Hi, everyone. I have been working as a staff nurse (med-oncology) for 8 months and I have decided to change to a job in home infusion nursing. The negative side is that I am positively overwhelmed by the conditions at my hospital and it is destroying me; the positive side is that I have been interested in IV therapy for a long time (since school) and I want to try this now that I have a shot at it. Once I am settled, I want to return to staff work per diem, to keep my skills and stay involved direct patient care (the latter will happen far less often in my new job). First, does this sound reasonable to any of you seasoned gals/guys out there? Second, is it really true that nursing is pretty much wide open, and you can make a go of it in all sorts of ways? I don't want to limit myself, but I also know that staying where I am will eventually force me to leave nursing altogether, which is NOT an option. I love being a nurse...but I need to be able to do more than just barely survive. Please be honest. I hope I am not ruining all of my chances by leaving my first job after 8 months...Thanks!
Janet
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July 4th, 2008 at 5:55 pm
Looks like we’re in the same boat Janet. I recently left my first (staff) nursing job after only 10 months, for many of the same reasons you expressed. I now have the nursing job of my dreams, in a non-clinical setting. It was an opportunity I just couldn’t pass up at the time. While I won’t say that you shouldn’t work per diem to keep up on your skills (because I think continuing education is always a good thing), I will say that everything you’ve learned you can always re-learn should you shift back into floor nursing one day. As you know, everything in health care is constantly changing due to new and improved technology, so as nurses, we are continually relearning our skills all the time anyway, or learning new ways of performing skills we already know. So whether you were to stay in direct patient care or come back after some years, either way you would have to relearn the new and current way of performing skilled nursing. Due to the fervent need for nurses, 8 months of experience is still experience, and there are nurses hired everyday fresh out of school with no experience on their resumes (I was one of those nurses last year). And don’t forget that the experiences you will gain in this new nursing job will also serve as a benefit to your career. A lot of nurses I worked with tried to guilt me into staying on the floor, but the truth is there are so many different types of nursing jobs, because nursing isn’t a “one size fits all” career. That’s the beauty of being a nurse, we are capable people, capable of doing MANY different things. Hope this helps.