Leaving Patient Care Nursing
Making the decision to leave patient care nursing is a deeply personal one. Most of us choose the nursing profession for the direct contact we have with patients. If you have nurse burnout and you've determined bedside nursing is no longer a good fit, you might want to consider trading in your scrubs for a power suit. There are plenty of job opportunities for nurses in a corporate setting.
What a Corporate Nursing Career Looks Like
You might miss the face-to-face interaction with patients, but you can rest assured that your work in a corporate setting will still make a positive impact on patients. In some leadership positions, corporate nurses have the decision-making ability to benefit whole populations of patients.
While you definitely won't have the stress of working in a traditional hospital setting, I can tell you from experience, working in a corporate setting is still stressful. Project deadlines, tech issues, dealing with bureaucracy and annoying office politics may cause you some stress. It's nowhere near what you experience as a bedside
Flexibility Matters
If more flexibility is what you need in your life, consider making the switch to become a corporate nurse. You likely won't be on-call or have to work rotating weekends and your hours will be normal business hours. This could be 9 to 5, 8 to 4 or 10-6. At one point in my corporate nursing career, I worked 10-6 as a nurse case manager. I
If you've decided you're ready to explore corporate nursing, check out some of the industries hiring nurses today:
Healthcare Organizations
Health or Medical-related Software
Medical Equipment
Pharmaceutical and Biotech
Insurance (Medical, Worker's Compensation)
Law firms
Consulting firms
Tools of the Trade
As if you need an excuse to go shopping, making the switch from bedside nursing to office work will require some new gear and tools to help with the transition. You'll likely have some of these items from working on the floor. It can't hurt to swap or upgrade some of this stuff.
Business Casual Threads – aka Biz Caj. The ultimate play it safe category of gear you want to wear for your new “office job”. Most office settings require business casual attire. You can't go wrong shopping at some staple corporate attire retailers like Anne Taylor LOFT, JCrew, Nordstrom, White House Black Market, The Limited, H & M and Target to cover all price points. Before I started working from home about 6 years ago, I shopped at them all, mixing and matching and accessorizing like crazy. No need to go crazy with clothes. Just get some key staples to set your foundation and accessorize to add the wow factor. I'll do a post dedicated to all this stuff one day soon.
Water bottle – Unlike your desk on a patient care unit, you'll definitely want to keep a water bottle close by when you're working from home or in an office. The prettier the better. I love the Drink More Water bottle and this S'well Marble water bottle.
Planner – I love my Day Designer planner. I couldn't function with out this baby. I really want to try the Simplified Planner by Emily Ley. I've heard awesome things about it. With all the meetings, appointments training you'll be attending, you'll definitely want one. I know, I know… you can enter/track all that stuff on your smart phone calendar. I hear you… But, call me old school. I like to jot things down. I still like to feel paper sometimes. If you do too, you'll definitely want to invest in one of these. They are stylish and functional. What's there not to like?
Pad/Folio – On the nursing units, it was rare to catch me without my personal clipboard of notes I jotted down throughout my shift. Through the years, I've always kept a notebook and pen with me. I have pads and pens all over my house, even next to my bed and the bathroom (TMI, i know), but you never know when an idea will hit you. In any case, once you transition to a corporate setting, you'll want to keep your notebook safe along with other key items as you're running from meeting to meeting. Once during a major EMR go-live, I thought I lost my precious notebook and had nearly an entire unit of staff hunting it down for me. I would've turned that unit upside down to find my notes. Come to think of it, I could use a new one. It's a great excuse to go to one of my favorite store, Staples. Check out some options from them here. I'm thinking of getting this one here
Work bag – I'm picky as hell about my work bags. I like my bags rugged and ready for wear and tear. For years, I used a Coach diaper bag as my work bag. It was fantastic! It was HUGE with flaps, tons of pockets and secret compartments… (sigh) I miss that bag. I'll get you a list of some good ones. I have an old laptop bag that I've had forever. I've got to share with you soon. I'll find out if they still sell it.
