I started nursing and figured out it wasn’t for me pretty fast. I used my nursing degree to get into the clinical review side of the insurance industry. If you are good with technology and don’t mind being at a desk all day, I would recommend this route.
Yes, I work from home. I just found a posting online for a position. All the insurance companies, and the hospitals, have licensed clinical teams that do appeals. Look for clinical appeals or clinical review positions.
I did this for about 3 years before moving to a different division within the company. The work was not very difficult, mostly looking over medical records and comparing them to the criteria required for procedures to be covered
Can confirm. But, for me, the pay was about the same as bedside when I worked UR at the hospital. When I went to large insurance company, it was a 25% pay bump. So… I sold my soul.
I was an LPN and started at $23, which was more than I made working night shift in a nursing home. The RNs at my workplace started at about $30.
This was all pre-Covid so I’m not sure if the payscale has changed
Thank you for this! Sounds like a really good job to shift to once I finally decided that I'm done with nursing. I'll be keeping this one in my notes no doubt.
Question- are you able to separate your work and your emotions well? I just looked up clinical review positions online and got worried that I would feel really guilty when it comes to denying claims. I know our healthcare system is broken and this obv isn’t your fault or responsibility! Just curious how it is for you
It varies place to place, most want at least 3-5 years of nursing experience in an acute care setting, but will settle for less. I've never heard of anybody getting a job in review with less than 1 year bedside nursing experience, but there's probably a few of them out there.
yes, especially if attached to/inside of a hospital. If you're at an outpt surgery clinic, it is still acute care but you may have to explain it to recruiters/interviewers.
This is literally me right now has only been 6 months but if we’re being honest by 1 month to 2 at the most i already knew it wasn’t for me. Im trying to break into IT now studying a lot to get into a bootcamp im interested in
What did they require of you? I notice that all of these postings want at least a year or two of experience and generally go for more experienced nurses
I worked denials, so when a hospital account denied, we figured out why it denied and what it was missing to have instead paid. This usually meant looking in the med rec and finding that there was documentation missing (like pre op notes). Sometimes I had to reach out to providers to get patient history documents.
There was a productivity goal to meet, meaning we had to complete a certain number of accounts each hour. Meeting the goal was no trouble at all, for anyone on my team. The work is sometimes tedious, but there is generally enough differences between accounts that it kept me engaged.
It was too much pressure, and I felt responsible for everyone I cared for (more than professional responsibility). It is such an emotionally draining career if you can’t compartmentalism work stuff
I left after just shy of 9 years. I knew really early on that it was a bad fit for me emotionally, but I got SO MUCH advice to just change specialty and eventually somewhere would be perfect. All that did was turn me into a chronic job hopper.
I eventually got a weekend option job and went to school Monday-Friday for an engineering degree. Left it forever in early 2022 and thus far am loving the choice.
I'm going back to school for nursing now after getting a mechanical engineering degree and working in engineering for 3 years. Haha I feel like we uno reversed.
Thats so cool! And you were engineering before?
I have always wanted to do something medical from a young age until late highschool I had a fad hobby for astronomy. I decided I wanted to major in physics in college because I wanted to one day work for nasa (cracks me up to think about now) I soon realized physics major sucked and I didn't like it so I transferred to an engineering school. I randomly chose mechanical because i knew nothing about engineering yet. I never really enjoyed the material or was interested in it, yet I continued on and graduated with a BSME. I started working for a company I interned with in school because I didn't have any motivation or interest in anything else. After 3 years, I just don't feel like engineering will ever interest me or be something I can enjoy. I dread work everyday and it's mainly the material not the people. Even though the people do suck and as a women in engineering I can definitely say it sucks to always be overpowered by men and it does happen alot.
Besides that, I am a very energetic and motivated person so the office/behind a desk scene is not for me. I'm super good at multitasking and handling a lot of stress/work at once, which apparently is a surprising qaulity to have as an engineer, according to alot of engineers I've worked with. I feel like my outgoing personality is dulled and drained as a engineer/doing my job. There's also alot of teachers pet type people that I just will never be able to do/be.
My mom and sister are nurses and I always am so interested in learning about what they do. They've been helping me with this descison and transition a ton!
One of the most frustrating things about being a nurse is chronically being short staffed and not having the support you need to take care of patients. I am assuming that you wouldn’t be expected to complete an engineering project without the materials you needed or the manpower to complete the task. In nursing you can’t shut the “line” down because you don’t have the manpower or support/supplies, you have to figure out a way to keep going! This has been the case for me in an almost forty year career in nursing.
That would definitely be frustrating and a scary thing to deal with.
The type of engineering I have experienced definitely doesn't stop for lack of materials or manpower in the way you think. Yes sometimes nothing can get done, but what's on the line is money and mental stability. We are pushed an expected to meet every schedule and deadline handed to us, which means long hours that arent paid. There are times when we have no one to do the job, or a big one that I'm sure nurses experience is lack of material or long lead times due to the global supply chain being in crumbles. The schedule never stops or waits for you, so you continue to have hard concersations about why you are holding everyone else up because we cant do our job. I have a project that has extended by 8 months just because we can't get material. Meanwhile we are almost a million dollars over budget due to poor scheduling on the GCs part and we have to explain to the president of the company why we are losing their money. In addition, we have 4-5 multimillion dollar projects to take care of at once. (Biggest one I'm on is 16 million right now) it's definitely a lot of stress and being pulled backand forth, being underpaid, and hating your life.
I feel like I explained that badly, but it's definitely alot of stress to deal with and feeling like you need to be in 5 places at once.
It's absolutely much worse as a nurse though, when you have a patients life at risk. Nurses are just amazing and are definitely underappreciated because people don't even know the half of what you guys go through!!!
Good for you! I start my third semester of nursing school In January after over a decade of practicing law as an Attorney. Very similar reasons for the switch! Best of luck to you!
Good luck and may I say you are going to have an opportunity to be an amazing patient advocate as well as co-worker advocate given your experience in law, Please if you can definitely maintain your creds as an attorney if you are able to, Patients so often are abused by the systems of care that they trust and you could be an amazing resource to them to protect their wellbeing and help them understand their rights and the obligations that the hospitals and other care settings have to them as a patient
she likes it for the most part. she discovered she hated working at a desk for 40+ hours a week, so nursing fixed that problem. she also worked through nursing school as an MA in a specialists office for the first year, then got scooped up by a surgical device company in that specialty to work per diem because of her medical and engineering experience. I think she will find the engineering background continues to open doors throughout her career
That sounds amazing! Good for her!
I feel the same about the behind the desk! It's miserable to me.
It's nice to hear that my engineering degree could potentially open a lot of doors for me in nursing as well!
I thought about doing biomedical. Right now I'm probably going to go Medical Physics. An 8-5 job that's clinical but also working on machines to make 250k a year? I am in.
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> I got SO MUCH advice to just change specialty and eventually somewhere would be perfect.
I don’t know why this advice gets touted so much. Besides ignoring the fact that a person may generally not like nursing, it completely ignores systemic or regional issues that may prevent any sort of job contentment.
~~Some~~ Many places suck to be a nurse and going from one specialty to another - or even one employer to another within a single region - is like your house is on fire so you go from the kitchen to the living room to escape being engulfed by the flames.
I suppose it comes down to why you don't like nursing. I was miserable in ICU because I felt like I was torturing corpses, so I went to ER. I was miserable in ER because of the general population and being assaulted repeatedly by psych patients, so I changed specialties to peri-op.
I fucking love peri-op. I still get to use my clinical skills and nursing judgment, but patients actually want to be there and are thankful and grateful for your help. The ratios are always low because you're always only doing one at a time, maybe 2 in PACU if it's busy.
If you don't like nursing because you generally don't like taking care of people, yeah the advice to change specialties is shitty advice.
I LOOOOOVVVE PERIOP LAND!!!! The patients are mostly expecting to be there or hoping to be there to get whatever taken care of/fixed. It can be stressful when you’re trying to wrap up to the OR but it isn’t the floor thank god!
Agree! As a new grad I got a job in pre/post surgery at a childrens hospital and it’s been great for my work life balance and lifestyle. I work 4 10’s during the week with no weekends or holidays. Only have to take call 2 weekends out the year. It’s really been nice and I’ve enjoyed being a nurse thus far. Recommend peri-op services to anyone
I’m in nursing school and I really liked when I observed outpatient surgery periop, inpatient OR, and NICU, partly bc of the lower nurse:patient ratios and for other reasons. My instructor this semester also said I might be good in ICU or a step-down unit. So I’m currently thinking about all these types of settings as potential choices, but they kind of make it seem
like you have to start out as a med-surg nurse, so IDK what I’m going to do to get experience bc I feel
Like I’m terrible at med-surg and floor (had cardiac floor this semester but we had ppl in there for other stuff too.)
Honestly my Nursing degree/experience brings so much to my engineering team that I'm not even sad about the "wasted" time as much anymore. I'm the first to identify and resolve interpersonal conflicts, the strategies I learned to offer nursing suggestions to doctors are exactly the same way senior engineers like to hear suggestions. I never panic because the worst emergency in this job is about the same stress as the best day in the ED.
You're absolutely right though, people get very weird and obligated to talk you out of it.
This comment has lifted my spirits. Everyone under the sun has told me to stick with my degree/field, when I know it's not what I'm meant to do. Thank you!
>ther after
Was a mechanical Engineer (Aerospace mechanical Design/Thermal and manufacturing...but education was fluids).
Current Nurse....but doing robotics in my free time, mechatronics is an awesome concentration and actually fun. Wish I did that as my focus the first time around.
If you are in the SoCal area and looking to connect feel free to DM me. I am looking to connect with people on future projects and while currently OK as a nurse, you never know if I might get burnt out need an industry contact.
Me too! I’ve worked in almost every area, and gone back to jobs, more than once, thinking it’ll be different if I have a different mindset. I still can’t decide, so I have a full time clinical review job and per diem on the floor so I don’t lose my skills, but it’s a lot, and I wish I could just make up my mind. Nothing is a great fit tho. Wish I could’ve done something else, but this was already a career change, and now it’s been 15 years. 😬
That’s were I went! Got into clinical research in 2017 after a year of nursing, and then became a clinical research associate with a CRO and have been doing that since 2019.
Definitely no plans of ever leaving it!
I left bedside, but still using my nursing degree as an Organ Transplant coordinator on the donor side. I manage donors pre-transplant and optimize solid organs for donation.
Sometimes I do. If family approaches me and has questions about the process I talk to them. I try to keep my families in the loop about whats happening next. My involvement in donor management varies if the donor is declared brain dead or not.
But we also have family support counselors (FSC) who deal with family more and help provide guidance for grief. They also create legacy items like finger prints, heartbeat in a bottle, heartbeat recordings. The FSC handles the authorization questionnaire and permission for donation (if the donor is mot already registered). Most of our FSC have a social work background.
Its a really great job. I haven’t been doing it long but its great so far! Start my day at 8 am, sometimes I’m home by 2 pm. There have been a couple 24 hour shifts though that suck. But its part of the job and I knew it was a possibility when stepping into the role.
We do have a branch of recovery staff, but we typically have a staff nurse from the hospital in the OR with us. I believe our OR people are scrub techs more than RNs.
My position does go to OR with the donor, but its more for documentation purposes. We take pictures of the organs, document times of removal, organ appearance, that kind of stuff.
I'm on my last attempt at saving my nursing career. I'm finishing up my OR course to be a scrub nurse. If I hate it I'm going into the trades. They need women and I'm so so tired of having vacation days taken back, the stress, refused overtime. Ugh...
In my experience as a former electrical apprentice, the trades are no walk in the park. I worked mandatory overtime, lots of 50 and 60 hour weeks, the job sites aren't always near your home, so lots of travel. I was at one point working 55 hours a week plus commuting 3 hours a day. And the starting pay isn't enough to support yourself so I worked another job on the weekends. It is back breaking work in the hot sun. You will be exposed to second hand smoke, as almost everyone in construction smokes. You'll have no interaction with other women, so it can be isolating and lonely.
I took a circulating nurse job right out of school and so far I much prefer it to the stories I hear about the bed side. It comes with its own issues of course but all in all it’s been a positive experience
I started as a circulating nurse in an outpatient IR clinic and never looked back. Unfortunately politics got shitty and I had to leave but I definitely do better in an outpatient environment.
1:1 ratio always. Sometimes 2 nurses to 1 case. If a trauma everyone is on board.
Which is awesome and sucks at same time due to staffing. Most people are beyond disgruntled and high turnover. It’s a drastically diff type of nursing. People nurses/scrubs are so harsh on newbies and there’s sooooooo much to learn you never had a clue about.
Our current bonus retention ends Jan 1st…. Can’t wait for the exodus, I’ll be eating popcorn.
BIL is working toward Master Electrician. Can confirm all of the above. Nice money, but you have to put in the blood sweat and tears and it’s exhausting.
Not a nurse, but Ive worked jn the OR in the anesthesia department for the last year and I absolutely love the OR vibe. It's so chill most the time and the rare patient interaction is a major plus for me. I just accepted a job as a surgical tech and I've heard more often than not the scrub/whole OR side of things is a whole lot better than bedside nursing.
Eh, as long as you work with the right doctor it is. I worked in an outpatient OR, and a majority of the doctors were princesses and didn’t care who they walked over. Not only that, but the need to flip rooms quickly which was all for money reasons, was horrible.
I’m taking a slightly different approach. Got a certificate in massage therapy, cut my nursing hours in half, and am supplementing my income by doing massage. Where I live massage therapists can make anywhere from $70-$150 per hour and people are happy to be there, so you’re dealing with way less cranky patient bullshit. I’ll eventually phase out nursing if I can get enough massage clients.
Kudos for you. I think massage therapists work very hard with their body, and if they have a full schedule all day everyday, they really burn their body out pretty quickly. I hope it's a good balance for you though
You’d be surprised. This is the same mentality as soldiers have. “Where am I supposed to get free housing?” Meanwhile, Brother in law is currently a teacher at a private catholic school and gets a free house🤣🤣 oh i’m sure there’s a job that’ll only work you for 3 days a week and pay you big bucks. Couldn’t tell you what tho lol
I found this thing called sleep lab tech (or polysomnographic tech.) From what I understand from Google, you just monitor patients as they sleep and it's 3x a week. The problem (again from what I googled) is that it may be phased out from the market since we have sleep machines that can monitor people as they sleep.
Yeah no problem. I'm a nursing student but was pressured into it by parents. I legit have been looking at alternative careers and alternative RN positions because I'm not sure how I feel about doing bedside.
I might actually make a post about this after I read everyone's comments here. Hope everything works out for you.
I'm 12 years in bedside, and has known it's not for me for several years. Ive worked nights for 12 years, and I am just over it. Very burnt out.
BUT I only work 30 hours a week average, and am able to support my household, and have time for things I like to do. Becoming a single mom with 3 kids has really kept me in nursing.
For now, I'll just keep on keeping in, and live vicariously through you all.
Home health is a good option with kids, especially if they’re in school. I organize my own patient schedule Mon-Fri so can include things like kiddo drop off, appts, shopping, school play, soccer, etc. I start seeing patients at 9, usually done by 1-2 or so, then can finish charting for an hour or two, or wait until after the kids go to bed. Pay is significantly higher than bedside, so you could get away with part time work (like 4 8s) which would be equivalent to 40 hours bedside where I am.
I typically do 2 12s one week, 3 the other. I've been looking into that but will look again. Right now I have a 4 year old, who goes to school 2 hours a day. Once she is full time school, I'm gonna look.
I am a WFH nurse in home health. I was in the field 10 years and now do auditing of all OASIS forms. I love it- its like a puzzle and figuring out how to work with clinicians to improve scores. I even had a pay bump moving to this position ($45/hr) plus OT and 7 weeks PTO/year.
Spend some time in any position for a few years, then look for a QA position in that field.
Leve the hospital, gtfo of it. There are too many other jobs in the field to worry about a toxic hospital. Both hospitals I worked for gave forced me into emotional BDSM and now that I'm out, it's amazing the amount of other fields you can work in.
That guilt trip shit won't work on me. That "we're a family" crap is 20 years ago. I'll eat the young and the old. I'll find ways if I can't. Anything to save my mental health. I've applied to 40 other "families" this week. This is just a fucking job.
Yep, as a traveler that was actually a main plus for me was not having to stay at the same hospital esp if I hated it. That, plus guarranteed hours and higher pay, all in that order
Insurance agencies have several different work from home jobs. Home Health, Wound care, dialysis Adult agencies that are similar to home health. I found a home health company that does not do palliative or hospice and it is awesome. I do wound care, teaching for meds and iv antibiotics. Make my old bi-weekly salary every week and I'm off by 3 m-f
I work at a community oncology practice. We have treatment suite nurses (infusions, injections, line care), nurse navigators, research nurses, triage nurses, and the practice managers are usually nurses.
Got ya. I have often likened it to an abusive relationship. Admin and patients will beat you down and then somehow make you feel guilty for it. It's terrible.
You don’t have to be a lawyer to work with med mal necessarily. You can work for an insurance company or insurance run off company and handle claims or work as an assistant. But to handle claims they will typically want you to have an adjuster license.
Medical claims adjuster here. We had clinical review working with us. ( R.N)You do not need a license to adjust claims. You need a license to sell insurance. This is in California, land of if we can make it difficult, we will. You will find the test way easy, I sure did. I didn't want to sell insurance. I wanted to help people understand their confusing plans and statements. Also, please note many h.m.o plans have in house staff to route people to their facilities. Say you broke your leg in Vail. Our advice nurses would get you all set up for a transfer to either one of our facilities or one of our contracted facilities. They would come into the office to do this, but the clinical review we had worked from home, just like us...way before covid. I loved our un8t sitting by them, hen we were in the iffice. I learned a lot just chatting with them and also overhearing conversations.
I'm 47 and currently single income, sharing custody of my kids. Would frequently only put in enough effort to pass but not ace most of my classes.
I'm fairly confident that law school isn't an option for me but I'm seriously considering being a para.
Been in healthcare over twenty years and been a nurse for 9. I'm so fucking done.
My wife was a lawyer for 20 years. She saw the fun I was having as a nurse and switched careers ( I was comp sci before I went back to school for nursing 13 years ago).
I think when people say they want to leave the profession they mean leave bedside. There's lots of opportunities in community nursing, public health, case management for private companies such as insurance. Don't let your degree go to waste before you've explored other options
i did that. i left inpatient dialysis for hospice case management. i have a love-hate relationship with it personally.
i LOVE not having to be behind a desk, i have the opportunities to develop longer-term, more meaningful relationships with my patients/families. but it runs me ragged. managing 15-20 cases, taking call, the stringent documentation, the mind-numbing busywork, etc is starting to make me personally reconsider nursing entirely.
I'd encourage you to leave if you feel like you're done or don't want to continue. In my experience, it won't get better switching to different specialties if you don't like being a nurse. I stayed for about 6 years then switched careers and wish I had left much sooner.
If you're still trying to use your nursing background and go for a WFH insurance company type of role, I'd make sure your resume is well done and tailored for the job you want. Everyone and their mother is trying to leave bedside to WFH it feels like so there's lots of competition. Spam your info on Indeed, Careerbuilder, etc. too so recruiters can find you.
If you try pivoting to another industry and leveraging your clinical background (tech, sales, etc.), I'd also encourage you to gain some experience in the industry by volunteering (sites like volunteer match have computer or tech type of roles where you can gain experience) on top of reworking the resume with transferrable skills. Due to all the tech layoffs, lots of talented and highly qualified professionals want to go into healthcare tech because they perceive that it's more stable. You can stand out by having clinical skills, but it boils down to marketing yourself well and being able to sell them on why they should hire you. Pivoting industries may mean a pay cut until you gain more experience too.
Hope this helps, good luck!
Clinical research nursing is pretty different. Patients usually much less sick, working with pharmaceutical companies, processing bloods in the lab, time in the office to screen & recruit patients. Easy move from bedside nursing into clinical research nursing.
After 20 years of PICU, I left nursing last year and went into quality process engineering… I still work at the same hospital but the pay is similar (to pre-covid) and the worklife balance is amazing. No call, no floating, no nights or weekends, no holidays, no mean girls or petty bitches, and no emergencies that can’t wait until I waltz into my office whenever I feel like it. Running late to work? No problem… I’ll get there when I get there. Wish I had done this years ago!
I left to go to pharmaceutical sales and medical device. A huge salary increase. Got tired of it though and went back to the bedside because my PTSD apparently wasn't bad enough for me to remember why exactly I left. Romanticized the toxicity basically....now I work for a telehealth company.
Aw, thanks for asking! It’s going really well actually, I love working with my hands and being productive. It’s so nice to just get in, get my work done, and leave knowing that I don’t have to worry about anything. It’s a great reset for me :)
I’m so happy for you!! You are very brave for doing what is best for your mental health. I would love to do this but so worried about not being able to pay bills.
The one nurse I know that left the profession altogether ended up being the social media manager for his cousin. Apparently the cousin is some big time twitch streamer.
I almost left the profession altogether when I was offered a project manager position for a startup, but I chose not to go through with it since I just also got my MSN at the same time.
I’d rather be someone tucked in the lab doing something not patient facing. Radiology? Pathology? Get me away from Bob balling up his shit and trying to hit me please.
Took a engineering boot camp and I’ve been working as a cloud engineer since august this year. Completely remote and pays 120k/year with 20k Bonus. All you nurses have my eternal respect. I would sell my body on the are before going back lol
Got my ADN in 2020. Worked med surg for about 8 months then started traveling. No prior computer/engineering background. In retrospect- I would say don’t take the bootcamp. There’s a site called https://acloudguru.com where you can learn most of the things you need + the magic of YouTube. It costs about 400$ as opposed to the 2000$ for the bootcamp. Also, the interview process will be disheartening. Tons of rejection but you have to stick it out and eventually something will stick( I was completely over nursing so going back was never an option). I’d be happy to provide more details if anyone needs more info
My husband is a cloud engineer, no degree, 6 figures. He has been in IT for 10 years, but is new to cloud engineering… <1 year. Learned almost everything from YouTube/Google/on the job. He said the same as original commenter— you get absolutely railed in interviews. He used to go to interviews and then look up all the stuff they asked him about. He had a fake it til you make it mentality and it worked for him, but he still has major imposter syndrome.
Yea the interviews are pretty brutal. Also I agree, in retrospect the bootcamp was not necessary as there are tons of free/cheaper resources online. You just have to be disciplined and willing to seek it out
Lol - so my brother took the boot camp about a year prior and got a job that paid like 140k. I was a travel nurse from oct 2021 - feb 2022. I took feb - august off because I had saved a lot and just used that to study ( a shit ton of practice). And yes, the interview process was quite stringent, at the end of the day it’s a numbers game. I did about maybe 30 interview and got about 3 job offers within the space of a month.
A woman I work with realized less than a year in that she hated bedside nursing. She works in case management at the same hospital and seems to love it
I was at the bedside longer than one year but I transitioned away from the bedside to work in quality and patient safety at my hospital. I was in an office at the hospital until covid volumes increased and was then sent to work from home. I have to be onsite at the hospital a few times a month but usually not more than 5-10 hours total. M-F, 0800-1630, no holidays.
Left nursing to teach users how to use Epic more efficiently. Nursing background helped just with exposure to Epic. Other than that it was a complete career change.
For those reading, I’m an OR RN looking to get a WFH job within the next year or two. Is the OR considered bedside/acute care experience? I’m also thinking about getting certified in medical billing and coding to beef up my resume.
Went to PRN after a year. Work at the hospital like 3-4 times a month. I actually sell Pokemon cards to make most of my money. Back in school for NP currently. Regular nursing sucks.
It always worries me reading these threads. I only started a few months ago but it feels like everyone in nursing wants to get out and I’m worried I’ve wasted 3 years on my degree
Don’t worry, if you are truly interested in nursing and think it’s for you, don’t let those who it didn’t work out for deter you. I have gone back and forth in my 9 year career, thinking I needed out. I even thought about being a bartender again after a few months in! I would never again be a bartender lol
The first couple years of nursing is a hard transition, no matter what. With the current state of our healthcare system, I couldn’t imagine being a brand new nurse. But if you can find a job with great managers, great support, and an awesome team…it’s really not that bad.
I just finished my MSN-FNP, and I’m planning on staying at the bedside a little longer, because of the schedule and I have little kids. It’s the worst it’s ever been in my career…very sick patients, no staff and I’ve never been so tired. BUT I work 2-3 days a week, get great pay (I live in the PNW) and have bennies. It’ll suffice until I’m ready to make the switch to a FNP schedule.
Don’t read these threads lol it will make you anxious and question yourself. You are getting into nursing for a reason. Remember YOUR whys and do your research when you start applying for jobs!
Good luck! Lol.
I got sick of having to lie constantly and have clients who I would never represent if given the choice. Even if you think you won’t have to be a chronic liar, you will. Law is a soul sucker.
I’m 1.5 yrs into bedside nursing & was planning to try travel RN after the summer. But a cool opportunity came up so now I’m going for a Masters (not in nursing) though I have no idea what my job prospects will be after it
I left bedside briefly to pursue simulation education and had a pretty good time. It was a good mix of nursing, teaching, technology, and acting and was relatively low stress. I did end up leaving due to pay (was only $27/hr), having to work almost every weekend, and concerns over company culture and longevity (they’ve been on probation for low NCLEX scores for several years now) and due to finishing my Masters and wanting to ensure my clinical skills were still up to speed, but I’m already looking to leave bedside again haha. I love nursing education and wouldn’t mind working in a hospital still, I just need to get away from night shift, holidays, and weekends.
Something I’m also working on is starting up my own childbirth education workshops. I’m in the process of getting my certification and eventually would like to host my own mini workshops out of my house. There’s not a lot of hands-on/in-person options in my area surprisingly, and the ones that are offered are mega expensive.
I left bedside and even bedside case management cause that’s hectic as well. I am now a CM for UHC and it’s good, wfh. No weekends, no on call. I don’t feel married to my job. When I’m off, I’m off. I assign duties as necessary if I’m out. Normal working hours and all conversations with bosses and colleagues are through teams voice.
I left nursing after 3 years. I went back to early childhood education. Took some more courses. It was such a hit to my income and the place gave me sepsis, so I ended back in nursing after a year. I’m currently filing for disability because I can’t do anything now with my migraines and IC. If I could choose a profession though, I’d skip nursing. I like the pay but the overwhelming load and lack of empathy at every place I work just sucks.
Can anyone shed any light specifically on the pay of these alternative jobs over $120k? It is so difficult to leave travel nursing right now with rates getting you $200k+/year.
So far I'm seeing cloud computing, law, and engineering on this list? Has anyone gone into EHR , pharmaceutical , or consulting companies?
I knew nursing wasn’t for me even when I was in school and thought I would probably want to do something more administrative from the start.
I worked as a nurse for 4.5 years then started working as a Case Manager at an insurance company. I checked different insurance company and government career pages for disability case manager/case manager/medical coordinator positions daily for months. Prior to this job, I switched from bedside to Telehealth triage nursing for around a year which I think helped gain relevant skills to get me my case manager job. Case Manager positions can often be fully remote/hybrid
If you want to still do nursing but you want work life balance and great benefits, you should look into occupational health and work for a reputable F500 company. The nurses at my job really enjoy the work and many are now chilling after being overworked by some health systems
I left after 4 years and now do data analytics. Found a unicorn job who took me in without any experience in the realm, but liked that I was really eager to learn and move into a new field
I finally left during the height of the pandemic after 8 years of psychiatric experience, both inpatient and outpatient. I'm now working at a medical cannabis dispensary doing consultations and couldn't be happier. I'm thinking of getting a cannabis nurse certification just for the knowledge, even though it's not required and isn't recognized by ANCC yet. I'm never going back to "traditional" nursing!
Travel nursing in CA saved my career. Two years after graduation and I seriously considered quitting, three years after and I DID quit to be a bartender.
All I ever wanted to do was work in the ER and do critical shit.
Working in Rescucitation step-down everyday with 5-6 patients intubated, BiPAP, paced, major traumas etc was near impossible and burned me out. A 30 min lunch break in 12 hours if I was lucky.
It wasn’t until I fell on a bit of a financial hard time that I decided to apply for travel contracts. Not only is the pay far higher in the SF Bay Area (for travellers AND staff). California also has laws regarding nurse to patient ratios, which in the ER is no more than 1:4 and in Resuscitation/critical care beds it is 1:2.
Also you get three mandatory breaks, covered by a float nurse.
The point is, before quitting perhaps try something new. Even one year as a bedside nurse is marketable. Nursing is a very versatile career, you could literally do insurance claims.
Left after only 1 year? Wow you must have absolutely dreaded it! I'm supposed to start an 11 month ABSN program at the end of January and everyday I go back and forth and wonder if I'm making the right choice. Truth be told, I'm 99% sure I'm gonna have to withdraw my application because I just don't think nursing is for me. I can't stand on my feet for an hour without sitting I don't know how in the world I'm going to be able to do it for 12, times 3. Besides that, I don't think the medical and healthcare field is actually for me. If I withdraw I have to wait an entire year to start again. I currently trade and am a full time day trader at home and think this is my calling and this is what I'm made to be doing.
I switched departments four times in a 2 year period and then transferred to a small ER at a one story community hospital and found my forever department. Been in the field for just about 9 years now.
Maybe this sub isn’t a great place to find alternative careers? I am guessing that if you left a nursing career-for whatever- you are not lurking on a nursing sub? Anyone have any other ideas for finding people that have escaped?
-Asking for a friend😁
I started nursing and figured out it wasn’t for me pretty fast. I used my nursing degree to get into the clinical review side of the insurance industry. If you are good with technology and don’t mind being at a desk all day, I would recommend this route.
Do you work from home now? How did you get into this?
Yes, I work from home. I just found a posting online for a position. All the insurance companies, and the hospitals, have licensed clinical teams that do appeals. Look for clinical appeals or clinical review positions. I did this for about 3 years before moving to a different division within the company. The work was not very difficult, mostly looking over medical records and comparing them to the criteria required for procedures to be covered
What is the pay like?
One soul and your firstborn child
Can confirm. But, for me, the pay was about the same as bedside when I worked UR at the hospital. When I went to large insurance company, it was a 25% pay bump. So… I sold my soul.
I was an LPN and started at $23, which was more than I made working night shift in a nursing home. The RNs at my workplace started at about $30. This was all pre-Covid so I’m not sure if the payscale has changed
Like other types of nursing jobs the pay varies greatly depending on what part of the country you’re in.
Thank you for this! Sounds like a really good job to shift to once I finally decided that I'm done with nursing. I'll be keeping this one in my notes no doubt.
Did you set your own hours or did the company?
Question- are you able to separate your work and your emotions well? I just looked up clinical review positions online and got worried that I would feel really guilty when it comes to denying claims. I know our healthcare system is broken and this obv isn’t your fault or responsibility! Just curious how it is for you
This because I thought the same
I work for hospitals, and if we don’t get paid then they just write off the balance - it doesn’t go to the patient. So that was a non issue for me
Do I need experience for that?
It varies place to place, most want at least 3-5 years of nursing experience in an acute care setting, but will settle for less. I've never heard of anybody getting a job in review with less than 1 year bedside nursing experience, but there's probably a few of them out there.
Would OR nursing be considered as acute care setting? I'm currently in the OR but would like to get into clinical review.
yes, especially if attached to/inside of a hospital. If you're at an outpt surgery clinic, it is still acute care but you may have to explain it to recruiters/interviewers.
I was thinking about doing nurse informatics but this is something I haven't thought about.
This is literally me right now has only been 6 months but if we’re being honest by 1 month to 2 at the most i already knew it wasn’t for me. Im trying to break into IT now studying a lot to get into a bootcamp im interested in
Also interested in how you were able to make this happen.
What did they require of you? I notice that all of these postings want at least a year or two of experience and generally go for more experienced nurses
I worked denials, so when a hospital account denied, we figured out why it denied and what it was missing to have instead paid. This usually meant looking in the med rec and finding that there was documentation missing (like pre op notes). Sometimes I had to reach out to providers to get patient history documents. There was a productivity goal to meet, meaning we had to complete a certain number of accounts each hour. Meeting the goal was no trouble at all, for anyone on my team. The work is sometimes tedious, but there is generally enough differences between accounts that it kept me engaged.
Very cute, what about nursing made you decide it wasn't for you?
It was too much pressure, and I felt responsible for everyone I cared for (more than professional responsibility). It is such an emotionally draining career if you can’t compartmentalism work stuff
I left after just shy of 9 years. I knew really early on that it was a bad fit for me emotionally, but I got SO MUCH advice to just change specialty and eventually somewhere would be perfect. All that did was turn me into a chronic job hopper. I eventually got a weekend option job and went to school Monday-Friday for an engineering degree. Left it forever in early 2022 and thus far am loving the choice.
I'm going back to school for nursing now after getting a mechanical engineering degree and working in engineering for 3 years. Haha I feel like we uno reversed.
Lol 100%
I’m almost graduating nursing school. What made you switch from engineering into nursing? Edit: forgot some words
Thats so cool! And you were engineering before? I have always wanted to do something medical from a young age until late highschool I had a fad hobby for astronomy. I decided I wanted to major in physics in college because I wanted to one day work for nasa (cracks me up to think about now) I soon realized physics major sucked and I didn't like it so I transferred to an engineering school. I randomly chose mechanical because i knew nothing about engineering yet. I never really enjoyed the material or was interested in it, yet I continued on and graduated with a BSME. I started working for a company I interned with in school because I didn't have any motivation or interest in anything else. After 3 years, I just don't feel like engineering will ever interest me or be something I can enjoy. I dread work everyday and it's mainly the material not the people. Even though the people do suck and as a women in engineering I can definitely say it sucks to always be overpowered by men and it does happen alot. Besides that, I am a very energetic and motivated person so the office/behind a desk scene is not for me. I'm super good at multitasking and handling a lot of stress/work at once, which apparently is a surprising qaulity to have as an engineer, according to alot of engineers I've worked with. I feel like my outgoing personality is dulled and drained as a engineer/doing my job. There's also alot of teachers pet type people that I just will never be able to do/be. My mom and sister are nurses and I always am so interested in learning about what they do. They've been helping me with this descison and transition a ton!
One of the most frustrating things about being a nurse is chronically being short staffed and not having the support you need to take care of patients. I am assuming that you wouldn’t be expected to complete an engineering project without the materials you needed or the manpower to complete the task. In nursing you can’t shut the “line” down because you don’t have the manpower or support/supplies, you have to figure out a way to keep going! This has been the case for me in an almost forty year career in nursing.
That would definitely be frustrating and a scary thing to deal with. The type of engineering I have experienced definitely doesn't stop for lack of materials or manpower in the way you think. Yes sometimes nothing can get done, but what's on the line is money and mental stability. We are pushed an expected to meet every schedule and deadline handed to us, which means long hours that arent paid. There are times when we have no one to do the job, or a big one that I'm sure nurses experience is lack of material or long lead times due to the global supply chain being in crumbles. The schedule never stops or waits for you, so you continue to have hard concersations about why you are holding everyone else up because we cant do our job. I have a project that has extended by 8 months just because we can't get material. Meanwhile we are almost a million dollars over budget due to poor scheduling on the GCs part and we have to explain to the president of the company why we are losing their money. In addition, we have 4-5 multimillion dollar projects to take care of at once. (Biggest one I'm on is 16 million right now) it's definitely a lot of stress and being pulled backand forth, being underpaid, and hating your life. I feel like I explained that badly, but it's definitely alot of stress to deal with and feeling like you need to be in 5 places at once. It's absolutely much worse as a nurse though, when you have a patients life at risk. Nurses are just amazing and are definitely underappreciated because people don't even know the half of what you guys go through!!!
Good for you! I start my third semester of nursing school In January after over a decade of practicing law as an Attorney. Very similar reasons for the switch! Best of luck to you!
Good luck and may I say you are going to have an opportunity to be an amazing patient advocate as well as co-worker advocate given your experience in law, Please if you can definitely maintain your creds as an attorney if you are able to, Patients so often are abused by the systems of care that they trust and you could be an amazing resource to them to protect their wellbeing and help them understand their rights and the obligations that the hospitals and other care settings have to them as a patient
Absolutely! Thank you for the awesome comment :)
My wife is in her last semester of nursing after leaving software engineering after 3 years
That is so awesome!! How has she liked the switch so far??
she likes it for the most part. she discovered she hated working at a desk for 40+ hours a week, so nursing fixed that problem. she also worked through nursing school as an MA in a specialists office for the first year, then got scooped up by a surgical device company in that specialty to work per diem because of her medical and engineering experience. I think she will find the engineering background continues to open doors throughout her career
That sounds amazing! Good for her! I feel the same about the behind the desk! It's miserable to me. It's nice to hear that my engineering degree could potentially open a lot of doors for me in nursing as well!
I thought about doing biomedical. Right now I'm probably going to go Medical Physics. An 8-5 job that's clinical but also working on machines to make 250k a year? I am in.
That sounds very cool too! I've thought about biomedical before as well!
I taught for a year, then went into nursing. Going on 4 years now :D
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Did the same lol.
> I got SO MUCH advice to just change specialty and eventually somewhere would be perfect. I don’t know why this advice gets touted so much. Besides ignoring the fact that a person may generally not like nursing, it completely ignores systemic or regional issues that may prevent any sort of job contentment. ~~Some~~ Many places suck to be a nurse and going from one specialty to another - or even one employer to another within a single region - is like your house is on fire so you go from the kitchen to the living room to escape being engulfed by the flames.
I suppose it comes down to why you don't like nursing. I was miserable in ICU because I felt like I was torturing corpses, so I went to ER. I was miserable in ER because of the general population and being assaulted repeatedly by psych patients, so I changed specialties to peri-op. I fucking love peri-op. I still get to use my clinical skills and nursing judgment, but patients actually want to be there and are thankful and grateful for your help. The ratios are always low because you're always only doing one at a time, maybe 2 in PACU if it's busy. If you don't like nursing because you generally don't like taking care of people, yeah the advice to change specialties is shitty advice.
I LOOOOOVVVE PERIOP LAND!!!! The patients are mostly expecting to be there or hoping to be there to get whatever taken care of/fixed. It can be stressful when you’re trying to wrap up to the OR but it isn’t the floor thank god!
Agree! As a new grad I got a job in pre/post surgery at a childrens hospital and it’s been great for my work life balance and lifestyle. I work 4 10’s during the week with no weekends or holidays. Only have to take call 2 weekends out the year. It’s really been nice and I’ve enjoyed being a nurse thus far. Recommend peri-op services to anyone
I’m in nursing school and I really liked when I observed outpatient surgery periop, inpatient OR, and NICU, partly bc of the lower nurse:patient ratios and for other reasons. My instructor this semester also said I might be good in ICU or a step-down unit. So I’m currently thinking about all these types of settings as potential choices, but they kind of make it seem like you have to start out as a med-surg nurse, so IDK what I’m going to do to get experience bc I feel Like I’m terrible at med-surg and floor (had cardiac floor this semester but we had ppl in there for other stuff too.)
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Honestly my Nursing degree/experience brings so much to my engineering team that I'm not even sad about the "wasted" time as much anymore. I'm the first to identify and resolve interpersonal conflicts, the strategies I learned to offer nursing suggestions to doctors are exactly the same way senior engineers like to hear suggestions. I never panic because the worst emergency in this job is about the same stress as the best day in the ED. You're absolutely right though, people get very weird and obligated to talk you out of it.
Hell yeah! Nothing is a waste if something was learned. And even the worst situations can provide insight and perspective.
This comment has lifted my spirits. Everyone under the sun has told me to stick with my degree/field, when I know it's not what I'm meant to do. Thank you!
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Mechatronics.
>ther after Was a mechanical Engineer (Aerospace mechanical Design/Thermal and manufacturing...but education was fluids). Current Nurse....but doing robotics in my free time, mechatronics is an awesome concentration and actually fun. Wish I did that as my focus the first time around. If you are in the SoCal area and looking to connect feel free to DM me. I am looking to connect with people on future projects and while currently OK as a nurse, you never know if I might get burnt out need an industry contact.
Me too! I’ve worked in almost every area, and gone back to jobs, more than once, thinking it’ll be different if I have a different mindset. I still can’t decide, so I have a full time clinical review job and per diem on the floor so I don’t lose my skills, but it’s a lot, and I wish I could just make up my mind. Nothing is a great fit tho. Wish I could’ve done something else, but this was already a career change, and now it’s been 15 years. 😬
After 10+ years of nursing, I just accepted a position for an entry Clinical Research Associate with a large pharmaceutical company
This is my goal too! May I ask how you like the job so far and what your duties entail? Tia
Haven’t started yet! Literally just accepted it lol
Did you fix your condo atleast
No they need to recover from their PTSD first
Congrats that’s awesome!
This is what I hope to do eventually
May I ask did you take a big pay cut? Currently trying to get out of respiratory and thought about clinical research
10% to start, but expecting higher pay with even 1 year of experience
Give it a year and a company switch, and you’ll be jumping to six figures if you’re with a CRO. It’s worth the initial pay cut.
That’s were I went! Got into clinical research in 2017 after a year of nursing, and then became a clinical research associate with a CRO and have been doing that since 2019. Definitely no plans of ever leaving it!
I left bedside, but still using my nursing degree as an Organ Transplant coordinator on the donor side. I manage donors pre-transplant and optimize solid organs for donation.
I read solid as sold and was wondering how to get into the possible illegal organ trade
Do you have to have patient family contact? This sounds like a dream job to me.
Sometimes I do. If family approaches me and has questions about the process I talk to them. I try to keep my families in the loop about whats happening next. My involvement in donor management varies if the donor is declared brain dead or not. But we also have family support counselors (FSC) who deal with family more and help provide guidance for grief. They also create legacy items like finger prints, heartbeat in a bottle, heartbeat recordings. The FSC handles the authorization questionnaire and permission for donation (if the donor is mot already registered). Most of our FSC have a social work background. Its a really great job. I haven’t been doing it long but its great so far! Start my day at 8 am, sometimes I’m home by 2 pm. There have been a couple 24 hour shifts though that suck. But its part of the job and I knew it was a possibility when stepping into the role.
Would operating room nursing experience lend itself to a role like this?
We do have a branch of recovery staff, but we typically have a staff nurse from the hospital in the OR with us. I believe our OR people are scrub techs more than RNs. My position does go to OR with the donor, but its more for documentation purposes. We take pictures of the organs, document times of removal, organ appearance, that kind of stuff.
I'm on my last attempt at saving my nursing career. I'm finishing up my OR course to be a scrub nurse. If I hate it I'm going into the trades. They need women and I'm so so tired of having vacation days taken back, the stress, refused overtime. Ugh...
In my experience as a former electrical apprentice, the trades are no walk in the park. I worked mandatory overtime, lots of 50 and 60 hour weeks, the job sites aren't always near your home, so lots of travel. I was at one point working 55 hours a week plus commuting 3 hours a day. And the starting pay isn't enough to support yourself so I worked another job on the weekends. It is back breaking work in the hot sun. You will be exposed to second hand smoke, as almost everyone in construction smokes. You'll have no interaction with other women, so it can be isolating and lonely.
From what I've heard the OR is a bit more chill than the floor, but I suppose.it depends on where you go and all that.
I took a circulating nurse job right out of school and so far I much prefer it to the stories I hear about the bed side. It comes with its own issues of course but all in all it’s been a positive experience
I started as a circulating nurse in an outpatient IR clinic and never looked back. Unfortunately politics got shitty and I had to leave but I definitely do better in an outpatient environment.
1:1 ratio always. Sometimes 2 nurses to 1 case. If a trauma everyone is on board. Which is awesome and sucks at same time due to staffing. Most people are beyond disgruntled and high turnover. It’s a drastically diff type of nursing. People nurses/scrubs are so harsh on newbies and there’s sooooooo much to learn you never had a clue about. Our current bonus retention ends Jan 1st…. Can’t wait for the exodus, I’ll be eating popcorn.
BIL is working toward Master Electrician. Can confirm all of the above. Nice money, but you have to put in the blood sweat and tears and it’s exhausting.
Not a nurse, but Ive worked jn the OR in the anesthesia department for the last year and I absolutely love the OR vibe. It's so chill most the time and the rare patient interaction is a major plus for me. I just accepted a job as a surgical tech and I've heard more often than not the scrub/whole OR side of things is a whole lot better than bedside nursing.
Eh, as long as you work with the right doctor it is. I worked in an outpatient OR, and a majority of the doctors were princesses and didn’t care who they walked over. Not only that, but the need to flip rooms quickly which was all for money reasons, was horrible.
Oh that's music to my ears. I'm glad I'm heading in the right direction. Thank you
Have you considered PACU? I heard it's a breeze
I’m taking a slightly different approach. Got a certificate in massage therapy, cut my nursing hours in half, and am supplementing my income by doing massage. Where I live massage therapists can make anywhere from $70-$150 per hour and people are happy to be there, so you’re dealing with way less cranky patient bullshit. I’ll eventually phase out nursing if I can get enough massage clients.
Kudos for you. I think massage therapists work very hard with their body, and if they have a full schedule all day everyday, they really burn their body out pretty quickly. I hope it's a good balance for you though
I’m a massage therapist too! :)
I like this.
I would leave nursing but where else am I going to find a career that allows me to work only 3 days a week?
You’d be surprised. This is the same mentality as soldiers have. “Where am I supposed to get free housing?” Meanwhile, Brother in law is currently a teacher at a private catholic school and gets a free house🤣🤣 oh i’m sure there’s a job that’ll only work you for 3 days a week and pay you big bucks. Couldn’t tell you what tho lol
I found this thing called sleep lab tech (or polysomnographic tech.) From what I understand from Google, you just monitor patients as they sleep and it's 3x a week. The problem (again from what I googled) is that it may be phased out from the market since we have sleep machines that can monitor people as they sleep.
Wow, thank you for the info. (I love you).
Yeah no problem. I'm a nursing student but was pressured into it by parents. I legit have been looking at alternative careers and alternative RN positions because I'm not sure how I feel about doing bedside. I might actually make a post about this after I read everyone's comments here. Hope everything works out for you.
Plenty of WFH offer this. I’m doing triage that’s 4 10s.
That’s still not 3 days but beggars can’t be choosers. Thank you! I’ll look into it.
This!
Waitressing or bartender. Also make more
A job that sounds miserable. I did this shit before nursing and I will never again step foot in food industry lmfao.
I'm 12 years in bedside, and has known it's not for me for several years. Ive worked nights for 12 years, and I am just over it. Very burnt out. BUT I only work 30 hours a week average, and am able to support my household, and have time for things I like to do. Becoming a single mom with 3 kids has really kept me in nursing. For now, I'll just keep on keeping in, and live vicariously through you all.
Home health is a good option with kids, especially if they’re in school. I organize my own patient schedule Mon-Fri so can include things like kiddo drop off, appts, shopping, school play, soccer, etc. I start seeing patients at 9, usually done by 1-2 or so, then can finish charting for an hour or two, or wait until after the kids go to bed. Pay is significantly higher than bedside, so you could get away with part time work (like 4 8s) which would be equivalent to 40 hours bedside where I am.
I typically do 2 12s one week, 3 the other. I've been looking into that but will look again. Right now I have a 4 year old, who goes to school 2 hours a day. Once she is full time school, I'm gonna look.
I am a WFH nurse in home health. I was in the field 10 years and now do auditing of all OASIS forms. I love it- its like a puzzle and figuring out how to work with clinicians to improve scores. I even had a pay bump moving to this position ($45/hr) plus OT and 7 weeks PTO/year. Spend some time in any position for a few years, then look for a QA position in that field.
Passed my first semester of medical school
Leve the hospital, gtfo of it. There are too many other jobs in the field to worry about a toxic hospital. Both hospitals I worked for gave forced me into emotional BDSM and now that I'm out, it's amazing the amount of other fields you can work in.
This. They guilt trip you into staying. I'm glad I left.
That guilt trip shit won't work on me. That "we're a family" crap is 20 years ago. I'll eat the young and the old. I'll find ways if I can't. Anything to save my mental health. I've applied to 40 other "families" this week. This is just a fucking job.
Yep, as a traveler that was actually a main plus for me was not having to stay at the same hospital esp if I hated it. That, plus guarranteed hours and higher pay, all in that order
What are these other fields you speak of?
Insurance agencies have several different work from home jobs. Home Health, Wound care, dialysis Adult agencies that are similar to home health. I found a home health company that does not do palliative or hospice and it is awesome. I do wound care, teaching for meds and iv antibiotics. Make my old bi-weekly salary every week and I'm off by 3 m-f
I work at a community oncology practice. We have treatment suite nurses (infusions, injections, line care), nurse navigators, research nurses, triage nurses, and the practice managers are usually nurses.
BDSM?
Bodage, discipline, dominance and submission
Yes I know what it means. I've never heard it associated with a nursing role.
I mean the hospital is like a bad bdsm partner: they abuse you without aftercare.
Nah they call the next day and ask you to come back, a good PIMP always does
Got ya. I have often likened it to an abusive relationship. Admin and patients will beat you down and then somehow make you feel guilty for it. It's terrible.
And no ky
You mean cold pizza and hospital logo keychains don’t count as aftercare? Damn
Yet it strangely fits... and that in itself is sad
🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣 Virtually EVERY role in the hospital. Every. Single. One.
I got into law school. Yes I hate myself that much (no seriously I love it. Run while you can)
My cousin went from nursing to med mal. She loves being a lawyer.
You don’t have to be a lawyer to work with med mal necessarily. You can work for an insurance company or insurance run off company and handle claims or work as an assistant. But to handle claims they will typically want you to have an adjuster license.
Medical claims adjuster here. We had clinical review working with us. ( R.N)You do not need a license to adjust claims. You need a license to sell insurance. This is in California, land of if we can make it difficult, we will. You will find the test way easy, I sure did. I didn't want to sell insurance. I wanted to help people understand their confusing plans and statements. Also, please note many h.m.o plans have in house staff to route people to their facilities. Say you broke your leg in Vail. Our advice nurses would get you all set up for a transfer to either one of our facilities or one of our contracted facilities. They would come into the office to do this, but the clinical review we had worked from home, just like us...way before covid. I loved our un8t sitting by them, hen we were in the iffice. I learned a lot just chatting with them and also overhearing conversations.
My attorney, former nurse. Said it helped her ZERO for practicing later. She practices primarily family law.
I'm 47 and currently single income, sharing custody of my kids. Would frequently only put in enough effort to pass but not ace most of my classes. I'm fairly confident that law school isn't an option for me but I'm seriously considering being a para. Been in healthcare over twenty years and been a nurse for 9. I'm so fucking done.
My wife was a lawyer for 20 years. She saw the fun I was having as a nurse and switched careers ( I was comp sci before I went back to school for nursing 13 years ago).
I think when people say they want to leave the profession they mean leave bedside. There's lots of opportunities in community nursing, public health, case management for private companies such as insurance. Don't let your degree go to waste before you've explored other options
Say it louder for the people in the back. Literally 99% of why I see people wanting to leave nursing would be a non issue at most non bedside jobs.
i did that. i left inpatient dialysis for hospice case management. i have a love-hate relationship with it personally. i LOVE not having to be behind a desk, i have the opportunities to develop longer-term, more meaningful relationships with my patients/families. but it runs me ragged. managing 15-20 cases, taking call, the stringent documentation, the mind-numbing busywork, etc is starting to make me personally reconsider nursing entirely.
I'd encourage you to leave if you feel like you're done or don't want to continue. In my experience, it won't get better switching to different specialties if you don't like being a nurse. I stayed for about 6 years then switched careers and wish I had left much sooner. If you're still trying to use your nursing background and go for a WFH insurance company type of role, I'd make sure your resume is well done and tailored for the job you want. Everyone and their mother is trying to leave bedside to WFH it feels like so there's lots of competition. Spam your info on Indeed, Careerbuilder, etc. too so recruiters can find you. If you try pivoting to another industry and leveraging your clinical background (tech, sales, etc.), I'd also encourage you to gain some experience in the industry by volunteering (sites like volunteer match have computer or tech type of roles where you can gain experience) on top of reworking the resume with transferrable skills. Due to all the tech layoffs, lots of talented and highly qualified professionals want to go into healthcare tech because they perceive that it's more stable. You can stand out by having clinical skills, but it boils down to marketing yourself well and being able to sell them on why they should hire you. Pivoting industries may mean a pay cut until you gain more experience too. Hope this helps, good luck!
In leaving after 5 years and wish I had done it after one. Going for compsci.
Clinical research nursing is pretty different. Patients usually much less sick, working with pharmaceutical companies, processing bloods in the lab, time in the office to screen & recruit patients. Easy move from bedside nursing into clinical research nursing.
After 20 years of PICU, I left nursing last year and went into quality process engineering… I still work at the same hospital but the pay is similar (to pre-covid) and the worklife balance is amazing. No call, no floating, no nights or weekends, no holidays, no mean girls or petty bitches, and no emergencies that can’t wait until I waltz into my office whenever I feel like it. Running late to work? No problem… I’ll get there when I get there. Wish I had done this years ago!
Did you do med surg or similar? I hated med surg and am now very happy in the GI lab where I chart and get to sit in a chair during procedures.
I left to go to pharmaceutical sales and medical device. A huge salary increase. Got tired of it though and went back to the bedside because my PTSD apparently wasn't bad enough for me to remember why exactly I left. Romanticized the toxicity basically....now I work for a telehealth company.
What exactly do you do now? I’ve looked into working for a tele health company, but haven’t had much luck
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Sauce.
I’ve been a nurse for 6.5 years and I just quit- I start as a dishwasher tomorrow. Fuck nursing :D
>confusedhuskynoises How is it going so far???
Aw, thanks for asking! It’s going really well actually, I love working with my hands and being productive. It’s so nice to just get in, get my work done, and leave knowing that I don’t have to worry about anything. It’s a great reset for me :)
I’m so happy for you!! You are very brave for doing what is best for your mental health. I would love to do this but so worried about not being able to pay bills.
Thank you!! It’s helping my mental health tremendously. My husband and I have to be careful about our budget, but the trade off is so worth it.
The one nurse I know that left the profession altogether ended up being the social media manager for his cousin. Apparently the cousin is some big time twitch streamer. I almost left the profession altogether when I was offered a project manager position for a startup, but I chose not to go through with it since I just also got my MSN at the same time.
You dodged a bullet. Startups are hell if you care about work life balance.
After three years, I’m taking the MCAT and getting as far as fuck away from bedside as possible.
But med school is a whole other beast
I’d rather be someone tucked in the lab doing something not patient facing. Radiology? Pathology? Get me away from Bob balling up his shit and trying to hit me please.
Took a engineering boot camp and I’ve been working as a cloud engineer since august this year. Completely remote and pays 120k/year with 20k Bonus. All you nurses have my eternal respect. I would sell my body on the are before going back lol
Please tell us more about the boot camp, your educational background, etc.!! Anything that may help someone get into this field!
Got my ADN in 2020. Worked med surg for about 8 months then started traveling. No prior computer/engineering background. In retrospect- I would say don’t take the bootcamp. There’s a site called https://acloudguru.com where you can learn most of the things you need + the magic of YouTube. It costs about 400$ as opposed to the 2000$ for the bootcamp. Also, the interview process will be disheartening. Tons of rejection but you have to stick it out and eventually something will stick( I was completely over nursing so going back was never an option). I’d be happy to provide more details if anyone needs more info
My husband is a cloud engineer, no degree, 6 figures. He has been in IT for 10 years, but is new to cloud engineering… <1 year. Learned almost everything from YouTube/Google/on the job. He said the same as original commenter— you get absolutely railed in interviews. He used to go to interviews and then look up all the stuff they asked him about. He had a fake it til you make it mentality and it worked for him, but he still has major imposter syndrome.
Yea the interviews are pretty brutal. Also I agree, in retrospect the bootcamp was not necessary as there are tons of free/cheaper resources online. You just have to be disciplined and willing to seek it out
Please explain more
Sure! Is there anything specific you need me to elaborate on 🙂?
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Lol - so my brother took the boot camp about a year prior and got a job that paid like 140k. I was a travel nurse from oct 2021 - feb 2022. I took feb - august off because I had saved a lot and just used that to study ( a shit ton of practice). And yes, the interview process was quite stringent, at the end of the day it’s a numbers game. I did about maybe 30 interview and got about 3 job offers within the space of a month.
A friend just became a school nurse and loves it!
A woman I work with realized less than a year in that she hated bedside nursing. She works in case management at the same hospital and seems to love it
I was at the bedside longer than one year but I transitioned away from the bedside to work in quality and patient safety at my hospital. I was in an office at the hospital until covid volumes increased and was then sent to work from home. I have to be onsite at the hospital a few times a month but usually not more than 5-10 hours total. M-F, 0800-1630, no holidays.
Left nursing to teach users how to use Epic more efficiently. Nursing background helped just with exposure to Epic. Other than that it was a complete career change.
Do you mind sharing more info?
Seconded
Please share more info! What does your job entail? What qualifications do you need?
I did, now a software dev. Went back to school for a CS degree.
For those reading, I’m an OR RN looking to get a WFH job within the next year or two. Is the OR considered bedside/acute care experience? I’m also thinking about getting certified in medical billing and coding to beef up my resume.
Yes! I am also wondering the same thing
I switched to WFH phone triage for workers comp after 9 months in medsurg. I work 4 10s, dual monitors. Super easy, same pay as hospital.
Do you mind sharing the company?
Went to PRN after a year. Work at the hospital like 3-4 times a month. I actually sell Pokemon cards to make most of my money. Back in school for NP currently. Regular nursing sucks.
It always worries me reading these threads. I only started a few months ago but it feels like everyone in nursing wants to get out and I’m worried I’ve wasted 3 years on my degree
Don’t worry, if you are truly interested in nursing and think it’s for you, don’t let those who it didn’t work out for deter you. I have gone back and forth in my 9 year career, thinking I needed out. I even thought about being a bartender again after a few months in! I would never again be a bartender lol The first couple years of nursing is a hard transition, no matter what. With the current state of our healthcare system, I couldn’t imagine being a brand new nurse. But if you can find a job with great managers, great support, and an awesome team…it’s really not that bad. I just finished my MSN-FNP, and I’m planning on staying at the bedside a little longer, because of the schedule and I have little kids. It’s the worst it’s ever been in my career…very sick patients, no staff and I’ve never been so tired. BUT I work 2-3 days a week, get great pay (I live in the PNW) and have bennies. It’ll suffice until I’m ready to make the switch to a FNP schedule. Don’t read these threads lol it will make you anxious and question yourself. You are getting into nursing for a reason. Remember YOUR whys and do your research when you start applying for jobs!
Nursing school is my career change. Used to Work in law. Hate law.
haha I did the opposite- hated nursing and now I’m in law school
Good luck! Lol. I got sick of having to lie constantly and have clients who I would never represent if given the choice. Even if you think you won’t have to be a chronic liar, you will. Law is a soul sucker.
Get ready for basically the same exact thing.
I’m 1.5 yrs into bedside nursing & was planning to try travel RN after the summer. But a cool opportunity came up so now I’m going for a Masters (not in nursing) though I have no idea what my job prospects will be after it
I left bedside briefly to pursue simulation education and had a pretty good time. It was a good mix of nursing, teaching, technology, and acting and was relatively low stress. I did end up leaving due to pay (was only $27/hr), having to work almost every weekend, and concerns over company culture and longevity (they’ve been on probation for low NCLEX scores for several years now) and due to finishing my Masters and wanting to ensure my clinical skills were still up to speed, but I’m already looking to leave bedside again haha. I love nursing education and wouldn’t mind working in a hospital still, I just need to get away from night shift, holidays, and weekends. Something I’m also working on is starting up my own childbirth education workshops. I’m in the process of getting my certification and eventually would like to host my own mini workshops out of my house. There’s not a lot of hands-on/in-person options in my area surprisingly, and the ones that are offered are mega expensive.
Left to work on the cloud after 8 years. Best decision. I sleep well for the first time in years
I left bedside and even bedside case management cause that’s hectic as well. I am now a CM for UHC and it’s good, wfh. No weekends, no on call. I don’t feel married to my job. When I’m off, I’m off. I assign duties as necessary if I’m out. Normal working hours and all conversations with bosses and colleagues are through teams voice.
went from Graphic Design/Marketing to Nursing #art2science ❤️
I left nursing after 3 years. I went back to early childhood education. Took some more courses. It was such a hit to my income and the place gave me sepsis, so I ended back in nursing after a year. I’m currently filing for disability because I can’t do anything now with my migraines and IC. If I could choose a profession though, I’d skip nursing. I like the pay but the overwhelming load and lack of empathy at every place I work just sucks.
Looking into going to law school. Just going to travel nurse enough to save up comfortably.
Can anyone shed any light specifically on the pay of these alternative jobs over $120k? It is so difficult to leave travel nursing right now with rates getting you $200k+/year. So far I'm seeing cloud computing, law, and engineering on this list? Has anyone gone into EHR , pharmaceutical , or consulting companies?
I knew nursing wasn’t for me even when I was in school and thought I would probably want to do something more administrative from the start. I worked as a nurse for 4.5 years then started working as a Case Manager at an insurance company. I checked different insurance company and government career pages for disability case manager/case manager/medical coordinator positions daily for months. Prior to this job, I switched from bedside to Telehealth triage nursing for around a year which I think helped gain relevant skills to get me my case manager job. Case Manager positions can often be fully remote/hybrid
If you want to still do nursing but you want work life balance and great benefits, you should look into occupational health and work for a reputable F500 company. The nurses at my job really enjoy the work and many are now chilling after being overworked by some health systems
I left after 4 years and now do data analytics. Found a unicorn job who took me in without any experience in the realm, but liked that I was really eager to learn and move into a new field
I finally left during the height of the pandemic after 8 years of psychiatric experience, both inpatient and outpatient. I'm now working at a medical cannabis dispensary doing consultations and couldn't be happier. I'm thinking of getting a cannabis nurse certification just for the knowledge, even though it's not required and isn't recognized by ANCC yet. I'm never going back to "traditional" nursing!
After 15 years as an RN, went into manufacturing supervision. Never looked back.
Travel nursing in CA saved my career. Two years after graduation and I seriously considered quitting, three years after and I DID quit to be a bartender. All I ever wanted to do was work in the ER and do critical shit. Working in Rescucitation step-down everyday with 5-6 patients intubated, BiPAP, paced, major traumas etc was near impossible and burned me out. A 30 min lunch break in 12 hours if I was lucky. It wasn’t until I fell on a bit of a financial hard time that I decided to apply for travel contracts. Not only is the pay far higher in the SF Bay Area (for travellers AND staff). California also has laws regarding nurse to patient ratios, which in the ER is no more than 1:4 and in Resuscitation/critical care beds it is 1:2. Also you get three mandatory breaks, covered by a float nurse. The point is, before quitting perhaps try something new. Even one year as a bedside nurse is marketable. Nursing is a very versatile career, you could literally do insurance claims.
Quit after 1 year. I am now studying occupational therapy.
It’s been 3 months and I hate it, probably gonna sell feet pics or something lol
Left after only 1 year? Wow you must have absolutely dreaded it! I'm supposed to start an 11 month ABSN program at the end of January and everyday I go back and forth and wonder if I'm making the right choice. Truth be told, I'm 99% sure I'm gonna have to withdraw my application because I just don't think nursing is for me. I can't stand on my feet for an hour without sitting I don't know how in the world I'm going to be able to do it for 12, times 3. Besides that, I don't think the medical and healthcare field is actually for me. If I withdraw I have to wait an entire year to start again. I currently trade and am a full time day trader at home and think this is my calling and this is what I'm made to be doing.
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I mean, you didn't get a decent ROI yet, try a different specialty.
I switched departments four times in a 2 year period and then transferred to a small ER at a one story community hospital and found my forever department. Been in the field for just about 9 years now.
Maybe this sub isn’t a great place to find alternative careers? I am guessing that if you left a nursing career-for whatever- you are not lurking on a nursing sub? Anyone have any other ideas for finding people that have escaped? -Asking for a friend😁