Second career nurses: Do you like nursing better?

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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. :crying2:

I was a high school teacher for 12 years before I went to nursing school and have been a nurse for 5 years. I love what I do, and I'm not sorry I switched careers. I miss all the vacation time teachers have, and I miss the retirement I could have had :) but the day-to-day....NOT A BIT. I have tough days and get grumpy or cry at times, but on the whole I am enjoying my new career and can see myself in my current job for years to come. I just wish I had more than 2 paid weeks a year off and a decent shot at retiring before I'm 100.....

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Second career, previously a dental assistant/oral surgery assistant. It was a good job and I really liked it, but a move left me open to going back to school. (that & a very encouraging husband)

I am very happy with nursing, don't get me wrong I have THOSE DAYS just like everyone else when I would rather be a walmart greater but that happens in every job. I notice at work the people who have never really worked in any other field complain/vent the most about workload etc.

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.....

Hi SandraCVRN! I noticed you mentioned you were an oral surgery assistant before you got into nursing. I am a nursing student (1st yr in an ADN program to get my RN and then my BSN) and I also work for an oral surgery practice (for almost a year and a half now). I was curious to know if your background as an oral surgery assistant helped you get into your nursing career or had any other positive impact towards it. I would like to work as a surgical nurse eventually and I thought that my job as a surgical assistant might be helpful when it came to some type of background experience. It has become a common thought in my nursing class among students due to teacher recommendations and our own observation during clinicals that working as a CNA (certified nurse assistant/aide) would be a good idea. I like my job as a surgical assistant probably more than I would like to be a CNA but I am really trying to increase my chances of getting hired. I thought that by being a surgical assistant I would stand out among all the CNAs but I am afraid of getting overlooked because I don't have the hospital experience they do. I guess I'm just looking for some advice on whether I should make a career change to being a CNA or just stay where I am now until I finish my nursing program in about a year and decide what to do then. I would appreciate any help! Thank you in advance! :)

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I worked in commercial televison for more than 30 years before going to nursing school at age 55. I enjoyed my TV career, but I finally decided I wanted to do something to help people. It was, in retrospect, a great decision. Nursing is a much better fit for me. I have a compassionate element to my character that was out of place in the corporate media environment. I now work nights in a med-surg unit at a major university hospital. The work can be brutally hard at times, but I find it hugely satisfying. For me, pursuing a second career in nursing was absolutely the right thing to do.

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Specializes in Psych.

In my previous life, I worked in insurance first in auto claims and then in provider relations for a large health insurance company. Every day I would wake up and ask myself, "Really? Is this what the rest of my life is going to be?". I was working for a paycheck with basically no chance of advancement or being able to branch out. I was stuck behind a desk, which made me restless and bored. Something had to change before that really became my life (I had already gotten a BA in another field). I decided to go to nursing school and never looked back. It has been the best decision I have ever made. The money is better, there is more room to grow and explore different opportunities, and I actually LIKE what I do. I always knew I wanted to be a psych nurse and that's what I am now. I think problems with management are pretty much the same working for any company. I have heard stories and seen things that I saw in my previous life. Sure I have not so great days and have dealt with some really ignorant administrators, but the difference is that I am actually proud of what I do now.

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This is my second career and I'm loving it, there are definitely days though where I wonder what the heck I did to myself but overall it's a love. I like the variety of the job, I like how everyday, even every hour is different, I like seeing people getting better, I like when a patient asks me if I'm coming back tomorrow. Some thing I don't like are people in management that are nurses that just moved up but have never taken any management classes, I've never seen such poor management as I have in nursing. I dislike that I never hear good things from my manager, I only get calls about the 'wrong' things I've done. While I make more money now, it's not that much more and I work a hell of a lot harder for it. I'm drowning in school loans because of this career switch, but I come home satisfied, tired and proud of the job I did each day, to me that's worth it.

sarah

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I use to work in a field where your only options for employment were large corporations. I thought that every time they freaked out about something stupid it was wasted time because "We aren't curing cancer or saving lives or anything". SO i quit that life, became a nurse because every freak out was going to be for a crucial reason...right? No. I don't regret becoming a nurse, and honestly think I just have not found my niche, but I am surprised at how much of it is the exact same as the business world. I am not a touchy feely person or a crier at all and I don't pander to people that I think are being dramatic in the hospital, however, I have the type of personality that makes me relatable to people. I have always been the kind of person that people tell things to for no particular reason. When I was a cubicle jockey just making phone contacts with certain other cubicle jockeys at the companies we worked with I would make these long lasting phone relationships with people and we would have general rapport! People I NEVER met would personally email me and we would have great talks about nothing work related. I loved that part of it, so that is why I thought I would enjoy nursing more.

Unfortunately, the current environment of nursing makes it so the personal relationship is encouraged, but not really nurtured. They WANT our patients to LOVE us, but they want us in their room for 3 mins and not a second more. They want me waking them up at night for nothing so I can "round", not consoling them before a terrifying procedure because there is not time for that and not helping them to make sure that they have a box of tissues because that is not "pertinent right now". I have to say, I am surprised. This is a business where extra care and concern can mean life or death for patients, yet it is still not priority. We care what State, JCAHO, HCAHPS the CEO and the CNO think. And I am just.....sad about it. I don't dance in rainbows with unicorns, so I never thought it would be like that, but I never thought I would have to explain WHY I was TALKING TO A PATIENT for so long. Why was I talking to them?????? They are my PATIENT!!!!!!

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Specializes in Emergency Department; Neonatal ICU.

I used to be a lawyer. My defining moment came in nursing school. It was 3:00am in the trauma ICU (I was doing my senior preceptorship) on a Friday night/Saturday morning and I was going through dozens of washcloths trying to get the blood off my patient. His girlfriend had stabbed him after he hit her. I was not used to staying up all night and was a little bleary eyed as I tried to clean him up. At that moment, it clicked and I thought, dang, I'd still rather be here than practicing law!

I graduated shortly after and never looked back. I love nursing.

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Specializes in CCM, PHN.

I worked help desk/device upport in the info tech

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Specializes in CCM, PHN.

I worked help desk/device support for the info tech department of a big university for 6 years. As IT jobs paid lower and lower and the joke of Y2K happened, I decided to take a full ride, federal obligation BSN scholarship at 30. Worst decision I ever made. Be careful. I really miss working with machines, designing networks and fixing gadgets. I'm a very good nurse, and make okay money, but I hate this twisted healthcare system, dealing with stupid people all day long (my coworkers and managers) and the rewards are so seldom and meaningless that it really wasn't worth it. I shoulda taken out loans and gone to astrophysics or engineering school like I really wanted. It's been 7 years and I'm 40 and I have no idea what to do next. The only thing I'm thankful for is that I don't work med/surg/bedside.

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Specializes in Hospice, Telemetry.

SugarNSass:

I am a former journalist who decided there was no good end for newspapers and decided to go to nursing school. I graduated in May and after four interviews had three job offers. Given that I went to work each day as a journalist wondering if it would be my lasts, to have three job offers was pretty overwhelming, and amazing. Become a nurse. You will never regret it.

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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.

And you didn't feel yourself overworked, tired and underpaid as a teacher? lol, that is the first that I've heard from anyone in the field.

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Specializes in LAD.

Teacher and nurse here....I agree with you 100%

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.

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