Your journey (jobs) as a nurse?

How has your career surprised you as a nurse? What paths have you taken you never expected to cross? Have you stayed in one job forever or have you had many? I love hearing about how many different paths we all take.

As for me I started out in med surge and have done that pretty well for 6 months. I am now moving on to Public Health nursing mainly because of having young kids making night shift incompatible. I can't wait to see how my career changes as the years go by. Will I become an NP? Or will I go back to bedside as an RN? Or will I go into school nursing? So many options!!!

Where has nursing led you?
LPN- inpatient acute care psychRN- NICU >> ED >> NICU >> home care >>Adult ICU/CCU/house supervisor >> NICU (see a pattern here?) >>home care >>gero-psych >>med-surg/ house supervisor>> home care (earned BSN)>> PICU (earned MSN)>> adjunct faculty/ PICU!My next stop is (hopefully) DNP and entrepreneur
That's awesome!!!! What a very interesting career you've had! Thanks for sharing!
After graduating from nursing school I applied to every and all job within a 2 hour radius. Jobs in my area were super tight at the time. I was offered only 2. Corrections and PICU. Took PICU. Did 2 years there then decided to try a different, unionized, hospital. Went to their BMT unit (adult only system). Decided not for me. Called my old manager and she took me back. So in PICU I will stay. Sometime it takes leaving to decide you really love and miss something.
That's awesome! Glad you found your way back "home"!
I have to say of all the jobs I've had. PICU is - by FAR - the most clinically interesting/ challenging/ difficult thing I've done in 30+ years as an RN. I am stretched and learn something new EVERY. Single. Shift.
I worked as a medical assistant at an urgent care clinic. Then I graduated from LPN school and wlorked in LTC facility, and started working extra shifts through a nursing agency. From there I went on to be school nurse, then back to agency and LTC. Graduated from RN school last year. Went to a pediatric hospital, but that wasn't the place for me. So now I'm currently working on a busy med surg floor, which I love and plan to stay for a long, long time.
I started my RN career in a med-psych unit in the VA. I have been privileged to be part of the nursing profession during great changes. When I started as an aide, way before certification, we kept people who had heart attacks in bed for 3 weeks. If they lived through that then we considered them invalids the rest of their lives. Compare that to current treatment of the same malady. We now know bed rest was probably the cause of death for many of those unfortunates. Those that did not die had so much muscle atrophy they were unable in most cases to recover. Along the way I have worked many types of nursing. I never worked the OR. That is about all I missed. I nursed in 4 states and now no longer nurse but try to keep up with a few things that matter.
I really love these stories. It really is amazing how we all carry the title "nurse" but have such varied experiences! It also excites me because it makes me think of how much possibility there is in this field.
Office nursing at a big Kaiser type multiple location clinic, case mgmt at same, radiation oncology (briefly), office nursing again at a big multi-site Ob/Gyn group, research coordinator.
6 yrs as a NA, 6 yrs in tele as RN in California, 1 yr med-surg as a registry nurse in Hawaii, 2 yrs in level 2 nursery, Hawaii, 1 yr in home health in Virginia, 7 years postpartum and newborn nursery , Virginia, 7 yrs house supervisor, same hospital in Virginia, 8 yrs couplet care (3 yrs in Florida, 5 yrs in Arizona). Next year I retire .
NA in an inpatient rehab unit for 4 years while in nursing school. Graduated and moved to Hawaii. Couldn't get a foot into any hospitals, ended up working in a Family Medicine Clinic for a year, then did some agency work in Corrections for a few months. Now I've been in a College Clinic for over a year. It's a great position, but I'm anxiously waiting to get back into the hospital. I always loved my 3 12s in nursing school and ever since I've been a 9-5er. I too look forward to seeing where this journey takes us
I started as an outpt dialysis nurse. I wanted PICU. But, that was the only job I could get. I did that for a year. Then I moved to CA b/c I was offered an ICU position. I told someone there I knew how to do dialysis and my phone rang off the hook. Big $. So, I did travelling acute dialysis which took me all over the state. I saw a lot of pts that were in failure or dying b/c of medical malpractice. So, I moved back to Boston and went to law school. I prosecuted medmal caes for 7 years. But, I was unhappy. Every office I worked was full of angry people. Trial attorneys are always in adverserial mode. After thinking long and hard about it, I went back to travelling acute dialysis. I really liked one of the hospitals I travelled to. So, one day I asked for a job. They gave it to me on the spot! I did acute dialysis there for 5 years. I then transferred to I.R. to do proceural sedation. I had been on call most of my working life. An opportunity arose to do procedural sedation without oncall. However, I found myself in a very dysfunctional practice. So, after 3 years I transferred to the call center to do telephone triage. That's where I am now. It's the best job I have ever had!