Don’t Quit, Just Pivot: 25 Nurse Jobs Not at the Bedside
I vividly remember one particular moment during my nursing career because it’s probably the only time I ever felt genuinely embarrassed and overwhelmingly vulnerable.
If you’ve read my About page, you might be familiar with this story...
After a succession of particularly complicated shifts, my partner and I were at a dinner party with another couple we had just met a week prior.
In the middle of our conversation about what I do for work and finding common ground in our professional careers, our hosts asked me, “How do you cope with it all?”
I’m not exaggerating when I say I burst into uncontrollable tears. The depth of grief, sadness, overwhelm, and anxiety boiled up to the surface without hesitation and without remorse.
Bedside nursing is challenging, burdensome, and demanding. And at the time of writing this blog post, I’ve been here in the trenches with you all at the bedside for 6+ years. So know that I know and feel what you’re feeling right now.
If you feel like you should just give up and quit the nursing profession altogether, I’ve been there, and I did the research to figure out how to leave bedside nursing so you can regain fulfillment and satisfaction within your career and life.
Don’t panic…and don’t quit your nursing career just yet!
25 Nurse Jobs Not at the Bedside:
All salary averages listed are in the US, and the link listed will navigate you to Salary.com or ZipRecruiter.com for your reference.
Additionally, salaries largely depend on your experience level, years employed in your specialty, and location.
1. SCHOOL NURSE
Provides, monitors, and coordinates the care and wellbeing of students
2. HOLISTIC HEALTH COACH
Utilizes nursing knowledge to support clients in their individual health journeys
Approaches a client’s health in a holistic manner
3. PUBLIC HEALTH NURSE
Promotes and protects the health of a population
4. NURSE-TO-NURSE MENTOR OR CAREER COACH
Provides support and expert advice to a novice nurse
Ability to freelance, consult, or start your own business
5. PATIENT SAFETY NURSE
Identifies and evaluates trends for patient care and process improvements
Collaborates in creating changes to policies when needed
6. CLINICAL CLAIMS REVIEW OR NURSE AUDITOR
Provides clinical expertise for insurance policies related to eligibility, benefits, coding, billing, claims, and reimbursements
7. FORENSIC NURSE OR LEGAL CONSULTING
Works with victims of violence to gather and preserve medical evidence and provides experts witness testimonies used in court
Requires clinical nursing experience
8. CARE COORDINATING OR CASE MANAGER
Organizes and directs patient care activities and treatments
Provides support and guidance to patients navigating complicated healthcare systems
9. HEALTHCARE FREELANCE WRITER
Researches and writes educational material for a variety of media platforms
10. TELEHEALTH OR TELEPHONE TRIAGE
Utilizes technology to perform assessments of patients, educates patient when necessary, and makes recommendations for escalating treatment
11. CRUISE SHIP NURSE
Provides basic and emergent care to crew and passengers of the ship
12. HOME HEALTH
Cares for patients outside of a medical setting
Travels to a patient’s home to care for and treatment the patient
13. ACCREDITATION SPECIALIST OR QUALITY NURSE
Assures the organization is compliant with current laws and meeting accreditation standards
Promotes performance improvement projects throughout the facility to optimize patient care
14. UTILIZATION MANAGEMENT REVIEW OR CLINICAL DOCUMENTATIONS NURSE
Evaluates patient charts and maximizes the quality of patient care while ensuring minimal cost and avoiding duplicate procedures
Likely will require experience in case management, electronic records reviews, or risk management
15. EMPLOYEE HEALTH OR OCCUPATIONAL HEALTH
Monitors employee’s work related injuries or illnesses
Implements or improves protocols to ensure employee health and safety
16. AESTHETIC NURSE
Administers aesthetic services such as injections, fillers, laser tattoo removal, laser hair removal
17. FLIGHT NURSE
Aids in the care of a critically ill patient via air transportation
Requires several years of emergency or ICU level of experience
18. RESEARCH NURSE
Support the implementation of research studies by ensuring the safety of the patient
Roles like assistant the research lead, collecting data, monitoring research participants, educating participants and/or colleagues
Graduate degree required for those wanting to conduct independent research
19. NURSING INSTRUCTOR OR CLINICAL PROFESSOR
Educates to nursing students
Graduate degree required in formal settings
20. NURSE INFORMATICS
Integrates nursing science with computer science
Manages information technologies to influence health care policies
Higher level of education not necessarily required but salary will increase greatly due to education
21. WOUND CARE NURSE
Specializes in the care and treatment of wounds and ostomies in the home or medical setting
22. EMR CONSULTANT
Specializes in managing electronic information to optimize quality of care
Requires experience or graduate degree in information management
23. OPERATING ROOM NURSE
Several different critical roles to play in the functionality of the operating room and caring for those individuals undergoing operative procedures
Option for circulating and scrubbing in & follows the patient through preoperative, intraoperative, and postoperative care
24. CLINICAL NURSE SPECIALIST
Provides education and expertise for nurses in clinical areas
Develops and implements practice changes within the clinical setting
Graduate degree required
25. NURSE EXECUTIVE
Plans, develops, directs, and implements nursing policies
Oversees nursing personnel and implementation of patient care
Salaries vary widely depending on the nurse’s title, education, experience, + number of years in service
Graduate degree required
Don’t quit, just pivot…
Remember, no job is perfect and being a nurse can be challenging. But don’t quit, just pivot to another role, in another workplace, in another city…
Be daring enough to take a nontraditional path and disrupt the status quo.
One of the greatest parts about choosing nursing as a career is the crazy amount of variety attainable with one degree. Because for some, you may feel like going back to school is the right choice for you, but for others, school may not be in the cards for you—and that’s perfectly okay, you can still have it all with just ONE degree.
Whether you aspire to pursue further education or not, being a nurse provides you with the flexibility to experiment with different roles and responsibilities by simply switching jobs. This not only allows you to continually expand your knowledge and expertise in various nursing spaces, but also enables you to discover nontraditional nursing paths that you may never have considered before.
If you’re feeling like you’re not sure where to go next in your nursing career path, try reading my blog post, 17 Questions to Ask Yourself to Find Clarity in Your Nursing Career, to find the clarity you need to choose your next path.
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