Posted by octopusprime on August 6, 2004, at 0:51:43
In reply to Why I Should Leave Nursing, posted by Cinderella on August 5, 2004, at 16:42:11
cinderella:
my mom is a nurse. she is semi-retired now, just working one or two days a week until my dad retires.
i know nursing has destroyed my mother's back and shoulder. it has also broken her spirit in a way. she is so tied up in the nursing identity. mom works in the chronic care ward with mainly geriatric patients. now that her father (my grandfather) is a geriatric patient requiring chronic care, she can't break out of the nurse mold and get back into the parent/child relationship.
so it's not just a job cinderella, it's WHO YOU ARE. have you talked about this kind of work identity with your therapist if you have one? cause if you are just to quit, i'm afraid of you disintegrating because your core identity disappeared.
not to say that you can't build a new core identity, you're fairly young ...
your work is very stressful. would you be happy in a lower stress nursing environment? maybe as a public health nurse giving shots or a traveling STD information road show?
i wonder about marketing and advertising as alternate choices. these are 180 degrees from nursing - no offense to marketing people, but your task there is to create need where none exists, to direct thought, to manipulate. is it the idea of revenge that draws you to these ideas?
do you feel manipulated? do you want to put the shoe on the other foot? do you really want to abandon the caring side of you? or would you rather learn to apply that caring side of you in a way that is more healthy to you?
ramble ramble. anyway take from this what you like. hope it helps
poster:octopusprime
thread:374448
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/social/20040802/msgs/374585.html