My advice is to find some job with minimal requirements... perhaps prn doing private duty. I know with my private duty job, I am not required to work any shift I don't want to work, and it's no big deal to take off for vacations, etc.
I took 2 years off to be home with my kids, and I had a very difficult time finding a job afterward, even with many years of prior experience. If I had it to do over again, I wouldn't have quit entirely.
First, thanks so much for taking the time to respond.
This is the plan: Yes, I am done making excuses, I put my big girl panties on!
It will take about a month to get everything settled here: child care/parent care/husband schedules, etc, so if that is okay with agency, I am going back PRN every other weekend, or maybe one day every other weekend.
If I absolutely hate it, or if it is too stressful on the family I am going to a local clinic that has asked me to consider helping them some.
So either way, I will be back in the saddle soon.
Someone had said I was out a year already. My last contract was completed the end of May, so when I go back in October: 4.5 months.
I know I am going to be shuffled down to Med/Surg. I will just have to live with it.
And really this way, I won't feel bad going back to school this way. Before I just couldn't let go of the money.
What about private duty? A lot of home care agencies pay a premium for weekends. The agency I work for has shifts as short as 3 hours. Do any hospitals offer weekend per diem shifts?
Sorry I misread your earlier post, you meant next September you'd be out over a year.
A lot of people have good suggestions but I'm sure your rural location make some options more difficult. I live in a large metropolitan area and there aren't many refresher programs around.
I wasn't sure if your husband would be home with the kids on your every other weekend or your kids would be with grandparents or babysitter, but remember it is two days a month. If its your husband, he may not do thing exactly the way you would but things will be ok. I always worked swing when my kids were little 2 nights a week and my husband and the kids did fine. My kids like some dad dinners better than mom dinners. Also my husband didn't babysit the kids he was just being a parent as was I when he was at work.
What about private duty? A lot of home care agencies pay a premium for weekends. The agency I work for has shifts as short as 3 hours. Do any hospitals offer weekend per diem shifts?
Wow! I am asking around and will start applying if it fits.
How do they do if you are unable to work for blocks of time? Like 6 weeks?
When I applied at hospitals before fir PRN they were pretty clear that they wanted someone who could work what they needed. Days, nights, weekdays, etc. And I get that, I do.
You can't count on anything being available when you want to get back in full scale. If you don't NEED to work, I wouldn't worry about it. Good luck with your studies.
Life is always uncertain. But if you can stay home the vast majority of the time while your children are young ... do it. You only get one go-round on that. :)
Wow, you are so darn lucky to be able to make the choice to stay at home and raise your kids AND get to travel with your husband. This is a grand adventure! I say go for it!
As a personal aside, kudos to you for deciding to raise your own kids.
Listen, I'm all for staying home with the kids if that's what you want to do and is a possibility financially. But parents who work outside the home are raising their own kids too.
To the OP: check with your BON about what you need to do to keep your license active or how you can reinstate it after it's been placed in inactive status. It sounds like this is something you want and are able to do. It's hard to re-enter the workforce after staying home with kids in any field and there are no guarantees, but it sounds like you'd regret not staying home more than you'd regret having a hard time getting back in to nursing when your kids are in school.
Maybe it is just me but thinking back to 2001 ( when i started in nursing) when there really was a "nursing shortage" nurses were getting much more flexible schedules to work around parental obligations than they are now. Now that there is a "glut" in so many areas employers can just tell you to "take it or leave it" if you don't like your schedule.
Have you ever considered school nursing? Or maybe a substitute school nurse? (Working school hours when you or called/want/can). Pay is...well, if money isn't a huge issue, it would probably be fine :). It is very different from acute care, but if you want to shift from that anyway...
Specializes in Clinical Research, Outpt Women's Health.
In my area if you do not have ongoing acute care experience it is VERY hard to come back to it. Even if you did FT or per diem at non-acute settings. So if you want to return to acute care then you should think about doing minimum per diem at acute care only.
Elle23
415 Posts
My advice is to find some job with minimal requirements... perhaps prn doing private duty. I know with my private duty job, I am not required to work any shift I don't want to work, and it's no big deal to take off for vacations, etc.
I took 2 years off to be home with my kids, and I had a very difficult time finding a job afterward, even with many years of prior experience. If I had it to do over again, I wouldn't have quit entirely.