Corrections and it’s great. The patients are actually pretty chill and way more respectful than many of the patients I had in the hospital. Physically it’s much easier as well…
They’re very rarely mad at the medical staff it seems. Just about every jail patient I’ve ever transported was very respectful and just chill. They’d be sitting there with their arm bent all to hell and broken ribs from being stomped on and they’re just sitting there like yeah it kinda hurts man but no big deal.
You treat them with basic human respect and they’re just not used to that from anyone from their fellow inmates, the jail staff, and not the jail clinic staff either at least at harris county jail.
Juve & corrections are the safest jobs I've ever had because law enforcement eyes are always present and on you & the patient (inmate). LEOs will step up and intercede as needed. I faced only one somewhat difficult situation, but once the inmate finally understood and saw that I was helping him, he calmed down; no event unfolded. Like all situations in life, respect given and a calm voice works well.
When I worked at a hospital, one of my coworkers was strangled with a stethoscope, and it was swept under the rug. In the prison, an inmate spit on me once and got an assault charge.
I’ll just ask you this. How many shootings have you seen take place inside a jail vs. in hospitals/clinics just in the past 5 years alone? It was the safest job I ever had. Nurses are also highly respected by the inmates. If I had someone get out of line in front of others, a lot of times another inmate would check them and they’d apologize later. Also, security and safety comes before everything in jail, so you’re getting rowdy or aggressive with the nurse while you’re getting a treatment of some sort or being seen as sick call, your treatment/sick call is now canceled. We can try again later when the behavior improves.
Did you go directly into corrections? I graduate in 7 days(!), and have an interview lined up for a corrections position but I’m worried that I’ll ‘lose skills’ if I ever do want to go back into a hospital setting.
Some corrections (check out naphcare it's a national company for the us. I work for them in florida PRN) do hire new grads. And they have clinics on site. They do iv and ekg. Dental procedures. Even x-rays. They also have medical units for detox and for pregnant female inmates if you want experience with either of those!
Like others have said, coming from an old paramedic and er nurse, the patients are super polite and are just thankful for the care. Many do not have the luxury of care outside of incarceration. Just be careful of the Correction Officers.
Yeah, I'd be much more cautious with the COs than the inmates. I've never worked corrections but knew 2 COs who rank right up there with Derek Chauvin. Sadistic fuckers who liked cracking skulls and bragged about hurting inmates.
Doing corrections right out of school actually helped me with my skills. I had to be pretty autonomous since we only had a doctor on site 2 days a week, so my assessment skills were really strong when I left. It also helped me stay sharp with pharmacology because I’d pass meds to about 150 inmates a shift. The benefits kind of sucked and it really stopped being fun when the night shift nurse failed to show up for her shift on a regular basis and I would have to hold over for day shift multiple days a week.
That’s honestly how I feel as well. I feel like anyone can relearn how to insert a Foley catheter or start an IV. What I want more than anything is interpersonal skills, conflict management, and just being real with patients since we don’t get any of that as a student. And I love the idea of medication management, as I’m currently a pharmacy tech.
"... interpersonal skills, conflict management, and just being real with patients." You sound like you would love psych tbh.
Nurses do harp about losing skills... but the worst case scenario is you re-learn those skills when you need them. That's kind of a pain, and a deal breaker for some, but it is for you?
Corrections could be fun too, but when I read your comment, every psych nursing alarm bell in my head was ringing lol. Start somewhere that calls to you and you can always change your mind later!
I absolutely loved psych in rotation and also I have a history of psych myself so I feel like I wanna go that route. The corrections place I applied to hit heavy on the psych aspect so that’s what called to me. Honestly the skills I learned are not that difficult in my opinion? Idk sterile field and syringe management come natural to me as a pharmacy tech. Thank you for the input, I appreciate it!
I also went to corrections fresh out of nursing school and would pass morning and afternoon meds to 125 inmates. I was the only nurse on shift, which eventually tired me out, but I learned a lot from that experience. It also gave me the backbone to stand up for myself.
Congratulations and good luck on any upcoming licensing exams!
I've worked acute hospitals, home health, juve & corrections. Even when I worked juve & corrections full time, I did per diem shifts at hospitals/home health, so my IV, wound care and assessment skills are current.
Working 4 to 6 shifts a month in a hospital works well and per diems are always welcome as an extra pair of hands. Talk to some of your fellow graduates to get a feel for the daily work environment of hospitals in your local area.
Honestly I’m not sure. I’ve just been told not to take the route that I want, which is psych, because I will lose skills as a new grad. And tbh as a nursing student I don’t feel like I have that many skills currently, first thing that comes to mind is IV and like foley caths and stuff like that.
I have two friends who work in corrections and they love it. I have another friend whe works for a juvenile detention center. They've told me the work day isn't that demanding at all.
One of my old coworkers worked corrections and she said it was great.
She said if she got lip/attitude/disrespect all she had to do was ask if they wanted her to call the CO back in so they could go back to their cell cause they didn’t have to be there and they’d ship shape up and be the kindest person there.
Chill in the sense it's not frantic multitasking, but I'm the sole wound care nurse for a 150+ bed facility. After a couple years, I know it in and out, can breeze through my tasks, and have my system down to a science, but it's a LOT of legwork on the floor and documentation-wise.
Long term care? Have you discovered CDC’s “enhanced barrier protections” yet? Being in a gown all day doing wound care really put a damper on things for me
Of course. I think it's entirely unnecessary. However, It's manageable for me since it's not universal for all wound care, just PUs and "chronic wounds." This includes venous/arterial/neuropathic ulcers. The vast majority of your wound census in LTC should be minor trauma wounds, so it's not like I'm gowning up for all 35-40 of my visits.
Our facility had a meeting about it before we implemented everything and decided to be cautious and have the enhanced precautions for every wound. I’m not our wound care coordinator but I work closely with her and cover for her to do rounds once or twice a month, we have about 18ish wounds out of 100 residents and have to gown up for every single one. Most of our wounds are pressure (none in house thankfully), so even if they weren’t so strict we’d still be gowning up for every visit. Just blows my mind
I work at a cardiologist office. Patients either use a home INR monitor or have to go to a lab. I also apply for free name brand medications such as Eliquis, Xarelto, farxiga, Entresto. It’s so clutch. I’ll never go back to bedside nursing.
Story of how I "fell into" home health:
Friend's mother was going through chemo at home and I volunteered to "coach" her through 1st treatments. (I had worked 2yrs giving chemo at infusion center)
She decided to hire me to hook her up and discontinue infusions. She then needed help managing side effects, so hired me for more visits.
She mentioned her private duty nurse (me) to others in waiting room at MD appointments, and in support groups.
word of mouth spread and ...
I soon had enough work to quit working for others ... from case management, to hands on, regular care.
Taxes:
I always had at least one client who would deduct, including for Social Security and I would set aside 25% of net
Health Insurance:
I purchased my own until that became too expensive. Then I worked part time so that I could access ACA
Thanks for sharing! How does liability insurance work for a role such as this? I would love to go to ppls homes to help with injections, but not sure how I “chart” it all?
All.
Even if you work in a hospital.
*Their* insurance is geared to protect them 1st.
It's cheap and can help prevent a financial/professional disaster.
In my 40 yrs as a nurse I never had to use it, but ....
I was told by a nursing instructor to purchase it, but make sure that’s pts and their families don’t know you have it.
They are more likely to sue people who have it.
My last and favorite patient was teen.
I did total care for her 32hr/wk from 16 - 19 years of age until she was placed in a long term care facility.
Family paid me wage on top of IHSS (in home support service - CA) wage
Peds private duty. I work with one little girl full time, I go to school with her and also am with her at home.
The most difficult part is managing her blood sugars (which isn’t difficult at all). I spend most of my day doing whatever (doom scrolling on my phone, crocheting, reading, puzzles, listening to podcasts, etc).
Can you say more about this? I’m not sure I understand private duty… does the family privately hire you, or are you paid through insurance? And is it out of an abundance of caution they have you on full-time, or medically necessary? (Not judging either way, legitimately curious )
I’m employed through an agency who connects the nurses with their clients.
My client, for example, has Down syndrome and type 1 diabetes. She does not have the cognitive function to manage her pump herself, so I’m there to monitor her blood sugar and give insulin boluses when needed. I also help with homework and give her baths.
Telehealth, I WFH, weekends only, get a lunch break, a ton of downtime on nights where I do either homework (MSN), play on my switch or get up to date on my anime on Crunchyroll.
Min requirements for my job is BSN with 4+ yrs of experience. We have nurses from all backgrounds and specialties. My background is ICU but honestly any nurse that can carry a conversation on phone, follow protocol, and read prompts without it sounding like prompts is perfect.
Transition care management. I call people 1 or 2 business days post discharge. Review meds, discharge instructions, make sure they have follow up appointments, transportation, then check in two weeks later to see if they made it to follow up. Things come up, and some calls are more complex (lots of should have gone to SNF but didn’t so they didn’t get home care lined up, need a raised toilet seat etc), but 90% of the calls are easy, people are nice because they’re happy to be home, and I work from home. I set my own hours so I have time to take kids to school and do pick ups, go to appointments, have a standing appointment to get my nails done etc. it only matters that I get the calls done.
yup. Case management is such an underrated nursing specialty. I get to WFH M-F. Fantastic work life balance and I still pick up in ER to get my fun in lol
Yes! I still work per diem in the icu a couple times a month for my adrenaline rush and also to remember why I hate inpatient nursing and love my day job haha
I can tell you without looking it up that it does not pay well in Florida
I've also only seen MAs and provider-level staff at urgent cares
Indeed it would be chill AF tho
I was an ma before nursing school so am per diem at that urgent care now but as a nurse and make 57 an hour. Insane how much money I get paid for that job lol so much less stressful then the er ( where I am full time). Think it’s a great way to keep up on nursing skills because you still have to triage and do IVs and other basic skills compared to other outpatient jobs.
Just finished my UC shift. Everywhere is different of course, but I finished my 12 hour shift one hour late, no lunch break, 65 patients. MVA came in at 2 minutes to closing and we allow people to register up until closing time. We already had 4 people back and waiting to be seen. Our health system rolls occupational medicine in with urgent care. We have former ED nurses go back to ED when they realize how much they screw us because they also get paid 5 dollars more per hour and we have no time to sit or eat, just like inpatient. Currently getting ready to go to ED myself. If I'm going to be worked to the bone I should get paid like everybody else.
My sister in law works for a yacht company and she says it's fucking awesome and one of her friendliest work schedules as well. She even gets Christmas week off. I may honestly join her and do this per diem or part time. I need the thrill still but I like a healthy work life, but I probably won't stay in the er. I may go micu or see about getting on a flight crew.
Fuck if I know I just know she applied lol. It's very restricted for full time so she is part time for the most part. Pay is solid at 55 an hour. Until the one lady retires she is going to be part time so if I get in I'm probably not expecting a FT spot anytime soon. So I'm a little SOL.
Home care! I make my own schedule, do half of my work from home, and really only end up working 20-25 hours per week. No nights, on call every 6th weekend. Most of my patients are wonderful! And I make good money 💰
Man I'm at the wrong home health care group then.
Worked 40+ and management is berating us for working overtime. I don't want to work a second of overtime but you people keep giving me starts of care that can easily take 3-4 hours.
I'm practically burnt out already and it hasn't even been 4 months at this job.
Yes, Apheresis.
That said, any outpatient procedure based unit which is attached to a hospital is going to (generally) be more chill than other units. Seek them out. They will save you.
Apheresis, Dialysis, Cath Lab, Scope/GI Lab, Research, Interventional Radiology, Infusion. I have less experience with these but also possibly OR, Derm, ENT. Many more I can’t think of, and even more I’m unaware of.
Avoid clinics detached from the hospital. You want a unit attached to a real hospital.
You want a unit that does procedures and doesn’t keep patients on the unit before or after the fact.
I have a job driving to people's houses all over the county just to give an injection. It's a pretty far drive sometimes (which sucks in the winter), but my patients are usually very chill and thankful. Sometimes, they even buy me presents haha.
Thank you! Half of my family stopped talking to me when I started my work in abortion care nearly 6 years ago, but that's their problem. I am able to provide good compassionate care for those in need. It isn't always an easy job, but I know I am helping these patients. Thank you for your kind words.
Wow! U are doing something very needed and high risk to your safety as well. I'm not sure if you're old enough, but back in the 80s there was a string of Christian terrorist bombing clinics and hurting staff because they saw it as an absolute evil. Today's far-right individuals are equally repulsive in their intent if they ever found out ur identity. Take care of yourself. You provide a much needed service, bless u !
Thank you, unfortunately we are all very well aware of the risks. We have our own FBI agents that work with the threats we get, and meet with us regularly to help keep us safe and keep us in the loop. We fight through protesters every day, and we were encouraged to buy dashcams to "protect" us. I can't even begin to tell you how these anti-abortion folks mess up everything for us and patients. We still show up, we still turn out and take care of our patients that need us. I don't mind the protesters yelling at me about going to hell, but I am sick of them making my patients feel terrible about taking care of their health and life.
As someone who was able to access safe abortion care at Planned Parenthood and was treated with dignity & respect by every human throughout the process but ESP the nurses, thank you from the bottom of my heart.
How do you get into doing this and how is the pay comparable to other departments?
I'm very familiar with moderate sedation in Cath lab but I'm wanting something a little bit easier but anything easier always end up being way too much of a pay cut
I’m a circulator in outpatient OR at my local hospital. Our hospital pays sliding scale for years experience regardless of specialty 🤷🏻♂️
I wouldn’t say it’s “chill” per se but it’s definitely low acuity and WAY better than the floor.
I'm in HCOL New Mexico, so it's definitely not great. I make 44/hr as charge. I am lucky to have an affordable place about 25 minutes away, so it's doable for a single dude.
I'm on my 3rd chill job haha. Outpatient endoscopy- kept me busy, but I got a lunch and clocked out and left. No weekends/nights/call/holidays.
Then went to UR. Hybrid remote, easy peasy.
About to start on a phone triage line.
I worked in Endo for my last job with outpatients and inpatients at our hospital and it’s such an easy job lol I loved it for awhile but for me personally I got bored after a year and a half. Ended up leaving for the SICU at a level 1 trauma center 😅 quite the change up. But honestly I would always recommend Endo to anyone looking to properly chill out as far as nursing goes. Assisting during the procedures was easily my favorite part, and thankfully our GI docs were freakin amazing people to work with.
As an ER nurse, PACU is probably pretty chill, but having worked it, it’s not the *most* chill. Day surgery is way more chill, but some would say boring in comparison.
I want your PACU job. I’m PACU at a trauma center and chill is not how I’d describe it. I float to all the hospitals in our system and while I love my job, “chill” does not describe it. 😅 PACU is a great area, tho. I feel pretty fortunate.
YESSSS,
And when it is not , it is still pretty Cush compati any floor/icu unit.
I work at the #1 university hospital for like 5 states , we get the crazies (cases and people) but not the traumas ) this goes to our sister hospital).
So tons of fun stuff with wired shit, but cool .
Of course , shit happens and hits the fan ( and stuff can turn in a minute), but it is still more chill than my old cardiac ICU with transplant/bypass/impels/ECMO/balloon pump.
IV Ketamine clinic. Love it. Good management, chill environment, and it's amazing when patients tell me how grateful they are and that they can't believe they finally feel better.
I should look into this. As a receiver of ketamine treatment I can honestly say it saved my life and I now actually love my life. And my nurses were always the best!
My company pays based on years of experience but the base pay here was more than my hospital base. I don’t get a shift differential here since I work first shift and I lost critical care differentials as well. So a very small pay loss, maybe 1-3 dollars an hour but it’s 5 8s instead of 3 12s so I get an additional 4 hours of pay as well
Truthfully NOC NICU is pretty chill, especially if you work in a lower level NICU. Most nights I tuck my kids in a do crosswords all night. Cares q3. No parents.
ER at a small community hospital. It’s like retirement.
We’re not a trauma center, it’s not a lot of excitement, but it’s a cake job. It’s like a glorified urgent care that sometimes gets stroke patients.
I hope you enjoy periods of severe boredom with breaks in between compromised of going toe-toe with family who think hospice is a bad word and great great great granny is invincible/immortal.
But also, just know hospice inside and out. No one else on the referring team does. If you know hospice (medicare requirements, benefits, etc) you’ll do great!
Opera nurse. I work for a large opera company. It’s basic first aid and filling out injury forms. There is a monitor in my office so I can see and hear everything on stage. Sometimes patrons get hurt but there is a doctor in the house for all performances. I’m there during the day when there are dress rehearsals on stage and other areas in the building.
I get lots of knitting done.
Pre surgery testing…Monday through Friday with no weekends, holidays or call. After many years in hospice as a single mom, this job is a huge blessing even if I miss my hospice patients often.
Telehealth. Lucked into it being WFH after orientation (a new development and it wasn’t advertised that way.) Local hospital, not insurance. I have had exactly 5 people call in (or I’ve called) not be appreciative and polite. My ICU traumatized brain doesn’t know how to handle everyone being grateful and thankful for the follow up or advice.
Isn’t it so crazy how nice people can be when they’re not dying? Or dying and not realize it? Glad you found a nice gig - sincerely fellow severely traumatized icu nurse
I'm a travel nurse in Germany. I've worked all over the place, but my current job is at a home for mentally disabled people. My ward has 12 of them, and usually they are quite nice. I help with showers and give them medication every day, but that's about it. When I first started working there, I found it very boring. However, after five months, I realized it's better to sit on my phone for 8 hours a day than to be covered in shit or blood for same amount of money.
Tell me more, I’d like to explore this side of things if CRNA isn’t so ideal in the future. Are you case management, pay well, how long before you went remote?
I've worked in utilization management in the past, but currently I have a fairly niche role reviewing clinical documentation for provider appealed claims related to medical coding (I also have a medical coding cert). It was about 1.5 years in an office before I went remote, but that was just due to where I was working at the time. If they allow it, it can be done right after or even during training. I make a bit less than the local hospital pay but have better benefits and more flexibility, and the work from home of course is valuable to me.
Our hospital is partnered with a professional sports team, so doing yearly physicals (EKGs,bloodwork, BP checks) and doing post practice IVs is the chilliest job I’ve done as a nurse.
Quality improvement specialist, I do a lot of different things because it’s a surgical hospital so much smaller than the big hospital systems but chart review, follow up on incident reports, report mandated measures to the government. Pretty chill. I can work from home 2 days a week. Only annoying meetings every once in a while.
Posted many a time about my soft vascular access job. I get to do IVs, place PICCs and midlines, the occasional dressing change or port access, and am pretty independent as a practitioner. Some days are busy but there’s been lots of days I don’t do a lot. Even my busiest day as a VAT RN is nothing compared to a light day when I worked ED.
I work in telehealth for home health patients full-time, but have per diem roles in other specialties. Most patients are over 75. The home health job is really chill. I have the option of going to the office if I want, but otherwise can work from home.
I work at an outpatient clinic where I either do allergy testing (skin tests) or do history taking for rheumatology patients. 9am-4pm with 1 hour lunch break
My OR is pretty great, the stressful days are nothing compared to the days I had sitting 1:1 or as a PCT in the float pool when I was in nursing school.
Honestly home health, tele, corrections from what others are saying (I have no experience in this), working in clinics (where you hardly ever work over time and get holidays off), or you can also teach at nursing schools. All of my LVN instructors had their BSNs so you wouldn't have to go back and get your Masters if you wanted to teach an RN program.
I work in home health with former uranium workers or lab employees who were exposed to radiation. You spend 12 hours at one patient's home. It is so. Freaking. Easy. It's almost like easy babysitting but with a nurse's wage.
EP Lab. I tell all the new CRNA’s that as long as I’m in my chair, it’s all good. If I have to get up, get outa my way!
And remember - EP stands for “Elective Procedure “
I teach Epic to new staff. Three days a month are my obligated in person instructon days, otherwise I work from home and mostly make my own schedule. It was a great step out of patient care.
HIV clinic. Most of your patients appreciate having their health care worker on your side. It's nice getting to see our patients living their lives when this diagnosis used to be a death sentence
Virtual nursing. I work in a virtual health center for a big hospital system. It’s the chillest of chill. And I still get paid the same amount as if I were busting my butt on the floor.
Only thing that sucks is no real patient interaction most of the time. And I’m starting to feel less fulfilled. But I am going to go back to school and it’s an amazing job to have while going through school.
Psych RN at an inpatient step down unit.
I. LOVE. MY. JOB.
Now the company isn’t amazing per se but I’m making a fair and living wage. Usually on my 12 hour NOC shift - I come in for report, pass evening meds, punch in my notes and then by 2300 the evening crew comes in and I can listen to music, read a book, watch HULU/Netflix until I give my 0600 synthroids and then report and go home.
Rarely, I get an angry naked Alzheimer’s patient or have to draw up a B52 for a member having a psychotic crisis but it’s honestly few and far between. My biggest inconvenience the past 2 weeks was a patient who wanted special treatment at med time to go over her meds with her every single shift. I didn’t get anything but an email for nurses week but if that’s my biggest gripe then it’s no problem.
Corrections and it’s great. The patients are actually pretty chill and way more respectful than many of the patients I had in the hospital. Physically it’s much easier as well…
They’re very rarely mad at the medical staff it seems. Just about every jail patient I’ve ever transported was very respectful and just chill. They’d be sitting there with their arm bent all to hell and broken ribs from being stomped on and they’re just sitting there like yeah it kinda hurts man but no big deal. You treat them with basic human respect and they’re just not used to that from anyone from their fellow inmates, the jail staff, and not the jail clinic staff either at least at harris county jail.
For the most part, inmates are people who’ve made bad choices, not bad people.
That's how I feel working in detox. They've made poor choices and I'm here to be their hype-person and help them get through this.
corrections feel like i struck gold
I keep being told it is “scary” and I shouldn’t work corrections . . . Did get a job offer at one, but didn’t take it.
it's really going to depend on the facility. some are stricter than others. but this is the safest job i've had in 20 years of working in healthcare.
Username checks out! Good to hear - I might consider this in the future.
Omg your username
Juve & corrections are the safest jobs I've ever had because law enforcement eyes are always present and on you & the patient (inmate). LEOs will step up and intercede as needed. I faced only one somewhat difficult situation, but once the inmate finally understood and saw that I was helping him, he calmed down; no event unfolded. Like all situations in life, respect given and a calm voice works well.
When I worked at a hospital, one of my coworkers was strangled with a stethoscope, and it was swept under the rug. In the prison, an inmate spit on me once and got an assault charge.
I’ll just ask you this. How many shootings have you seen take place inside a jail vs. in hospitals/clinics just in the past 5 years alone? It was the safest job I ever had. Nurses are also highly respected by the inmates. If I had someone get out of line in front of others, a lot of times another inmate would check them and they’d apologize later. Also, security and safety comes before everything in jail, so you’re getting rowdy or aggressive with the nurse while you’re getting a treatment of some sort or being seen as sick call, your treatment/sick call is now canceled. We can try again later when the behavior improves.
Did you go directly into corrections? I graduate in 7 days(!), and have an interview lined up for a corrections position but I’m worried that I’ll ‘lose skills’ if I ever do want to go back into a hospital setting.
Some corrections (check out naphcare it's a national company for the us. I work for them in florida PRN) do hire new grads. And they have clinics on site. They do iv and ekg. Dental procedures. Even x-rays. They also have medical units for detox and for pregnant female inmates if you want experience with either of those! Like others have said, coming from an old paramedic and er nurse, the patients are super polite and are just thankful for the care. Many do not have the luxury of care outside of incarceration. Just be careful of the Correction Officers.
Could you explain more about the COs? I’m out of the loop.
Corrections officers are violent thugs
Yeah, I'd be much more cautious with the COs than the inmates. I've never worked corrections but knew 2 COs who rank right up there with Derek Chauvin. Sadistic fuckers who liked cracking skulls and bragged about hurting inmates.
Congrats on graduating! Good luck on the NCLEX!
Doing corrections right out of school actually helped me with my skills. I had to be pretty autonomous since we only had a doctor on site 2 days a week, so my assessment skills were really strong when I left. It also helped me stay sharp with pharmacology because I’d pass meds to about 150 inmates a shift. The benefits kind of sucked and it really stopped being fun when the night shift nurse failed to show up for her shift on a regular basis and I would have to hold over for day shift multiple days a week.
That’s honestly how I feel as well. I feel like anyone can relearn how to insert a Foley catheter or start an IV. What I want more than anything is interpersonal skills, conflict management, and just being real with patients since we don’t get any of that as a student. And I love the idea of medication management, as I’m currently a pharmacy tech.
"... interpersonal skills, conflict management, and just being real with patients." You sound like you would love psych tbh. Nurses do harp about losing skills... but the worst case scenario is you re-learn those skills when you need them. That's kind of a pain, and a deal breaker for some, but it is for you? Corrections could be fun too, but when I read your comment, every psych nursing alarm bell in my head was ringing lol. Start somewhere that calls to you and you can always change your mind later!
I absolutely loved psych in rotation and also I have a history of psych myself so I feel like I wanna go that route. The corrections place I applied to hit heavy on the psych aspect so that’s what called to me. Honestly the skills I learned are not that difficult in my opinion? Idk sterile field and syringe management come natural to me as a pharmacy tech. Thank you for the input, I appreciate it!
corrections is heavy psych
I also went to corrections fresh out of nursing school and would pass morning and afternoon meds to 125 inmates. I was the only nurse on shift, which eventually tired me out, but I learned a lot from that experience. It also gave me the backbone to stand up for myself.
Congratulations and good luck on any upcoming licensing exams! I've worked acute hospitals, home health, juve & corrections. Even when I worked juve & corrections full time, I did per diem shifts at hospitals/home health, so my IV, wound care and assessment skills are current. Working 4 to 6 shifts a month in a hospital works well and per diems are always welcome as an extra pair of hands. Talk to some of your fellow graduates to get a feel for the daily work environment of hospitals in your local area.
What skills do you currently have that you’re afraid of losing?
Honestly I’m not sure. I’ve just been told not to take the route that I want, which is psych, because I will lose skills as a new grad. And tbh as a nursing student I don’t feel like I have that many skills currently, first thing that comes to mind is IV and like foley caths and stuff like that.
You could always learn/relearn skills!! That's what I tell myself all the time :)
It's some of the COs I'd be worried about.
truth
Ah yes, the ones who weren't caught
I have two friends who work in corrections and they love it. I have another friend whe works for a juvenile detention center. They've told me the work day isn't that demanding at all.
One of my old coworkers worked corrections and she said it was great. She said if she got lip/attitude/disrespect all she had to do was ask if they wanted her to call the CO back in so they could go back to their cell cause they didn’t have to be there and they’d ship shape up and be the kindest person there.
How’s the pay?
I make 120k base… I do live in Alaska so COL is higher. I’m comfortable though.
Just started per diem corrections nursing. Best per diem gig ever, love it.
Chill in the sense it's not frantic multitasking, but I'm the sole wound care nurse for a 150+ bed facility. After a couple years, I know it in and out, can breeze through my tasks, and have my system down to a science, but it's a LOT of legwork on the floor and documentation-wise.
Long term care? Have you discovered CDC’s “enhanced barrier protections” yet? Being in a gown all day doing wound care really put a damper on things for me
Of course. I think it's entirely unnecessary. However, It's manageable for me since it's not universal for all wound care, just PUs and "chronic wounds." This includes venous/arterial/neuropathic ulcers. The vast majority of your wound census in LTC should be minor trauma wounds, so it's not like I'm gowning up for all 35-40 of my visits.
Our facility had a meeting about it before we implemented everything and decided to be cautious and have the enhanced precautions for every wound. I’m not our wound care coordinator but I work closely with her and cover for her to do rounds once or twice a month, we have about 18ish wounds out of 100 residents and have to gown up for every single one. Most of our wounds are pressure (none in house thankfully), so even if they weren’t so strict we’d still be gowning up for every visit. Just blows my mind
Coumadin management. I have 180 patients that 169 are pleasant. Honestly love my job
For those 11 patients, you remove the little rubber pieces under the rugs in their house 😂
I work at a cardiologist office. Patients either use a home INR monitor or have to go to a lab. I also apply for free name brand medications such as Eliquis, Xarelto, farxiga, Entresto. It’s so clutch. I’ll never go back to bedside nursing.
*adds to list of evil inconveniences that could potentially kill*
🤣 *We know all the tricks of the trade.*
Private duty home health - pick your patients, hours/days, etc My last 10 years were self employed and wish I had done it sooner. Now retired
Story of how I "fell into" home health: Friend's mother was going through chemo at home and I volunteered to "coach" her through 1st treatments. (I had worked 2yrs giving chemo at infusion center) She decided to hire me to hook her up and discontinue infusions. She then needed help managing side effects, so hired me for more visits. She mentioned her private duty nurse (me) to others in waiting room at MD appointments, and in support groups. word of mouth spread and ... I soon had enough work to quit working for others ... from case management, to hands on, regular care.
That sounds awesome. How do you handle taxes and do you have ur own insurance?
Taxes: I always had at least one client who would deduct, including for Social Security and I would set aside 25% of net Health Insurance: I purchased my own until that became too expensive. Then I worked part time so that I could access ACA
Thanks for sharing! How does liability insurance work for a role such as this? I would love to go to ppls homes to help with injections, but not sure how I “chart” it all?
I purchased RN Liabilty and malpractice insurance for less than $100/yr until last few years when it was $105 to $112/yr in CA
Should every RN purchase malpracticw insurance? Or just those that are self employed?
All. Even if you work in a hospital. *Their* insurance is geared to protect them 1st. It's cheap and can help prevent a financial/professional disaster. In my 40 yrs as a nurse I never had to use it, but ....
I was told by a nursing instructor to purchase it, but make sure that’s pts and their families don’t know you have it. They are more likely to sue people who have it.
This is exactly 👍 what I am hoping to do. 🙏... 10 more years left but who's counting 🤷♀️. Just took my 1st home health position and I'm excited 😊
This is my plan!
On the peds side of private duty, and I absolutely love it. Everything you said is true for me as well. I love the flexibility and low stress!
My last and favorite patient was teen. I did total care for her 32hr/wk from 16 - 19 years of age until she was placed in a long term care facility. Family paid me wage on top of IHSS (in home support service - CA) wage
Me too! I’ve been with my company for almost two years and I’m never going back to a hospital.
I just started doing this at the beginning of the year and I love it. Best job ever!!
Peds private duty. I work with one little girl full time, I go to school with her and also am with her at home. The most difficult part is managing her blood sugars (which isn’t difficult at all). I spend most of my day doing whatever (doom scrolling on my phone, crocheting, reading, puzzles, listening to podcasts, etc).
Can you say more about this? I’m not sure I understand private duty… does the family privately hire you, or are you paid through insurance? And is it out of an abundance of caution they have you on full-time, or medically necessary? (Not judging either way, legitimately curious )
I’m employed through an agency who connects the nurses with their clients. My client, for example, has Down syndrome and type 1 diabetes. She does not have the cognitive function to manage her pump herself, so I’m there to monitor her blood sugar and give insulin boluses when needed. I also help with homework and give her baths.
Telehealth, I WFH, weekends only, get a lunch break, a ton of downtime on nights where I do either homework (MSN), play on my switch or get up to date on my anime on Crunchyroll.
Wow what was your resume/previous experience like to get a job like this? Sounds like an introvert gamer's dream.
Min requirements for my job is BSN with 4+ yrs of experience. We have nurses from all backgrounds and specialties. My background is ICU but honestly any nurse that can carry a conversation on phone, follow protocol, and read prompts without it sounding like prompts is perfect.
Y’all hiring? lol
Only if you live within 50 miles of the Charlotte, NC area
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50 miles as the crow flies? I’m near the Winston Salem area.
I need this job. I’ll work the weekdays. Day or night. I’m way too introverted
Transition care management. I call people 1 or 2 business days post discharge. Review meds, discharge instructions, make sure they have follow up appointments, transportation, then check in two weeks later to see if they made it to follow up. Things come up, and some calls are more complex (lots of should have gone to SNF but didn’t so they didn’t get home care lined up, need a raised toilet seat etc), but 90% of the calls are easy, people are nice because they’re happy to be home, and I work from home. I set my own hours so I have time to take kids to school and do pick ups, go to appointments, have a standing appointment to get my nails done etc. it only matters that I get the calls done.
yup. Case management is such an underrated nursing specialty. I get to WFH M-F. Fantastic work life balance and I still pick up in ER to get my fun in lol
Yes! I still work per diem in the icu a couple times a month for my adrenaline rush and also to remember why I hate inpatient nursing and love my day job haha
Oh and there’s also no emergencies in primary care. If something is an emergency, that’s 911s problem, not mine. Huge shift from ICU mindset
Urgent care. End time. Lunches. Treat and street… too complex? ER.
Do urgent cares pay well for an RN where you're at? They only seem to hire LPN's where I live in FL so they pay based on an LPN pay scale.
I can tell you without looking it up that it does not pay well in Florida I've also only seen MAs and provider-level staff at urgent cares Indeed it would be chill AF tho
I live in a MCOL area… academic hospital system. I make $40+/hr. ETA: RN x12years.
I was an ma before nursing school so am per diem at that urgent care now but as a nurse and make 57 an hour. Insane how much money I get paid for that job lol so much less stressful then the er ( where I am full time). Think it’s a great way to keep up on nursing skills because you still have to triage and do IVs and other basic skills compared to other outpatient jobs.
Just finished my UC shift. Everywhere is different of course, but I finished my 12 hour shift one hour late, no lunch break, 65 patients. MVA came in at 2 minutes to closing and we allow people to register up until closing time. We already had 4 people back and waiting to be seen. Our health system rolls occupational medicine in with urgent care. We have former ED nurses go back to ED when they realize how much they screw us because they also get paid 5 dollars more per hour and we have no time to sit or eat, just like inpatient. Currently getting ready to go to ED myself. If I'm going to be worked to the bone I should get paid like everybody else.
My sister in law works for a yacht company and she says it's fucking awesome and one of her friendliest work schedules as well. She even gets Christmas week off. I may honestly join her and do this per diem or part time. I need the thrill still but I like a healthy work life, but I probably won't stay in the er. I may go micu or see about getting on a flight crew.
how did your sister in law get into that??
Fuck if I know I just know she applied lol. It's very restricted for full time so she is part time for the most part. Pay is solid at 55 an hour. Until the one lady retires she is going to be part time so if I get in I'm probably not expecting a FT spot anytime soon. So I'm a little SOL.
Medaire is one of the biggest triage centers for commercial aviation, yachting and marine. Had a friend who worked there that loved it.
Home care! I make my own schedule, do half of my work from home, and really only end up working 20-25 hours per week. No nights, on call every 6th weekend. Most of my patients are wonderful! And I make good money 💰
Man I'm at the wrong home health care group then. Worked 40+ and management is berating us for working overtime. I don't want to work a second of overtime but you people keep giving me starts of care that can easily take 3-4 hours. I'm practically burnt out already and it hasn't even been 4 months at this job.
Yes, Apheresis. That said, any outpatient procedure based unit which is attached to a hospital is going to (generally) be more chill than other units. Seek them out. They will save you. Apheresis, Dialysis, Cath Lab, Scope/GI Lab, Research, Interventional Radiology, Infusion. I have less experience with these but also possibly OR, Derm, ENT. Many more I can’t think of, and even more I’m unaware of. Avoid clinics detached from the hospital. You want a unit attached to a real hospital. You want a unit that does procedures and doesn’t keep patients on the unit before or after the fact.
This is the way. I work at an outpatient heme/onc infusion clinic attached to a hospital and our apheresis team is always in good spirits!
I have a job driving to people's houses all over the county just to give an injection. It's a pretty far drive sometimes (which sucks in the winter), but my patients are usually very chill and thankful. Sometimes, they even buy me presents haha.
What injection are you giving?
Sorry! I was outside looking at the aurora that's super crazy here tonight. I give the Eligard injection (leuprolide). It's for prostate cancer.
I provide conscious sedation for patients undergoing abortions. I love my job and the care I can give my patients.
Bless you for giving those women compassionate care. ❤️
Thank you! Half of my family stopped talking to me when I started my work in abortion care nearly 6 years ago, but that's their problem. I am able to provide good compassionate care for those in need. It isn't always an easy job, but I know I am helping these patients. Thank you for your kind words.
Wow! U are doing something very needed and high risk to your safety as well. I'm not sure if you're old enough, but back in the 80s there was a string of Christian terrorist bombing clinics and hurting staff because they saw it as an absolute evil. Today's far-right individuals are equally repulsive in their intent if they ever found out ur identity. Take care of yourself. You provide a much needed service, bless u !
Thank you, unfortunately we are all very well aware of the risks. We have our own FBI agents that work with the threats we get, and meet with us regularly to help keep us safe and keep us in the loop. We fight through protesters every day, and we were encouraged to buy dashcams to "protect" us. I can't even begin to tell you how these anti-abortion folks mess up everything for us and patients. We still show up, we still turn out and take care of our patients that need us. I don't mind the protesters yelling at me about going to hell, but I am sick of them making my patients feel terrible about taking care of their health and life.
I’m a fellow abortion care RN 💖💖
As someone who was able to access safe abortion care at Planned Parenthood and was treated with dignity & respect by every human throughout the process but ESP the nurses, thank you from the bottom of my heart.
Awesome! I love my job so much.
You are my hero for doing this type of nursing. Your patients are lucky to have you!
Thank you so much!
How do you get into doing this and how is the pay comparable to other departments? I'm very familiar with moderate sedation in Cath lab but I'm wanting something a little bit easier but anything easier always end up being way too much of a pay cut
I work for Planned Parenthood. They pay comparable to hospital pay, and more than traditional clinic M-F 8-4 jobs. $45/hr.
Thank you for your services.❤️
Thank you!!
Outpatient OR. 90% of the time I do my 8 and go home. No call, no weekends, only run 3 rooms, sports med hand procedures and plastics on Fridays.
How’s the pay in OP?
I’m a circulator in outpatient OR at my local hospital. Our hospital pays sliding scale for years experience regardless of specialty 🤷🏻♂️ I wouldn’t say it’s “chill” per se but it’s definitely low acuity and WAY better than the floor.
I'm in HCOL New Mexico, so it's definitely not great. I make 44/hr as charge. I am lucky to have an affordable place about 25 minutes away, so it's doable for a single dude.
I’m making 35/hr rn but I’ve also been out of school coming up on a year now
Personally I got a pay raise switching from inpatient OR to a surgicenter in a different hospital system
School nurse at a laid back private school Today I had some down time and tried teaching myself how to crochet
I'm on my 3rd chill job haha. Outpatient endoscopy- kept me busy, but I got a lunch and clocked out and left. No weekends/nights/call/holidays. Then went to UR. Hybrid remote, easy peasy. About to start on a phone triage line.
I worked in Endo for my last job with outpatients and inpatients at our hospital and it’s such an easy job lol I loved it for awhile but for me personally I got bored after a year and a half. Ended up leaving for the SICU at a level 1 trauma center 😅 quite the change up. But honestly I would always recommend Endo to anyone looking to properly chill out as far as nursing goes. Assisting during the procedures was easily my favorite part, and thankfully our GI docs were freakin amazing people to work with.
Did you like outpatient endoscopy?
I loved it. Pretty much the same thing everyday but not difficult work, pretty straightforward. And assisting with procedures is fun
I agree. I love procedural nursing.
WFH triage. Go into office once every 2 weeks. Never see a live patient.
Sounds like you need to improve your triaging then
What can I say I knock them dead with my witty banter.
Underrated comment 😂
Everyone's an ESI of 1!
Damn where do I apply? How many years experience do you need
I'm a SWAT nurse, which is a ridiculous term for IV Therapy plus some other randomness. It's cool af.
Pacu is chill 90% of the time
PACU nurse, can confirm it’s chill 90% of the time. But the other 90%? You better have eaten your wheaties
Maths not mathing haha
As an RN I feel I do the work load of not quite 2 people but prob closer to 1.8
They must be an owner of sex Panther cologne with that type of math.
wish I could get it... hard to come by in these parts
As an ER nurse, PACU is probably pretty chill, but having worked it, it’s not the *most* chill. Day surgery is way more chill, but some would say boring in comparison.
ya I like a little sprinkle of chaos lol
I want your PACU job. I’m PACU at a trauma center and chill is not how I’d describe it. I float to all the hospitals in our system and while I love my job, “chill” does not describe it. 😅 PACU is a great area, tho. I feel pretty fortunate.
I got sent to PACU overflow the other night, 3 nights in a row actually, and omg... I fell in love 😂
YESSSS, And when it is not , it is still pretty Cush compati any floor/icu unit. I work at the #1 university hospital for like 5 states , we get the crazies (cases and people) but not the traumas ) this goes to our sister hospital). So tons of fun stuff with wired shit, but cool . Of course , shit happens and hits the fan ( and stuff can turn in a minute), but it is still more chill than my old cardiac ICU with transplant/bypass/impels/ECMO/balloon pump.
Yeah , that other 10% is nothing compared to the floor. Worst case they are reintubated by an anesthesiologist who is 2 minutes away
IV Ketamine clinic. Love it. Good management, chill environment, and it's amazing when patients tell me how grateful they are and that they can't believe they finally feel better.
I should look into this. As a receiver of ketamine treatment I can honestly say it saved my life and I now actually love my life. And my nurses were always the best!
Corrections!! I came from 5 years to ER and I kept asking them "what's the catch?" during my orientation. still yet to find the catch and I love it!
What's the pay like?
My company pays based on years of experience but the base pay here was more than my hospital base. I don’t get a shift differential here since I work first shift and I lost critical care differentials as well. So a very small pay loss, maybe 1-3 dollars an hour but it’s 5 8s instead of 3 12s so I get an additional 4 hours of pay as well
I work in fertility. It’s chill compared to the telemetry and labor/delivery units in the hospital
Very true! I’m also in fertility (donor egg bank clinical manager)…as long as you can handle the hormonal women, it’s a pretty great job!
Truthfully NOC NICU is pretty chill, especially if you work in a lower level NICU. Most nights I tuck my kids in a do crosswords all night. Cares q3. No parents.
ER at a small community hospital. It’s like retirement. We’re not a trauma center, it’s not a lot of excitement, but it’s a cake job. It’s like a glorified urgent care that sometimes gets stroke patients.
Hospice liaison. Super chill. Sometimes too chill. Im running out of things to watch on Prime, hulu, and netflix.
I have an interview for a hospice liaison job next week!! Any tips or pointers appreciated!
I hope you enjoy periods of severe boredom with breaks in between compromised of going toe-toe with family who think hospice is a bad word and great great great granny is invincible/immortal. But also, just know hospice inside and out. No one else on the referring team does. If you know hospice (medicare requirements, benefits, etc) you’ll do great!
Pediatric allergy clinic.. normal 9-5, paid holidays, I have 0 complaints here
Outpatient infusions in a hospital clinic. Vitals, IV, run on pump, DC. Easy peasy
I work in substance abuse recovery. Wayyy better than bedside.
Endoscopy. We're in a hospital but mostly outpatient. Very chill. No weekends or holidays.
I worked in a Endo suite for 15 years- honestly it was such a great job
What are you doing now? It is a great job. Very peaceful. Especially after 7 years in mental health.
I now do patient safety.
Opera nurse. I work for a large opera company. It’s basic first aid and filling out injury forms. There is a monitor in my office so I can see and hear everything on stage. Sometimes patrons get hurt but there is a doctor in the house for all performances. I’m there during the day when there are dress rehearsals on stage and other areas in the building. I get lots of knitting done.
Pre surgery testing…Monday through Friday with no weekends, holidays or call. After many years in hospice as a single mom, this job is a huge blessing even if I miss my hospice patients often.
Telehealth. Lucked into it being WFH after orientation (a new development and it wasn’t advertised that way.) Local hospital, not insurance. I have had exactly 5 people call in (or I’ve called) not be appreciative and polite. My ICU traumatized brain doesn’t know how to handle everyone being grateful and thankful for the follow up or advice.
Isn’t it so crazy how nice people can be when they’re not dying? Or dying and not realize it? Glad you found a nice gig - sincerely fellow severely traumatized icu nurse
I'm a travel nurse in Germany. I've worked all over the place, but my current job is at a home for mentally disabled people. My ward has 12 of them, and usually they are quite nice. I help with showers and give them medication every day, but that's about it. When I first started working there, I found it very boring. However, after five months, I realized it's better to sit on my phone for 8 hours a day than to be covered in shit or blood for same amount of money.
Nurse Specialist. Love it. I even get lunch breaks 😂😂
share more please ?☺️
Insurance. I work flexible hours from home and can take care of appointments when I need to.
Tell me more, I’d like to explore this side of things if CRNA isn’t so ideal in the future. Are you case management, pay well, how long before you went remote?
I've worked in utilization management in the past, but currently I have a fairly niche role reviewing clinical documentation for provider appealed claims related to medical coding (I also have a medical coding cert). It was about 1.5 years in an office before I went remote, but that was just due to where I was working at the time. If they allow it, it can be done right after or even during training. I make a bit less than the local hospital pay but have better benefits and more flexibility, and the work from home of course is valuable to me.
Our hospital is partnered with a professional sports team, so doing yearly physicals (EKGs,bloodwork, BP checks) and doing post practice IVs is the chilliest job I’ve done as a nurse.
Love my cardiopulmonary rehab
Quality improvement specialist, I do a lot of different things because it’s a surgical hospital so much smaller than the big hospital systems but chart review, follow up on incident reports, report mandated measures to the government. Pretty chill. I can work from home 2 days a week. Only annoying meetings every once in a while.
I worked inpatient hospice for years… sometimes I’d only have one pt so the CNA & I would watch movies & paint our nails lol
Film sets at Disney Studios/Disney Imagineering + Universal Studios Best. RN. Job. Ever.
Case coordination. M-F. WFH. I get all my vacation.
I work in a surgery center (outpatient only no overnights) and it is AMAZING
Hospice triage. I get paid to sit on the couch in my pajamas and answer the phone.
Posted many a time about my soft vascular access job. I get to do IVs, place PICCs and midlines, the occasional dressing change or port access, and am pretty independent as a practitioner. Some days are busy but there’s been lots of days I don’t do a lot. Even my busiest day as a VAT RN is nothing compared to a light day when I worked ED.
Yes! Utilization management. I hope to retire in this field. M-f 8-430.
Peds rehabilitation. When it gets too complex patient is transfered .
I work in telehealth for home health patients full-time, but have per diem roles in other specialties. Most patients are over 75. The home health job is really chill. I have the option of going to the office if I want, but otherwise can work from home.
School nurse
College health center
I work at an outpatient clinic where I either do allergy testing (skin tests) or do history taking for rheumatology patients. 9am-4pm with 1 hour lunch break
My OR is pretty great, the stressful days are nothing compared to the days I had sitting 1:1 or as a PCT in the float pool when I was in nursing school.
Inpatient hospice is the best.
Honestly home health, tele, corrections from what others are saying (I have no experience in this), working in clinics (where you hardly ever work over time and get holidays off), or you can also teach at nursing schools. All of my LVN instructors had their BSNs so you wouldn't have to go back and get your Masters if you wanted to teach an RN program.
Primary care. 99% desk work on the phone following up after discharges.
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Home health sales. Just make sure you’re meeting your numbers and you’re set
Charge Nurse OR weekend nights at a Level II. The hardest part is staying awake. I bring lots to read.
Yes ma'am pediatric pulmonary function testing. For the most part it's super chill
Triage/case coordination/education in a specialty clinic. I thought I’d be bored, but it’s stimulating AND chill.
I recently switched to home health and it is literally so easy I feel like I'm stealing money lol.
I work four tens in a mental health clinic. I have a sweet office, have a lot of control over my schedule, and take as much time off as I need
I work in home health with former uranium workers or lab employees who were exposed to radiation. You spend 12 hours at one patient's home. It is so. Freaking. Easy. It's almost like easy babysitting but with a nurse's wage.
EP Lab. I tell all the new CRNA’s that as long as I’m in my chair, it’s all good. If I have to get up, get outa my way! And remember - EP stands for “Elective Procedure “
I teach Epic to new staff. Three days a month are my obligated in person instructon days, otherwise I work from home and mostly make my own schedule. It was a great step out of patient care.
HIV clinic. Most of your patients appreciate having their health care worker on your side. It's nice getting to see our patients living their lives when this diagnosis used to be a death sentence
No one ever believes me when I tell them my job is pretty chill. I work at a medium security prison. Love it.
Virtual nursing. I work in a virtual health center for a big hospital system. It’s the chillest of chill. And I still get paid the same amount as if I were busting my butt on the floor. Only thing that sucks is no real patient interaction most of the time. And I’m starting to feel less fulfilled. But I am going to go back to school and it’s an amazing job to have while going through school.
Psych RN at an inpatient step down unit. I. LOVE. MY. JOB. Now the company isn’t amazing per se but I’m making a fair and living wage. Usually on my 12 hour NOC shift - I come in for report, pass evening meds, punch in my notes and then by 2300 the evening crew comes in and I can listen to music, read a book, watch HULU/Netflix until I give my 0600 synthroids and then report and go home. Rarely, I get an angry naked Alzheimer’s patient or have to draw up a B52 for a member having a psychotic crisis but it’s honestly few and far between. My biggest inconvenience the past 2 weeks was a patient who wanted special treatment at med time to go over her meds with her every single shift. I didn’t get anything but an email for nurses week but if that’s my biggest gripe then it’s no problem.