If you’ve reached the point in your nursing career where you feel like you can’t go on and might need to abandon nursing and never look back, you’re considering “the nuclear option,” which means leaving the profession for good. While this is always a possible course of action, it’s not the only one. So, before you pull that lever and exit stage left, consider the many avenues you might still wander while remaining an active registered nurse.
Burnout and Compassion Fatigue Are Real
Before we go any further, we must first establish that nurse burnout, and compassion fatigue are real. Whether related to the COVID-19 pandemic or not, nurses experience tremendous amounts of work-related stress. This has led to increasing public knowledge and media attention to the fact that nurses are leaving, or contemplating leaving, their jobs — or even the profession itself — in large numbers.
There are plenty of reasons nurses feel beleaguered and overwhelmed by staffing, working conditions, and bullying and incivility.
The underlying causes of nurse attrition, burnout, and compassion fatigue are numerous. However, nurses experiencing these phenomena should know they are not alone, and there is no shame in reaching out for help.
“What? No Hospital?” Alternate Career Pathways
Contrary to what many nurses might believe, there’s more to nursing than working in acute care. According to the American Association of Colleges of Nursing (AACN) Nursing Fact Sheet (updated September 2022), 55 percent of registered nurses work in general medical and surgical hospitals. While acute care is where the majority of nurses are steered right out of nursing school, the fact remains that a considerable proportion finds happy career homes outside of the hospital environment.
In the non-acute nursing world, numerous opportunities exist for nurses seeking an alternative career pathway. The COVID-19 pandemic has created a surging market of remote nursing positions in care management, quality, and chart review, among many others. Further areas of interest for those seeking non-hospital positions include:
- Home health
- Hospice
- Dialysis
- Informatics
- Private physician and NP practices
- The pharmaceutical sector
- The medical device sector
- Functional medicine
- Holistic health
- Health coaching
- Ambulatory specialty clinics
- Federally qualified health centers (FQHCs)
- Occupational/industrial health
- Cruise ship nursing
- Urgent care
- School and camp nursing
- Forensics
- Nursing administration
- Nursing education
- Public health nursing
- Nurse inventor or product developer
- Nurse podcaster
- Nurse entrepreneur
- Private duty or concierge nursing
- Nursing on the sets of film and television productions
- Nurse life care planner
- Nurse journalist/writer
- Genetics
- Legal nurse consulting
- Addictions
- Medical claims analysis
- Cannabis nursing
- Nurse recruiter
- Advanced practice (CRNA, APRN, clinical nurse specialist, etc.)
There are countless alternatives for nurses who feel that the hospital environment is no longer a good fit or never was in the first place.
Being Circumspect About the “Nuclear Option”
The nuclear option of leaving the profession altogether is undoubtedly a choice — albeit a radical one. If retirement is possible, this is a route to a new life beyond one’s previous career path. If not, there may be a new avenue that’s calling.
Some nurses find that psychology, social work, or careers still connected to human services and the caring professions are viable and attractive. Still, others seek to take their enormous nursing skill set (e.g., critical thinking, crisis management, leadership, problem-solving, communication, and multidisciplinary collaboration) and seek an industry where those skills are highly valued.
The choice to leave the nursing profession is serious, especially when you have devoted many years — or even decades — to your nursing career. What is often advised is that you retain your nursing license for several reasons:
- Leaving the nursing career door open
- Picking up per diem shifts for extra money
- Keeping skills up to date
- Maintaining your hard-earned nurse identity
In the end, nurses are highly valued members of society who are deemed the most trusted professionals in the U.S. year after year in the Gallup poll. With a broad and deep set of soft and hard skills, an individual with a history as a nurse brings a great deal to the table.
If you’re leaning towards the nuclear option, the best advice is to be cautious and thoughtful in making that choice. Burnout can understandably drive you to make hasty or regrettable decisions, so taking your time is paramount. Seek the counsel of those you trust who has your best interests in mind. Think long and hard, and consider staying if you can.
However, if you pull that lever and seek new professional pastures, may you do so with no blame, no shame, and your head held high with the knowledge of the enormous service you’ve done to society as a registered nurse. And finally, know that you’ll be welcomed back to the profession with open arms if you ever choose to return.
Daily Nurse is thrilled to feature Keith Carlson, “Nurse Keith,” a well-known nurse career coach and podcaster of The Nurse Keith Show as a guest columnist. Check back every other Thursday for Keith’s column.
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