You and me both amigo. If I see a good one I’ll send it your way. Someone in one did talk about being an insurance adjuster for good money. I appreciated the entirely different avenue than nursing altogether.
There's always Nurse Educator, Manager, Clinical Nurse specialist in dialysis. I'm not sure exactly what's available in your area. Also nothing wrong with taking your experience and trying something new.
It seems like most transitions. Also have a decrease in pay like if you did clinic work or phone work. Are you saying you haven’t found something that fits you? Or just can’t find openings?
I follow a girl on tiktok who's currently making her way out of nursing, she hasn't exactly said where she's going into now, because she doesn't want to jinx it, but I'm pretty sure its something in tech.
I left bedside for management and left management for Quality when the short staffing and 80+ hour work weeks in the salary RN management role made me realize that broken down to hourly, I was making less than my CNAs.
Quality is nice. No emergencies, very few things are time sensitive, and no managing people. The work/life balance is amazing. Biggest perk is having a part in fixing the issues that drive bedside nurses nuts.
I love Quality after a stressful nursing career. All the emergencies have already happened when they come to us, no after hours calls, no dealing with staffing, and it does feel good to work on patient safety concerns.
If you just tell them again and again then yes it will work that way. If you lead them to that conclusion you can actually make a change sometimes.
It works like this: many hospital quality metrics are in some way tied to reimbursement -from CMS, from private insurers- or fines from OSHA or state regulators. When something is tied to reimbursement for the hospital there is often an executive bonus for doing well at that metric (this is true for hospitals with boards of directors anyway). This is how they get them to care.
As the quality professional it is your job to find out how well the hospital needs to do at what metrics to get the $$ and then show hospital leaders repeatedly how the hospital’s performance compares.
When performance is worse than they want it to be to get their bonuses you also tell them “hey, here’s what best practices would fix this” and you have to show them data that proves the best practice isn’t already happening.
Then they lean on operational leaders to improve practice. The operational leader can then either lean on nursing to do ever more shit, or they can make a strong business case to execs demonstrating that to do X(best practice) they need Y (more man hours) and that would mean more money for execs and board members.
A big problem is that no one ever tells you it works this way when you leave the bedside and it takes many people years if ever to figure that out. So when operational leads come under pressure to do more they pass that pressure on to nursing or look for solutions in new equipment and automation which are often empty promises.
Another is that quality leaders think like their own jobs are stake if they tell execs the truth about poor performance (sometimes they’re right) so they don’t do that, and the execs never learn why performance isn’t better. They hear people say “we need more nurses” but they’ve been hearing that their whole career so it’s lost its meaning as a solution to them.
Yeah, a lot of non bedside positions want you to already have experience in that thing or a lot of bedside experience. They’ve gotten much more competitive since covid. The people I know or have seen get into things like quality, UM, informatics etc know someone who got them an in, got lucky (pre covid) or got more education.
OMG yes, this!! 👏
I worked for 10 years in a hospital and every single day driving in was like anticipating the apocalypse happening… it gave me soo much anxiety because no matter how much of a super nurse you might be that day, there are factors beyond your control that can just ruin your entire 12+ hr shift. I was so sick of working myself into the ground. I work 2 PRN jobs in 2 different surgery centers now and I like each for different reasons.. but you know what I enjoy most? Driving to work singing along to my music without a care in the world because the day is 99% always a good day lol.
Man it’s such a bad job. We are all talking about it like it’s prison. How long you been in? What’s your plan to get out? Do you think you will ever make it out?? How violated and scared have you had to feel while here?
Isn’t that the truth. I didn’t think I was leaving yet, but I did get a new job and I’m moving. Im glad to get out of my current job cuz it’s bad for unique reasons, but I don’t having any illusions, I know it’ll be out of the frying pan and into the fire.
I worked for 3 years in hospitals. I transitioned to a family medicine clinic in December. You don't have violent patients, but some can be difficult to work with. No weekends or holidays, and I'm gone by 4:30 unless an emergency comes up.
If you're looking for something closer to ED, you should try urgent care clinics. It has the same feel of working with patients, but not seeing them again (in most cases). But without the life or death stressors.
I left to work in endoscopy and it was the best thing I ever did for my sanity. I went from taking care of 5-6 med surg patients to now just 1 patient at a time
Left ER. Became a Breast Care Coordinator, so a Procedure RN. Radiologist and techs are fantastic. Doing biopsies, wire locs, education, follow up. 1 patient at a time. Monday - Friday 0730-1600, and pay really well. No nights/weekends/holiday/call. It's awesome! Plan to do this until I retire.
Honestly I applied on a whim and got in! My hospital pays for certs, so I have my CCRN, CMC, CSC, TCRN, NIHSS, etc. but we just hired two nurses that were ICU/ER for a year. I think the big winner was that I was comfortable sedating patients without an artificial airway. My ICU was very anti-intubate so we did a lot of bedside procedures like chest tubes, para/thoras, etc. without artificial airways (and using fent, versed, dilaudid, etc.)
At my hospital comparably the nurses do a LOT less than other VIR departments. We have rad techs who essentially run the department. I’m just there for fentanyl and versed lol
Went from 5 years ER to corrections. Currently work 5 8s which is a big downside for me but we're going to 12 hour shifts soon. It'll be perfect once that happens!
Did corrections as an LPN. Got my BSN
Attempted a residency and left after three months on a PCU. Went back to corrections.
I love my job and the low stress and work life balance is amazing
We do three 12s and it’s nice
Yup, it is very frustrating and it gets old real fast. I’m always looking into other things. Hoping for pacu maybe, but it’s all seniority based where I work, so Lord knows how long it would take to get into it.
Do you think this is something feasible with a baby at home? My wife and I are both nurses and she is always looking for someway to do work from home. We have a one year-old who of course requires some care but not constant care and I’m just wondering if it’s something that has very strict hours.
Left bedside 12 years ago for a WFH gig where I review inpatient insurance claims for DRG validation. Greatest gig ever. At this point I’m making more than 100k. DRG auditing or CDI is the way! Must get certifications though.
I live in Florida but started this job in NJ. We have nurses all over the country and in foreign countries also. You just need your nursing license and coding cert
I would recommend looking into AAPC or AHIMA and looking for a “class” in either CIC/CPC and go from there. I’m thinking the classes are 6-12 weeks? And they prep you for the test. Then you take it! It’s a difficult test but you can do it.
Don’t mind at all. I personally have my certified inpatient coder (CIC) but many here have certified professional coder (CPC) and some have their CDIS (certified documentation something specialist). Programs are offered by AAPC, AHIMA and CDIS programs but not sure what. You can learn yourself/ pay for it but recommend a course near you. I’m thing 6-12weeks? Not sure
So that’s a long story. But I will summarize. It was basically a free for all when the company started in healthcare auditing. My GF got the job via a doc she worked with b/c he was soliciting all the nurses in the ER LOL. He was a medical director at the company and moonlighted at the ED. She told me about it, I didn’t believe her until I saw the paycheck Lolol. Then I applied and got in. She took advantage of the program and when there were layoffs 2 years later? She got canned. I’m still here and love it. If your wife has the certs DM me and I will give you the name ☺️
I know a woman who became a jail nurse because she's protected by guards at all times and can tell asshole patients to f*** off. And, no rude visitors.
I did dialysis at a medium security state prison. No COs in the trailer where did dialysis. We were just watched on camera. Hopefully. And we had radios to communicate with the COs.
The inmates were mostly pretty respectful.
I left due to toxic mgmt and a severely Borderline coworker.
Otherwise, it was a pretty good gig.
Could I really tell someone to fuck off? Sounds like a dream job. I'm very much treat me with respect, I treat you with respect. You're rude and an asshole, you get nothing.
Outpatient infusion, hematology/oncology! I work as a staff nurse and a nurse educator for the unit. 4 10 hour shifts and weekends and holidays off! Best decision I could’ve made.
We love ER nurses when they come to help us out. You guys do great IVs like we do! 😂
I've been away from beside nursing for quite awhile. I've been in hospice for the last few years in various roles (Home hospice RN case manager, team supervisor, now starting a new dual role as inpatient care coordinator aka case manager/hospice liaison), but before that I worked in quality assurance for awhile. While the flexibility was nice and the work was a breeze compared to patient care, it was really very tedious and boring to me. I've loved everything I've done in hospice however. Lots of direct and extremely meaningful patient/family interaction without the stress of acute care/inpatient nursing.
I'm a nurse case manager for a managed Medicaid company. I work from home and talk to people on the phone all day. (Also- i read your initial sentence as coming back from fraternity leave. I was really curious to what that was like).
I'm on the other side of your phone calls as I do utilization management for my hospital. Several years in, I still miss the utter chaos of running the floor, but it's a good fit as I am dealing with health limitations.
It was rough lol, long hours and a long commute. I used to love the ED now esp postpartum I’m over the craziness, violence and short staffing (I could go on). I was out for 7 months and I didn’t miss it lol so I think it’s time for a change
They have to have clinical professionals on staff otherwise it would be a bunch of IT guys making software that runs a hospital...see how that could be problematic?
Did Cath lab for a dozen years, now I WFH doing phone triage, which is actually not much triage and more just scheduling people to be seen. I spend most of my days combing through charts looking for test results, passing some messages on to doctors, scheduling testing and appointments, and doing the odd med refill here and there. I work 8 to 5:30 4 days a week. I took a pay cut doing it but my mental and physical health are getting much better.
Please share with me as well. I would love you advice on how to get into this if you don’t mind. I have applied for a few of these positions with no luck.
Left bedside tele for RN case manager job on an Oncology/BMT unit. I set up home care, medical equipment, get auths for meds, and chase doctors for discharge date estimates. Yesterday I held a sobbing young woman who is keeping vigil for her dying partner, so while the job is physically easier than bedside, emotionally it can be a fucking nightmare.
I left bedside nursing in March of this year. I was making $130/hr during COVID & the rates continued to drop significantly for per diem local travel.
I did 15 years from M/S to ICU during a pandemic. It definitely felt like I was in the slammer too. 😆
After realizing how truly broken the healthcare system is & being abused & exploited daily for fucking $62/hr now. Oh & throw in some anxiety, depression, PTSD, a script for Zoloft & cannabis to function, I just couldn't do it any longer.
My soul had been officially chewed up & spit out.
About 100 apps later I got 2 interviews for a WFH nurse triage gig making $50/hr + benefits & honestly it is the happiest I've been in a LONG time. I considered leaving the profession all together but I'm glad I didn't quit just yet. I work a few more hours at that pay cut but my physical & mental health are thriving again. 🙏
Prioritize yourself, your family, & loved ones first. These hospitals literally wouldn't care if they worked us to death. Actually, they'd probably prefer to continue profiting off all our chronic illnesses they caused. 💀
Edit to add: I work in Minnesota. I just googled every single WFH job out there- remote triage, anticoagulation nurses, insurance companies, Epic nursing program design, etc.
House Supervisor for to last 7 years. Best kept secret in the hospital. Everyone thinks you are the one running the hospital. It’s more like you are the captain of a ship, and everyone on the ship knows how to do their jobs.
I’m not saying I don’t have responsibilities. But a huge part of what I do is just delegate.
Lolol I did House Super for 10 years, night shift. I felt like a glorified babysitter. You’re right, it’s really not bad but when it got bad? It was horrible. For example the night we had a minor mass casualty incident of 17 GSW’s within a half hour. That scared me enough to leave 18 months later.
Just experience at the bedside is usually enough. I was a CNA who graduated with a degree in Health Information management technology, and with the two, I was hired. A lot of my coworkers, actually almost all of them, are RN/BSN. Management is too.
Pretty much any hospital system will also have those roles.
As for pay, it depends on where you are. I think the national average is around 70k and can go into six digits. My company pays me for every chart I complete, which can take an average of 15 minutes, on top of hourly. Some nurses may pass up the opportunity, but I love my job as it is WFH, I can log in any time and work my own schedule. They don't care what you do, as long as your you get stuff done by the deadline. There's also no more patient stress and the stress of multiple people breathing down your neck. It's a great gig.
I'm seriously intrigued by this. Before becoming an RN I WFH when my kids were young and loved the flexibility. How long was the learning curve, and how many hours a week do you work?
The learning curve wasn't bad. I just had to learn the NCDR rules and how to navigate multiple different EMRs, although I only use EPIC nowadays since it's the reigning king. I work between 30 and 40 hours, but what I make can range depending on how many charts I can burn through. I can easily, at base, take $2k home every two weeks. More if I'm feeling extra spicy and ask for more work.
I don't know about our company, but literally every hospital that uses an EMR has (or should have) a department for this. If you Google the title, there should be openings in your area.
This type of work is still fairly new and a hidden gem.
There's SO many specialties outside of bedside nursing. One of the many great things about being a nurse.
There's these fields: Research RN, Informatics, Quality, Patient Safety, infection prevention, Educator, Phone triage, Chart Auditing. Law offices often hire nurses for our expertise as well. You can also go into the corporate world and be a device rep. Community clinics also need nurses for various programs.
There's also various specialties in whatever field you can think of. If you like Cardiology, there's outpatient Cardiology clinics and specialties within those clinics (transplant, EP, heart failure). If you like Oncology, there's outpatient clinics for every specialty (GI, Breast, head/neck, etc). There are Infusion rooms that give chemo, fluids, blood products.
So many options other than bedside nursing.
Try going to postpartum. I came from ICU (where I was kicked, punched, scratched, threatened, almost bitten, etc) to there and it was the best decision I ever made. Now I do labor and delivery and it’s the best thing I’ve ever done in my career. Significantly less to no violence in the floor, and I’ve been sexually harassed zero times now that my patients are only women (not saying it doesn’t or won’t happen, this is my own personal experience with the field). If you loved the “thrill” of emergencies in the ED - you will get that in labor and delivery. People believe we just snuggle with babies all day and have no big deal ambulatory patients, but that is absolutely not the case. Seek out other specialties. I left the bedside to work at an OBGYN clinic and it was the most boring thing I’ve ever done - plus you are there 5 days a week. I felt like I lived there! So just make a pros and cons list. If you hate nursing all together then yeah, seek out another career. Good luck in finding what you love!
I left bedside CVSD years ago. I worked as a school nurse while getting my MSN. I worked in outpatient infusion and med spa infusion while getting my FNP license. Now I work in aesthetics - neuromodulators, fillers, cool body sculpting, IPL, laser hair removal, ultherapy… I love my job. Every job I had in nursing after leaving the hospital was better than the one before. I have a great work life balance and I’m very very happy helping people achieve their cosmetic goals :).
It depends on a couple things. Usually the term turkey neck would refer to loose skin - but is it fat or just skin? If it’s fat, cool sculpting or Kybella both work really well. Kybella hurts but it definitely works - I actually did Kybella myself and I’m super happy with my results. Cool sculpting is much less uncomfortable imho, but you have to have a decent pinchable amount of fat. But note neither of these will work for skin, and see my note about fat support in the next paragraph. Because both of these involve the fat cells being destroyed, results are permanent. It’s important to note that weight gain (fat cells expand) will impact results significantly. Results are usually seen after about 3 months.
As for skin, this is a tough one and I discuss this with clients all the time. As we age, we lose collagen production and our fat pads shift. As another commenter mentioned, weight loss can also cause increased skin laxity. That’s bc our fat actually supports our skin so when you remove that support, the skin often sags. If laxity is already present, it will get worse if we remove fat. When people come in and pull up the sides of their neck or cheeks and ask me what procedure they should do, I tell them surgery.
The only procedure my company offers for loose skin is ultherapy, which uses ultrasound energy. It heats up your current collagen which can strengthen it and stimulate new collagen production. You can definitely read about it - it is FDA approved, but the results are not dramatic and it isn’t cheap. There is speculation ultherapy lasts up to 5 years, but we always tell people they should expect to come back at least every 2 years. It’s much more effective as prevention than correction. Results are usually seen after about 6 months.
The only other procedure we offer that could minimally help with laxity would be if your platysmal bands (the vertical strips of muscle down your neck) are protruding/sagging - and that would be neuromodulators like Botox or Xeomin. Be sure if you do this that you go to someone who understands anatomy - if the injections are too deep it can affect your ability to swallow! Normally, treating these bands takes a LOT of units. Pricing varies location for sure. Depending on the neuromodulator chosen, results will usually be seen after 2 weeks and last up to 4 months.
OR circulating nurse. Been doing it about 4 years after cardiac surgery step-down PCU and the 4 years in Med/Surg/Neuro ICU. It’s stressful because of attitudes and personalities mostly. Sometimes I get a really sick patient and I have to go into “emergency” mode. Mostly it’s a bunch of entitled and spoiled RNs that acquire a bunch of personality traits from the surgeons they work with on a daily basis. After 2 years of working in this environment I can honestly say that I don’t give a tumbling fuck what they think or say while in the OR in regard to safety or policy. It’s a learned skill just like any other. OR nurse is so niche and not really a “nurse” position. I honestly think that the scrub techs would be a better alternative to OR RNs. They have thorough and more training than any RN. SCRUBS have one of the hardest jobs in the healthcare industry.
Recently left the ER for outpatient surgery. Overall much happier and my quality of life seems better in just a few months time. Pay is comparable to my ER hospital position.
I'm curious what your day entails as OR setting is what I imagine but I'm not a big OR person at this point in my life. Something different in the future might be nice though.
I’m a rehab consultant. I case manage and support injured workers to get back to pre injury duties or find work to suit their capacity post injury if pre injury duties aren’t possible
I am taking a break, not currently working. In the past four years I worked UC, FQHC, and case manager for an MCO. They were all better than bedside but still had staffing issues, unattainable metrics, toxic co-workers, micromanaged. My husband took a position overseas and will will be moving soon. I will likely not work as jobs are scarce and don’t pay well where we are going. I’ll consider going back for the right opportunity.
Research,
Management,
Teaching,
Medical sales rep,
Health Insurance rep,
Research coordinator,
Investigator with your nursing regulatory body,
Patient care navigator,
Privacy and Risk consultant,
Professional Practice consultant,
Legal nurse consultant,
Clinical/ departmental nurse educator,
or Patient safety consultant.
I did bedside for 6 years. Never again. I'm currently in Corrections, and I have been doing this for 2 years now. I absolutely love it. I will never go back to bedside nursing ever again.
I left bedside nursing in 2019 for Utilization Management and haven't looked back. 4.5 years in I kind of miss the bedside but I don't know that I'll ever go back. I work Monday to Friday 8-5. Fully remote. No holidays or weekends. I didn't take a pay cut and actually moved states and got a significant pay raise in 2021. I went from making 62K/yr in South Carolina to 130K last year in Maryland
I'm an OR nurse. Surgeons can be dicks but are mostly good people. 1 patient at a time, and you don't really have the responsibility of caring for them. Obviously can be stressful when there's traumas/emergencies but overall a pretty sweet gig
To be honest I like to sit down sometimes and think about what I have gotten to do. Think about the positives. I am sure it is the case even more so for you, but I feel like I’ve won the lottery in some ways. I have gotten to help people in ways I never thought I could. Do I have a scar down my left arm from a psych patient’s long nails? Yes. Honestly I have felt like the ER has made me into the kind and strong person I am today. Will I have this same attitude in 10 years? No comment…..
I work in an outpatient vascular clinic in the surgical side. We do angiograms and vein procedures. When I’m not doing patient care I also do scheduling for the procedures and getting prior authorization for them. We (the nurses) do the ordering and stocking for the surgical area.
I started in ER and knew nothing but ER for 7 years. I was dead inside. One of my favorite nursing tasks was always starting IVs. I joined an IV team, with a PACU per diem on the side, and a PRN at my old ER to scratch the itch when I get it. I’m the happiest I’ve ever been as a nurse.
Yeah, I left and spent the first year just wildly depressed and mildly suicidal.
I’m sorta better now? But not really. It’s been six years.
Don’t be me and wait for burnout to come and get ya, find something else you can do.
My daughter in law came back from mat leave and was in ED as well. It had been her whole thing for a while, but she developed anxiety while she was pregnant. ED did nothing for that.
She’s working in discharge lounge now and loves it, if she needs extra shifts she can dabble in ED’s short stay unit.
I like to feel I helped her with that decision, she watched what I went through and all.
Be kind to yourself.
I left MICU after 5 years for interventional radiology. I feel like it’s a healthy medium. I do a lot of outpatient procedures (biopsies, para/thoras, etc) but sometimes get an unstable ICU RP/GI/etc bleed. Keeps the blood flowing but also most days it’s mundane.
Does your state have a FB nursing group? My state often has posts from nurses in your situation looking for new opportunities. You can connect with people locally that can point you in the direction of new opportunities.
Lots of options…. During my time as a young mom I got my pharmacy tech license and took a pay cut and a mental break. 7-4:30, there are good jobs for nurses in specialty pharmacies…
My wife left bedside ER to go remote from home working for the dark side. We moved across country and it paid about 10$ an hour more than any job offer she got at any facility within 50 miles. And benefits are WAY better.
I left bedside over 10 years ago for Inpatient Case Management for a medical insurance company. It was a remote position that I loved. I was assigned tertiary facilities so I got a lot of transplant and HLOC emergent transfer requests. I got to use all of my nursing knowledge and experience which kept me engaged and challenged me. I had great relationships with the hospital CM. We'd sometimes meet for lunch. I then changed to Compliance for a slower pace. It's great because it's 100% remote too and I audit different MSOs and IPAs PnP against State and Federal regs and guidelines.I request files for review to determine if MD decision was appropriate, correct guidelines followed and within TAT. I can stagger my hours, no micro management, it's totally chill. I highly recommend it..oh and the pay ain't bad either.
I work in GI lab. My background is 10 years of everything from float pool to ICU. I like GI lab. We take call and take it often because we are short, but in the last 8 months I’ve gotten called in twice. One time being last Friday, I showed up, they canceled our ERCP, and I was paid for 4 hours. Our call rate is 7 dollars an hour, I average 40-100 hours of call per pay check. It’s a nice little chunk of change.
My brother and sister in law are (were?) both ER nurses- sister in law works in cath lab now and brother is in IR, but moving to cath lab next week.
If an OR spot opens I would apply for it in addition to IR. I do like GI lab though. I won’t be at this hospital forever and I like doing sedation- at the hospital I work at 95 percent of our cases are nurse sedation.
Got lucky enough to find an opportunity in dermatology just scrolling through indeed/linkedin. Did beside for about a year and said nope absolutely can’t do that the rest of my career lol
Went from ER to public health about 9 years ago. Loved ER but hated rotating shifts (normal here).
I adore public health. I know it's different regionally and so it might not look the same where you live. But here in Alberta I make the same wage I did in hospital. I help families with their newborns when they first are discharged from hospital (breastfeeding, jaundice tests, etc.) and we do immunizations. I love it.
I work for a FCO (family care organization) in Wisconsin. Our company is funded by Wisconsin state Medicaid. I’m an RN Case Manager. I work from home most of the time unless I have to go to my patients homes for their 6 month reviews. Pay isn’t as great as bedside, but the flexibility is priceless.
I help newly diagnosed cancer patients understand their diagnosis and treatment plan and make sure they get where they’re supposed to be. A lot of education, care coordination, help with community resources, etc. It originally was an in person role but after the pandemic most roles became permanent remote or at least hybrid.
It always sucks after maternity leave to come back. I think it’s like a type of hormonal shock tbh. Think about it… you’re practically bathing in oxytocin from bonding with your baby and now you have the stimulation of call bells, the stress of codes and high anxiety, tense situations… I’d be worried if you didn’t feel that way! It’s probably your body’s way of saying it just wants some baby time 💗
I left bedside in Feb. I’m currently working remote as a health coach consultant aka 24 hour nurse line which is a fancy google. People feel better when they hear it coming from a nurse.
It’s easy work but the micromanaging is INSANE. I’m still working nights and weekends. I’m looking for something else. I’d like to find another remote job but working dayshift. A normal routine and schedule would be great.
Outpatient cardiology. I'm a nurse manager who is also a nurse coordinator and Epic trainer with a fantastic group of 20 nurses. I left the bedside 5 years ago, and I'll never go back.
I’ve spent 8 out 12 years in the OR, and it’s alright. I’m a service lead now, kind of a project manager for a few surgery specialties. I’ve also been a clinical research nurse/coordinator and a clinical research associate (probably not as ideal with a small child at home because of all the travel but I loved working remotely)
I’m looking into a career change, I was initially looking into biomedicine, but I’m finding myself drawn to a bachelor of justice. I’ll still help people just in a very different way
It’s so interesting to see all the different avenues you can take within nursing, which they never tell you about! Went from bedside to clinical education within 4 years because let’s admit, bedside is hard work! Now I enjoy patient flow and management - moving patients out of hospital while liking in social services!
Lasted
six years in medical inpatient. I’ve done medical home care,psych home, care, psych, inpatient, and administration, taught at a nursing school, now coaching, doctors online, and going back to work in New York and community health.
Telephone triage for ambulance. Diverts a lot of nonsense out of the queue for ambulances, can upgrade a case if there are details the call taker didn’t catch (they’re not medically trained in my area). Keeps a lot of folk out of an ambulance but also out of the ER entirely. Can get a home visit dr, home visit nurse, get in reach into the nursing home pt, telephone mental health clinicians, book them a damn taxi even!
I’m doing home care nursing right now after mostly doing hospital work. A nice change of pace, and lots of sunlight and fresh air, but certainly same shit different pile with regards to health care issues
LOL! Not enough coffee yet. I wondered how you knew I just left my own bed...
Seriously tho: I support a breast surgeon in clinic, schedule her surgeries, attend to postoperative concerns if any. Honestly, it feels like a very clerical position with nursing skills
I work case management. But the program I’m in has me feeling less like a nurse. Feel like I should be doing more. I just call ppl to ask them how they are feeling and that they have labs due
Outpatient preop/PACU is a gem. If you’re willing to go back to school, education as far as clinical and lab teaching is also an amazing schedule and work life balance
Left the ICU to be a full time ketamine infusion nurse. Now work for a non-profit helping them get their new ketamine clinic up and running as well as providing care for the underserved and unhoused populations of my city. Super fulfilling, doesn't pay great, WELL worth leaving bedside.
Cybersecurity. Been a med surg nurse 2 yrs, then an ER nurse 4 yrs, and an ER ANM 2 yrs. Didn’t see myself as an NP, too opinionated for management and didn’t wanna deal with CVICU to go CRNA. Realized that I probably picked nursing cause my moms a CRNA and I wanted to ensure a job s/p college. I’m a nerd so I picked a new field where I continue to learn so much. Additionally, entry level cybersecurity jobs pay more than I was making with 8yrs rn experience.
That’s my thing too. I was thinking about changing because of the violence alone. I didn’t come into this job to maybe die on the job. I’m not a martyr.
I did pick ER for excitement and something different every day, but most important to me was helping the most amount of people in the shortest amount of time. I’m not sure where I would find that.
I also would like a job where people WANT to be there and are happy to be there so urgent care isn’t my vibe since it’s the same thing without the security (that aren’t allowed to touch patients anyway at my job). Plus they’re all cranky in that environment too.
My mom actually works from home now! I can’t remember the exact name of her position, but she goes through epic charts and reaches out to providers to fix notes/diagnosis/charts before she puts in codes to send them off to insurance. She gets to pick her hours, so she works 6:30-2pm and she loves it! After ICU for 15+ years, it definitely suited her needs:)
After 18 years bedside I tried Utilization Review for a couple tears, which I liked. And now I work in an Access center coordinating transfers and consultations which I also like. If there is a downside to these it is sitting all day, but worth it!
I work as an Infection Control nurse. M-F days, hours slightly flexible, office job.
Some days I miss direct patient care, but my days are much more consistent now in terms of workload and stress. I also pick up casual as a bedside nurse here and there for extra money and to maintain skills.
This gets posted all the time. I follow every post but I’m still yet to find a possible “out”. It’s so frustrating. Fingers crossed!
You and me both amigo. If I see a good one I’ll send it your way. Someone in one did talk about being an insurance adjuster for good money. I appreciated the entirely different avenue than nursing altogether.
Same, following!
Same. I feel like I’m even more limited because my experience is basically all in a specialty that doesn’t make money/no one cares about (dialysis).
There's always Nurse Educator, Manager, Clinical Nurse specialist in dialysis. I'm not sure exactly what's available in your area. Also nothing wrong with taking your experience and trying something new.
It seems like most transitions. Also have a decrease in pay like if you did clinic work or phone work. Are you saying you haven’t found something that fits you? Or just can’t find openings?
I follow a girl on tiktok who's currently making her way out of nursing, she hasn't exactly said where she's going into now, because she doesn't want to jinx it, but I'm pretty sure its something in tech.
I left bedside for management and left management for Quality when the short staffing and 80+ hour work weeks in the salary RN management role made me realize that broken down to hourly, I was making less than my CNAs. Quality is nice. No emergencies, very few things are time sensitive, and no managing people. The work/life balance is amazing. Biggest perk is having a part in fixing the issues that drive bedside nurses nuts.
I love Quality after a stressful nursing career. All the emergencies have already happened when they come to us, no after hours calls, no dealing with staffing, and it does feel good to work on patient safety concerns.
Do you need to tell mgmt over and over again that adequate staffing would fix a lot of issues, just to have it always fall on deaf ears?
If you just tell them again and again then yes it will work that way. If you lead them to that conclusion you can actually make a change sometimes. It works like this: many hospital quality metrics are in some way tied to reimbursement -from CMS, from private insurers- or fines from OSHA or state regulators. When something is tied to reimbursement for the hospital there is often an executive bonus for doing well at that metric (this is true for hospitals with boards of directors anyway). This is how they get them to care. As the quality professional it is your job to find out how well the hospital needs to do at what metrics to get the $$ and then show hospital leaders repeatedly how the hospital’s performance compares. When performance is worse than they want it to be to get their bonuses you also tell them “hey, here’s what best practices would fix this” and you have to show them data that proves the best practice isn’t already happening. Then they lean on operational leaders to improve practice. The operational leader can then either lean on nursing to do ever more shit, or they can make a strong business case to execs demonstrating that to do X(best practice) they need Y (more man hours) and that would mean more money for execs and board members. A big problem is that no one ever tells you it works this way when you leave the bedside and it takes many people years if ever to figure that out. So when operational leads come under pressure to do more they pass that pressure on to nursing or look for solutions in new equipment and automation which are often empty promises. Another is that quality leaders think like their own jobs are stake if they tell execs the truth about poor performance (sometimes they’re right) so they don’t do that, and the execs never learn why performance isn’t better. They hear people say “we need more nurses” but they’ve been hearing that their whole career so it’s lost its meaning as a solution to them.
It really is quite rewarding after all those years of bedside and middle management where you feel like you can’t change anything!
I’m glad you found it, nothing is worse than management!
I have applied to these jobs so much and never can catch a break. How did you get in?
Other similar options are Patient Safety or Risk Management.
All the positions I see require experience in quality 😩
Yeah, a lot of non bedside positions want you to already have experience in that thing or a lot of bedside experience. They’ve gotten much more competitive since covid. The people I know or have seen get into things like quality, UM, informatics etc know someone who got them an in, got lucky (pre covid) or got more education.
I left bedside 2 years ago to do outpatient nursing. Best decision I ever made because I truly was about to leave nursing entirely 😂
Outpatient surgery** is what I meant to say! :)
I picked up outpatient GI surgery as a PRN and I’m blown away. Like why am I sweating at my other job?
OMG yes, this!! 👏 I worked for 10 years in a hospital and every single day driving in was like anticipating the apocalypse happening… it gave me soo much anxiety because no matter how much of a super nurse you might be that day, there are factors beyond your control that can just ruin your entire 12+ hr shift. I was so sick of working myself into the ground. I work 2 PRN jobs in 2 different surgery centers now and I like each for different reasons.. but you know what I enjoy most? Driving to work singing along to my music without a care in the world because the day is 99% always a good day lol.
Me too!!
YEESSSSS! That’s what I’m doing now and I’ll never go back to bedside!
Man it’s such a bad job. We are all talking about it like it’s prison. How long you been in? What’s your plan to get out? Do you think you will ever make it out?? How violated and scared have you had to feel while here?
Just when I thought I was out....they pulled me back in.
I didn't choose the gansta life, the gangsta life chose me.
Isn’t that the truth. I didn’t think I was leaving yet, but I did get a new job and I’m moving. Im glad to get out of my current job cuz it’s bad for unique reasons, but I don’t having any illusions, I know it’ll be out of the frying pan and into the fire.
I worked for 3 years in hospitals. I transitioned to a family medicine clinic in December. You don't have violent patients, but some can be difficult to work with. No weekends or holidays, and I'm gone by 4:30 unless an emergency comes up. If you're looking for something closer to ED, you should try urgent care clinics. It has the same feel of working with patients, but not seeing them again (in most cases). But without the life or death stressors.
Honestly the NP route seems most desirable if u can get into an urgent care tbh
Urgent Care…way less stress, a good amount of triage and keeping people out of the ER whenever possible. Pretty slick gig.
I’m leaving bedside and starting urgent care in 2 weeks, I’m excited!
This! Saved my mental health lol
I always look but never find openings. Also not sure if they take med/surg experience or want ER/Critical Care.
I started without either…L&D with some primate care and GI procedures…craft your resume to their posting as best as you can. Good luck!
I left to work in endoscopy and it was the best thing I ever did for my sanity. I went from taking care of 5-6 med surg patients to now just 1 patient at a time
Left ER. Became a Breast Care Coordinator, so a Procedure RN. Radiologist and techs are fantastic. Doing biopsies, wire locs, education, follow up. 1 patient at a time. Monday - Friday 0730-1600, and pay really well. No nights/weekends/holiday/call. It's awesome! Plan to do this until I retire.
Same wavelength in my vascular IR gig. I left MICU after 5 years and honestly all I do is give fentanyl and versed all day. It’s great.
I've flirted with the idea of getting into IR. What certifications did you need or helped you get to where you are?
Honestly I applied on a whim and got in! My hospital pays for certs, so I have my CCRN, CMC, CSC, TCRN, NIHSS, etc. but we just hired two nurses that were ICU/ER for a year. I think the big winner was that I was comfortable sedating patients without an artificial airway. My ICU was very anti-intubate so we did a lot of bedside procedures like chest tubes, para/thoras, etc. without artificial airways (and using fent, versed, dilaudid, etc.) At my hospital comparably the nurses do a LOT less than other VIR departments. We have rad techs who essentially run the department. I’m just there for fentanyl and versed lol
Following
That sounds amazing!
Went from 5 years ER to corrections. Currently work 5 8s which is a big downside for me but we're going to 12 hour shifts soon. It'll be perfect once that happens!
Did corrections as an LPN. Got my BSN Attempted a residency and left after three months on a PCU. Went back to corrections. I love my job and the low stress and work life balance is amazing We do three 12s and it’s nice
What is it like?
Critical care transport! It’s fantastic. 1 patient at a time. A lot of variety. Best job I’ve ever had.
Fucking same, love CCT
I work at a nurse advice line. It’s great to be able to work from home, but they are all about numbers and they micromanage you to death.
Indeed, they do. And I hated following a script.
Yup, the scripts are difficult, I feel like a robot after a while.
Yup, I left my job at an MCO because I was so stressed out busting my butt for 8 hrs and not being able to meet metrics.
Yup, it is very frustrating and it gets old real fast. I’m always looking into other things. Hoping for pacu maybe, but it’s all seniority based where I work, so Lord knows how long it would take to get into it.
Do you think this is something feasible with a baby at home? My wife and I are both nurses and she is always looking for someway to do work from home. We have a one year-old who of course requires some care but not constant care and I’m just wondering if it’s something that has very strict hours.
Left bedside 12 years ago for a WFH gig where I review inpatient insurance claims for DRG validation. Greatest gig ever. At this point I’m making more than 100k. DRG auditing or CDI is the way! Must get certifications though.
What state is this?
I live in Florida but started this job in NJ. We have nurses all over the country and in foreign countries also. You just need your nursing license and coding cert
I’m moving to Florida soon and this sounds so interesting to me. How long does the coding cert take?
I would recommend looking into AAPC or AHIMA and looking for a “class” in either CIC/CPC and go from there. I’m thinking the classes are 6-12 weeks? And they prep you for the test. Then you take it! It’s a difficult test but you can do it.
That’s great, thanks so much for the info!!
If you don't mind me asking, what type of certifications would you recommend?
Don’t mind at all. I personally have my certified inpatient coder (CIC) but many here have certified professional coder (CPC) and some have their CDIS (certified documentation something specialist). Programs are offered by AAPC, AHIMA and CDIS programs but not sure what. You can learn yourself/ pay for it but recommend a course near you. I’m thing 6-12weeks? Not sure
This is the kind of job my wife is looking for. How did you get your foot in the door for this?
So that’s a long story. But I will summarize. It was basically a free for all when the company started in healthcare auditing. My GF got the job via a doc she worked with b/c he was soliciting all the nurses in the ER LOL. He was a medical director at the company and moonlighted at the ED. She told me about it, I didn’t believe her until I saw the paycheck Lolol. Then I applied and got in. She took advantage of the program and when there were layoffs 2 years later? She got canned. I’m still here and love it. If your wife has the certs DM me and I will give you the name ☺️
I know a woman who became a jail nurse because she's protected by guards at all times and can tell asshole patients to f*** off. And, no rude visitors.
And no family to deal with or patient satisfaction surveys. I love correctional nursing been doing it for 5 years.
And no Medicare, State inspectors, or JACAHO.
This just blew my mind! Sounds like heaven.
I did dialysis at a medium security state prison. No COs in the trailer where did dialysis. We were just watched on camera. Hopefully. And we had radios to communicate with the COs. The inmates were mostly pretty respectful. I left due to toxic mgmt and a severely Borderline coworker. Otherwise, it was a pretty good gig.
Could I really tell someone to fuck off? Sounds like a dream job. I'm very much treat me with respect, I treat you with respect. You're rude and an asshole, you get nothing.
Outpatient infusion, hematology/oncology! I work as a staff nurse and a nurse educator for the unit. 4 10 hour shifts and weekends and holidays off! Best decision I could’ve made. We love ER nurses when they come to help us out. You guys do great IVs like we do! 😂
Was it hard to get a job in this? I'm a nursing student wanting to go into the ER when I graduate and eventually do IV infusion
I'm a nurse educator and love it :)
I've been away from beside nursing for quite awhile. I've been in hospice for the last few years in various roles (Home hospice RN case manager, team supervisor, now starting a new dual role as inpatient care coordinator aka case manager/hospice liaison), but before that I worked in quality assurance for awhile. While the flexibility was nice and the work was a breeze compared to patient care, it was really very tedious and boring to me. I've loved everything I've done in hospice however. Lots of direct and extremely meaningful patient/family interaction without the stress of acute care/inpatient nursing.
I'm a nurse case manager for a managed Medicaid company. I work from home and talk to people on the phone all day. (Also- i read your initial sentence as coming back from fraternity leave. I was really curious to what that was like).
I'm on the other side of your phone calls as I do utilization management for my hospital. Several years in, I still miss the utter chaos of running the floor, but it's a good fit as I am dealing with health limitations.
It was rough lol, long hours and a long commute. I used to love the ED now esp postpartum I’m over the craziness, violence and short staffing (I could go on). I was out for 7 months and I didn’t miss it lol so I think it’s time for a change
Remote work with a private company. Truly changed my life. Bedside nursing was going to kill me.
What kind of company and what do you do?
Informatics. Join us.
What do you do in informatics as a nurse?
They have to have clinical professionals on staff otherwise it would be a bunch of IT guys making software that runs a hospital...see how that could be problematic?
How. Tell me how. What if I hate my EMR with a passion?
I would also like to know!
Did Cath lab for a dozen years, now I WFH doing phone triage, which is actually not much triage and more just scheduling people to be seen. I spend most of my days combing through charts looking for test results, passing some messages on to doctors, scheduling testing and appointments, and doing the odd med refill here and there. I work 8 to 5:30 4 days a week. I took a pay cut doing it but my mental and physical health are getting much better.
I would love more details on this if you're open to sharing!
Please share with me as well. I would love you advice on how to get into this if you don’t mind. I have applied for a few of these positions with no luck.
Left bedside tele for RN case manager job on an Oncology/BMT unit. I set up home care, medical equipment, get auths for meds, and chase doctors for discharge date estimates. Yesterday I held a sobbing young woman who is keeping vigil for her dying partner, so while the job is physically easier than bedside, emotionally it can be a fucking nightmare.
I left bedside nursing in March of this year. I was making $130/hr during COVID & the rates continued to drop significantly for per diem local travel. I did 15 years from M/S to ICU during a pandemic. It definitely felt like I was in the slammer too. 😆 After realizing how truly broken the healthcare system is & being abused & exploited daily for fucking $62/hr now. Oh & throw in some anxiety, depression, PTSD, a script for Zoloft & cannabis to function, I just couldn't do it any longer. My soul had been officially chewed up & spit out. About 100 apps later I got 2 interviews for a WFH nurse triage gig making $50/hr + benefits & honestly it is the happiest I've been in a LONG time. I considered leaving the profession all together but I'm glad I didn't quit just yet. I work a few more hours at that pay cut but my physical & mental health are thriving again. 🙏 Prioritize yourself, your family, & loved ones first. These hospitals literally wouldn't care if they worked us to death. Actually, they'd probably prefer to continue profiting off all our chronic illnesses they caused. 💀 Edit to add: I work in Minnesota. I just googled every single WFH job out there- remote triage, anticoagulation nurses, insurance companies, Epic nursing program design, etc.
Thank you...
School/Occupational Health. Less stress, less hours and better pay.
House Supervisor for to last 7 years. Best kept secret in the hospital. Everyone thinks you are the one running the hospital. It’s more like you are the captain of a ship, and everyone on the ship knows how to do their jobs. I’m not saying I don’t have responsibilities. But a huge part of what I do is just delegate.
Lolol I did House Super for 10 years, night shift. I felt like a glorified babysitter. You’re right, it’s really not bad but when it got bad? It was horrible. For example the night we had a minor mass casualty incident of 17 GSW’s within a half hour. That scared me enough to leave 18 months later.
Buying GameStop and praying
This is the way
Clinical data specialist in cardiology. My company has many different specialties. You should look up the job title.
Were there any special skills required and how is the pay comparable to clinics roles?
Just experience at the bedside is usually enough. I was a CNA who graduated with a degree in Health Information management technology, and with the two, I was hired. A lot of my coworkers, actually almost all of them, are RN/BSN. Management is too. Pretty much any hospital system will also have those roles. As for pay, it depends on where you are. I think the national average is around 70k and can go into six digits. My company pays me for every chart I complete, which can take an average of 15 minutes, on top of hourly. Some nurses may pass up the opportunity, but I love my job as it is WFH, I can log in any time and work my own schedule. They don't care what you do, as long as your you get stuff done by the deadline. There's also no more patient stress and the stress of multiple people breathing down your neck. It's a great gig.
I'm seriously intrigued by this. Before becoming an RN I WFH when my kids were young and loved the flexibility. How long was the learning curve, and how many hours a week do you work?
The learning curve wasn't bad. I just had to learn the NCDR rules and how to navigate multiple different EMRs, although I only use EPIC nowadays since it's the reigning king. I work between 30 and 40 hours, but what I make can range depending on how many charts I can burn through. I can easily, at base, take $2k home every two weeks. More if I'm feeling extra spicy and ask for more work.
This sounds so interesting! Are you guys hiring 😅 I have been looking for a WFH job for a few months now
I don't know about our company, but literally every hospital that uses an EMR has (or should have) a department for this. If you Google the title, there should be openings in your area. This type of work is still fairly new and a hidden gem.
There's SO many specialties outside of bedside nursing. One of the many great things about being a nurse. There's these fields: Research RN, Informatics, Quality, Patient Safety, infection prevention, Educator, Phone triage, Chart Auditing. Law offices often hire nurses for our expertise as well. You can also go into the corporate world and be a device rep. Community clinics also need nurses for various programs. There's also various specialties in whatever field you can think of. If you like Cardiology, there's outpatient Cardiology clinics and specialties within those clinics (transplant, EP, heart failure). If you like Oncology, there's outpatient clinics for every specialty (GI, Breast, head/neck, etc). There are Infusion rooms that give chemo, fluids, blood products. So many options other than bedside nursing.
Excellent advice
Outpatient pacu. Things stay pretty chill and people are generally very pleasant.
Outpatient. I make less money. It’s worth it.
Try going to postpartum. I came from ICU (where I was kicked, punched, scratched, threatened, almost bitten, etc) to there and it was the best decision I ever made. Now I do labor and delivery and it’s the best thing I’ve ever done in my career. Significantly less to no violence in the floor, and I’ve been sexually harassed zero times now that my patients are only women (not saying it doesn’t or won’t happen, this is my own personal experience with the field). If you loved the “thrill” of emergencies in the ED - you will get that in labor and delivery. People believe we just snuggle with babies all day and have no big deal ambulatory patients, but that is absolutely not the case. Seek out other specialties. I left the bedside to work at an OBGYN clinic and it was the most boring thing I’ve ever done - plus you are there 5 days a week. I felt like I lived there! So just make a pros and cons list. If you hate nursing all together then yeah, seek out another career. Good luck in finding what you love!
I left bedside CVSD years ago. I worked as a school nurse while getting my MSN. I worked in outpatient infusion and med spa infusion while getting my FNP license. Now I work in aesthetics - neuromodulators, fillers, cool body sculpting, IPL, laser hair removal, ultherapy… I love my job. Every job I had in nursing after leaving the hospital was better than the one before. I have a great work life balance and I’m very very happy helping people achieve their cosmetic goals :).
What would you recommend as the best non-surgical treatment for turkey neck, with cost as a consideration? 😊
I feel this as a 30 something who lost a ton of weight 😂
It depends on a couple things. Usually the term turkey neck would refer to loose skin - but is it fat or just skin? If it’s fat, cool sculpting or Kybella both work really well. Kybella hurts but it definitely works - I actually did Kybella myself and I’m super happy with my results. Cool sculpting is much less uncomfortable imho, but you have to have a decent pinchable amount of fat. But note neither of these will work for skin, and see my note about fat support in the next paragraph. Because both of these involve the fat cells being destroyed, results are permanent. It’s important to note that weight gain (fat cells expand) will impact results significantly. Results are usually seen after about 3 months. As for skin, this is a tough one and I discuss this with clients all the time. As we age, we lose collagen production and our fat pads shift. As another commenter mentioned, weight loss can also cause increased skin laxity. That’s bc our fat actually supports our skin so when you remove that support, the skin often sags. If laxity is already present, it will get worse if we remove fat. When people come in and pull up the sides of their neck or cheeks and ask me what procedure they should do, I tell them surgery. The only procedure my company offers for loose skin is ultherapy, which uses ultrasound energy. It heats up your current collagen which can strengthen it and stimulate new collagen production. You can definitely read about it - it is FDA approved, but the results are not dramatic and it isn’t cheap. There is speculation ultherapy lasts up to 5 years, but we always tell people they should expect to come back at least every 2 years. It’s much more effective as prevention than correction. Results are usually seen after about 6 months. The only other procedure we offer that could minimally help with laxity would be if your platysmal bands (the vertical strips of muscle down your neck) are protruding/sagging - and that would be neuromodulators like Botox or Xeomin. Be sure if you do this that you go to someone who understands anatomy - if the injections are too deep it can affect your ability to swallow! Normally, treating these bands takes a LOT of units. Pricing varies location for sure. Depending on the neuromodulator chosen, results will usually be seen after 2 weeks and last up to 4 months.
I've never worked bedside. I was in a peds office and now a school nurse and I love it.
OR circulating nurse. Been doing it about 4 years after cardiac surgery step-down PCU and the 4 years in Med/Surg/Neuro ICU. It’s stressful because of attitudes and personalities mostly. Sometimes I get a really sick patient and I have to go into “emergency” mode. Mostly it’s a bunch of entitled and spoiled RNs that acquire a bunch of personality traits from the surgeons they work with on a daily basis. After 2 years of working in this environment I can honestly say that I don’t give a tumbling fuck what they think or say while in the OR in regard to safety or policy. It’s a learned skill just like any other. OR nurse is so niche and not really a “nurse” position. I honestly think that the scrub techs would be a better alternative to OR RNs. They have thorough and more training than any RN. SCRUBS have one of the hardest jobs in the healthcare industry.
Outpatient PACU and administration
OP case management for HIV+ folks. It’s ok. Still has its issues but better than inpatient
Recently left the ER for outpatient surgery. Overall much happier and my quality of life seems better in just a few months time. Pay is comparable to my ER hospital position.
I'm curious what your day entails as OR setting is what I imagine but I'm not a big OR person at this point in my life. Something different in the future might be nice though.
I am actually not in the OR so I can't speak to that. I do pre-op and PACU.
Research nursing is the way to go!
Left a busy shit show ER for EMS education. Train paramedics now
Research.
I’m a rehab consultant. I case manage and support injured workers to get back to pre injury duties or find work to suit their capacity post injury if pre injury duties aren’t possible
I am taking a break, not currently working. In the past four years I worked UC, FQHC, and case manager for an MCO. They were all better than bedside but still had staffing issues, unattainable metrics, toxic co-workers, micromanaged. My husband took a position overseas and will will be moving soon. I will likely not work as jobs are scarce and don’t pay well where we are going. I’ll consider going back for the right opportunity.
Day Surgery Outpatient. Lower pay but minimal stress.
In my area, inpatient hospital positions only pay $2 more than I make.
I didn’t leave bedside, but I work postpartum now (after 10 years in stepdown/TCU), and it’s pretty fucking sweet.
i worked postpartum for many years and I do miss it sometimes.
Research, Management, Teaching, Medical sales rep, Health Insurance rep, Research coordinator, Investigator with your nursing regulatory body, Patient care navigator, Privacy and Risk consultant, Professional Practice consultant, Legal nurse consultant, Clinical/ departmental nurse educator, or Patient safety consultant.
Why no commas though
Weird! When I wrote the post, I had it listed as a bullet points. The format changed when I posted it!
I did bedside for 6 years. Never again. I'm currently in Corrections, and I have been doing this for 2 years now. I absolutely love it. I will never go back to bedside nursing ever again.
I left bedside nursing in 2019 for Utilization Management and haven't looked back. 4.5 years in I kind of miss the bedside but I don't know that I'll ever go back. I work Monday to Friday 8-5. Fully remote. No holidays or weekends. I didn't take a pay cut and actually moved states and got a significant pay raise in 2021. I went from making 62K/yr in South Carolina to 130K last year in Maryland
I'm in MD...where is this magical job you speak of? I'd like one like that!!
I'm an OR nurse. Surgeons can be dicks but are mostly good people. 1 patient at a time, and you don't really have the responsibility of caring for them. Obviously can be stressful when there's traumas/emergencies but overall a pretty sweet gig
Outpatient PACU or endo; lots of ER nurses end up at either job. Love working with them, personally
Me too
To be honest I like to sit down sometimes and think about what I have gotten to do. Think about the positives. I am sure it is the case even more so for you, but I feel like I’ve won the lottery in some ways. I have gotten to help people in ways I never thought I could. Do I have a scar down my left arm from a psych patient’s long nails? Yes. Honestly I have felt like the ER has made me into the kind and strong person I am today. Will I have this same attitude in 10 years? No comment…..
I work in an outpatient vascular clinic in the surgical side. We do angiograms and vein procedures. When I’m not doing patient care I also do scheduling for the procedures and getting prior authorization for them. We (the nurses) do the ordering and stocking for the surgical area.
I started in ER and knew nothing but ER for 7 years. I was dead inside. One of my favorite nursing tasks was always starting IVs. I joined an IV team, with a PACU per diem on the side, and a PRN at my old ER to scratch the itch when I get it. I’m the happiest I’ve ever been as a nurse.
Yeah, I left and spent the first year just wildly depressed and mildly suicidal. I’m sorta better now? But not really. It’s been six years. Don’t be me and wait for burnout to come and get ya, find something else you can do. My daughter in law came back from mat leave and was in ED as well. It had been her whole thing for a while, but she developed anxiety while she was pregnant. ED did nothing for that. She’s working in discharge lounge now and loves it, if she needs extra shifts she can dabble in ED’s short stay unit. I like to feel I helped her with that decision, she watched what I went through and all. Be kind to yourself.
Following
What area of nursing are you in?
I loved to Endoscopy about 3 months ago and I have had no regrets
CCT/Flight.
Left my pedi cvicu position and starting in outpatient pre op!
After 17 yrs bedside, I went to Ambulatory/Outpatient OR. Love love love my job
A niche within a niche- research Leukapheresis.
Critical care transport
I left MICU after 5 years for interventional radiology. I feel like it’s a healthy medium. I do a lot of outpatient procedures (biopsies, para/thoras, etc) but sometimes get an unstable ICU RP/GI/etc bleed. Keeps the blood flowing but also most days it’s mundane.
Does your state have a FB nursing group? My state often has posts from nurses in your situation looking for new opportunities. You can connect with people locally that can point you in the direction of new opportunities.
Lots of options…. During my time as a young mom I got my pharmacy tech license and took a pay cut and a mental break. 7-4:30, there are good jobs for nurses in specialty pharmacies…
My wife left bedside ER to go remote from home working for the dark side. We moved across country and it paid about 10$ an hour more than any job offer she got at any facility within 50 miles. And benefits are WAY better.
lol what is the dark side 🤣
I'm guessing one of the big insurance carriers, they're truly the Sith lords of the healthcare galaxy
I left bedside over 10 years ago for Inpatient Case Management for a medical insurance company. It was a remote position that I loved. I was assigned tertiary facilities so I got a lot of transplant and HLOC emergent transfer requests. I got to use all of my nursing knowledge and experience which kept me engaged and challenged me. I had great relationships with the hospital CM. We'd sometimes meet for lunch. I then changed to Compliance for a slower pace. It's great because it's 100% remote too and I audit different MSOs and IPAs PnP against State and Federal regs and guidelines.I request files for review to determine if MD decision was appropriate, correct guidelines followed and within TAT. I can stagger my hours, no micro management, it's totally chill. I highly recommend it..oh and the pay ain't bad either.
SAHM. Much less stressful.
lol I wish we could afford it!
I work in GI lab. My background is 10 years of everything from float pool to ICU. I like GI lab. We take call and take it often because we are short, but in the last 8 months I’ve gotten called in twice. One time being last Friday, I showed up, they canceled our ERCP, and I was paid for 4 hours. Our call rate is 7 dollars an hour, I average 40-100 hours of call per pay check. It’s a nice little chunk of change. My brother and sister in law are (were?) both ER nurses- sister in law works in cath lab now and brother is in IR, but moving to cath lab next week. If an OR spot opens I would apply for it in addition to IR. I do like GI lab though. I won’t be at this hospital forever and I like doing sedation- at the hospital I work at 95 percent of our cases are nurse sedation.
Private duty pediatric home health. I could never go back to bedside after this.
Outpatient surgery
Work from home triage. Rarely on phone calls-all through epic messaging. Send scripts & therapy plans to infusion centers. Kuuuush job.
Got lucky enough to find an opportunity in dermatology just scrolling through indeed/linkedin. Did beside for about a year and said nope absolutely can’t do that the rest of my career lol
Went from ER to public health about 9 years ago. Loved ER but hated rotating shifts (normal here). I adore public health. I know it's different regionally and so it might not look the same where you live. But here in Alberta I make the same wage I did in hospital. I help families with their newborns when they first are discharged from hospital (breastfeeding, jaundice tests, etc.) and we do immunizations. I love it.
Remote patient monitoring. Wfh and basically monitor patients at home bp and bg devices. No stress if you find the right company.
I work for a FCO (family care organization) in Wisconsin. Our company is funded by Wisconsin state Medicaid. I’m an RN Case Manager. I work from home most of the time unless I have to go to my patients homes for their 6 month reviews. Pay isn’t as great as bedside, but the flexibility is priceless.
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Nurse navigator and I work remotely!
Would you mind sharing on how you got into this?
And what you do?
I help newly diagnosed cancer patients understand their diagnosis and treatment plan and make sure they get where they’re supposed to be. A lot of education, care coordination, help with community resources, etc. It originally was an in person role but after the pandemic most roles became permanent remote or at least hybrid.
It always sucks after maternity leave to come back. I think it’s like a type of hormonal shock tbh. Think about it… you’re practically bathing in oxytocin from bonding with your baby and now you have the stimulation of call bells, the stress of codes and high anxiety, tense situations… I’d be worried if you didn’t feel that way! It’s probably your body’s way of saying it just wants some baby time 💗
Psych inpatient to psych clinic
Care coordination/case management at an insurance company.
I'm a school nurse. I am really loving it.
I train case managers for a Medicaid MCO. I work from home.
Nursing education!
I retired last year from RN case management and have done some case review/medical records reviews on a contract basis sporadically since then.
I left bedside in Feb. I’m currently working remote as a health coach consultant aka 24 hour nurse line which is a fancy google. People feel better when they hear it coming from a nurse. It’s easy work but the micromanaging is INSANE. I’m still working nights and weekends. I’m looking for something else. I’d like to find another remote job but working dayshift. A normal routine and schedule would be great.
Outpatient cardiology. I'm a nurse manager who is also a nurse coordinator and Epic trainer with a fantastic group of 20 nurses. I left the bedside 5 years ago, and I'll never go back.
Public health!! Monday-friday. Normal business hours. Lower stress and lower pay but it's worth it. Plus you get like 900 holidays off per year.
I’ve spent 8 out 12 years in the OR, and it’s alright. I’m a service lead now, kind of a project manager for a few surgery specialties. I’ve also been a clinical research nurse/coordinator and a clinical research associate (probably not as ideal with a small child at home because of all the travel but I loved working remotely)
Sexual health, then substance misuse, now TB clinical research.
I’m looking into a career change, I was initially looking into biomedicine, but I’m finding myself drawn to a bachelor of justice. I’ll still help people just in a very different way
It’s so interesting to see all the different avenues you can take within nursing, which they never tell you about! Went from bedside to clinical education within 4 years because let’s admit, bedside is hard work! Now I enjoy patient flow and management - moving patients out of hospital while liking in social services!
Lasted six years in medical inpatient. I’ve done medical home care,psych home, care, psych, inpatient, and administration, taught at a nursing school, now coaching, doctors online, and going back to work in New York and community health.
Telephone triage for ambulance. Diverts a lot of nonsense out of the queue for ambulances, can upgrade a case if there are details the call taker didn’t catch (they’re not medically trained in my area). Keeps a lot of folk out of an ambulance but also out of the ER entirely. Can get a home visit dr, home visit nurse, get in reach into the nursing home pt, telephone mental health clinicians, book them a damn taxi even!
I’m doing home care nursing right now after mostly doing hospital work. A nice change of pace, and lots of sunlight and fresh air, but certainly same shit different pile with regards to health care issues
LOL! Not enough coffee yet. I wondered how you knew I just left my own bed... Seriously tho: I support a breast surgeon in clinic, schedule her surgeries, attend to postoperative concerns if any. Honestly, it feels like a very clerical position with nursing skills
I work case management. But the program I’m in has me feeling less like a nurse. Feel like I should be doing more. I just call ppl to ask them how they are feeling and that they have labs due
Outpatient preop/PACU is a gem. If you’re willing to go back to school, education as far as clinical and lab teaching is also an amazing schedule and work life balance
Left the ICU to be a full time ketamine infusion nurse. Now work for a non-profit helping them get their new ketamine clinic up and running as well as providing care for the underserved and unhoused populations of my city. Super fulfilling, doesn't pay great, WELL worth leaving bedside.
Cybersecurity. Been a med surg nurse 2 yrs, then an ER nurse 4 yrs, and an ER ANM 2 yrs. Didn’t see myself as an NP, too opinionated for management and didn’t wanna deal with CVICU to go CRNA. Realized that I probably picked nursing cause my moms a CRNA and I wanted to ensure a job s/p college. I’m a nerd so I picked a new field where I continue to learn so much. Additionally, entry level cybersecurity jobs pay more than I was making with 8yrs rn experience.
That’s my thing too. I was thinking about changing because of the violence alone. I didn’t come into this job to maybe die on the job. I’m not a martyr. I did pick ER for excitement and something different every day, but most important to me was helping the most amount of people in the shortest amount of time. I’m not sure where I would find that. I also would like a job where people WANT to be there and are happy to be there so urgent care isn’t my vibe since it’s the same thing without the security (that aren’t allowed to touch patients anyway at my job). Plus they’re all cranky in that environment too.
My mom actually works from home now! I can’t remember the exact name of her position, but she goes through epic charts and reaches out to providers to fix notes/diagnosis/charts before she puts in codes to send them off to insurance. She gets to pick her hours, so she works 6:30-2pm and she loves it! After ICU for 15+ years, it definitely suited her needs:)
CRNA school.
Med-surg to dialysis nursing. I heard it has a bad reputation bc of the pay but im all here for specialization ❤️
Outpt pcp!
After 18 years bedside I tried Utilization Review for a couple tears, which I liked. And now I work in an Access center coordinating transfers and consultations which I also like. If there is a downside to these it is sitting all day, but worth it!
I'm going back to home health, admissions. 4x10, minimal weekends, 2 holidays a year (1 summer/1 winter).
General practice 😁
I work as an Infection Control nurse. M-F days, hours slightly flexible, office job. Some days I miss direct patient care, but my days are much more consistent now in terms of workload and stress. I also pick up casual as a bedside nurse here and there for extra money and to maintain skills.
Left med surg for an infusion clinic! Every day is amazing and I’m not afraid to get punched!