How the “Wrong” Career Choices Have Built Me a Kick-Ass Nursing Career (Part Two): Soft Nursing

New grad nurses are inundated with advice from family, friends, professors, and other nurses. Much of it focuses on pursuing a prescribed path through nursing to get to their ultimate career goal, whatever specialty or department that might be.

I ignored a lot of that advice throughout my own nursing career, yet I have still managed to tailor a fulfilling and sustainable career, with zero regrets and lost opportunities. This series of posts examines some of the most persistent myths out there about starting and building a nursing career, one “bad” choice at a time.

“Bad” Choice #2: I Embraced the “Soft Nursing” Life (And I was Able to Return to the Inpatient World as if I Hadn’t Even Left)

Nurse in scrubs with coffee cup.

I had gone into nursing school (and honestly graduated with) a clear-cut plan for my nursing career. One that would inevitably lead me to becoming a nurse practitioner.

Four years later, I was a pretty burnt-out ICU nurse who decided my original plan wasn’t what I wanted.

And I felt…lost.

I had always been the kind of person who planned ahead, knew what she wanted, and pursued it fervently. Now I didn’t know what I wanted. Physically and mentally, night shift was wearing on me, especially as a mother of young children.

Then I discovered the “soft nursing” life. I don’t believe that term was around then, but essentially, “soft nursing” involves typically lower-stress jobs (or at least not “I could kill this person with the wrong decision” type of stress) with predictable schedules, lunch breaks, and nights/weekends/holidays off. This could mean clinic nursing, school nursing, phone line triage and/or advice, and case management, to name a few.

For me, it meant utilization review for a couple big insurance companies.

It honestly was life-changing and career-saving. I worked remotely, and I had so much flexibility that I did not have to call off in three years with one of the companies. I was salaried, and at the time, these companies paid more than the hospital did. I had a regular schedule, with no weekends, nights, or holidays.

Even with all those benefits and advantages, I returned to inpatient nursing, simply because I wanted to. I decided to pursue advanced practice, and I felt that more experience in direct patient care would facilitate that goal. I also realized I find the ICU to be more intellectually stimulating for me. Now, most situations are what you make of them. You can find “soft nursing” to be intellectually stimulating, whether it’s the care you provide or quality improvement processes to better or more efficiently provide that care. But for me, I was happiest in a high acuity setting with a lot of details to consider when providing patient care.

Indulging in the “soft nursing” life was hardly limiting for my career. About two years after returning to the bedside, I became a flight nurse. A couple of years later, I completed my advanced practice degree. “Soft nursing” allowed me to take some time to work on my mental and physical health, to be fully present in my home life, and to work out what I wanted my career to look like. I would not be where I am today without stepping away from hospital nursing.

Nurse working from home on computer.