Why I Quit Medical Device Sales To Become A Nurse

Sarah Jividen, BSN, RN

My nursing career path has been unconventional, to say the least.

I began my first post-college career as a medical device sales representative selling medical equipment to hospital operating rooms. Then after a decade in the field, I went back to college and earned a Bachelors of Science in Nursing.

I hear about nurses trying to break into medical device sales all the time. But I have never known anyone who worked in medical device sales and then went back to college for a nursing degree. Not once.

Here is the story of why I quit a successful 10-year career in medical device sales to pursue a career as an RN...

As a very young adult, my first priority was to make money

After graduating with a BA in Journalism in 1999, I was ready to start making money. After all, I was broke and tired of being poor. I was also passionate about living a healthy lifestyle, so a sales job in the healthcare field seemed like a natural fit.

Over the course of my decade career in sales, I worked for a fortune 500 company and a few startups. I covered huge territories and at one point even spent almost an entire year living out of a hotel. It was a lot of hard work, but the money was there. But I got better every year, despite a gnawing feeling that my calling was somewhere else. My twenties flew by before my eyes.

One day after a lot of soul-searching I finally decided to go back to school and earn a BSN. My sales counterparts couldn't believe I would leave the medical device industry after what most would consider a very financially successful career. I tried to explain the best I could - that I wanted to be a part of something bigger than myself. And medical sales just wasn't doing it for me anymore.

I eventually had a shift in my professional priorities

Even though I wasn't an actual healthcare professional at the time, I got to work in hospital operating rooms and observe almost every kind of surgery. It was through those experiences that I learned I wanted to be more truly clinical - instead of just repeating a sales pitch with each new physician who gave me the time of day.

More specifically, I wanted to jump into the procedures that I was selling products and actually be a part of the medical team. Not sit and wait on the sidelines for hours until they used the product I was selling (if they used it at all).

More importantly, though, I was continually drawn to help people and learn clinical life-saving skills. I was tired of going home every day feeling as if I wasn't doing enough with my life to make the world better.

Sounds a little cliche, I know. But this little voice in my head kept telling me that one day all I was going to say about my life was that I was a "salesperson." And I wanted more than that.

So one day, l quit my career and went back to school to earn my RN.

Starting over as a nursing student was humbling

I paid my own way through my nursing prerequisites and another college degree. And let me tell you - college is so much more expensive now then it was in 2000. I was lucky that I had such a large savings from my prior career to help get me through.

In addition, I also worked as a bartender at night - sometimes until midnight - and then had to be at a clinical rotation by 0700 the next morning. I studied nonstop for 3 years. Nursing school was so much harder than medical sales, or my first college degree for that matter. In fact, I didn't even know school could be that hard.

Still, I pressed on, feeling like I was going to get kicked out at any moment for failing a test (and 1/4 of my cohort actually did get kicked out, its a miracle I wasn't in that group). To this day, nursing school is the most difficult thing I have ever done in my professional life.

I was a nurse's assistant during nursing school

I worked as a CNA during my last year of nursing school and I both loved and hated it. It was such an honor to give care to my patients in some of the worst times of their lives. It was primary, basic care - and it was important! I tried to give my patients humility. I helped people feel human when they felt invisible.

But being a CNA was also so challenging- both physically and physiologically. This is because for the first time in my life I was not at the top of the food chain. I sometimes felt like I was just a staff person to boss around. No longer did I have my salary plus commissions, my company car and expense account, my catered lunches, my bonuses and my stock awards at the end of the year. And sometimes I missed it, but not enough to ever go back.

I finally attained my RN, BSN title

After three years of nursing school and a lot of sweat and tears, I finally graduated with my BSN. I began my career specializing in a neuroscience and stroke unit and earned certifications as a Stroke Certified Registered Nurse and Public Health Nurse. In 2017, I began a new phase in my nursing career as an emergency room RN.

Being a nurse means that I am ALWAYS learning.

While being a nurse is exhausting and I have moments of extreme burnout, I do feel that nursing is my calling. I am a closet science geek and the love cerebral stimulation that I get as a nurse. I have had the opportunity to see more disease states, complex injuries and unusual diagnoses than I ever could have imagined even existed.

It would not be an exaggeration to say I learn ten new things every day at work. To top it off, I am surrounded by some of the most intelligent people I have ever met. Many of my co-workers have the same drive for helping people I do. They motivate me to keep learning.

My experience in medical device sales was a valuable part of my overall career growth

In fact, I am so grateful for my time in medical sales. My experiences have given me a much different perspective than many of my nurse peers. And I see my experiences as a huge advantage for my professional development.

Working in the medical sales industry gave me valuable business and communication skills. I met a lot of great friends with whom I still have close relationships with. My organizational and time management skills are much more fine-tuned and I learned how to be a professional in the workplace. I just like to think of myself as being a little more well-rounded now.

After all, the businesswoman in me still exists. But now I have the clinical prowess and expertise as an experienced RN to match.