What nursing specialty has the best work life balance?

Nurses General Nursing

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Hello all,

What nursing specialty would you say has the best work life balance? By that I mean an 8-4 or 9-5 work week with wknds off (or occasional work wknds). Or three 12hr shifts that don't leave you drained to the point where you're unable to plan anything prior to or right after work. I've heard of group home nurses, psych nurses, school nurses, pharmaceutical consultant nurses, OR nurses who have a great work-life balance, job satisfaction & are not drained. What would you say are some of the branches of nursing that offers that great work life balance, no immense exhaustion but with decent pay?

Specializes in IMCU, Oncology.

I have been thinking about peds private duty. What do you do about health insurance? It seems all the peds private duty companies do not have good insurance. I am the insurance provider for my family. I would love to work in this kind of job, but haven't pursued it due to needing good health benefits.

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Balistic, what is meant by working from home UM. R u referring to home health? your hours sound great with the flexibility I am curious what it is, thank you.

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I work from my home (telecommute) and do utilization management. Basically you can do pre-certifications for services, work on appeals, etc. No patient care, just reviewing charts!

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Hellowish i dont really know, i dont have health insurance since i dont work the minimum hrs required for that, which is i think 32/wk. I work 2 jobs and since each job is only 24 hrs I dont get insurance from either one. Shop around, ask the agencies what they offer. I recommend you sign up with a few, sometimes it takes a while to find a pt that matches your criteria so put your eggs in more than one basket.

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When I graduated nursing a few years ago school I had a 2 y/o and 4 y/o. My husband worked M-F 8-530/or 12-930pm. We wanted to use as little childcare as possible so I tried a few things.

1. Private duty with peds- pay was low, schedule flexible, not stressful- BUT I felt strange leaving my young kids to go care for other young kids- I had NO break from kids. I needed more adult interaction from my work.

2. Corrections nursing- working at the state prison- excellent benefits, good pay, most days not too stressful, it was fun, shifts usually 0600-1430, or work per-diem, swing, nights, weekends, doubles. Quite flexible. Variety of areas to work in. Working at the county jail can be more stress due to fresh off the street/detoxing depending on where you live.

3. School Nurse: pay/benefits not so great where I am. Role of nurse varies by district- 1:1, management, or oversee health room. Most of the summer off. Stressful at the beginning of the year setting up, but not if 1:1 provider. Hours vary by role and district. No holidays/weekends. But you may be doing work off the clock to keep up, like teachers.

4. Hospital- 12 hour nights have been so rough for me with kindergarten/1st grader. Some love it. Night shift just doesn't groove with me. I love 12's with the kids because I can volunteer at their school, more days off with them. I work weekends when my husband is home to watch them and one weekday. I just changed to per-diem to have more time off with them over summer. I am looking to get away from bedside because I don't care for it so now looking to work psych, per-diem procedural and/or back to corrections.

I am struggling to find what works for our family again. Would love to do GI full time but 10 hour shifts won't work for us. I think per-diem has been very helpful.

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Wow! Great question! Lately, I've been wondering the same. For me I can say for certain it isn't ltc. I have at least 33 patients every shift with only 1 aide and frequently have 63 due to call offs. My patients are high need patients with 3 being tube feeds, 2 trachs, 7 diabetics and let's not even get into behaviors. I was hired for 3-12hr shifts per on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday and have yet to work less than 56 hours per week. I'm mentally, emotionally and physically exhausted and near the end of my rope. I was hired a year ago straight out of nursing school and have approached management with my concerns and have consistently been told they are working on a solution. Because of this I've been thinking about looking for employment elsewhere and am very excited to see everyone's suggestions.

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Psych. It can be a bit emotionally draining at times, but not too physically demanding most days. If you work night shift, a lot is just babysitting and making sure that all is well and everyone is where they are supposed to be. In my opinion, it's a bit different from normal nursing because there is some counseling involved and like I said, it can be a lot to handle both mentally and emotionally. But I can say that by the end of a shift, I'm not physically tired and I do genuinely enjoy the work. You get to work with patients in a very different sense. I don't see a lot of death though I have dealt with patients who ended up in our care because they attempted suicide. Most of my days I spend observing, doing med checks, and working with patients to make sure that their mental health is being made a priority. You work with not only the patients but their families as well as their psychiatrists and counselors. My specific work involves teenage girls who are struggling with all kinds of issues, including eating disorders, self-harm etc. Sometimes I feel less like a nurse and more like a teacher/warden/circus performer. That's the truth. I feel like I juggle a lot of different roles.

Work life balance. Hmm, let's see... Well, I'm off weekends and I love it. But I had to look for this schedule and keep my options open. I interviewed at a lot of different places and many saw my availability and said no. So I kept looking until I was told yes. I would definitely keep this sin mind when looking for a position. I think it's possible to get any schedule you want within any specialty, but you do have to look for a while. Now, if you're right out of school and looking for a job, you may have to take whatever you are offered; it's just necessary to get your foot into the door! Get some experience, get your feet wet, then look for a job on YOUR terms. For instance, mine were that I wanted weekends off, and some holidays. I found what I was looking for because I walked in and let them know my availability.

Nurse to patient ratio isn't bad either. I feel supported by my fellow nurses because they understand the day to day dynamics. My co-workers are some of the most nurturing, empathetic people that I know. It's an empathy that I hadn't experienced when I worked in other areas of nursing.

Psych nursing feels slower than what you might deal with in the OR. Sometimes it's a lot of sitting around. Not everyone likes that. There's not always a lot of action happening, but during times where there is.. whew. Get ready.

School nursing is weekdays only, or home health might be an option. Just depends on what interests you.

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Specializes in Pediatrics, Pediatric Float, PICU, NICU.
Wow! Great question! Lately, I've been wondering the same. For me I can say for certain it isn't ltc. I have at least 33 patients every shift with only 1 aide and frequently have 63 due to call offs. My patients are high need patients with 3 being tube feeds, 2 trachs, 7 diabetics and let's not even get into behaviors. I was hired for 3-12hr shifts per on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday and have yet to work less than 56 hours per week. I'm mentally, emotionally and physically exhausted and near the end of my rope. I was hired a year ago straight out of nursing school and have approached management with my concerns and have consistently been told they are working on a solution. Because of this I've been thinking about looking for employment elsewhere and am very excited to see everyone's suggestions.

Just as a side note, your working of 56 hours is completely your doing (assuming it isn't mandated) and this will follow you into ANY position you move to, regardless of the specialty, if you aren't able to say no - part of the work-life balance equation involves learning to say NO to extra shifts if you really don't want them.

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psych nursing is what my dad does and he loves it

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I did inpatient psych, and now outpatient psych, it's true that its way less stress but i don't recommend it straight out of school because you lose your clinical skills. It's hard after yrs of psych to transition to other specialties in case you get tired of psych. Hard but doable, im doing peds private duty now too. Clinically

In psych all you do is administer po meds, IMs, psych assessments.

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Peds private duty is a lot of sitting around too

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Thank you for responding, I really do need some guidance because something has to change. The hours are not from picking up shifts but rather being scheduled to work 4-12 hour shifts every week and being up for mandation every third shift. The rest of the hours come from mandatory in services and having to stay late so often from call offs and having to take on the responsibilities of an extra hall. When I first questioned my schedule and it not reflecting what I agreed to I was told it was for orientation because I was a new nurse. This made sense so I went with it for awhile. After spending over a month on my own I again brought up my schedule and was told that it would only be for a little while until they were able to hire more nurses. Since everyone else was working at least 4/12s, this too seemed reasonable and I wanted to be a team player. That was months ago and have since learned from coworkers that the scheduled hours were unlikely to change. I really think that the biggest part of my extreme dissatisfaction is from exhaustion. That if I was actually working the hours I agreed to plus a once a week mandation I would be able to get the rest I need to have a better work life balance. Do you have any ideas? Or do you think it's time to count my losses and move on?

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