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I'm a new nurse, so I hope it's okay to answer this but I'm in the PACU and I love it! I have a lot of patient turnover, see a little bit of everything, have a good bit of autonomy, and there's always something interesting to see/learn. I work with a lot of nurses who are in their second or third decade of nursing and didn't start in the PACU and they almost all say they wouldn't dream of going back to the floor/unit.
There are a ton of different jobs you can pursue as a nurse that would not be bedside nursing on a floor. You can go into informatics, education, case management in the acute care setting, HHC clinic management, surgical or PACU (patients asleep or sleepy and then move them along), case management for insurance companies, or risk management. I'm sure there are many more that I'm not thinking of but basically my point is that you're not really limited as a nurse, especially as a BSN prepared nurse with almost 4 years of experience.
I'm closing in on the end of my Nursing career, and it's as a Hospice Nurse.
Hospice has its own set of challenges, and honestly isn't everyone's cuppa tea, but I love it.
Frankly, I'm too old to do hospital floor nursing anymore. I hate 12 hour shifts, I can't safely go 8-10 hours without peeing anymore (and Depends look uncomfortable lol), I actually get to eat lunch now (and can take a full hour to do it!), and I'm too damn crusty to suffer the high concentration of fools found in all levels of the hospital hierarchy.
Truthfully, if the only Nursing job available was in a hospital, I would go and apply at WalMart.
I work inpatient pediatrics.... :) Love it. I have often wondered what life would be like outside of pediatrics.
I don't care to find out. I don't intend on ever leaving pediatrics. Within it, I have done bedside nursing, school, peds home health visits/clinical management and currently am a liaison.
Happynurse12
64 Posts
I've been a nurse going on 4 yrs now and I have not found a job I truly like. I've tried psych, med surg and ambulatory nursing. There's not much you can do with a BSN besides be a nurse.
Do you still like being a nurse? If so, what specialty or area?