Second career nurses: Do you like nursing better?

[stefanyjoy]

It's no secret that there are a lot of miserable posts here, but I wonder often if what I'm reading are only complaints about working for large businesses in general (money hungry administration, being over-worked and under-paid, backstabbing co-workers). So to you nurses that took up nursing as a second (or third, or fourth...) career path, do you like it better? What did you do before? Do you miss it?

I've been working for a huge health insurance company for 5 years, and I fight back tears almost every morning before getting my car. I hate it. HATE it. It makes my life feel so empty and meaningless. I am not proud of what I do. Nursing has got to be better than this.

[stefanyjoy]

I know it's hard right now but is there another area of nursing you may be interested in??

Good luck...no one likes having to cry before going to work.....

Let me clarify, I'm not an RN at the insurance company, I'm just another soulless drone in a cubicle that plugs away at the computer. I'm pre-nursing status right now. I wish I could just quit, but it pays well for me not having a degree in anything. My mother is a nurse so I think I'm pretty exposed to what a nurses' life/schedule entails, she became a nurse after 40 (15 years ago) and always seemed really pleased with her decision. I thought I noticed a trend that second degree nurses seem more likely happy with their jobs, and this thread is kind of confirming it.

This thread is giving me so much hope :redbeathe I just really want a job that doesn't always feel like a job. Someone once told me, "You never work a day in your life if you do something you love". I know nursing is a job like any other and has it's ups and downs (and for some people, a lot of downs), but I'm hoping that since I've spent years in corporate misery that the downs won't do as much damage.

[Lovely_RN, MSN]

I like the nursing part of nursing but I hate the way that nurses are treated. I like shift work, I like leaving work at work, and I like to be paid by the hour. I like helping people who need help and I also love that human nature is unpredictable and that makes every day at work an adventure.

What I don't like is the way that every other discipline tries to pawn their work off on the nurses and some of them want to get mad if you have a back-bone and say no or re-direct them so that they will do their own work!

[OgopogoLPN, LPN, RN]

2nd career. Worked as a medical office assistant/secretary for 12 years.

Love nursing :)

I will go back to school and obtain a BScN one day.

Very, very happy with the career change and make far more $$$ than before.

[miteacher, ADN, MSN]

This is interesting. I am a teacher on the waiting list for nursing school. I would be interested to hear from anyone who is a former teacher or someone who did not like changing careers.

[Ellekat2]

I began training as a nurse at age 37 after working as an administrative assistant and raising children. I enjoy the interaction with patients, the ability to make someone more comfortable and to help the patient/family through a difficult time. The nurses I work with are a great team. My biggest dissatisfaction is that my facility has moved to a half-computerized, half-paper system that allows for little time for patient interaction. I cannot say anything positive about our administration, unfortunately. But I've learned that administrators come and go; I must just survive until they move on.

[AnnieOaklyRN, BSN, RN, EMT-P]

You probably already know my answer...

I kind of changed career paths after 6 years of EMS I graduated nursing school, got an ER position as a nurse and hated evry minute of it. Switched to Special Care Nursery didnt care to much for that either or the nurses I worked with.

So here I am happily back in EMS! More responsibility which can lead to some stress, but I love the work and will probably never leave it until I have to, when my back and joints cannot do the lifting anymore!

Happy

[noahsmama]

This is interesting. I am a teacher on the waiting list for nursing school. I would be interested to hear from anyone who is a former teacher or someone who did not like changing careers.

One of my co-workers at the peds hospital where I used to work was a 2nd career RN and former school teacher. I know she loves her new job -- she made the switch when in her early 50s, after raising 2 kids to adulthood.

[cokito]

Miteacher,

I was a teacher for over 10 years. At the beginning of my teaching career, I really enjoyed it, but after 6 or 7 yrs, I got tired of dealing with children and parents. I went back to school, got my Rn degree last year. I just started working 3-4 months ago...If I knew how hard is the physical, mental and emotional work of a nurse, I would have never, never became a nurse. I love the knowledge I have r/t our bodies, disease, treatments, etc, but I hate how overworked, tired, and under paid feeling...and even more when you are a new grad. Being a teacher is a piece of cake, at least for me it was.

[Mission]

I was a programmer for 8 years before going back to nursing school. I have to say, I don't think I would like beside/hospital nursing, but I knew that going into nursing school and it was never my plan. I worked in pediatric LTC when I first graduated and I still work per diem as a women's health/community health nurse. While I enjoy doing patient teaching I find the other aspects somewhat boring (a lot of documenting that is efficient only for preventing law suits, not for improving patient care). I work full time in academia doing nursing research and I absolutely love it. I love my research and I love the people I work with. I have no regrets about changing careers because I found my niche.

[nursie_pants]

2nd career here as well. Spent my 20s working in int'l development project management consulting (basically, working on US foreign assistance programs). The transition to nursing sort of feels like an extension of the same "do-gooder" work but with a hands-on switch.

I switched jobs since I was tired of feeling like an office monkey. I was able to to do some int'l travel for work periodically, but it was few and far between. I was quite good at my job but the office-based nature got old... revising project budget numbers, recruiting for proposals, quarterly reports, etc.

One thing I have learned in the last 14+ months as a nurse is that I am not cut out for inpatient/floor nursing and will not be making a career of it. Quite honestly, I have no idea how/why ppl do this for decades on end... But that's one of the reasons why I chose to become a nurse: there is so much flexibility and different types of working environments available.

I think a lot of folks who are new to nursing within the last 3 years or so may be having a tougher time simply because the job situation blows in most places. Great jobs are hard to come by and it's easy to question why such a big leap was made if the end result isn't looking all too pretty. In another decade (or hopefully less) I'm betting we'll recoup the increased flexibility and lateral mobility that the nursing job market used to have.

[Purple_Scrubs, BSN, RN]

My first degree was in Business Admin. I spent some time as a bookkeeper for small businesses, then I worked several years in the customer service field, worked myself up to middle management. I did not hate it, and I loved most of my co-workers and the company, but I just wanted more. I had actually been accepted to law school with a scholarship when my husband became ill and was hospitalized. That experience led me to ditch law school and start my nursing pre-reqs!

I do love my job, but I am fortunate to have found my "niche" early in my career. School nursing is my thing. I was not at all happy as a floor nurse and will not go back to that unless it is that or go hungry. In this economy, many nurses are finding it is not as easy to change specialties into your dream position. New grads may get "stuck" in LTC or Med/Surg because that is the only jobs available, even though they may have their heart set on L&D, or Critical Care. Not to be discouraging, just realistic. I still think nursing is a great choice, and the demand will come around again, but new grads need to be realistic and understand they may have to do some time in the trenches before getting into their dream position.

[cokito]

Maybe, because I am a new Rn (working LTC) and I haven't being able to find the job I really would like (reserch, OR, psych). Hopefully economy improves, I get some experience and in a yr or so I can get a better job... then, when this happen, I will have a better or more accurate answer for "Do you like nursing better?"...right now, I am not enjoy nursing. I am glad, I am not working full time.