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

Nurses General Nursing

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Lately, I've been trying to decide what my next move in nursing should be. I have worked in a rehab/LTC facility for a year now, and am still not content with where I am. I honestly cannot say that I would be content being a rehab/LTC nurse for the rest of my career, as I still constantly look at other jobs and have a desire to be a different kind of nurse. I still cannot say that I'm proud of my job or what I have done. So, for me, I'll be moving on eventually.

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

Specializes in kids.

Yup!!! 10 years, maybe a few more if all is well! (school nurse), not extremely physically taxing but the emotional side of it can be VERY taxing on any given day.

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I work in public health, sort of a clinical services generalist at the moment, and as I'm working on an MPH I do plan to keep my career in public health for the forseeable future. I'd like to get into global health with some NGO overseas once I am done with my MPH, but that's more like.. a subspecialty of public health than a different specialty. So, yep, probably going to retire doing public health. Mad respect to all the acute care nurses out there, but that world is not for me.

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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.

I understand that feeling! I worked newborn nursery with occasional couplet care rather than doing mother-baby all the time, but did a lot of the same breastfeeding assistance and education, teaching baby care, etc. and even though I enjoyed it and I loved the families I worked with, I found it kind of boring and repetitive. Plus keeping up with 6-8 patients sometimes was a challenge!

If you ever find that job where nurses do nothing but play with babies all day, let me know... ;)

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Specializes in Med Surg Tele.

In my current job I walk like 5-7 miles a shift so maybe after I lose enough LBs I will go somewhere else ;)

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Specializes in Psych (25 years), Medical (15 years).

I Being in the late Autumn of my career, I'll probably stay where I am unless the they terminate me, carry me out feet first, or turn the hospital into a carpet warehouse.

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Specializes in orthopedic/trauma, Informatics, diabetes.

Yes and no. I LOVE orthopedics, but I am a schoolaholic and ADD. I am in school and finishing my MSN in Informatics in Dec. I am excited about the future, but I will miss the ortho. It is tough work and work culture is not the best right now but I still like to go to work. Not in a rush to find just any Informatics job, so I will be able to wait for the right one to come along (if I don't keep going and get my DNP)

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Specializes in CVICU, Critical Care Transport, PICU,.

No.

Out of all the good and bad things I could say about nursing as a career, the versatility and flexibility of nursing is one of its greatest assets IMHO.

I see myself as a "Critical Care Nurse" and working across the critical care continuum has helped me avoid complacency, kept me engaged in learning, increased my flexibility and helped me be a better nurse.

I actually enjoy working part time in one specialty and per diem in another. It keeps me from being burned out.

I have worked in CVICU/CCU/NICU/Flight/Transport/PICU/PACU-NICU was the shortest LOL (2years)

Done IABP/VADS/ECMO/CVVH/Plasmaphersis

Moonlighted as an Agency and Traveler

Will probably retire in the PACU because it is a mismash of all of the above and the focus is on the PATIENT. Families are secondary.

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I am content with my job as a school nurse - absolutely love and enjoy my time off. I am fortunate to work in a well paying district - yes I can always make more money in a hospital setting but I have no desire to do all the extra stuff that is required - meetings, inservices, education requirements, weekends and holidays, having to "fight" for my time off etc, etc. I have become spoiled over time - I can never trade my time off for all of the extra headaches that come along with shift work in a hospital setting. I am close to 50y/o so I have to take retirement benefits in consideration also - I will have a decent retirement if I stick it out here in school nursing for the long run.

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Specializes in School nursing.
Yup!!! 10 years, maybe a few more if all is well! (school nurse), not extremely physically taxing but the emotional side of it can be VERY taxing on any given day.

Another school nurse and I can't imagine working any other area of nursing. I love it. I work with middle and high school students and it is trying, taxing, and can be emotionally draining some days, but seeing those people graduate and enter the real world I just love.

Plus, I have found out how much I love teaching health in the classroom - something I never thought of when I entered nursing school, but so very essential to preventive health, which was the reason I did actually enter nursing school for :).

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Yes, I would be happy to work in my current SICU for the last ten-or-so years of my career. There are things I would like to change, but I love the basic job. I don't want to work anywhere else than at the bedside. That isn't a very popular position these days, but I love patient care. I can't imagine going to work to do paperwork and go to meetings all day long. What I don't love about my job are things like "patient satisfaction scores", scripted patient/family interactions, government surveyors who have no clue what real patent care means, and the like.

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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!

This is not a bad idea!!

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I have spent the majority of my career in the OR. I love it, always have, always will. It is hard work, though and as I have aged my body has become less willing to endure the work load. I was lucky enough about two years ago to be able to take my OR skills to a desk job doing clinical review. Now this is a job I can finish out my career doing. I get to use my knowledge while my body gets a break.

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