nursingforsocialjustice

I am a nurse. I have been a Registered Nurse for the past 13 years. I love being a nurse. I have had many great opportunities for to work with all kinds of people and provide direct care for all sorts in all sorts of settings. For most of my career the patient care area that I have worked in is mental health related and substance use related. In the last year I have had been having some really deep thinking sessions about where I want my career to go. And, in many ways I feel like I am at a crossroads where I seek to move away from what I know and my comfort level or I stay and try aggressively to make the opportunities myself. It many ways it seems like the end game for nursing is the hospital, or some sort of direct care centre in some sort of direct care capacity. We have to break out of that bubble (glass ceiling?).

In the first 5 years of my career I thought that getting a masters degree would lead to great leadership opportunities, and it did, but balancing work and life, supporting a partner in their career goals and supporting 4 children took me in directions I did not plan for. In the first 10 years of my career I did not do any deliberate career planning, I went where my interests took me, looking for new things. As I approach the what I anticipate is mid-career, I know some deliberate planning has to happen because I won’t get to where I want to go without some deep thought on my destination. This is a gap in nursing. In some ways it still feels like the overarching mentality is they once you work somewhere long enough you move up to clinical leadership and mid-management roles, or you stay a staff nurse forever. That can’t be the end game when a hundred different health professionals have move into the healthcare system to solve problems and fill gaps.

What is your career plan?

Love,

Michelle D.