What kind of Nursing should I try next?

[silentwolves, ADN, BSN, RN]

I have been a nurse for over 6 years.  It has been extremely hard to have any kind of balance in work and life due to health issues.  I worked on a rehab floor for 5 years, and currently work as a PACU nurse in an outpatient setting.  I like the job, but the physical-ness of the job is really getting to me.  I spend my weekend on the couch resting my foot, or sleeping, and barely do anything fun for myself.

When I chose to go back to school for nursing, I had dreams of working in the OR.  But I now know that is off the table due to long standing back problems, and now major fatigue and chronic pain issues.  What I want to do versus what my body will let me do, seem to be polar opposites.  

I don't want a desk job, as sitting all day cranked up my anxiety last time I tried a job like that.  But I'm having a hard time figuring out what areas of nursing to look into next.  I don't want to work in Home Health, Hospice or Long term care.  I would like a mix of sitting and being active.  I'm wondering if something like Forensics would be a good area?

 

Thanks

[TheMoonisMyLantern, ADN, LPN, RN]

What in forensics interests you? There's SANE nursing who assess sexual assault victims, but it can be a pretty competitive position and most of them are on call and PRN versus actually being full time. Plus SANE nurses usually have ER or ICU experience. Another area of forensics is corrections which usually is pretty easy to obtain a position due to the stigma of working in a jail/prison. I've never done corrections but I've known many nurses that enjoyed it. Some prisons have full on infirmary/medical units where you have inmates who require round the clock nursing care so it can still be a physical job. Even in prisons without that I imagine there would still be a good bit of standing or walking.

If you have an interest in mental health or psychiatric nursing, that could be an avenue to explore. Typically there's not a lot of lifting, but it can be physical when a patient becomes violent and requires restraints, IM's, etc. However I have seen nurses that had a lot of health problems or were close to retirement that were able to tolerate psych nursing. The trade off is that psych nursing tends to be more mentally taxing.

Another option is private duty homecare. You would be with one patient for 8 hours or 12 hours and while that patient is likely to require total care, it can be a lot more manageable just having to lift, pull, push one patient versus multiple. This is another area of nursing that tends to be popular for nurses with many health problems or who are nearing retirement.

Unfortunately bedside nursing is physically demanding and can be a heavy burden if you back or chronic pain issues. I would advise you heavily to reconsider some of your other options such as home health, case management, insurance. Life is just too short to be in pain and miserable all the time.

Good luck to you!

[speedynurse, ADN, BSN, RN, EMT-P]

I totally get where you are coming from as I have a lot of the same issues from chronic medical problems. I am still in bedside nursing in preop and PACU and it’s a HUGE step in the right direction for me (coming from starting in the ER) but I also still have trouble with early mornings and long shifts. 
 

I have some nurse friends that do SANE nursing and they LOVE it. It does generally if not always require ER experience. It does have on call and it can be stressful but it is less physically demanding. You will be active and it may require driving from hospital to hospital but definitely less physical requirements.

 

Are you interested in education at all? I did a part time job for about a year as adjunct faculty and enjoyed it...you can walk around a classroom and be somewhat active but it’s definitely not physically exhausting. Diabetes education in a hospital may be a consideration. Quality improvement if you have an MSN or considering an MSN. Infection control nursing.....nursing auditing is a LOT of desk work from what I heard....