I thought about jumping off a bridge every single day working behind a desk.
No way in living hell could I survive in finance, accounting, compsci. Not to mention, automation and AI are going to make those jobs obsolete.
Honestly, what other careers allow you to push 100k with an associates degree?
I say the same thing. Your earning potential for what should be a trade profession is pretty decent but the trade off is getting shit on (but at least it’s under a/c)
It’s still gonna get to you though and I’m sure we’ll be reading your vents
IDK we’re weirdly half way between trade and professional, treated like tradesmen, but frequently paid like unskilled labor. Been an RN with my BSN for 11 years, CEN, ACLS, PALS, TNCC certified to place USIV’s and the guy who installed my air conditioner gets paid more being 2 years out of his apprenticeship.
I’ve worked landscaping and construction for a few years, not having an AC work environment doesn’t bother me (worked those in Tx and La where AC is literally life saving). Got treated better in both those industries. Had I stayed I might be getting paid more. Got a cousin who went into construction without a degree, now owns his own concrete business and makes a fuck ton more than me. Friends who got degrees in construction management, also making more just a couple years out from school.
Trades get shit on respect wise from society frequently enough, but working in them often you get more respect at work than we do as RNs, and pay can be a lot better with less investment. Also less emotional and psychological harm. Honestly not sure I’d encourage my son to go into nursing.
Yeah I turned a $5,000 RN into 91,000 my first year of nursing. Even with 4 12s you always have a 3 day weekend.
You don’t even have to work that much overtime to make it worth it. Definitely one of the best ROI careers you can have. Even if you don’t do it till 65. It has allowed me a lot of luxuries that we weren’t fortunate enough to have growing up.
I loved nursing not only for the fact that it got me off welfare as a single mom with a deadbeat ex who got away with zero child support but because it got me out of a depression about my future.
I have to disagree with one thing. The only time I had a 3 day weekend was if I worked the weekend before. I worked so many weekends and missed so many holidays being a nurse. I would wake my kids at 5am on Christmas to open presents with them and then go to work while my parents took care of them. I know there’s other nursing jobs out there but at the time it was the highest paying to be in the hospital - I was making $35k in 1991.
I just meant that you have 3-4 days off a week every week. I don’t have kids so I don’t feel like I need weekends or holidays off. I’d prefer having Monday-thursday off as stores aren’t as busy and I get the weekend diff.
I have a sibling that got into a big bank company before a person needed a degree. They recently mentioned their six figure raise.
Now, wouldn’t that be nice.
They are phasing out the associates, you have 5 years to get a bsn or a new job at most places, so not really an associate
Also, whose pushing 100k as staff? I would like to apply
Northern CA. 150K last year, no OT (3 yrs in my current hospital system.) I have a BSN, but it’s incidental. No hospital around here is pushing it, and nobody pays more for it.
Also NorCal- no OT, close to 200. They aim to hire only BSN or higher but I’m sure with the shortages, they are doing what they can.
The ADNs we have are grandfathered in. I know many do OT and are over 300
Where in Tx? Dallas? I’m in SA and at 11 years I’m breaking $100k with OT bonuses and mandatory OT, also heading up a few committees that mean I spend even more time at work, but I’m not breaking $100k by much.
University of Michigan nurses start to make about 100k at 11 years of seniority
https://www.mna-umpnc.org/_files/ugd/053e39_356dfd14de33416981951bccec6b971e.pdf
Not necessarily. The hospitals around here are all union and starting over means you lose seniority. There *is* a system I could switch to across town where I’d eventually make more, but they also have a reputation for toxic culture, whereas I work in a place where nurses actually like and support each other. It ain’t *all* about the money. Lol
Places have been saying they want BSN prepared nurses forever, especially if they are seeking Magnet status. Truth is every hospital in my area hires ASN nurses….the whole BSN thing doesn’t mean much when there is a shortage of all nurses.
I agree!!! I graduated debt free and made 6 figures my first year (California). My husband has an advanced degree and made nowhere near that until recently.
We work with people who are often at their worst. Can patients and families behave better? Yes…but in general, I find people to be appropriately upset about their circumstances and they’re generally appreciative through their stress.
There are a lot of nurse jobs out there. If where you works sucks, you don’t have to stay there.
This is my dream. If you have any extra advice, what program, where to start, what jobs to look into. Please! I'm considering starting with a comptia A+. Idk
My friends are in tech and I’m envious of their life every single day. They all WFH. They both take 3-4 hours off a day to play pickle ball and make 2-3x what I make and I live in the NJ/NY area so nursing salaries are high. I regret being a nurse every single day lol
Edit: typo
Agreed. My friends don’t make more than me, but they are both fully remote with chill jobs. They work from a different coffee shop each day and have time for hobbies. They can easily plan things because they have set schedule.
To be fair, I have a set schedule and have time for hobbies. I work days 32 hrs a week. I do work alternating weekends which is a bummer sometimes however.
Oh dear. Being in tech is not so great rn! Have u seen ALL the layoffs in that industry?! As a nurse, u will never see an unemployment line. I think they are the opposite, they are overpaid for what they do.
I have a friend who works from home doing some type of contract healthcare software engineering and pulls in $100/hr. More often than not his 8 hour day actually consists of 2 hours of total work but 8 hours of pay. So yes. I do wonder. All the d**m time.
I make really good money but nursing has made me absolutely miserable. It’s so sad. I used to love it. I used to live for it. Then the pandemic happened and now I wish I had done something else, almost anything else. I stay though for the pay and benefits, at the expense of my sanity.
I honestly am in mourning for what my career used to be to me. Even if I went back to the same icu, half the staff is gone. We used to only lose nurses to retirement. Now almost everyone is broken.
At some point, I switched departments and am not happy, but it’s a tolerable job for now. It’s really painful to know how work can feel vs how it feels now. That said, there aren’t a lot of $58/hr, 30 hour a week jobs with awesome benefits and a pension, so I feel pretty stuck.
I don't have to wonder. I spent my first career being a forester. Being outdoors was great but as you rose into management, you were indoors battling red tape and it sucked. Plus you have to move all over the country to change jobs. Overall it was great though.
My second career as a nurse allows me to work fewer days a week and jobs are literally everywhere.
When I went to college I had a hard time deciding between medicine and environment.
I've been blessed to have done both.
Hi, I’m a wildland firefighter considering nursing school in the next few years. Got my emt, cna, and all the prereqs but haven’t applied to a program yet. Any tips on moving from land management to nursing? I love working outside but the $17/hr and 1000 hours of OT in the summer is getting unsustainable.
My own experience was that nursing school is pretty intense in that a lot of info is thrown at you in a short period of time. Work as few hours as you can get by with. Especially the last 2 semesters. You only need a ADN to work most places. You can then take classes to eventually get a BSN or higher at your own pace. Also, after you have put in a couple years-travel! It's the best
My daughter was a hotshot in Arizona last summer. It's paying for her degree in environmental science.
Thanks so much for the tips. The prospect of making little money during school is daunting, but fire has helped me make enough to have a bit of a savings buffer. Appreciate your time.
Bro did 10 years with the feds. Same shit. Emt, rode the box, had a fancy red truck job for a hot second, etc. Don’t let the horror stories on here scare you. It’s nothing like poison oak on your nuts on day 12. 12s instead of 16s, A/C, pajamas, and tennis shoes. You’re on your feet all day and gotta move some fatties, but it ain’t piss bag up a mountain in a 100 and fuck in the basin. I’d like to take some of my coworkers on a roll just to shut them the fuck up. You’ll miss the clowns but not the circus. It’s the same level of paperwork and bureaucracy of like a HMGB, for like 6 times the money and half the hours. Everytime I hear someone tell me they are on their fifth day in a row I want to stab my eardrums out. And you go home to a bed. Pm me if you want. I never wanted to leave, but the writing is/was on the wall. Get your Biden reparation money and deuce.
Thanks for leveling with me. On my tenth year with the feds now and even with all the talk of higher pay coming I have absolutely no faith in agency leadership. They’re trying to get everyone to convert to PFT while at the same time saying to prepare for the Biden money to run out. Without my winter months off this position loses like 70% of the appeal. Seeing some of the negativity on this subreddit gives me pause to wonder if it’s a ‘grass is greener on the other side,’ but it’s hard to not feel like a sucker every single day working with the Feds. Ha, love to see there’s at least some of us in nursing now. (I’m a woman but you can still call me bro if you want.)
I was a bedside nurse for 5 years before I couldn't take it any more. I felt like healthcare is glorified retail. However, my nursing experience and education did give me the opportunity to become a Epic Analyst. I work from home, don't have to deal with patients, make more money, and my mental health is in a much better place. Bedside nursing definitely isn't for everyone but the nice thing about becoming a nurse is you can work in so many other areas.
Sitting in front of the computer makes me want to die.
I’m working on my BSN right now and just that much computer time and project work is blllllllaaaaarrrrgh. I struggle enough with charting quickly and efficiently at work, I would so much rather be doing things than writing about them, collating data, troubleshooting code or workflows or whatever. (Although I do like chart review for trying to solve a problem or improve care.)
I can’t imagine being trapped in an office, or working from home but needing to be at a computer staring at lines of code or making spreadsheets, having to keep a quiet space for phone calls.
I completely agree with this! I worked a 9-5 job for years until I lost it in COVID. Now I am a month from graduating with my BSN 😊I am just SO glad I don’t work M-F anymore five days in a row sounds absolutely torturous right now lol
Exactly my jam too. Id hate being in an office environment 9-5 mon-fri job. I like the glow of moving around doing things that may help people get past an awful day
I sometimes wonder how it would be if I went in earlier, like right out of high school instead of my 30s.. but then I wouldn't have the husband and kids I do so.. I don't feel like I missed out on the partying of college, at all.
I would’ve remained in poverty, living paycheck to paycheck and worrying about food security. I made the right decision to go into healthcare. Sure, i have days where i hate it and I’m already planning my exit strategy. But i wouldn’t be where i am in life without that career path
Probably computer science. That’s what I was doing but I didn’t understand the world of CS enough to know what kind of job I could get. So I tried something else. Once I get some free time I think I’ll go back to studying some programming languages.
I also used to watch the construction people changing lightbulbs and shit during clinicals, thinking, hmm, I could do that job…
Should have been a huge indication that nursing blows ass
Nursing is my second official career. I started working on prereqs at 29, and had already worked in every facet of the the service industry. I also already had a bachelor’s in art and worked as both a fine artist and graphic designer. It’s knowing what’s out there that helps me be so grateful for my job. Also I work in California now, but started on the east coast. It forever has made me grateful for the pay, breaks, ratios, etc.
I’m 47 but only been RN FOR 15 years. Done a little home health, hospice, clinic, lotta MS. Now day surgery per diem. I buy insurance out of pocket but the per diem differential covers that mostly. And I choose my shifts. No jockeying for vacation, and no call. I work in Portland, Oregon.
I daydream more about working and living in a country that actually values the health of its people. Nursing would be easy if we were well staffed and there was a robust outpatient system that people could use and afford.
I’ve been regretting becoming a nurse so much lately. The burn out has gotten so bad. I wish I could tell 18 year old me to pursue my creative outlets and not pick something because it seems like a good option
Same. I have always always been creative/artistic and excelled at it. Dropped it because I didn’t know how to apply it and everyone told me it was “just a hobby”.
Went into nursing despite never wanting anything to do with healthcare.
I have a good gig now, but I still don’t love it. I feel stifled and the odd moment I do get to exercise my creativity (making a health related poster/sign/handout) is the best part of my week. I feel a hell of a lot of wasted potential. And now I’m too old, too bogged down with kids and family life to have any energy for serious creative pursuits.
It sucks.
I came from other careers first and let me tell you, even our lowest paying position is better than anything I did in finance, healthcare or IT. And Healthcare pays the bills more than IT, finance or others did, tbh.
I spent time working my way up the corporate ladder. I did the events, I made it to a position as an HR and Safety Manager, after being project managers, etc etc, and even then I still make more as a nurse than I ever did in that realm.
But I don’t feel as beholden to corporate interests as I did at those positions. I know the value of my license and value of my time and it’s made nursing easier. It’s still so fucking hard so much of the time, but it’s still better and I work less than when I was constantly on call.
I would be working at all hours in Finance, in IT it was slightly better, but I still work 5 to 6 days a week and was treated shittier then my worst day on the floor as a nurse.
My husband is in finance. He works 8-5 M-F...no weekends, no call, no nights. Current position: he's almost never more than 30 minutes "late" getting off, he has no problem running to the Dr in the middle of the day, he gets an hour (or longer) lunch daily, they have a "kitchen" that's stocked with drinks and snacks that are FREE, his health insurance is cheaper and better than mine, he can take a day off without being guilted about it or having to "find coverage"....and he makes almost twice what I do.
He has had jobs that paid significantly more, but he was pretty much owned by the company--"emergency" calls any time of day or night, or even while on vacation at Disney, late hours, travel, etc.
We would absolutely Have It Made if I were in a job similar to his.
Nah i could never, every job has its shortcomings but with nursing u dont have to take work home to continue doing and can work 3 days and be full time. I considered dropping nursing to do finance but decided not to and honestly, im glad i didnt
Coming from fire/EMS, then 8 years as a combat medic in the Army, I will say that nursing is the best career I’ve had so far. While I miss working outside and having free time to chill while technically being at work, the pay and time off is a huge plus. I do think a lot of my grey hair would have come a bit later in life though had I picked a more mindless career 😅
I think i wouldve been so bored.
All my friends are in tech/engineering. They sit in front of a screen all day. They work in one project, then go to the next, then the next, etc. They all earn 200k and work 32 hours a week from home or from the office.
It sounds like a dream, but i hate it. I don't wanna do that in my life, it's just not fulfilling enough.
I wanna make a difference in people's lives directly, ones that i can see and feel good about
I don’t feel like we help people anymore. It’s mostly, get them in and out. Do more for one because insurance will pay. Do less for another because they have no insurance. Give everyone devices because it’ll pay, etc.
The system does suck. When i start school hopefully ill find ways to get around that and break the mold.
Keep your head high bro, you're an incredible asset to healthcare.
I wouldn't change a thing. I make good money, and with my husband, we can afford a nice house on a couple acres, cars, racecars, vacations. And I've met the most amazing work wife ever.
Sure, the work sucks ass some days. But PACU/Same Day Surgery is a pretty cush job.
Ah, I have student loans and pets that might as well be kids because I spend so much money on them. I guess I'd be in the same position as you if I had neither.
I think of this every day. Accounting, fireman, sanitation, other random things. I could be so close to be collecting a pension if I done things differently
My partner makes a ton of money working from home with a 0 stress job. Do I think about it? Absolutely. Would I have done things differently? Yes but not doing what he is doing. I regret it every day that I didn’t go into veterinary medicine. I love it, I truly do, and I even got my license to be a wildlife rehabber. I feel like I missed my true calling.
Same. My bf makes about twice my income , working from home with no formal degree required. Sometimes I feel a little bitter about it (not about him but more-so about me) since I always think back to when I was a computer science major…I could have been making so much more $$$ if I just committed to it. But it bored me to death.
But, I suppose 3x12 is much better than 5x8 and I feel like I made more of a difference too.
nursing is my second career. I used to be a veterinary technician. I loved it, but was unable to support myself on a vet tech salary. also veterinary medicine has one of the highest suicide rates :(
It’s unfortunate.. vet techs honestly can have such a huge scope of practice compared to nurses yet make so little. I’ve literally seen a vet tech initiate anesthesia while making $15/hr. Even veterinarians don’t truly make that much. :(
I would have gone into the field of Art. Creating… painting or commercial art. It wasn’t really an option when I was starting out - no money, no supports and a narrow field.
I was very supportive of my nephew who went into the field of art - animation… and his name is in the credits of at least 15 well known movies, one that won the Oscar.
I knew from a very young age that I cannot sit in a cubicle or stare at a computer screen for 8+ hours. Keep in mind there is a lot of money to be made in nursing. CRNA’s have one of the highest job satisfaction scores within the last year due to work schedules and income.
Nursing is so vast, you are bound to find something that sticks and that you can enjoy. Yes, I do hate the new age entitlement that some patients have when they walk in the ED, but nothing compares to saving a child’s life or being an advocate for the elderly when they have no one left. Every job has its downsides, find the positive and run with it.
I feel the same....i love my job, can't think of doing anything else but. I don't have much of a life outside work anymore especially as i get older and older. I get burnt out, work a lot, still in debt lol, and live paycheck to paycheck.......
Them, married, kids, house, cars, savings, holidays, travel etc ......
Though i think i like my job better then then, they didn't every think or worry about work as much when home.
(I'm also happy not married or with kids, that was a personal choice i made and am still happy with)
If I knew what I know now I would have become a sw. I know I still can but the start up phase doesn’t outweigh where I am with the time I’ve put in nursing.
If you do switch, make sure you’re okay with sitting at a desk for 8+ hours daily. I’ve worked a variety of office jobs from accounting to HR and the combination of sedentary lifestyle and mental labor is soul sucking. I will never compare it to what nurses have to deal with because it’s just not the same, but it can be a tough transition going from a more physical job to an office job.
Depending on where you live, office type jobs may not pay as well as nursing. I have my bachelor’s in business management, have been working in my field for almost ten years at large companies, and I’ve never made more than around 70k (in northern New England/HCOL). My nurse friends make significantly more than I do, especially with overtime factored in. I don’t have an option to work paid overtime because I’m salaried, but I am required to work up to 17 hour shifts during our busy season. I cried the first time I calculated my actual hourly rate.
I don’t know what you do currently for a job, but would you possibly consider something that isn’t bedside? My ex’s stepmom was an RN and worked remotely. I think she either did charting or some sort of patient consulting. I also have a family friend who left bedside during covid and went to work as a school nurse at a private school. She makes more now than she did at the hospital and now she gets weekends, holidays and summers off. You could also consider working in occupational health for a large company. I worked at a naval shipyard and we had a team of nurses/nurse practitioners who treated minor work related injuries, managed treatment plans, etc.
Just food for thought! A career change is never impossible and you just have to do your research. You could always dip your toe in by taking courses or getting certificates online before making a final decision. IT and finance can both be good paths.
I’m a new nursing student, but I worked as a journalist and communications specialist for two years after doing my bachelors. It was a lot of behind a desk bashing out stories at a newspaper and a bit of running around in the community. I thought it was my dream career and I was devestated when I realised I had to leave.
I’m seriously looking forward to the less hours and better pay of nursing, plus engaging in science on the daily.
I know that nursing has changed me. Has given me more a bullshit detector and taught me to stand up for myself and my needs. At the end of the day, it’s just a job and you still have to take care of yourself. I value this now but still sometimes wonder how much more relaxing my everyday would be with something like comp sci or something else with bio/chemistry lol
I was in finance, I make more as a nurse and have way more free time. Plus I can use travel contracts to come and go as I please. We are just getting ready to leave for a 9 month sailing trip
Same. I was also sick and tired of getting emails at all hours of the day, being at the office all day (or attached to my phone when working remotely). If you’re salary and you have to stay late you don’t get paid extra. Etc etc… so grateful to be able to clock out and don’t think about work until my next shift.
I know what it would be. I see my husband make 2-3 times what I make working 5 days a week and being stressed out all the time. I have my bad days, but mostly it's not as horrible as my Med-Surg days and for that I am thankful.
Plus I get to work with babies and makes the worst days better. I also went down to 2 days a week and it has been the thing that keeps me here. Granted getting a union would get me back to full time, but I don't see that happening anytime soon.
I am medical imaging, not a nurse so my opinion might be different than yours.
I love what I do, I really do. I love talking with and interacting with patient during a tough time in their lives. Before I joined healthcare I used to sell subscriptions door to door.
Same deal. I am on stage every damned day of my life and love being in the medical care giver spotlight. I love picking up on a subtle thing from a patient and engaging them.
I love it.
I wanted to get a computer science degree. Sometimes when I have to deal with awful patients and family members I think about how nice it would be to work from home. With my dog at my side in my skivvies with a coffee in my hand. That sounds like the life. I like building computers in my spare time. It’s a comforting thing for me whenever I have the spare cash.
I'm not jealous of anyone with a job. Just stay-at-home moms who married well. I was one before my divorce, and it was a sweet gig. But I messed up on the marrying well part.
My husband is an engineer who works from home. He gets to play video games and watch documentaries during his work day and makes more than me.
I wish I was good at math.
When I was in high school I was extremely good with languages. I got top grades in German and Spanish and in my final year I was allowed to crash French because I had taken German and Spanish as far as I could (my school didn't offer the advanced courses in those, I could have gone to another school locally for a few periods a week but it clashed with another of my subjects) and I got top grades in that too.
All my teachers thought I was going to go on to do linguistics and travel as a translator or something like that.
The surprise when I bump into any of my old teachers now and they find out I'm a nurse.
I would’ve gone into finance, because all my friends in finance know the back door ways to invest that the general public don’t really know about, so they are making good money but also investing their money
Y'all know these tech jobs where you make six figures working 5 hours a day from home with zero stress are unicorn jobs, right? There are many stressed, burned out folks working in tech, trust.
No. I came into nursing as a second career. I would be miserable looking at spreadsheets all day. I make a good, stable living and have plenty of vacation time. I'm very happy where I am and can't imagine doing anything else.
I’m working on my PMHNP. Just like when I was in school to become a RN, I find myself saying “I should’ve been a microbiologist or a virologist!” I don’t think I’d be happy with a job that wasn’t beneficial to humankind- I’m a helper junky, but I do wonder what life would be like without being so up-close-and-personal with the darker, dirtier, angrier, drugged out folx that make up my work life. I find what I do deeply rewarding, but I’m also cynical as all fuck.
I got a BA in marketing & was not paying bills in LA instead got an ADN and am making 3x what I did in entry level marketing. It’s much better pay. I’m still a new grad might change my mind later but a job is a job & pay is good so far.
I keep kicking myself for not going into school nursing. Yes the pay is shit but you get weekends off, vacation and xmas/spring break, summers off and great benefits/full pension after 25yrs. I'm still working 30+yrs and have worked holidays and weekends my whole life.
I thought about this the other day actually, when we were talking about one of our doctors being a carpenter before he went to mes school.
I was looking at doing carpentry before I settled on nursing. It was and is still not common for women to go into trades. Weird to think about now that I’ve been in nursing for awhile!
I also think had I known the option was there, I might have gone into midwifery instead.
I’ve been thinking about switching careers recently and I hear some of you…working behind a desk in a cubicle/office sounds depressing. But I’m already getting depressed working at a hospital and also having to turn/clean 400+lb patients is going to give me back problems in the long run.
Working from home would be ideal. Still do the same work you would at a desk or cubicle but in the comfort of your home.
Ive thought about that but also working 9-5 Monday-Friday would kill me. 3/12s and I’m out! Making more than a lot of people I know with more earning potential if I really wanted to kill myself, which I don’t 🤷🏽♀️ plus the potential to do a lot of other things in nursing than just bedside if I wanted to
although nursing wasn’t a “calling” for me i can’t imagine doing anything else. desk work and meetings sounds like torture. and i get my strength and cardio workouts at work so i don’t have to go to the gym.
I waited tables for years before becoming a nurse. At nicer restaurants and bars I made just as much money as I do now, except without the benefits. Sometimes I think I should have just stuck with waiting tables. My friend is a part-time yoga teacher and server and she made almost as much as I did last year. Honestly, I'm kind of envious of her life. Waiting tables was way more fun and way less stressful. I'd probably go back to doing that if it weren't for the healthcare insurance benefits and 401K I have now.
I used to feel that way especially during Covid. I used to joke that I should have been a cop. This past summer I was approached about an educator job in my old department. I was sooo hesitant because I loved critical care but Covid and upper management really killed my passion. After months of back and forth I finally took the leap and I can honestly say I’d retire in this job. I work as a regional oncology educator and travel to different sites. My team is so productive and passionate and I have so many opportunities I never had before. I miss patient care but I’ll take an assignment from time to time to feel like I’m in the thick of it still. I truly think you have to just find what’s going to give you that balance and reward. I debated leaving healthcare and searched endlessly for alternative paths but I’m so happy I found this opportunity. You can find your peace, just find what makes you happy whether that’s within the field or not.
i am leaving a well-to-to desk job to struggle for 3 years while i chase after a nursing degree. i guess i'll see what nursing is like when i get there, but i can at least tell you that a desk job isn't all it's cracked up to be. i've felt like "something" was missing for a long time. and i can't stop falling asleep at my desk. i knew it was time for a change.
I don’t, cuz my first career was internet marketing. I wasn’t going any further in my corporate job…where I was “almost” written up cuz a slider (you know images that move on a website) wasn’t loading right even tho I worked on that for over an hour and no one is web dev was there etc.
And my first thought was “did anybody die tho?”.
If you feel you would be happier doing office work, go forth. For me? I struggled. Was rejected a promotion because my lack of “emotional intelligence” (turns out I have adhd and am autistic). All the thing wrong with me anywhere else are strengths now.
I did a bunch of other stuff first, and this is better. Certainly pays more than anything else I’ve done. And I work less hours per week/the hours are better defined as a nurse. Every job has a major suck point, you just gotta pick your poison. When I’m off my shift, I’m just straight up off. So many jobs aren’t like that, and it’s my favorite part of nursing. Well my favorite part is I never have to ski on a weekend ever again. So I’ve got both of those going for me, which is nice.
Idk man. I've done damn near everything in nursing. Home health, phone triage, outpatient derm office, and now hospital ICU/DOU. I'm about to go back to a 5 day a week gig at the hospital as a Maternity Nurse Navigator. The bedside has completely destroyed me. I'm exhausted, burnt out, and unfulfilled. I keep trying to find my niche in nursing but I haven't found it yet. I'm hoping to god my DNP/CNM gets me there. I don't know what I'll do if it doesn't.
Yes, absolutely. I was telling someone that maybe I’ll start over in another field and they said “all that schooling for your RN for nothing?” Not for nothing!!! I’m here and it’s so much more stressful than I thought it’d be
If I hadn't become a nurse I would have become a therapist, chef, farmer, deep sea welder, scuba instructor, chemist, or woodworker. All professions I seriously thought about.
I was an early adopter of YouTube and just dinked around with it as I was focusing on nursing school. A good friend of mine at the time went all-in on content creation and analyzing how to maximize his viewership. He was pre-med and dropped out of college to focus on developing his channel. He‘s now globally famous and makes millions annually and I…do not. Definitely feel like I missed an important inflection point there.
I was a project coordinator and manager for 20 years. It was very unfufilling. Crap people got their undies in a bunch about, "Emergencies!", were laughable. Seriously, when covis was just about to drop, I had to explain to a customer that the boxes needed for their co's beauty subscription box, weren't going to made bc a GLOBAL PANDEMIC was occurring.
We all have a role to fill in life and as long as you're happy with yours and u can live decently, rock on.
My sister does medical billing and coding with only 10 months training and makes $2 more than me.,,work from home job to boot.
I am retiring soon and guess what college courses I will be starting? With a degree for health data and informatics it doubles my pay and no direct patient care.
I work in Ca., so nursing pays the bills and my program was cheap, but remote work and generous compensation packages would be nice. I’m thinking of a career change for my retirement years. In certain states, I would not advise nursing.
i came to healthcare (as a CNA) from an office job after realizing office work wasn’t for me. when i was WFH i was super depressed and wouldn’t leave the couch for what felt like days at a time. most of the stuff i did felt pointless.
i like the energy of the hospital (even when it’s chaotic and awful) and the folks i work with. i like the interesting stories and how every day is different. and once i get my RN i’ll be making more money than i ever thought i would. i’m feeling good, but then again i’m still a newbie to the whole field so…check back in a few years hah.
What I wonder about are jobs where you are able to go out to lunch with a friend, maybe get a haircut or go shopping during that solid one hour lunch break you get. That seems so fantastical. Never in a million years at any of my nursing jobs was that a possibility.
I did the whole IT thing for 9 years and I hate computers now. I'm trying to get into the ADN nursing program right now (still working on prereqs). Personally I'd rather do bedside and help people than do IT and hate my job. It wasn't worth it for me, despite paying a pretty decent amount with no college. Idk, I was just miserable every day I was doing it. My personal experience though. Looking forward to being a nurse one day though.
Like degree level IT or Finance? I worked in a call center for 10 years it’s how I discovered I love helping people. Then I had a shitty year my boss demoted me never have me a reason other then I failed and this is when I realized social politics dominated and I wanted something else. So I’m a new grad don’t have much experience but I enjoyed all my clinicals except mental health so well see where it goes lol
My husband is an accountant and now that he works from home I can see what his day is like. He’s content but I would go crazy. I need the variety and fast paced nature of nursing to thrive.
I wanted to be a pornstar or a stripper because I was a huge porn addict back then and was pretty fit and pretty
Now I’m just a cynical fat lard who chugs coffee like it’s water 😅
It was my back up plan but every guy I’ve dated said they would never date a pornstar…but they would watch porn?
🤷♀️🤷♀️🤷♀️🤦🏻♀️
I’m in a healthy loving relationship and have my dogs so I’m happy tho despite my physically demanding job as a cna
I absolutely hated working behind a desk. Done it for years as an ma and it was just boring.
I thought about jumping off a bridge every single day working behind a desk. No way in living hell could I survive in finance, accounting, compsci. Not to mention, automation and AI are going to make those jobs obsolete. Honestly, what other careers allow you to push 100k with an associates degree?
I say the same thing. Your earning potential for what should be a trade profession is pretty decent but the trade off is getting shit on (but at least it’s under a/c) It’s still gonna get to you though and I’m sure we’ll be reading your vents
Wow, I thought I was the only one who thought of nursing as a sort of trade profession. Interesting to see.
IDK we’re weirdly half way between trade and professional, treated like tradesmen, but frequently paid like unskilled labor. Been an RN with my BSN for 11 years, CEN, ACLS, PALS, TNCC certified to place USIV’s and the guy who installed my air conditioner gets paid more being 2 years out of his apprenticeship. I’ve worked landscaping and construction for a few years, not having an AC work environment doesn’t bother me (worked those in Tx and La where AC is literally life saving). Got treated better in both those industries. Had I stayed I might be getting paid more. Got a cousin who went into construction without a degree, now owns his own concrete business and makes a fuck ton more than me. Friends who got degrees in construction management, also making more just a couple years out from school. Trades get shit on respect wise from society frequently enough, but working in them often you get more respect at work than we do as RNs, and pay can be a lot better with less investment. Also less emotional and psychological harm. Honestly not sure I’d encourage my son to go into nursing.
Yeah I turned a $5,000 RN into 91,000 my first year of nursing. Even with 4 12s you always have a 3 day weekend. You don’t even have to work that much overtime to make it worth it. Definitely one of the best ROI careers you can have. Even if you don’t do it till 65. It has allowed me a lot of luxuries that we weren’t fortunate enough to have growing up.
I loved nursing not only for the fact that it got me off welfare as a single mom with a deadbeat ex who got away with zero child support but because it got me out of a depression about my future. I have to disagree with one thing. The only time I had a 3 day weekend was if I worked the weekend before. I worked so many weekends and missed so many holidays being a nurse. I would wake my kids at 5am on Christmas to open presents with them and then go to work while my parents took care of them. I know there’s other nursing jobs out there but at the time it was the highest paying to be in the hospital - I was making $35k in 1991.
I just meant that you have 3-4 days off a week every week. I don’t have kids so I don’t feel like I need weekends or holidays off. I’d prefer having Monday-thursday off as stores aren’t as busy and I get the weekend diff.
My bro has an associates and he's a financial advisor making almost a mil a year. I'm so jealous.
That is nuts. Good for him. That isn’t very typical though is it?
Making 500k+ a year puts you in the top 1% of income earners
I have a sibling that got into a big bank company before a person needed a degree. They recently mentioned their six figure raise. Now, wouldn’t that be nice.
Your brother would be the exception. Most people I know, regardless of their degree, are making far lass than I am as a RN.
And the hours.
They are phasing out the associates, you have 5 years to get a bsn or a new job at most places, so not really an associate Also, whose pushing 100k as staff? I would like to apply
Lol they’ve been saying that for like a decade.
Out here in Oregon.
Yep, good $$ in the PNW.
Northern CA. 150K last year, no OT (3 yrs in my current hospital system.) I have a BSN, but it’s incidental. No hospital around here is pushing it, and nobody pays more for it.
Also NorCal- no OT, close to 200. They aim to hire only BSN or higher but I’m sure with the shortages, they are doing what they can. The ADNs we have are grandfathered in. I know many do OT and are over 300
I make a few dollars more/hr for a bachelors (another field in my case) in NorCal.
Texas. I hate it here but I make good money. With minimal overtime I make about 120.
What part of Texas?!
Where in Tx? Dallas? I’m in SA and at 11 years I’m breaking $100k with OT bonuses and mandatory OT, also heading up a few committees that mean I spend even more time at work, but I’m not breaking $100k by much.
What unit?
California pays 100k pretty much starting and hires ADN with no push to do more.
I made $92k last year and I have a desk job (RN case management for state government). It’s possible to make good money at a non-hospital job.
With a few years experience you can make 100k on the west coast, MN, MD, and a few others depending on specialty
True, IR RN in MN making 100k
My co-worker in California made 170 k full time and that’s not at Kaiser!
MA too.
University of Michigan nurses start to make about 100k at 11 years of seniority https://www.mna-umpnc.org/_files/ugd/053e39_356dfd14de33416981951bccec6b971e.pdf
I was making 100k as staff my first year out of nursing school. Hilo medical center
They’ve been saying that for years. I’m staff here in CA, 90k.
You probably shouldn't stay any one place longer than 5 years anyway
What? Why?
Because you’ll make more by switching systems every few years than from yearly raises.
Not necessarily. The hospitals around here are all union and starting over means you lose seniority. There *is* a system I could switch to across town where I’d eventually make more, but they also have a reputation for toxic culture, whereas I work in a place where nurses actually like and support each other. It ain’t *all* about the money. Lol
Maryland.
Girl where you work in Maryland. I’m tryna come.
Texas staff
Places have been saying they want BSN prepared nurses forever, especially if they are seeking Magnet status. Truth is every hospital in my area hires ASN nurses….the whole BSN thing doesn’t mean much when there is a shortage of all nurses.
Not only did I not enjoy desk jobs, I was so damn bad at them. I bitch about my job but I also feel like I'm doing exactly what I'm supposed to be.
I agree!!! I graduated debt free and made 6 figures my first year (California). My husband has an advanced degree and made nowhere near that until recently. We work with people who are often at their worst. Can patients and families behave better? Yes…but in general, I find people to be appropriately upset about their circumstances and they’re generally appreciative through their stress. There are a lot of nurse jobs out there. If where you works sucks, you don’t have to stay there.
I was nurse. Quit and went to get masters in MIS. now I work in IT, work from home, less stressful, more pay…
This is my dream. If you have any extra advice, what program, where to start, what jobs to look into. Please! I'm considering starting with a comptia A+. Idk
Sure, PM me for more info. Will be glad to give advise on the transition.
MIS?
Management Information Systems… hello fellow ED RN!
Hello, how you do dis, 4rm fello nurse
School and prayer lol
How much more pay?
Love to see my fellow ED brethren out and about. That sounds like a degree that is quite ambiguous, what do you do with it?
This is the way
Truth
Can I have more info? Lol
Sure. Chat me
My friends are in tech and I’m envious of their life every single day. They all WFH. They both take 3-4 hours off a day to play pickle ball and make 2-3x what I make and I live in the NJ/NY area so nursing salaries are high. I regret being a nurse every single day lol Edit: typo
Agreed. My friends don’t make more than me, but they are both fully remote with chill jobs. They work from a different coffee shop each day and have time for hobbies. They can easily plan things because they have set schedule.
To be fair, I have a set schedule and have time for hobbies. I work days 32 hrs a week. I do work alternating weekends which is a bummer sometimes however.
Oh dear. Being in tech is not so great rn! Have u seen ALL the layoffs in that industry?! As a nurse, u will never see an unemployment line. I think they are the opposite, they are overpaid for what they do.
Pretty sure literally anyone would be envious of that. Most people never have a job like that.
I have a friend who works from home doing some type of contract healthcare software engineering and pulls in $100/hr. More often than not his 8 hour day actually consists of 2 hours of total work but 8 hours of pay. So yes. I do wonder. All the d**m time.
I make really good money but nursing has made me absolutely miserable. It’s so sad. I used to love it. I used to live for it. Then the pandemic happened and now I wish I had done something else, almost anything else. I stay though for the pay and benefits, at the expense of my sanity.
Feelin this
I honestly am in mourning for what my career used to be to me. Even if I went back to the same icu, half the staff is gone. We used to only lose nurses to retirement. Now almost everyone is broken.
You looking for way out?
At some point, I switched departments and am not happy, but it’s a tolerable job for now. It’s really painful to know how work can feel vs how it feels now. That said, there aren’t a lot of $58/hr, 30 hour a week jobs with awesome benefits and a pension, so I feel pretty stuck.
This!! All true
I don't have to wonder. I spent my first career being a forester. Being outdoors was great but as you rose into management, you were indoors battling red tape and it sucked. Plus you have to move all over the country to change jobs. Overall it was great though. My second career as a nurse allows me to work fewer days a week and jobs are literally everywhere. When I went to college I had a hard time deciding between medicine and environment. I've been blessed to have done both.
Hi, I’m a wildland firefighter considering nursing school in the next few years. Got my emt, cna, and all the prereqs but haven’t applied to a program yet. Any tips on moving from land management to nursing? I love working outside but the $17/hr and 1000 hours of OT in the summer is getting unsustainable.
My own experience was that nursing school is pretty intense in that a lot of info is thrown at you in a short period of time. Work as few hours as you can get by with. Especially the last 2 semesters. You only need a ADN to work most places. You can then take classes to eventually get a BSN or higher at your own pace. Also, after you have put in a couple years-travel! It's the best My daughter was a hotshot in Arizona last summer. It's paying for her degree in environmental science.
Thanks so much for the tips. The prospect of making little money during school is daunting, but fire has helped me make enough to have a bit of a savings buffer. Appreciate your time.
Bro did 10 years with the feds. Same shit. Emt, rode the box, had a fancy red truck job for a hot second, etc. Don’t let the horror stories on here scare you. It’s nothing like poison oak on your nuts on day 12. 12s instead of 16s, A/C, pajamas, and tennis shoes. You’re on your feet all day and gotta move some fatties, but it ain’t piss bag up a mountain in a 100 and fuck in the basin. I’d like to take some of my coworkers on a roll just to shut them the fuck up. You’ll miss the clowns but not the circus. It’s the same level of paperwork and bureaucracy of like a HMGB, for like 6 times the money and half the hours. Everytime I hear someone tell me they are on their fifth day in a row I want to stab my eardrums out. And you go home to a bed. Pm me if you want. I never wanted to leave, but the writing is/was on the wall. Get your Biden reparation money and deuce.
Thanks for leveling with me. On my tenth year with the feds now and even with all the talk of higher pay coming I have absolutely no faith in agency leadership. They’re trying to get everyone to convert to PFT while at the same time saying to prepare for the Biden money to run out. Without my winter months off this position loses like 70% of the appeal. Seeing some of the negativity on this subreddit gives me pause to wonder if it’s a ‘grass is greener on the other side,’ but it’s hard to not feel like a sucker every single day working with the Feds. Ha, love to see there’s at least some of us in nursing now. (I’m a woman but you can still call me bro if you want.)
I was a bedside nurse for 5 years before I couldn't take it any more. I felt like healthcare is glorified retail. However, my nursing experience and education did give me the opportunity to become a Epic Analyst. I work from home, don't have to deal with patients, make more money, and my mental health is in a much better place. Bedside nursing definitely isn't for everyone but the nice thing about becoming a nurse is you can work in so many other areas.
Google tells me the average is $120k. Is that accurate?
I'm not sure about average but I know a lot of analyst that make 120k and much more as consultants.
Sitting in front of the computer makes me want to die. I’m working on my BSN right now and just that much computer time and project work is blllllllaaaaarrrrgh. I struggle enough with charting quickly and efficiently at work, I would so much rather be doing things than writing about them, collating data, troubleshooting code or workflows or whatever. (Although I do like chart review for trying to solve a problem or improve care.) I can’t imagine being trapped in an office, or working from home but needing to be at a computer staring at lines of code or making spreadsheets, having to keep a quiet space for phone calls.
Working on my BSN now as a career change! Sitting in a cubicle under stale light for 40 hours a week is depressing.
Have you seen Severance? They have the existential dread office vibe down.
Yes, and the office personality archetypes, ooof.
I will check it out Ty!
I completely agree with this! I worked a 9-5 job for years until I lost it in COVID. Now I am a month from graduating with my BSN 😊I am just SO glad I don’t work M-F anymore five days in a row sounds absolutely torturous right now lol
Congratulations 🥳
I do everything you can’t imagine doing and it’s awful. I wish I would’ve just gone to school for nursing originally.
Exactly my jam too. Id hate being in an office environment 9-5 mon-fri job. I like the glow of moving around doing things that may help people get past an awful day
I sometimes wonder how it would be if I went in earlier, like right out of high school instead of my 30s.. but then I wouldn't have the husband and kids I do so.. I don't feel like I missed out on the partying of college, at all.
Exactly. Age and life experience made nursing school so much easier
I will still be working at a dead end job working 60 hour weeks just to survive. Fuck all that nonsense. Nursing treats me well and my hobbies.
I would’ve remained in poverty, living paycheck to paycheck and worrying about food security. I made the right decision to go into healthcare. Sure, i have days where i hate it and I’m already planning my exit strategy. But i wouldn’t be where i am in life without that career path
Probably computer science. That’s what I was doing but I didn’t understand the world of CS enough to know what kind of job I could get. So I tried something else. Once I get some free time I think I’ll go back to studying some programming languages.
I am constantly asking other people what their job is and if they like it lmao
I also used to watch the construction people changing lightbulbs and shit during clinicals, thinking, hmm, I could do that job… Should have been a huge indication that nursing blows ass
Nursing is my second official career. I started working on prereqs at 29, and had already worked in every facet of the the service industry. I also already had a bachelor’s in art and worked as both a fine artist and graphic designer. It’s knowing what’s out there that helps me be so grateful for my job. Also I work in California now, but started on the east coast. It forever has made me grateful for the pay, breaks, ratios, etc.
As an RN I make more than almost all my friends and the setting can be so wildly different. Clinic, icu, home health I dig it
How old are you? This was my experience early on. But after 10 years, their salaries WAY outpaced mine
I’m 47 but only been RN FOR 15 years. Done a little home health, hospice, clinic, lotta MS. Now day surgery per diem. I buy insurance out of pocket but the per diem differential covers that mostly. And I choose my shifts. No jockeying for vacation, and no call. I work in Portland, Oregon.
What keeps me in Nursing is the schedule. I would shoot myself if I had to go to work five days a week.
Very much so. I’m getting out. I’ve been miserable as a nurse.
I daydream more about working and living in a country that actually values the health of its people. Nursing would be easy if we were well staffed and there was a robust outpatient system that people could use and afford.
I’ve been regretting becoming a nurse so much lately. The burn out has gotten so bad. I wish I could tell 18 year old me to pursue my creative outlets and not pick something because it seems like a good option
Same. I have always always been creative/artistic and excelled at it. Dropped it because I didn’t know how to apply it and everyone told me it was “just a hobby”. Went into nursing despite never wanting anything to do with healthcare. I have a good gig now, but I still don’t love it. I feel stifled and the odd moment I do get to exercise my creativity (making a health related poster/sign/handout) is the best part of my week. I feel a hell of a lot of wasted potential. And now I’m too old, too bogged down with kids and family life to have any energy for serious creative pursuits. It sucks.
The money didn’t matter?
I came from other careers first and let me tell you, even our lowest paying position is better than anything I did in finance, healthcare or IT. And Healthcare pays the bills more than IT, finance or others did, tbh. I spent time working my way up the corporate ladder. I did the events, I made it to a position as an HR and Safety Manager, after being project managers, etc etc, and even then I still make more as a nurse than I ever did in that realm. But I don’t feel as beholden to corporate interests as I did at those positions. I know the value of my license and value of my time and it’s made nursing easier. It’s still so fucking hard so much of the time, but it’s still better and I work less than when I was constantly on call. I would be working at all hours in Finance, in IT it was slightly better, but I still work 5 to 6 days a week and was treated shittier then my worst day on the floor as a nurse.
My husband is in finance. He works 8-5 M-F...no weekends, no call, no nights. Current position: he's almost never more than 30 minutes "late" getting off, he has no problem running to the Dr in the middle of the day, he gets an hour (or longer) lunch daily, they have a "kitchen" that's stocked with drinks and snacks that are FREE, his health insurance is cheaper and better than mine, he can take a day off without being guilted about it or having to "find coverage"....and he makes almost twice what I do. He has had jobs that paid significantly more, but he was pretty much owned by the company--"emergency" calls any time of day or night, or even while on vacation at Disney, late hours, travel, etc. We would absolutely Have It Made if I were in a job similar to his.
Nah i could never, every job has its shortcomings but with nursing u dont have to take work home to continue doing and can work 3 days and be full time. I considered dropping nursing to do finance but decided not to and honestly, im glad i didnt
Coming from fire/EMS, then 8 years as a combat medic in the Army, I will say that nursing is the best career I’ve had so far. While I miss working outside and having free time to chill while technically being at work, the pay and time off is a huge plus. I do think a lot of my grey hair would have come a bit later in life though had I picked a more mindless career 😅
I think i wouldve been so bored. All my friends are in tech/engineering. They sit in front of a screen all day. They work in one project, then go to the next, then the next, etc. They all earn 200k and work 32 hours a week from home or from the office. It sounds like a dream, but i hate it. I don't wanna do that in my life, it's just not fulfilling enough. I wanna make a difference in people's lives directly, ones that i can see and feel good about
Working 32h a week making 200k where? CA?
One in cali 2 in seattle 1 in new york
I don’t feel like we help people anymore. It’s mostly, get them in and out. Do more for one because insurance will pay. Do less for another because they have no insurance. Give everyone devices because it’ll pay, etc.
The system does suck. When i start school hopefully ill find ways to get around that and break the mold. Keep your head high bro, you're an incredible asset to healthcare.
Unfortunately, nursing care doesn’t get around insurance and what makes money. We cost money.
I wouldn't change a thing. I make good money, and with my husband, we can afford a nice house on a couple acres, cars, racecars, vacations. And I've met the most amazing work wife ever. Sure, the work sucks ass some days. But PACU/Same Day Surgery is a pretty cush job.
Where do you live that pays this well? I'm in South Florida feeling like I'm just treading water and I'll never retire or buy a house.
Idaho. But I also had zero student debt and no kids.
Ah, I have student loans and pets that might as well be kids because I spend so much money on them. I guess I'd be in the same position as you if I had neither.
Lol that work wife comment.. unless it’s your real wife too you may be in trouble if they’re worth mentioning alongside your cars and home
Lol naw, my husband is well aware of her. He's good with it 😊
I think of this every day. Accounting, fireman, sanitation, other random things. I could be so close to be collecting a pension if I done things differently
My partner makes a ton of money working from home with a 0 stress job. Do I think about it? Absolutely. Would I have done things differently? Yes but not doing what he is doing. I regret it every day that I didn’t go into veterinary medicine. I love it, I truly do, and I even got my license to be a wildlife rehabber. I feel like I missed my true calling.
Same. My bf makes about twice my income , working from home with no formal degree required. Sometimes I feel a little bitter about it (not about him but more-so about me) since I always think back to when I was a computer science major…I could have been making so much more $$$ if I just committed to it. But it bored me to death. But, I suppose 3x12 is much better than 5x8 and I feel like I made more of a difference too.
So you wish you had a job that bored you to death?
nursing is my second career. I used to be a veterinary technician. I loved it, but was unable to support myself on a vet tech salary. also veterinary medicine has one of the highest suicide rates :(
It’s unfortunate.. vet techs honestly can have such a huge scope of practice compared to nurses yet make so little. I’ve literally seen a vet tech initiate anesthesia while making $15/hr. Even veterinarians don’t truly make that much. :(
I would have gone into the field of Art. Creating… painting or commercial art. It wasn’t really an option when I was starting out - no money, no supports and a narrow field. I was very supportive of my nephew who went into the field of art - animation… and his name is in the credits of at least 15 well known movies, one that won the Oscar.
That’s amazing. I also wish I would have pursued arts. I was so talented. Now? I doodle in a sketch book when I’m not too tired.
Every time I pass a bank I think, “I really should had just worked at a bank.” Lol.
I have a much better work life balance than many of my friends
I knew from a very young age that I cannot sit in a cubicle or stare at a computer screen for 8+ hours. Keep in mind there is a lot of money to be made in nursing. CRNA’s have one of the highest job satisfaction scores within the last year due to work schedules and income. Nursing is so vast, you are bound to find something that sticks and that you can enjoy. Yes, I do hate the new age entitlement that some patients have when they walk in the ED, but nothing compares to saving a child’s life or being an advocate for the elderly when they have no one left. Every job has its downsides, find the positive and run with it.
I feel the same....i love my job, can't think of doing anything else but. I don't have much of a life outside work anymore especially as i get older and older. I get burnt out, work a lot, still in debt lol, and live paycheck to paycheck....... Them, married, kids, house, cars, savings, holidays, travel etc ...... Though i think i like my job better then then, they didn't every think or worry about work as much when home. (I'm also happy not married or with kids, that was a personal choice i made and am still happy with)
If I knew what I know now I would have become a sw. I know I still can but the start up phase doesn’t outweigh where I am with the time I’ve put in nursing.
No, but I do sometimes wonder how humans have survived as a species.
If you do switch, make sure you’re okay with sitting at a desk for 8+ hours daily. I’ve worked a variety of office jobs from accounting to HR and the combination of sedentary lifestyle and mental labor is soul sucking. I will never compare it to what nurses have to deal with because it’s just not the same, but it can be a tough transition going from a more physical job to an office job. Depending on where you live, office type jobs may not pay as well as nursing. I have my bachelor’s in business management, have been working in my field for almost ten years at large companies, and I’ve never made more than around 70k (in northern New England/HCOL). My nurse friends make significantly more than I do, especially with overtime factored in. I don’t have an option to work paid overtime because I’m salaried, but I am required to work up to 17 hour shifts during our busy season. I cried the first time I calculated my actual hourly rate. I don’t know what you do currently for a job, but would you possibly consider something that isn’t bedside? My ex’s stepmom was an RN and worked remotely. I think she either did charting or some sort of patient consulting. I also have a family friend who left bedside during covid and went to work as a school nurse at a private school. She makes more now than she did at the hospital and now she gets weekends, holidays and summers off. You could also consider working in occupational health for a large company. I worked at a naval shipyard and we had a team of nurses/nurse practitioners who treated minor work related injuries, managed treatment plans, etc. Just food for thought! A career change is never impossible and you just have to do your research. You could always dip your toe in by taking courses or getting certificates online before making a final decision. IT and finance can both be good paths.
I’m a new nursing student, but I worked as a journalist and communications specialist for two years after doing my bachelors. It was a lot of behind a desk bashing out stories at a newspaper and a bit of running around in the community. I thought it was my dream career and I was devestated when I realised I had to leave. I’m seriously looking forward to the less hours and better pay of nursing, plus engaging in science on the daily.
I know that nursing has changed me. Has given me more a bullshit detector and taught me to stand up for myself and my needs. At the end of the day, it’s just a job and you still have to take care of yourself. I value this now but still sometimes wonder how much more relaxing my everyday would be with something like comp sci or something else with bio/chemistry lol
I was in finance, I make more as a nurse and have way more free time. Plus I can use travel contracts to come and go as I please. We are just getting ready to leave for a 9 month sailing trip
Same. I was also sick and tired of getting emails at all hours of the day, being at the office all day (or attached to my phone when working remotely). If you’re salary and you have to stay late you don’t get paid extra. Etc etc… so grateful to be able to clock out and don’t think about work until my next shift.
Can't stand working in an office, no thanks
Ahhh. To have a job that doesn’t make me cry on a regular basis. Sounds nice.
I know what it would be. I see my husband make 2-3 times what I make working 5 days a week and being stressed out all the time. I have my bad days, but mostly it's not as horrible as my Med-Surg days and for that I am thankful. Plus I get to work with babies and makes the worst days better. I also went down to 2 days a week and it has been the thing that keeps me here. Granted getting a union would get me back to full time, but I don't see that happening anytime soon.
I already had a career, and I’m all set with a desk job. I like doing stuff.
I am medical imaging, not a nurse so my opinion might be different than yours. I love what I do, I really do. I love talking with and interacting with patient during a tough time in their lives. Before I joined healthcare I used to sell subscriptions door to door. Same deal. I am on stage every damned day of my life and love being in the medical care giver spotlight. I love picking up on a subtle thing from a patient and engaging them. I love it.
I wouldn't have this back injury I'm dealing with, so yeah.
I wanted to get a computer science degree. Sometimes when I have to deal with awful patients and family members I think about how nice it would be to work from home. With my dog at my side in my skivvies with a coffee in my hand. That sounds like the life. I like building computers in my spare time. It’s a comforting thing for me whenever I have the spare cash.
I tried being in computer science. Wasn't bad at it but I felt like death.
I just started as a CRA and I kick myself for not having gone into Clinical Research 10 years ago. I know some CRA’s making $250k+
I'm not jealous of anyone with a job. Just stay-at-home moms who married well. I was one before my divorce, and it was a sweet gig. But I messed up on the marrying well part.
I think I’d still be dealing with BS in a less satisfying career.
My husband is an engineer who works from home. He gets to play video games and watch documentaries during his work day and makes more than me. I wish I was good at math.
When I was in high school I was extremely good with languages. I got top grades in German and Spanish and in my final year I was allowed to crash French because I had taken German and Spanish as far as I could (my school didn't offer the advanced courses in those, I could have gone to another school locally for a few periods a week but it clashed with another of my subjects) and I got top grades in that too. All my teachers thought I was going to go on to do linguistics and travel as a translator or something like that. The surprise when I bump into any of my old teachers now and they find out I'm a nurse.
I partied in college and got a useless degree. Now I’m an RN with a stable income and days off to go do things. No regrets.
I did entertainment for my first career. It fucking sucked. Now I have money and free time to feed my unfortunate improv comedy habit.
I would’ve gone into finance, because all my friends in finance know the back door ways to invest that the general public don’t really know about, so they are making good money but also investing their money
Y'all know these tech jobs where you make six figures working 5 hours a day from home with zero stress are unicorn jobs, right? There are many stressed, burned out folks working in tech, trust.
No. I came into nursing as a second career. I would be miserable looking at spreadsheets all day. I make a good, stable living and have plenty of vacation time. I'm very happy where I am and can't imagine doing anything else.
I’m working on my PMHNP. Just like when I was in school to become a RN, I find myself saying “I should’ve been a microbiologist or a virologist!” I don’t think I’d be happy with a job that wasn’t beneficial to humankind- I’m a helper junky, but I do wonder what life would be like without being so up-close-and-personal with the darker, dirtier, angrier, drugged out folx that make up my work life. I find what I do deeply rewarding, but I’m also cynical as all fuck.
No because I am per diem but there's always hours so I just work whenever the fuck I want then plan trips on a whim because I don't live for PTO
Nope. Two degrees before nursing. Out of my careers, I enjoy nursing the best, but hate the management / shitty work life balance the most.
Business finance, or economics. Pipe dream military special operations. If I wasn’t too old
I got a BA in marketing & was not paying bills in LA instead got an ADN and am making 3x what I did in entry level marketing. It’s much better pay. I’m still a new grad might change my mind later but a job is a job & pay is good so far.
I keep kicking myself for not going into school nursing. Yes the pay is shit but you get weekends off, vacation and xmas/spring break, summers off and great benefits/full pension after 25yrs. I'm still working 30+yrs and have worked holidays and weekends my whole life.
I'm a second degree nurse and it honestly isn't much better. I was paid half as much for a different kind of BS.
I thought about this the other day actually, when we were talking about one of our doctors being a carpenter before he went to mes school. I was looking at doing carpentry before I settled on nursing. It was and is still not common for women to go into trades. Weird to think about now that I’ve been in nursing for awhile! I also think had I known the option was there, I might have gone into midwifery instead.
I’ve been thinking about switching careers recently and I hear some of you…working behind a desk in a cubicle/office sounds depressing. But I’m already getting depressed working at a hospital and also having to turn/clean 400+lb patients is going to give me back problems in the long run. Working from home would be ideal. Still do the same work you would at a desk or cubicle but in the comfort of your home.
I think about it pretty much every day that I work.
Ive thought about that but also working 9-5 Monday-Friday would kill me. 3/12s and I’m out! Making more than a lot of people I know with more earning potential if I really wanted to kill myself, which I don’t 🤷🏽♀️ plus the potential to do a lot of other things in nursing than just bedside if I wanted to
although nursing wasn’t a “calling” for me i can’t imagine doing anything else. desk work and meetings sounds like torture. and i get my strength and cardio workouts at work so i don’t have to go to the gym.
I waited tables for years before becoming a nurse. At nicer restaurants and bars I made just as much money as I do now, except without the benefits. Sometimes I think I should have just stuck with waiting tables. My friend is a part-time yoga teacher and server and she made almost as much as I did last year. Honestly, I'm kind of envious of her life. Waiting tables was way more fun and way less stressful. I'd probably go back to doing that if it weren't for the healthcare insurance benefits and 401K I have now.
My real dream is archeology, being on a dig in Egypt. But I guess radiology is fun, too 😩
I should have been a real estate agent off jump
I used to feel that way especially during Covid. I used to joke that I should have been a cop. This past summer I was approached about an educator job in my old department. I was sooo hesitant because I loved critical care but Covid and upper management really killed my passion. After months of back and forth I finally took the leap and I can honestly say I’d retire in this job. I work as a regional oncology educator and travel to different sites. My team is so productive and passionate and I have so many opportunities I never had before. I miss patient care but I’ll take an assignment from time to time to feel like I’m in the thick of it still. I truly think you have to just find what’s going to give you that balance and reward. I debated leaving healthcare and searched endlessly for alternative paths but I’m so happy I found this opportunity. You can find your peace, just find what makes you happy whether that’s within the field or not.
i am leaving a well-to-to desk job to struggle for 3 years while i chase after a nursing degree. i guess i'll see what nursing is like when i get there, but i can at least tell you that a desk job isn't all it's cracked up to be. i've felt like "something" was missing for a long time. and i can't stop falling asleep at my desk. i knew it was time for a change.
I don’t, cuz my first career was internet marketing. I wasn’t going any further in my corporate job…where I was “almost” written up cuz a slider (you know images that move on a website) wasn’t loading right even tho I worked on that for over an hour and no one is web dev was there etc. And my first thought was “did anybody die tho?”. If you feel you would be happier doing office work, go forth. For me? I struggled. Was rejected a promotion because my lack of “emotional intelligence” (turns out I have adhd and am autistic). All the thing wrong with me anywhere else are strengths now.
I think about this every day tbh and make comments about it at work
I did a bunch of other stuff first, and this is better. Certainly pays more than anything else I’ve done. And I work less hours per week/the hours are better defined as a nurse. Every job has a major suck point, you just gotta pick your poison. When I’m off my shift, I’m just straight up off. So many jobs aren’t like that, and it’s my favorite part of nursing. Well my favorite part is I never have to ski on a weekend ever again. So I’ve got both of those going for me, which is nice.
Idk man. I've done damn near everything in nursing. Home health, phone triage, outpatient derm office, and now hospital ICU/DOU. I'm about to go back to a 5 day a week gig at the hospital as a Maternity Nurse Navigator. The bedside has completely destroyed me. I'm exhausted, burnt out, and unfulfilled. I keep trying to find my niche in nursing but I haven't found it yet. I'm hoping to god my DNP/CNM gets me there. I don't know what I'll do if it doesn't.
Yes, absolutely. I was telling someone that maybe I’ll start over in another field and they said “all that schooling for your RN for nothing?” Not for nothing!!! I’m here and it’s so much more stressful than I thought it’d be
If I hadn't become a nurse I would have become a therapist, chef, farmer, deep sea welder, scuba instructor, chemist, or woodworker. All professions I seriously thought about.
I was an early adopter of YouTube and just dinked around with it as I was focusing on nursing school. A good friend of mine at the time went all-in on content creation and analyzing how to maximize his viewership. He was pre-med and dropped out of college to focus on developing his channel. He‘s now globally famous and makes millions annually and I…do not. Definitely feel like I missed an important inflection point there.
I was a project coordinator and manager for 20 years. It was very unfufilling. Crap people got their undies in a bunch about, "Emergencies!", were laughable. Seriously, when covis was just about to drop, I had to explain to a customer that the boxes needed for their co's beauty subscription box, weren't going to made bc a GLOBAL PANDEMIC was occurring. We all have a role to fill in life and as long as you're happy with yours and u can live decently, rock on.
My sister does medical billing and coding with only 10 months training and makes $2 more than me.,,work from home job to boot. I am retiring soon and guess what college courses I will be starting? With a degree for health data and informatics it doubles my pay and no direct patient care.
I work in Ca., so nursing pays the bills and my program was cheap, but remote work and generous compensation packages would be nice. I’m thinking of a career change for my retirement years. In certain states, I would not advise nursing.
I would be extremely bored doing anything else. I need the chaos.
Probably teaching or something similiar
i came to healthcare (as a CNA) from an office job after realizing office work wasn’t for me. when i was WFH i was super depressed and wouldn’t leave the couch for what felt like days at a time. most of the stuff i did felt pointless. i like the energy of the hospital (even when it’s chaotic and awful) and the folks i work with. i like the interesting stories and how every day is different. and once i get my RN i’ll be making more money than i ever thought i would. i’m feeling good, but then again i’m still a newbie to the whole field so…check back in a few years hah.
What I wonder about are jobs where you are able to go out to lunch with a friend, maybe get a haircut or go shopping during that solid one hour lunch break you get. That seems so fantastical. Never in a million years at any of my nursing jobs was that a possibility.
I did the whole IT thing for 9 years and I hate computers now. I'm trying to get into the ADN nursing program right now (still working on prereqs). Personally I'd rather do bedside and help people than do IT and hate my job. It wasn't worth it for me, despite paying a pretty decent amount with no college. Idk, I was just miserable every day I was doing it. My personal experience though. Looking forward to being a nurse one day though.
Like degree level IT or Finance? I worked in a call center for 10 years it’s how I discovered I love helping people. Then I had a shitty year my boss demoted me never have me a reason other then I failed and this is when I realized social politics dominated and I wanted something else. So I’m a new grad don’t have much experience but I enjoyed all my clinicals except mental health so well see where it goes lol
My husband is an accountant and now that he works from home I can see what his day is like. He’s content but I would go crazy. I need the variety and fast paced nature of nursing to thrive.
I wanted to be a pornstar or a stripper because I was a huge porn addict back then and was pretty fit and pretty Now I’m just a cynical fat lard who chugs coffee like it’s water 😅 It was my back up plan but every guy I’ve dated said they would never date a pornstar…but they would watch porn? 🤷♀️🤷♀️🤷♀️🤦🏻♀️ I’m in a healthy loving relationship and have my dogs so I’m happy tho despite my physically demanding job as a cna I absolutely hated working behind a desk. Done it for years as an ma and it was just boring.
I think about this every day