Nurse PN sufferers

[smitzel]

Hi, Nurses, I am currently a dental hygienist w/ 19 years experience and we do a lot of bending and twisting. I am thinking of going back to school for nursing because I thought this would be better for my back. I realize that lifting is not an option and would like to work in a different area, maybe public health or as a school nurse. Any input on this? i'm not even sure if I can go through the training with my pain but I love health care and thought the medical benefits would be nice as we don't get anything with dental hygiene. Are there many opertunities in nursing to do that don't involve lifting? and can I somehow bypass this while in training? Thanks for your reply.

Stephanie

[HerMajesty]

Stephanie,

I have an Associates' in Nursing and just as a heads - up, school nursing and many public health nursing jobs require a Bachelors' in Nursing, so if that is your goal you would be committing to a longer course of schooling. At least this has been true everywhere I have lived but I am not sure if there is any variation by State.

[Violet M]

School nursing would not require much lifting although might require some if you work at a school that has special needs kids -- but HM is right, it requires a BS degree. Public health might require a lot of twisting too if you are giving immunizations to infants. Unfortunately, I think it would be difficult to avoid lifting during your training. Do you have any interest in teaching?

[Celeste]

Hi, Nurses, I am currently a dental hygienist w/ 19 years experience and we do a lot of bending and twisting. I am thinking of going back to school for nursing because I thought this would be better for my back. I realize that lifting is not an option and would like to work in a different area, maybe public health or as a school nurse. Any input on this? i'm not even sure if I can go through the training with my pain but I love health care and thought the medical benefits would be nice as we don't get anything with dental hygiene. Are there many opertunities in nursing to do that don't involve lifting? and can I somehow bypass this while in training? Thanks for your reply.

Stephanie

My sister did a midlife makeover into nursing. The first required clinical rotation experience is working in a nursing home, bending and lifting to clean up old people. Several other areas will result in needing to help patients up or down. If you could somehow make it through that, you would have non-lifting options. Neonatal ICU would be one; those patients only weigh less than 5 lbs. You could go on to become a nurse practitioner or a nurse anesthetist, or even a nurse trainer. A school nurse would be paid from a school budget and if it's public school, it means you're a state worker and get whatever benefits all state workers get. Schools are finding it hard to afford nurses and either offer part time or you have to share between schools. Definitely look into the situation in your area. Some nurses work in a doctor's office; I haven't seen where that involves lifting but you never know.

Anyway, good luck with it. I know it's never easy to contemplate a new field, but when you're in pain it's even more daunting.

[HerMajesty]

To the nurses or other health professionals,
I recently joined IPPS, the International Pelvic Pain Society. I have been helping them out with promoting their October Annual Conference on Chronic Pelvic Pain, so I thought I should join. Today I got their welcome packet and their membership directory is depressingly thin to be honest. I mean, probably a few hundred people but not what we as pelvic pain patients would wish it to be. Just letting you know, if you want to join, you may do so as a health care professional. It is $125 for non-physician health care practitioners, and more for physicians. You can opt out of being on their online search, so that patients looking for practitioners do not mistake you for someone who is practicing in the pelvic pain field. It would be nice to see that list grow and the IPPS influence increase!

[carolynm]

Another nurse here!

[Violet M]

Welcome to the club Cari.

[carolynm]

Wish we could all meet for a glass of wine:)

[HerMajesty]

Wish we could all meet for a glass of wine:)

LOL with the pills most of us are on, I'm sure adding a glass of wine to the mix would make it an interesting meeting.

[carolynm]

Yes, we would probably end up knowing the most intimate details of each other's lives (I guess we already do!!!)

xx
cari