Followup: Career paths for an ER nurse?

[penta]

So, following up on kate 's awesome effortpost in response to my last post here (asking about the organization of an ER department), I've got another question...it actually is in regard to the same character (my character's mom).

Just what is the career path for an ER dept nurse? Like, what's next?

Working assumptions:

1. The nurse has a BSN, but maybe is less-enamored of the shift-work lifestyle than she was. Is willing to get a graduate degree.

2. Nurse wants to continue with patient care, but also slowly move into management tasks (since I can only imagine ER nursing in an urban hospital is a high-adrenaline field that rewards youth and such things like reflexes or dexterity or stamina over more cerebral things the older folks can do) if the possibility opens itself up.

3. Nurse's husband? A SWAT team cop for the local PD. Meaning yeah, both parents (they have 2 kids - one is a supergenius at a space boarding school run by the government, the other is at home (and also a supergenius)) doing shift work can be crazy. Doable, but crazy.

I figure before I decide on a path, I should ask to see what the realistically potential paths are, presuming the character doesn't want to reboot their career entirely.

Sources searched:
Google ("emergency nurse" "career paths")
Wikipedia (the article on the MSN degree is not very helpful at describing what those with the degree do...)
discovernursing.com (actually semi-helpful, but still would like to know more)

Comments

[feuervogel]

She could move into a different part of the hospital, like ICU/CCU or general medicine (though those are likely to be shift work still. But if she has seniority, she could probably pull rank and get a steady shift.)

She could go to work in a doctor's office, which is pretty much the opposite of ER nursing.

She could get a nurse practitioner certification (varies by state) and see patients in an office setting (most states require this to be supervised by an MD, so she'd have to find a partnership).

People with MSN degrees usually teach nursing school, I think.

[chomiji]

Oh, I have a friend with that exact situation! She has moved into patient care management, which means she helps coordinate the various hospital services and specialty doctors for patients. It gives her a longer-term relationship with the patients and lets her see them (in many cases) get better and move on. It's far less stressful than the ER and has more regular hours.

[penta]

Hmm! Where could I find more info on this branch of the career?

[chomiji]

Well, I gotta say that Google is your friend. That's what I would do to get this info myself. I searched on

education patient care management career

And one of the links I got was this: Tips on How to Become a Patient Advocate

It specifically addresses nurses and career changers.

Good luck.

[penta]

Touche.

[lilacsigil]

My mother was an emergency nurse, then she went into theatre nursing (so assisting with surgery) then went into pediatric nursing, because it wasn't as hard physically and the shifts were more predictable. After that, she got a BSc (this was not part of nursing training in the 60s!) and an MSc in Nursing Science and taught nursing for 15 years. After that, she went to work for the Nursing & Midwifery branch of the Medical Board, which has oversight of all registered nurses and midwives (and students of these disciplines) in Australia.