I recently graduated from an accelerated nursing program as a BSN this past December and was offered a position in a Level III ED hospital in a large Metropolitan area. However, due to personal health reasons I've been having a rough time with my new job. Without going into a long story, I've had major back surgery 4 times (2 discectomies, 1 spinal fusion, 1 reconstruction) since the age of 19 due to a herniated disc from a college sports injury. I've been active my whole life, but the part that gets me is standing on my feet for longer than 30-45 minutes without sitting down - I'm talking 8-9/10 level sciatic-type pain. I was able to complete all of my clinicals while in school with minimal issues with my pain, but since starting my new job and working 12.5 hour shifts I've been in so much pain.
Being a new nurse is tough as it is, but I've been excelling in my new position and really love all the activity of the ED - I've been in 1 code, hung TPA, and had 3 critical stroke patients just in my first week of work. However, every day at work I'm in so much pain that I just can't function normally. Every shift I've had in the first month and a half I've been able to sit for maybe 15 minutes consecutively in a 6-7 hour span, it's just that busy. Without further personal details, I do see pain management on a regular basis and there's not much more they can do for me outside of doping me up which is not an option for me. I feel I have to step away from this position since I cannot take the pain anymore. I'm not sure where to look for a nursing job where I can sit down for the majority of my shift. I really need to think long term here for my health since I have at least 35 years left of work before I retire.
Without any prior experience, what areas of nursing could I look into where I could sit down? I've thought of these areas that "may" allow me to sit, but I'm curious as to what others think?
- Public health nurse: County job - Circulating nurse?: can they sit down during their shift? - CVICU: I've heard many nurses can sit at the end of the bed of a Pt and monitor from there - Chart review: Non-clinical and many of them want experience (IDK if this is interesting to me) - School nursing: Not big in my area - many nurses are contracted through agencies not affiliated with the actual district
I really don't know where to look at this point. I will definitely miss the action of the ED, but my health is way more important and at this point there's not much physically more I can do. Thanks for any input!
Specializes in Quality Control,Long Term Care, Psych, UM, CM.
1 hour ago, DowntheRiver said:
This is not true. Please provide example of someone successful with less than 6 months or 1 year of experience. I have 5 years experience and these companies don't even bother to look at my resume. They are looking for experience. Typical job posting says 2-3 years but they really want more. Even my facility says 2-3 years experience for case management or utilization review but there isn't a single nurse there with less than 12-ish years experience.
I admit, my experience may be anecdotal and specific to my area of the US but if you research here on AN you'll see many people citing the same problem.
Me. I had less than 6 months of experience before getting into this industry. Some of my coworkers as well
Just because that was your experience doesn't mean it's not true. I always find it amusing when people try to discredit something a person they don't even know says as not true only because their experience was different.
When I did my rotations at a prison the corrections RNs were able to do their jobs while frequently sitting. For example, the med line was hours long, but one nurse had a big cushy stool she was able to sit on while working the line. There is a lot of feet time, of course, and walking around, but in the couple of days I was there it seemed like they got a chance to sit down several times each hour.
I am sorry you're going through this struggle at the moment, and really hope you can find a solution that not only meets your needs but is fulfilling also.
My initial thought when I read your post was 'telehealth'! I am not sure if you're familiar with telehealth services, or if they're available in your region, but I thought I would throw this suggestion out just in case you've never heard of, or considered, it. Where I live my provincial health region has a number that you can phone to receive health advice and information from a registered nurse. The specific type of telehealth where I live is called 'Healthlink". I am going to go out on a limb and say that I *assume* they're sitting as they're answering phone calls and using the computer (I feel this is a very safe assumption to make). This is NOT the same as community/public health nursing wherein you take on a patient load and have to triage/return their calls. This service is one wherein any member of the community can utilize at any point (24hrs/7 days a week). An example of advice you may give is- advising them on whether to call another agency, see their health care provider, go into the emergency department, call 9-11, call poison control etc etc. Basically people will call with their problem and signs/symptoms and you give them health advice for same. Within reason, obviously someone describing their new onset rash to you is completely different than you assessing it in person, but you might (depending on other S&S) advise them to take an anti-histamine and monitor for other systemic changes, and then to go to emerge if symptoms persist or get worse. I hope that explanation made sense ?
I am not really sure if this will be helpful to you or not, or if a similar service is provided by your health region. If it is then I hope it gave you another option to add to your list.
Best of luck!
Telehealth is a great suggestion, but the OP would need some experience first.
Specializes in CCU, SICU, CVSICU, Precepting & Teaching.
7 hours ago, FolksBtrippin said:
ACT is an intensive psychiatric community treatment model. My ACT team consists of 2 RNs, 2 vocational specialists, 2 drug and alcohol specialists, 2 therapists, 2 advocates, a psych NP and a part time psychiatrist. We serve people who have been hospitalized frequently, and for whom other treatment models like group homes, day programs, case management, etc have failed.
We can stay with people for their whole lives if necessary. Almost all of our work is done in the community. Mostly in people's homes, or wherever they are. We also transport our people to medical appointments, food shopping, etc. When our people go to the hospital, we see them there and coordinate with the inpatient staff. We go to court with our people and see them in jail if they wind up there. We do whatever people need to function in the community.
Each of us on the team needs to be able to do general ACT work, but we focus on our specilaties. The nurses are responsible for our medication room which is like a psych pharmacy. We deliver people their medications if they need that, and many of our people are on long acting injectable psych meds, so we administer those. We also educate and monitor our diabetic and hypertensive folks and any other illnesses. We are the team's "medical" resource. So for example, if a therapist goes out to see someone and notices a burn on the finger, she might ask me to check it out and decide whether it requires ED, urgent care, etc.
Feel free to ask me anything about it. I'm an ACT geek.
We had an ACT Team in my last hospital -- it was the Anti-Coagulant Team. They managed patients who were in the rehab unit or out-patients on Coumadin or some other anti-coagulant. They did patient teaching, monitored lab results, ordered labs, etc.
Specializes in CCU, SICU, CVSICU, Precepting & Teaching.
2 hours ago, klone said:
He
She/he. Whatever. Most of the time, the pronoun of choice is "he", and we women have put up with that for thousands of years. If we err on the side of "she" on this forum, the men can learn to adapt.
Me. I had less than 6 months of experience before getting into this industry. Some of my coworkers as well
Just because that was your experience doesn't mean it's not true. I always find it amusing when people try to discredit something a person they don't even know says as not true only because their experience was different.
Just out of curiosity what area are you located in? A fairly in depth search in my area of the country, Omaha, Neb seems like every job I find for case management or Utilization review is saying 5+ years of acute care experience is required. I did find one that said 3 years but that was the lowest one. It could be a regional thing? Or are people applying for these positions regardless of the experience requirement and landing them? Thanks again.
Specializes in Quality Control,Long Term Care, Psych, UM, CM.
1 minute ago, Aliens05 said:
Just out of curiosity what area are you located in? A fairly in depth search in my area of the country, Omaha, Neb seems like every job I find for case management or Utilization review is saying 5+ years of acute care experience is required. I did find one that said 3 years but that was the lowest one. It could be a regional thing? Or are people applying for these positions regardless of the experience requirement and landing them? Thanks again.
I live in NJ but in the NYC area, my company is in NYC. Insurance jobs are fairly easy to get in my area, even with not a lot of experience. I had 3 months experience in the hospital, then a little over 2 months doing residential pysch. I then realized I needed a major change or I was going to leave the nursing field entirely. Started out as a HEDIS chart reviewer.....those are the best to apply for if you have minimal nursing experience. The next one for those with little experience is the field nurse for home attendant services.
If you enjoyed the pediatric side of ER care, pediatrics (my specialty) may be for you. I got my pediatric private duty job straight out of LPN school and have been at it almost 4 years through acquiring my RN. You'd be surprised at the kind of medical complexity that can be managed in a home setting. I've had kids with trachs, ventilator dependent, g/j tubes, ileostomies, TPN, the works. We even have kids on our open case list with Broviac or PICC lines. You will mostly be in a home sitting, but you go in the community as well, and there is also ample opportunity to get up and walk. You haven't lived until you've accompanied your teenage wheelchair-dependent patient to a day of Girl Scout camping. My biggest challenge: Satisfying parents. If you can keep a profoundly brain injured infant who cannot see, speak, eat, or sit up on her own "engaged" for your 8 hour shift as the parents insist, let me know. I'm all ears.
I am arguing with myself about responding. I'm not a mean person and don't want to be unsympathetic, but at the same time, this type of question irritates the heck out of me. Unfortunately it seems to come up quite often, in many different forms, among some new grad nurses here.
I guess I'm just going to say it straight out...why on Earth did you go to school and become a nurse if you can't stand for long periods?
I'm one of the many nurses that have worked my butt off for years; missed holidays, worked weekends, took night shift even when it made me ill, worked when I was having more pain than the patient and had to crawl in the front door after a long shift. I've raised 3 kids, dealt with horribly traumatic events, been a single parent, and been broke as heck. And now, finally, I've earned my stripes and have the sit down, no weekend, no call, no holiday job. But I freakin' earned it, the hard way and so has every other nurse that has put in his/her time and now can look forward to better positions.
I just don't understand why the OP or the other new grads (a minority) that complain about the physical and/or mental challenges in nursing. What is wrong with people??
How sad is it, to work in a profession, where one has to spend years, working while sick, missing holidays, and essentially working until your back breaks, to earn the "right" to better working conditions?
Very sad.
Instead of attacking the OP, you should turn that anger towards working for change in a profession that literally sucks the life out of its practitioners.
I wonder how long it will take before hospitals realize that hardly anyone wants to do bedside nursing for the reasons you outlined.
Who will take care of patients if everyone becomes a APRN, or nurse anesthetist?
Hello! I think working in an outpatient setting might work for you. Some nurses tend to forget that this is even an option. I currently work in a colorectal surgery clinic where I serve as the primary nurse to one of the surgeons. I’m an LPN (and currently working on my BSN), but our clinic as well as other surgical oncology clinics hire both LPNs and RNs to work with the docs. During clinic days (usually about 3.5 days a week) there is standing and walking, but also still a good amount of sitting. The rest of the time when not physically in clinic with your doctor, you are sitting to triage calls, check in on post op patients, patient education calls, refills, labs, etc. It does require a fairly large amount of nursing knowledge since so much time is spent triaging and educating patients, but specialty clinics will train you on the specific disease processes that you need to know (at least mine did). Hope this helps!
I should also add that one of my coworkers was a new BSN grad when we hired her and she’s now been there for a year and a half and is thriving. The only down side to specialty clinics isthat you gain a lot of knowledge in one thing but tend to forget the rest if you don’t keep up with your education. I can tell you everything you need to know about a butt, but I’ve definitely forgotten a lot of other general nursing things.
Feel free to ask me anything about it. I'm an ACT geek.
Thank you so much for this very informative reply. Wow, there is such a need for this service.
Is this program state/federally funded or is it privately owned? I used to donate money to the one in our area after seeing the great need for this when I surveyed long term care facilities.
Wow, again I thank you and your team for doing this work for a very underserved population.
Specializes in Psychiatry, Community, Nurse Manager, hospice.
1 hour ago, twinsmom788 said:
Thank you so much for this very informative reply. Wow, there is such a need for this service.
Is this program state/federally funded or is it privately owned? I used to donate money to the one in our area after seeing the great need for this when I surveyed long term care facilities.
Wow, again I thank you and your team for doing this work for a very underserved population.
We are a non profit that is totally funded by the state. We don't even bill insurance.
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DaniannaRN, ASN, BSN
83 Posts
Me. I had less than 6 months of experience before getting into this industry. Some of my coworkers as well
Just because that was your experience doesn't mean it's not true. I always find it amusing when people try to discredit something a person they don't even know says as not true only because their experience was different.