Start applying to new jobs? Experienced nurse w/non traditional background

[ivyleaf]

Trying to decide if I should stay where I am for another 6 months or a year.

I have been working for almost a year as a manager for a new community mental health case management program. I used to work for the company almost 10 years ago and stayed in touch w some of my colleagues, including the woman who is now my manager. We weren't extremely close but hung out in a group once every few months.

Pros: 4 weeks of vacation time, fairly flexible schedule, lots of autonomy as far as scheduling my day

Cons: I don't feel like I am learning a lot nursing wise, I don't love being a manger, there are a lot of systemic problems w the program/model, we are chronically understaffed so I feel like I spend all my time doing "outreach worker" stuff vs management or nursing.

My background is mostly in psychiatry (inpatient and outpatient, direct care & case management), and I also spent 3 years floating through outpatient clinics (mostly primary care and rheumatology).

I have always wished I did med surg or ED earlier in my career but I don't love the structure or the stress of the hospital. I feel like I lack a lot of the medical knowledge/understanding/assessment skills that you can only get by working in acute care. I have been out of school so long I feel like it would be a huge learning curve and I would be back at the bottom of the food chain. I also made a fairly large (large IMO, pt was not harmed/didn't need treatment) med error in primary care right before I left and that shook my confidence.

I am interested in moving to quality or risk management, but a lot of the jobs want acute or home care experience. I am also interested in managed care/utilization review, but I am more interested in the medical side than behavioral health. I really want to learn more/use more "medical" knowledge. I have been wanting to get out of behavioral health for a while now; I took this job to get management experience, exposure to quality (it ended up being an extremely small part of the job), and because I really liked working for this company before.

However, I am hesitant to leave for a few reasons

-wondering if I should give it 2 years so that the program can stabilize more and I can get more comfortable w/managing

- I feel guilty leaving my friend/boss- she has been saying how disappointed she is with the outreach staff leaving, so I can't imagine how she will feel if I jump ship after one year. She did a lot of advocating for me when I was negotiating my pay and vacation time and they offered me a pretty generous package (as far as this agency/a non profit).

I know this is long; any thoughts about next steps?

[Neats, BSN]

After reading your concerns I as a manager most of my career I would not feel you lack of med/surg experience would hold you back. Yes Utilization Review/Case Management would serve you well. In these roles you come across alot of things you need to google, saying I never heard of that before. You can work a case of ovarian cancer, finish that and go onto a MVA with multiple fractures to gastroparesis. I suggest you really research and then when you find what you want go for it.