Would you be content if you worked your current job/specialty for the rest of your career?

[catsmeow1972, BSN, RN]

I started in OR and thought that I would stay there until i retired. Unfortunately, life got in the way. I moved facilities a few times and the two most recent were hotbeds of abuse, short staffing and general things that make you scared for the patients. Those two particular facilities and the accompanying bullying that went on has destroyed what I truly used to love.

Currently I am working a med/surg position in a great place with phenomenal management. Problem is, bedside nursing involves a whole different set of organizational skills than the OR. i enjoy working with my awake patients, but most days i feel like i am just barely keeping my head above water. Floor nursing IS NOT for the faint of heart.

I am currently considering a couple of options one, that is totally nonclinical, M-F 8-5, driving a desk and another that is very specific anesthesia focused stuff.

I may go for one of those, i may learn to swim where I'm at. i don't know what is to come but none of those 3 choices sound bad.

Nice thing with nursing as others in this thread have said...you can explore different options.

[iPink, BSN, RN]

I have about 32 years before I can officially retire. The thought of spending that long in my current job as a mother/baby nurse makes me break out in hives, rocking back and forth on the floor in a corner - I would go insane. A lot of students come to my unit too wanting to be in postpartum, but they only get a glipse of what it entails. I internally roll my eyes when my patients' family think all we do is "play with babies all day." If they only knew. I'm a career changer and happy with the stability and lifestyle nursing has provided for me, but I'm hoping to hang up my scrubs for good and go into business for myself. In the meantime, if an opportunity for case management comes up at my hospital I would make the move and spend a considerable amount of time there before I could move on to my dream opportunity.

[The Lady Kate]

Same specialty? No. Same hospital? Yes. I work on a combined med/surg tele unit that also takes psych and stroke patients. While it's interesting to see all types of patients, it's often too slow for me and little critical thinking skills are needed. Granted I work nights, but still. I'm not a floor nurse at heart. I like my manager and my schedule is great, while living super close to work. I'm trying to get into ICU or ER, but my hospital requires experience in those areas in order to apply, so here I am :/

[PrincessElleRN]

I currently work on an understaffed medical-surgical unit that is bleeding nurses and CNAs and we constantly work with unsafe ratios, safety cases but no sitters for them, and patients who are truly not appropriate or too critical for a medical-surgical floor. The thought of living out my career on this floor makes me sick on my stomach and is something that haunts my nightmares. We have a joke on our floor that if any of us ever truly lose it, it will be okay because we will go down to the ED and be sent right back up to our floor as a patient and never leave.

[bgxyrnf, MSN, RN]

How about you? Are you content where you are, or is there something else you would rather do or try?

I spent a year as a m/s nurse and have worked in 4 different EDs... from tiny to huge. I also work as an ICU float in a large, academic medical center.

ED is still my favorite by far but it is wearing on me... not the legit emergency cases but all the other BS that we deal with like "how am I going to get home," or the "gramma dumps" or the drunks or the noncompliant FFs who come in with an attitude. I can picture myself spending forever as an ED nurse but have started thinking about moving on... educator and quality & safety are the two which I think about.

I just interviewed for a rapid-response position which would probably keep my focus for years to come.

I will freely admit that I'm hooked on change and new things. The good think about a nursing career is that, at a large hospital, you could change jobs every 3 years and spend 40 years doing it.

[audreysmagic, RN]

I currently work on an understaffed medical-surgical unit that is bleeding nurses and CNAs and we constantly work with unsafe ratios, safety cases but no sitters for them, and patients who are truly not appropriate or too critical for a medical-surgical floor. The thought of living out my career on this floor makes me sick on my stomach and is something that haunts my nightmares. We have a joke on our floor that if any of us ever truly lose it, it will be okay because we will go down to the ED and be sent right back up to our floor as a patient and never leave.

Sometimes you have to have those kind of jokes to get through the day. When the you-know-what was hitting the fan while I worked in psych crisis/admissions, one of my favorite psychiatrists and I joked about getting our co-workers to certify and admit us to the low-acuity unit so we could finally take a breather and catch up on some reading!

[bgxyrnf, MSN, RN]

I'm trying to get into ICU or ER, but my hospital requires experience in those areas in order to apply, so here I am :/

That sucks. I appreciate facilities that empower staff to move within the organization.

[NurseCard, ADN]

Yes! Love my job! :)

[NurseCard, ADN]

I have a lot of nurses/students come to peds psych with a similar mindset, that these kids just need love and hugs and they'll be fixed, because what kind of actual mental health issues could a kid have?

I do kind of relish the looks on their faces the first time a four year old looks them dead in the eye when they offer a bedtime story and cusses them out. (Not that bedtime stories can't be therapeutic in peds, but it ain't gonna solve the root problem, which at that age, is unfortunately often trauma...)

Oh man.... I worked on a pediatric psych unit for a year and a half. I went into it with that

same mindset... just give em lots of hugs and cuddles and love and it will be great! Thought

it would be my dream job.

No. It wasn't. I left after a year and a half because the facility would not transfer me to

adult psych. I. HATED. peds psych. More specifically, I hated that 530 am to 7am

time span every morning when we would wake those little suckers up.

[audreysmagic, RN]

Oh man.... I worked on a pediatric psych unit for a year and a half. I went into it with that

same mindset... just give em lots of hugs and cuddles and love and it will be great! Thought

it would be my dream job.

No. It wasn't. I left after a year and a half because the facility would not transfer me to

adult psych. I. HATED. peds psych. More specifically, I hated that 530 am to 7am

time span every morning when we would wake those little suckers up.

Hey, we all learn our limits! :-D And, yeah, wake-up times are hardly my favorite either. My child unit, no one needs to wake them; they pop up on their own at 6 am sharp. Probably because we have an 8:30 pm bedtime on that unit. Adolescents, though, we're supposed to wake them for breakfast and UGH, I just want to let them sleep some days...and I LIKE working here! :)

I need nurses like you working the adult floors, though, so I don't have to float over there. #peds4life That's one of the beauties of nursing to me...that it's so varied, and if you don't like one area, you can quickly find another that you do, even within the same specialty.

[DovMarcus]

I find that when I go to work and sit in front of real patients, I am fulfilling my purpose. No matter the bad mood I may be in, I still always seem to find a rhythm at that point. However, when I have to deal with the system ie bosses, hr, silly rules and all that, my attitude changes. As long as I can ignore the latter, I can stay in my job forever!

[vintage_RN, BSN, RN]

Well, I was an LPN for several years...my dream job and goal was always to work in the NICU. Everyone who knew me knew that. Went back and got a BScN, and started a few months ago in a large regional NICU. So, I would like to say that yes! I will be here forever! But everything is still new and fresh and challenging to me right now. I can't say what I'll want in 20 years, I'm open to any possibilities...but right now I'm loving my place in the NICU ^_^ I love moms and babies though...so wherever I go, I'm guessing it will probably stay within that population.