Any nurses/health professionals- i need career advice

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i have a scenario and i honestly don’t know what to do…

i have a bachelor’s degree in nursing and am in a job that i really love. i work independently and within my scope of practice i order testing, initiate medications and really like the actual ‘doing’ of what i do.

however, the corporation i work for is constantly changing and my workload continues to go up. it is stressful. i started it before i was married or had kids.but it’s also a daytime job which makes family life a bit easier.

i have tried going to grad school multiple times and have completed a few classes. however, the faculty constantly ask WHAT we each want to do with our degree, and i really can’t answer! i was thinking i would do nursing education but there’s not a lot of professorships around here. i have been told for years that i’m a natural teacher…there ARE 3 community colleges all with nursing programs within a comfortable driving distance though, but they don’t post a LOT of jobs and i’ve talked to other nursing ed people who couldn’t find work after graduation. moving isn’t an option. now i’m contemplating nurse practitioner. the training will take several years, and eventually i’d have to leave my job to complete the training. once i leave, i can’t go back. the teaching option would allow me to stay put well after graduation and even if i couldn’t find a job, i could still do my same job. of course with an NP there would definitely be work after graduation…

i’m not sure which graduate field to pursue. i get tuition reimbursement, so it’s practially free to go. i would be silly not to. just not sure which way to look…
 
For what it’s worth…I’m not a nurse, but looked into the profession seriously at one time several years ago. My impression was this: I could go thru college, pass with a high GPA and still not be selected due to the limited number of seats available which I thought at the time was 50. It seemed to me that the problem was that there weren’t enough teachers. The profession really needs teachers to turn out the number of qualified applicants to be able to take the nursing exam and get their license. Isn’t there still a nurse shortage? Personally I think you should seriously consider teaching.

God Bless,
Debbie
 
I am an RN as well–I got my Masters in Business Admin/Health Care management—I feel like I am well trained now to make a difference in the lives of patients and staff 🙂

Good luck!
 
I would go for the NP. Do it now before they require you to have your doctorate starting in 2014.
 
I’m not sure about this question.

My sister-in-law got her Master’s in Nursing with plans of teaching in a college. She has had no luck at all landing a teaching job, and is currently working in a school nursing program. Great hours and fairly easy work physically, but terrible pay compared to clinic or hospital work.

Now in all honesty, I suspect that my SIL is not good at interviews. She comes across kind of flighty and “blonde,” talks way too fast, and says too much. She’s very opinionated, and many of her opinions will offend typical college staff members (she’s a conservative Republican.) She also has three little boys who do not sleep well, even though they’re in school, and they have a lot of problems, and she always seems exhausted and disorganized.

So if you decide to go for the Masters, make SURE to study and practice “interview skills” with a good, mean coach, and be humble enough to accept criticism and to make changes in your approach to interviews. With so many other nurses pursuing that Master’s Degree, those teaching jobs will go to the candidates that interview best.

My personal feeling–and this may not be the right choice for you, but I’m giving you the advice anyway–is that if you have a good job in health care, it’s probably best to hunker down and learn to find fulfilment in that job. I’ve been a medical technologist since 1980, and I’ve learned over the years that health care professionals always believe that the grass is greener over another fence. So many people quit their health care job for another health care job, and after the “honeymoon” is over, they discover, to their woe, that the job has all the same problems that their other job had.

Long hours, heavy patient workload, too much to do, difficult to get days off, continuing ed hard to squeeze in, not enough staff hired by management, less-than-stellar benefits, working weekends and holidays, catty co-workers that you don’t trust, unsympathetic supervisors, exhaustion and burnout, challenges to our faith, etc.–these are reality at almost all health care settings. I personally think things will get worse uner the Affordable Health Care Act, but the person who sticks it out and stays on the job will fare better than the person who drifts all around looking for the “perfect” job.

Good luck to you.
 
thank you to ALL for your answers. all good honest advice which i appreciate. just FYI- 1. the program i’m enrolled in has already changed their NP to the Doctor of NP so it’s now at least a doctorate. 2. i’m a MEAN interviewer. 3. i do have joy in my current position, i’m just thinking ahead. i’m only in my early 30’s which means i have YEARS to go. the type of thing i do is so specialized that after this many years, i would have to go for nurse refresher to do any other type of work! just looking ahead…
 
Cat said:
Long hours, heavy patient workload, too much to do, difficult to get days off, continuing ed hard to squeeze in, not enough staff hired by management, less-than-stellar benefits, working weekends and holidays, catty co-workers that you don’t trust, unsympathetic supervisors, exhaustion and burnout, challenges to our faith, etc.–these are reality at almost all health care settings. I personally think things will get worse uner the Affordable Health Care Act, but the person who sticks it out and stays on the job will fare better than the person who drifts all around looking for the “perfect” job.

Good luck to you.
Click to expand...
Boy oh boy did you say a mouthful there!

I have several advanced degrees. In my experience, in nursing if you want to do more than patient care or floor supervisor, you will need an advanced degree, at least a masters. With a masters degree you can consider a number of administrative positions. If you are happy working with patients then you really don’t need advanced degrees.

As far as the NP goes, you still need your masters of nursing I believe to get into a program and will soon need your doctor of nursing degree.

I think you really need to sit down and decide where you want to go with your career.
Do you want to work full time or part time? Do you want a job or a career? Where do you want to work? Do you have children and how old are they and can you work about their schedules, or are they old enough to be home for a few hours after school without you? If you are married, what about your husbands career, is there a chance that he’d need to transfer in the middle of your schooling? Do you need more income or less hours or more hours for your family income?

I wish you all the luck in the world. I personally tell folks who want to be nurses to consider becoming a physical therapist, the hours are MUCH better and they get to work with patients and the job pays better and so forth and so forth. Not that I don’t love nursing, but it’s not the same as it was years ago when I became a nurse. 🙂
 
thanks for your kind words…thankfully, my DH is a teacher in high school so works close to our home. if his job ever became eliminated (we’ve been through it many times already), he is the age that he would probably start a freelance career from home and do online teaching…our kids are young so around the time i finish my MSN my baby will start school.

thankfully, the program that i’m enrolled in allows a BSN grad to go straight to the Doctor of NP, so in that case i would bypass the MSN. it’s sort of rolled into it- but i’m looking at about 80 credit hours to finish this whole thing.

the MSN is around 30 credit hours and would allow me to work straight through the program. truly, i’m leaning towards this. i have always pictured myself teaching, even when i was in undergrad. i LOVE my current job, as i said, and the MSN would allow me to keep working for my current employer if i couldn’t find a teaching position…OR i could likely get an adjunct position while i work, and cut back at my ‘regular’ job while waiting for a full time teaching position to open!
 
Cat said:
Long hours, heavy patient workload, too much to do, difficult to get days off, continuing ed hard to squeeze in, not enough staff hired by management, less-than-stellar benefits, working weekends and holidays, catty co-workers that you don’t trust, unsympathetic supervisors, exhaustion and burnout, challenges to our faith, etc.–these are reality at almost all health care settings. I personally think things will get worse uner the Affordable Health Care Act, but the person who sticks it out and stays on the job will fare better than the person who drifts all around looking for the “perfect” job.

Good luck to you.
Click to expand...
You summed up the medical field perfectly. 👍

Whatever you decide, good luck.
 
it’s too bad to hear that there are scenarios like the above. like i said, i’m actually pretty happy in my role, i’m just thinking ahead because as healthcare changes, i could see my role eventually being lessened or reassigned to non-nurses…
 
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