Where Do I Belong in Nursing?

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Where Do I Belong in Nursing?

Nurse Beth,

I have been a nurse for 3 years now. I started off in an ICU unit for about 1 year until I got injured, then did 2 years of employee health while dealing with workers compensation. I am currently not working (at home with 14 month old) and have been thinking about getting back. I just do not know in which direction to go.

The beauty of nursing is that there is just so many different options and that is also the overwhelming part. I know I currently do not want to return to ICU (I have PTSD and too afraid of re-injury). How can I figure out where in nursing I belong? In nursing school I enjoyed L&D and I also know that at some point I'd love to teach!

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Specializes in Tele, ICU, Staff Development.

Dear Many Options,

Yes! I so agree with your statement "the beauty of nursing is that there are just so many different options and that is also the overwhelming part" ? As nurses, we can do anything and everything from sales to vendor/product education and travel to medical spa to NICU to hospice. We are so blessed in that regard.

Opportunities Within Parameters

Congrats on the addition of your little one, and that's an important deciding factor- your family. What kind of hours make sense for you at this time? Shift work? Nine to five? Is it important for you to have weekends and holidays off, or not so much?

Let your family and friends know you are looking to get back into the workforce to help activate what I call the Presenting Opportunities of Life Principle. Sometimes opportunities in life present (seemingly) serendipitously because they are meant to be. It can take being open-minded to recognize them in real-time, although most of us recognize life signs and opportunities in hindsight!

Values and Interests

When you have a job you love, it doesn't feel like a job. That's because it engages our authentic selves-helping others, teaching others, being creative.

Activity level- do you prefer to be up running/walking around, or do you like spending time on a computer? Clinical or non-clinical? You have only spent one year in clinical nursing practice. If you're still interested in clinical practice, it would be better to get back into it now, sooner rather than later.

Use job sites to generate ideas. Let's say you decide you prefer to work from home and enjoy computer work. You can then register on Indeed.com (for example), filter for "remote, nursing", and get an idea of what's out there to match your interests and values.

You could give clinical nursing instructor at college a shot, and from there look around to see if academia excites you. There's also Staff Development in acute care, which suits your love of teaching, although you would need more clinical experience.

Remember, too, that nothing is permanent. You are young in your career and have time to try on different hats.

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