Left the bedside after a few years: what did you move to, and would you go back?
Discussion starterThe question
The fear in these threads is always the same one: leave the bedside and regret it, or stay and burn out.
If you left, where did you go? Clinic, case management, school nursing, telehealth, education, something else? What did the pay do, and what surprised you?
And if you went back to the bedside, what brought you back?
The conversation
2 repliesMost moves away from the bedside can be undone, but not all of them on the same timeline. Nurses who went back after a year or two in a clinic or case management generally said it was easier than they feared. The ones who stayed away longer often needed an orientation again, or a step through a unit that trains returners.
Before you go, ask the new employer whether any of their nurses still pick up hospital shifts. Keeping one per diem shift a month is how a lot of people kept the door open without staying in a job that was wearing them down.
If pay is the worry, compare the new role's yearly total to your current base without differentials. Leaving nights or weekends often costs more than the base rate change suggests, and it's better to know that number before the offer than after.
What would you tell them?
Answer from what you have seen. It posts without your name.
