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Sat 4 Feb, 2006 09:33 am
Job Decision
Hi everyone, I am currently having difficulty making a career decision. I have been a nurse for 13 years most of which has been in dialysis. I recently have been bouncing from dialysis clinic to clinic unable to find job satisfaction and the desire to stay based on working conditions. I recently received my BSN and took a job as a case manager nurse consultant. I am having difficulty making a decision on which job is a better career choice for me. My question is what criteria do people use when making a job choice? Both jobs have the same pay one has better medical benefits and time off and is 5 days a week 8 hours no holidays or weekends, while the other is 4 10 hour days with rotating Saturdays and you start early in the morning providing direct patient care on your feet most of the day. Another issue Im having difficulty with is giving up direct patient care as a case manager but when I go back to dialysis I find it as the same old thing and hate it by the end of the first week. I have no desire to go back into the hospital and do bedside acute care nursing and enjoy most of the aspects of case management except the 5 day work week. Thanks for letting me put my thoughts into words and any suggestions would be appreciated.
I consider a number of things when I make these decisions. Pay and job benefits tend to be secondary; most nursing jobs tend to pay in a specific range, so salary fluctuations are not that extreme, unless you leave the hospital for clinics or public health positions, and benefits are pretty similar across the board. I like to take in other factors, such as these:
1. Is the new position sufficiently challenging and interesting to keep me growing and satisfied as a nurse? Are there opportunities to learn new things, gain new skills, or stretch myself? Do I like the job that I am being asked to do?
2. What is the work environment like? Are the people you work with supportive of each other? What about the personality of the manager? How are nurses treated on that unit or in that position, and how do they treat each other?
3. How does this job support my life outside of nursing? Does it create hardships with my family and friends? Can I still find time to do the things that are important to me or does it create obstacles, and if so, are those obstacles insurmountable, or can I live with them?
I never worry about leaving something that I've grown tired of. If you find you hate something, that's usually a sign that it's time to move on. This comes under the heading of LEAVING THE PAST BEHIND YOU. At one time, being a dialysis nurse may have been something you had a great deal of passion for, and loved doing, but now you've outgrown it. So put it down, and move on.
When I have a decision to make I just pray on it and everything turns out for the better Good luck and God Bless!
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