A slightly disturbing thing that I noticed was the amount of nurses who have exit strategies for leaving the bedside to advance their nursing careers. It seemed like the majority of nurses I worked with were planning their exodus in the form of CRNA or NP school. Some were getting an MSN in order to obtain a more administrative role.
It certainly doesn’t leave one with much hope for the profession. I wonder if other professions experience this phenomenon. Do they ask, “How is the best way to put in my two years of drudgery and then advance?”
On the other hand, one thing I noticed was the different benefits of not leaving bedside nursing and raising a family, because there is a variety of shifts you can work.
Here are some examples, all from people I know:
– A nurse who does home health care during the day so she can be home when her kids come home from school.
– A nurse who works 4 weekend ICU shifts a month, then spends the rest of her time staying home with her young children.
– A nurse manager who works M-F, 9-5 and has her kids in day care.
– A male nurse who works nights and weekends so his wife, also a nurse, can stay home with the kids.
– A female nurse who works agency so her husband can stay home with the kids.
– A nurse who mostly stays at home with her child but picks up contracts here and there when the family finances call for it (guess who that one is!)
And I know a plethora of nurses whose nursing career means doing the conventional ICU schedule—every other weekend, rotating days and nights. That’s while raising a family with a spouse who quite often works an opposite schedule.
This last option is extremely hard. But if planned right, it can work to maximize the time that your family spends together.
I remember reading in one of my nursing theory textbooks about these types of nurses who fall in and out of the profession. It said that those who will only work full time when it’s convenient for them and their families are very bad for nursing. They don’t contribute at all to advancing the cause of obtaining more power and respect for the nursing profession.
And yet where would nursing be without them? For the most part, they are the ones who aren’t working on an exit strategy from the bedside to take another nursing career path. After all, it works out so well for them.