If you'd asked me a year ago, what I'd be doing this year I would have told you that I was still working in critical care and being a bedside nurse. It's crazy how the smallest thing like an injury can just have the biggest change in your life. Being a bedside nurse for the past 6.5 years has gave me some invaluable experience and I've met some incredible people that I couldn't imagine not having in my life.
I didn't think I'd be giving up bedside nursing quite so quickly into my nursing career. When I first started my critical care band 5 nurse position, it was my dream job and I honestly thought I'd be there till I was old and grey. Unfortunately injuring my hand at work unintentionally pushed me into education to save me going off sick and I discovered that it was something that I loved to do and I loved training staff, helping them expand their knowledge and learning to be constantly adapting my teaching style to allow the nurses I taught get the most from their learning. It's something that I'd definitely love to more my career more in the teaching avenue because it's truly something that I enjoy doing and could really see myself doing it longer term.
One thing I noticed once when I temporarily left bedside nursing for teaching is how much bedside nursing is like being back in high school, full of whispers, mean girls and fake people. It's something that you really don't realise until you step out of it and it was a real eye opener for me. It really cemented for me that it was time to take a break from bedside nursing and just get away from the situation for a while because my mental health had completely plummeted and my anxiety was at an all time high including the ever so lovely panic attacks I started having. The injury to my hand was just the catalyst that kicked it off. Finding out recently that I've damaged the tendons and ligaments that are going to take up to 3 years to fully heal if I don't have an operation on, it really was the disappointing news that I really didn't need and ngl I feel very sorry for my orthopaedic surgeon because he's either had me crying in pain or crying from bad news.
Who knows what the next few years will bring and maybe one day I'll be back in bedside nursing but for my own physical and mental health it was definitely the step that was needed and I'm already noticing a difference in my mental health and stress levels.
Have you ever taken a big career leap?
Speak to you next time!
