Update
So, a month later... Here's what's going on with me and my job and nursing in general.
I am not going to quit being a nurse. Sorry for folks who read that last entry that way. I really don't think I'll ever quit being a nurse though I will probably change the type of nurse I am several more times.
I am cutting back my hours at my current fulltime job. In the next couple months it will become one of my part time jobs. I am going to be mostly working in other ERs but also doing some easier work. Yesterday I got paid an obscene amount of money for doing almost nothing at an Out Patient surgery center. It is nice to get paid for my abilities rather than my willingness/ability to be stressed out and run around like a madman.
Which brings me to my current fulltime job. The situation there has become untenable. We are chronically short-staffed and under-supplied. On a good day we will be 2 nurses short. I've worked nights where there are 2 RNs in the department. That is NOT safe for a major medical center in an innercity. It's gotten so bad that the residents are having to pick up our slack. We had MDs doing monitored transports the other day because we couldn't have RNs leaving the department.
This is all a little stressful. I feel like I'm going to lose my license or worse.
So, the plan. From now until the Fall I've become a sort of free agent nurse. It means I don't have any sort of job security or benefits (I pay for my health insurance out of pocket). Fortunately, it also means I make a LOT more money (way more than my health insurance costs). And as an added bonus I get more varied experience.
Then in the Fall I'm probably gonna move up to the mountains for the winter. I'll either be working as a Ski Patroller (more details at 11) or as an ER nurse. After that I'll probably move back down to the Denver area to work as an ICU nurse for a while. That ICU experience will open up some exciting career opportunities for me. After that I'll either become a flight nurse or go to school to become a Nurse Anesthetist.
Or... My gf (also an ER nurse) and I might move to NZ for a year or two somewhere in there too. Or... We might just move there and love it so much that we become Kiwis. Who knows...
In conclusion: When you start to hate your job: Change your job! Life is too short to spend 40 hours a week hating what you do. Of course, it helps to work in a field where you can get a new job in 3 phone calls or less. :-)
I am not going to quit being a nurse. Sorry for folks who read that last entry that way. I really don't think I'll ever quit being a nurse though I will probably change the type of nurse I am several more times.
I am cutting back my hours at my current fulltime job. In the next couple months it will become one of my part time jobs. I am going to be mostly working in other ERs but also doing some easier work. Yesterday I got paid an obscene amount of money for doing almost nothing at an Out Patient surgery center. It is nice to get paid for my abilities rather than my willingness/ability to be stressed out and run around like a madman.
Which brings me to my current fulltime job. The situation there has become untenable. We are chronically short-staffed and under-supplied. On a good day we will be 2 nurses short. I've worked nights where there are 2 RNs in the department. That is NOT safe for a major medical center in an innercity. It's gotten so bad that the residents are having to pick up our slack. We had MDs doing monitored transports the other day because we couldn't have RNs leaving the department.
This is all a little stressful. I feel like I'm going to lose my license or worse.
So, the plan. From now until the Fall I've become a sort of free agent nurse. It means I don't have any sort of job security or benefits (I pay for my health insurance out of pocket). Fortunately, it also means I make a LOT more money (way more than my health insurance costs). And as an added bonus I get more varied experience.
Then in the Fall I'm probably gonna move up to the mountains for the winter. I'll either be working as a Ski Patroller (more details at 11) or as an ER nurse. After that I'll probably move back down to the Denver area to work as an ICU nurse for a while. That ICU experience will open up some exciting career opportunities for me. After that I'll either become a flight nurse or go to school to become a Nurse Anesthetist.
Or... My gf (also an ER nurse) and I might move to NZ for a year or two somewhere in there too. Or... We might just move there and love it so much that we become Kiwis. Who knows...
In conclusion: When you start to hate your job: Change your job! Life is too short to spend 40 hours a week hating what you do. Of course, it helps to work in a field where you can get a new job in 3 phone calls or less. :-)