Taking a year off work-will that hurt chance of getting a job later?

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I just started TPAPN and would like to take some time off this year before going back to work. I've got IOP for the next couple months, then the holidays after that, so I definitely don't want to go back until after the holidays. It's my son's senior year of high school so I'd like to have the time to enjoy that, take care of the graduation stuff, and get him packed up and sent off to college. I'm thinking of waiting until next September to start interviewing, but I'm afraid it will look bad on my resume to have that gap, and will hurt my chances of getting a job when I'm ready. Will they think I am out of practice, or don't have the "drive" or ambition that they'd want, if I decided intentionally not to work for a year?Any opinions?

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Specializes in PDN; Burn; Phone triage.

Well, getting a job while you're in a monitoring program can already be very difficult. Also, your contract may stipulate that you need X amount of time worked as a nurse before you're eligible to graduate. So you may end up lengthening your overall time in the program if you don't start job hunting for a year and then it takes you six to eight months to land a job after that. (Which is about average for folks in my state's monitoring program.)

On the other hand, I have talked to nurses who had the financial means to take a year off and wished that they had to focus on their recovery and ultimately that is what the program is all about.

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Specializes in ED, Trauma, Swat,Critical care, Peds.

I can definitely relate as I was facing the same issue. I took a year off and I did it for several reasons.

One to get my life back in order and reset.

Repair my marriage, finances etc.

To have enough time to satisfy the first year of my contract.

I wanted to wait till I regained my narcotics privileges. I felt like my chances were stronger this way verses not having them and

also avoided losing out on a lot of jobs .

I just didn't feel ready.

I didn't have any difficulties getting a job and I just simply explain the gap.

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