I’m so excited to finally share some very exciting news – I HAVE A NEW JOB! YAY!
I have officially accepted a position as a nurse on the Mother/Baby unit at my current hospital – University of Maryland St. Joseph Medical Center!
My current Job
Let’s back up to my current job… I’ve been a nurse for 3 years on a med surge telemetry floor. I took care of patients with strokes, heart attacks and other cardiac problems, infections, respiratory issues, covid when that was bigger… there’s a lot more but those are some of the main diagnoses.
Being a med surge nurse has been the most difficult and exhausting job I’ve had. Over the last 1-2 years I have even considered leaving the profession and honesty I still do sometimes. I decided to become a nurse because I wanted to take care of people and help people. Little did I know I would be SO burnt out after only 3 years, feeling like I can’t even take care of myself sometimes. It’s fast paced, with a lot of really sick and often confused patients. There’s so much more to it, but I won’t go into too much detail here. It was not rewarding 95% of the time.
I just wanted to be happy and like my job.
So I decided to leave!
MY NEW JOB
My new position will be on the Mother/Baby unit, which is the area where moms go with their babies after giving birth. Every hospital is different, but at St. Joe’s, the Mother/Baby unit is separate from Labor and Delivery which means I will not be cross trained there. My hospital also doesn’t take critical/high risk moms on their Mother/Baby unit either, so I won’t be taking care of any really sick patients. Some things I will be responsible for are monitoring moms for bleeding, helping with pain management, providing LOTS of education, and giving newborn babies baths! Which already sounds like a dream compared to my current unit.
My first and one of my favorite jobs was working as a nanny/babysitter which I did for over 10 years. After being around mostly geriatric adults the past couple years I realized how much I miss being around babies. So I’ve spent the past couple months applying to a few jobs and shadowing Mother/Baby units. Even after spending just 4 hours on the unit at my current hospital, I felt like I could see myself working there and being happy.
my new schedule
For the past two years I worked weekend nights on my floor, 7pm-7:30am every Friday, Saturday and Sunday with the exception of one weekend per every 8 weeks which I was off for. I will no longer be doing weekend option once I move to Mother/Baby but I will still be working night shift and every third weekend. I LOVE having a consistent, set schedule every single week (working the same nights every week, always 3 nights in a row) so I am sure I will miss that! I will have some say in my schedule though so I can try to schedule as many nights in a row as I can. I just have found this to be easier as a night shift nurse so that I can have somewhat of a regular schedule on my days off.
I probably would have switched to day shift if I was a morning person, but I have tried it and it is just not for me. I always say I’m allergic to mornings because I sometimes get physically sick to my stomach when I get up really early! I wish my body could handle it though because I would have a much more normal schedule on my days off. I will however have to orient on day shift for about 4 weeks (pray for me LOL) so that I will learn and see more. There’s more discharges, admissions, lactation consultants, surgeries scheduled during the day and I have to do some share days on Labor and Delivery. But I will switch to nights after that.
Pay difference
I will actually be taking almost a $20,000 pay cut when I switch units because I will no longer be weekend option. I probably would have stuck with weekends if my new unit had an opening but I am looking forward to having my weekends off again! The money was not worth it to me and if there is anything I learned from the past few years it’s that my health and happiness is so much more important.
When I will start
My last night on the floor was last night, June 6th! I leave for my honeymoon June 13th and get back the 19th, and then I will start on Mother/Baby the 21st. So it ended up working out perfectly!
You are smart! I applaud your wisdom to choose to have a balanced healthy and happy life! With very best wishes to you!
Congrats! Our nurses were such angels during our hospital stay with my daughter, you will be making such a big difference in their lives!