantages of switching to the medical field. I had already planned on acquiring my CNA over the summer and working my way up to the ER until I finish school (I am only a college freshman working on a 4 year degree), but have decided to go ahead and get started. I found a CNA training program which costs roughly $800 and offers a 2 week M-F express course. I will hopefully start it March 1st and by April 1st be working in a hospital.
In high school I worked in the patient cafeteria, not the one which served visitors, but which prepped and wheeled the huge delivery carts to the nurse stations. So I am not totally unfamiliar with the environment, although this was nearly three years ago. I have heard my share of horror stories about being a CNA, and while I am confident I will in time find a place that I do not have to deal with too much crap, metaphorically and literally, I have decided I am willing to work my way up to an ER position where I will eventually work on being able to do phlebotomy. I realize this will have to be a long term endeavor and that a job in the medical field will have its fair shares of ups and downs. However I have assessed the market and financially now is one of the best times to get into the medical field as ever, at least compared to the corporate world. I also look forward to working in an exciting and actually rewarding environment.
My friends have offered mixed critique. Most have said I should just wait because I do make very good money for my age at the office job I have now. However my gut and intuition are telling me to go through with this, so in just a few hours I will be giving my boss the news. She is not the best boss in the world or anywhere close so I can only guess she will be very upset to learn she has to deal with hiring and training someone to fill my position. But I have humbled myself too many times in interest of the company and not once has it paid off personally in any way shape or form. So despite my own nerves and financial concerns, I am going to just go through with it.
Financially I have put some money away, largely from my decent sized apartment refund I received, my upcoming tax money, my quarterly bonus, and my incoming pell grant money for school. Additionally my credit card is for the most part paid off, meaning I have a couple thousand dollars to tide me over on bills and whatnot until I find the new job. I am a mix of scared and excited.
I imagine you have already done this. If I would have talked to you before you resigned I would have advised you to take a job caring for people first and find out how you like it. However, I am not saying the medical field is a bad choice I am just saying that a lot of people tend to have a romantic idea about nursing care. It is much more gritty than the realize.
Good luck to you. It sounds like you have made an informed decision and put a lot of thought behind what you want to do. Good for you. So many of us have regrets about what to do with our lives, did we do the right thing, etc. You know, the ol' shoulda, woulda, coulda theory. At least you will never wonder, "what if" and that is a good place to be no matter what the outcome. Please keep us updated so we know how you are doing.
The last day (19th or 20th) is nearing, it is officially 2 weeks away now. Yesterday I went and signed up for the CNA class. It's 4 weeks long, 3 are in class, 1 is hands on. I paid the down payment and start it March 2nd, and will finish it March 27th.
I was pretty impressed with the school. It's in Lancaster which is in the middle of no where in between Dallas and East Texas... bleh. But the woman I met there was very chill, and the facility is cozy but modern. The class is all and all 75 hours. She said people go on to do personal care (not for me), hospitals (I wanna do ER), psych wards (could be fun), rehab (could be fun) and nursing homes (not for me). Anyways I start March 2nd so I will update you all then.
Best of luck in your new career. As others have noted, it isn't all roses, but your expectations don't seem unrealistic. I seem to be cursed in life that I don't value the things that come easily to me--so I'm right at home in nursing. I work my butt off, but usually feel I've accomplished something, and sometimes something pretty important.
I started in healthcare doing pt transport (within the hospital--pushing beds, not driving ambulances) and other odd jobs--I used to say my job was whatever nobody else wanted to do. It was a decent entry to nursing and I did get to interact with patients enough to know that's the part I like, but in retrospect I wish I'd done some time as an aide (ours aren't necessarily certified, though many are.) You learn everything a CNA does in your first semester of nursing school, but you get good at it by repetition, and those are skills you'll use plenty as a nurse.
Couple of thoughts: night shift is not a bad place to learn your way around. Your co-workers have more time to teach, and while the lack of ancillary support can be frustrating, it can teach you some resourcefulness. We're starting to have a few transporters on nights, lately, but still take a lot of our own patients for x-rays and CT scans. And while I have nothing against ER as an ultimate destination (the people who stay there love it) I don't think it's a great place to learn nursing. At my facilities, aides in the ER have a lot the same job I had. Stocking supplies, pushing carts--in time, you get trusted to do some patient care, but it takes time. That may be specific to my facility, but adrenaline junkies can be control freaks. On the floors (med/surg and other acute care units--as opposed to critical care like ER and ICUs) some aides say and most secretly believe that they do most of the actual patient care. That isn't entirely true, but I can see their point. We rely an awful lot on our aides, and most of the ones I work with would have no trouble becoming nurses, other than the pesky school and stuff. CNA in acute care would be a great place to confirm whether you really wanted to be a nurse, but it would be best if you had a little time (a few months) to get comfortable with that before starting nursing school. One of the reasons I skipped the CNA role was that I didn't want to be learning a new job and starting nursing school at the same time, and I think that was probably prudent.
By the way, in over ten years, total, in healthcare, I've missed lunch once. I've had so many 10-15 minute lunches that I believe nurses should get discounts in restaurants for not tying up tables, but you gotta feed the machine. I'm a middle-aged male with a middle-aged excretory system, so when I gotta pee, I gotta pee. Sometimes you just have to make your needs one of your top priorities.
Wow - I'm not sure if I just kept searching for a conversation like this until I found it or it was the sign I was looking for. I have been with the same company for 19 years working many of them hands on running group homes for developmentally disabled adults and for the past 8 of them training staff and management. I work m-f for the most part and make a pretty decent salary. I am heading into the 3rd semester of nursing school and I must admit I am petrified at the idea of working full time and going to school like i did last year. I passed but the last semester just barely. My school requires 78 passing and I walked out with an 82 for my last semester. I am 43 and will be done with school next May and god willing take and pass the nclex and start working. I am so afraid to quit my job but I have enough saved to get me through the next year. I still feel sick to my stomach at the thought as I would need to give 4 weeks notice this week. HOw is it going for you?
I disagree. I think it comes down to what a person enjoys doing and possibly, the difficulty in finding a suitable career that matches their interest. The career switching may be why you said "never satisfied", but I think it's just searching for the perfect fit. I'd have no problem finding a job in CA because of my background, but I'm both happy and satisfied with nursing. Again, I'm just not wired at the moment for a CA job.
No disrespect meant here, but you have not yet had time to experience the frustration and burnout that many of us experience in this profession. Trust me, we were all feeling the same way you do about nursing in the beginning! Many of us have seen the atmosphere become more difficult, the bottom line becoming more important than the patients, mandatory overtime, frustration, etc. Maybe you won't reach that point, but many that graduate from nursing school this year will not be practicing in 5 years or less, as things did not turn out as they had hoped.
I am half way through my first term of school. I quit my full time job but they offered me a part time position until I find something else. That helped to relieve some stress, but Im still pretty nervous about changing careers. I know a lot about my job and the industry. The medical field is completely different from what I am used to. School is pretty overwhelming (my school requires a 79% in Nursing classes to pass). I keep thinking..how will I ever learn and remember all of this!!!! But I really do enjoy school and the program. Im trying to stay positive because I know the future looks bright. Good Luck to you.
I was going to respond, but i don't think I can. I am going to just SMH to some of the posts on here. People actually enjoy two hour lunch breaks when do you work omg please don't bring your bad habits to the HOSPITALS. umm umm umm
Realizing this is an older post from three years ago, I definitely hear you!
I am in the same boat as you- I've been working in the corporate world for five years and find it extremely unsatisfying. As you say, I enjoy the perks of strolling in and leaving whenever I want, taking extended lunches/breaks and doing nothing more of the day. While many people find that to be the ideal job, I have discovered recently that I find this extremely unsatisfying and unfulfilling. The money is good considering what I do (or don't do for that matter). As hard work as the medical field is, I feel that the hard work is put to a good cause. At one point or another we will be cared for by a nurse or medical professional, and I think what really motivates me to enter the field is the positive impact that medical professionals have had on me.
Sometimes I doubt my decision to go back. Like you though, my intuition is telling me to go for it. I applied to enter a nursing program in Ontario, Canada for Sept 2012 and I was accepted. Now the hardest part is to keep my focus, quit my job and take one of the biggest risks of my life.
By the way, I hope everything is working out for you in your new career as a nurse. I hope it's everything you dreamt it would be.
oramar
5,758 Posts
I imagine you have already done this. If I would have talked to you before you resigned I would have advised you to take a job caring for people first and find out how you like it. However, I am not saying the medical field is a bad choice I am just saying that a lot of people tend to have a romantic idea about nursing care. It is much more gritty than the realize.