Sunday, February 9, 2020

Continuing Education

I recently joked that I would die as a crusty old beside ER nurse, and that whatever hospital is dumb enough to keep me hired on would be stuck with my cranky ass forever.

All joking aside, I really do think that's true. I don't have any desire to go back to school for my NP, as I don't want to spend time sitting through BS nursing theory classes and I definitely don't want to be a prescriber. The NP market where I live is especially saturated, so I'd end up in a minute clinic or doctor's office anyway, which is about as far from ER as I can imagine.

I abhor the thought of becoming management - or at least upper management. I could possibly see myself becoming a charge nurse, or maybe even something like a clinical supervisor where I get to do low level stuff like scheduling, yearly evaluations, and conflict resolution between coworkers while at the same time being able to do some bedside nursing. But upper management? Fuck that noise. All these positions of chief people officer, chief nursing assistance big shot person officer, chief resource person...all of those may as well be titled Chief Bullshit Person. They're unnecessary, and a huge part of the reason why hospital costs are ballooning out of control while the ones actually providing care are wrung out until theres nothing left to do but quit.

I don't want to be a full time professor, as that requires a Master's Degree and thusly a big NOPE. Perhaps I could be a clinical instructor and help educate the brand new nursing students, but that would only be part time.

No, I think I just want to be the best goddamn clinical nurse you've ever seen. I want to be the nurse with a zillion certifications, not so I can list them but so that I can gain that knowledge. I want to be the nurse that everyone comes to for advice, or to run a question by, or to double check a skill against. I want to be the nurse who knows every single staff member in the hospital, who to call to find something, and all the door codes to all the secret supply rooms. I want every patient of mine to be able to subconsciously recognize that I can take excellent care of them. I want to be able to train new graduates and make them into good nurses. I want every staff member to think "she's really good at this." I want to be the best I can be, for the benefit of my patients.

Yes, I think I'm alright with being "just" a staff nurse forever.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Honestly, good for you.

I've been going through this in my own career. At 58, I don't want to fork over retirement money to get the graduate degree that I suddenly need to keep my pay at the level it's been. But no one will hire me in the role I did for 20 years because I don't have that specific degree.

So I'm taking a step back and starting over again, a big pay cut instead of a small one, but I'll be internal to a company that really needs my skills. I'll learn the ropes of their industry and only then, will I go back to practicing my work voodoo. Aiming for retirement at 70 or later. Fingers crossed.

knittynurse said...

It is a weird world where you have to clearly fight against the senior BS people and being the very best at what you do seems like a choice to defend. Even in Canada the layer of BS people is getting really, really thick. I like how you have articulated the value in being a fanstastic bedside nurse!

Oldfoolrn said...

I was more than happy to be a forever bedside nurse, of course there were no NPs or nurses with advanced degrees in my day. I think my disdain for the nursing administration/academic complex comes out frequently in my blog. Nurse office sitters of any permutation really rankle my hackles! Don't get me started!

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