INTJ Nurse Seeking Career Change

**jzero** · 01-25-2010, 10:08 PM

I have been an RN for 9 years and am seeking a career change. I have worked as a military nurse in OB,Same Day Surgery,Med/Surg,PACU,Peds, ER for 5 years and in the Federal System for 4 years. I do not enjoy the content of the job as an INTJ. I value autonomy and have too little of it (orders from providers). I like to have time to consider a problem from all angles and have a well thought out solution, many times in the ER I feel rushed. I like some degree of solitude, not people in my face for 12 hours straight asking for things. Too much labor intensive work (we don't have Nurses Aids, so we do a lot of helping patients out of bed,going to the bathroom, drawing labs,transporting patients to xray,lab, or ultrasound). We are not a high acuity ER so we see a lot of the same things over and over,the mundane details of charting and routine are rough on the "N" aspect on INTJ. Although I have the capacity to analyze the big picture, I feel I am stuck focusing on the detailed charting and laboring work that I don't have a chance to use that function as much as I would like. On my unit lots of nurses want to tell others what and how to do thier job. The only part I do like about the job is the job security, benefits, and great pay. My wife is a stay at home mom of my two kids ages 1 and 4. If I leave the federal system, which I have 12 years in, I would lose my 20 retirement and my wife would most likely have to work (which we don't want). I want to make a career change into something that plays to my personality and that I would be successful at. I see careers for INTJs are business, computer program, law, finance. However, it seems it may take a lot of education and money to get to another profession that I may not even like. I am brainstorming at this point, any suggestions on how to start this process or any INTJ careers in healthcare so I don't have to start all over again. Thanks.

**Syntax** · 01-25-2010, 11:50 PM

	Originally Posted by jzero To view links or images in this forum your post count must be 2 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.
	My wife is a stay at home mom of my two kids ages 1 and 4. If I leave the federal system, which I have 12 years in, I would lose my 20 retirement and my wife would most likely have to work (which we don't want).

Check..........and mate.

/seriously though....I hope someone has some good advice for you. I feel for you.

**Night Knight** · 01-26-2010, 01:04 AM

I'm planning to become a nurse myself. Right now I just finished my first semester in the nursing program and it was tough. I wouldn't recommend changing careers because the risk seems like it outweights the benefits. Remember you are doing this for your family and you have many benefits so why throw that away for a new career that you might not enjoy. Even though you get a new career that you like it will destroy the fun of why you joined that job. Kind of like making Art as a career if you are force to meet deadlines painting art wouldn't be the same joy and it will wear you down. Sometimes us INTJ have to sacrifice are independance for the greater cause. With these economical times it is hard to just switch careers.

Maybe you can try to get a higher degree in nursing like becoming a CRNA. Taking the classes should challenge your mind plus you will be making much more money.

You could try to plan a small business and work as a nurse at the same time. That might help your needs. Actually I wouldn't mind reading a book about your adventures of being a nurse and what patients you deal with so writing could be an option.

Do you have any advice for me about nursing? I am just an 20 year old student trying to complete the program. I hope I didn't speak out of turn.

**thod** · 01-26-2010, 01:32 AM

I would have thought that being a triage nurse would offer some degree of intellectual fulfilment in that you analyse and diagnose. If you don't like the human contact switch to a theatre nurse where the only patients you see are unconscious. Everyone thinks of the big career change. The problem is that it very difficult to do, your time is gone and you will never be young again. You have to leverage what you do know and not try to start at the bottom again with people 20 years younger.

**plushbug** · 01-26-2010, 03:18 AM

Speaking as someone who did the big career change (accountant to programmer) a number of years ago now, I'm with thod in thinking

	Originally Posted by thod
	You have to leverage what you do know and not try to start at the bottom again with people 20 years younger

I mean, for me it's worked out well, but

I'm single--had I been sole breadwinner for a family, the risks involved with what I did would have been intolerably greater
If I'd known then what I do now, I'd have been a lot more scared about what I was doing, because the risks in my case, of being passed over for younger people in my new discipline, devalued, disregarded, and basically having to start over near the bottom again in my original profession, to survive, were in fact a lot greater than I realized.
It was in fact sheerest bloody luck that my situation turned out well.

My background being as a finance officer in the field of (Canadian) First Nations health care, also within a federal gov't system, I've known quite a lot of nurses who've made transitions to other careers, almost all the more successful ones into health program management or related consulting...but almost without exception they've been 20-or-30-something singles or married but not sole breadwinners, with a lot less to risk.

Only other thought I have is, if you're a Federal employee, does that give you eligibility to apply on internal competitions for other Federal positions (I'm thinking similar or same benefits, and overall pension plan, here) where your [credentials|experience|planning/organizing abilities] might be marketable, even if not directly related?

**realitycheque** · 01-26-2010, 05:08 AM

Clinical Research Associate, working your way up to Project Manager or Quality Auditor. Problem right now is with the economy, most companies are requiring previous experience in clinical trials.

**themuzicman** · 01-26-2010, 06:30 AM

Stay where you're at. Yeah, it's frustrating. Put up with it for your family. Get to retirement, and then look at a change.

**realitycheque** · 01-26-2010, 10:08 AM

jzero, I thought of another possibility: Nurse Practitioner. There's more autonomy and higher pay. My SIL just finished her certification after 2 years of coursework on top of 12 years as RN. Jobs are available, and I anticipate a trend in which the need will increase (replacing physicians in GP work).

**jzero** · 01-26-2010, 12:00 PM

Thank you all for the insight, I see this problem as a puzzle to be solved there has to be an answer somewhere. I did shadow a CRNA while I was in the military. Downside is that they always got deployed to different parts of the world at a moments notice (not good for family life). I was enrolled in an online Nurse Practitioner Program part time, however that got really hard on my wife and son because I was almost never available (either working or studying) and kids are only young once. The federal system I am in now has limited jobs available for the pay and benefits that I get (I am very aware that these are important factors in this economy). While at work I do try to remind myself that the work has meaning becasue I do it for my family. The overall challenge here is to balance my family life with my drive to succeed at something I half way enjoy. Thanks guys.

**Doppelbock** · 01-26-2010, 01:45 PM

Two words: lactation consultant. Leverages your nursing experience, and hey, boobs.

Seriously, though, if you find some kind of specialty nursing like this, it could be there aren't too many people who can order you around, and you won't be helping to lift patients, etc. all day.

01-25-2010, 10:08 PM	#1
jzero New Member [01%] MBTI: INTJ Join Date: Feb 2009 Posts: 8	I have been an RN for 9 years and am seeking a career change. I have worked as a military nurse in OB,Same Day Surgery,Med/Surg,PACU,Peds, ER for 5 years and in the Federal System for 4 years. I do not enjoy the content of the job as an INTJ. I value autonomy and have too little of it (orders from providers). I like to have time to consider a problem from all angles and have a well thought out solution, many times in the ER I feel rushed. I like some degree of solitude, not people in my face for 12 hours straight asking for things. Too much labor intensive work (we don't have Nurses Aids, so we do a lot of helping patients out of bed,going to the bathroom, drawing labs,transporting patients to xray,lab, or ultrasound). We are not a high acuity ER so we see a lot of the same things over and over,the mundane details of charting and routine are rough on the "N" aspect on INTJ. Although I have the capacity to analyze the big picture, I feel I am stuck focusing on the detailed charting and laboring work that I don't have a chance to use that function as much as I would like. On my unit lots of nurses want to tell others what and how to do thier job. The only part I do like about the job is the job security, benefits, and great pay. My wife is a stay at home mom of my two kids ages 1 and 4. If I leave the federal system, which I have 12 years in, I would lose my 20 retirement and my wife would most likely have to work (which we don't want). I want to make a career change into something that plays to my personality and that I would be successful at. I see careers for INTJs are business, computer program, law, finance. However, it seems it may take a lot of education and money to get to another profession that I may not even like. I am brainstorming at this point, any suggestions on how to start this process or any INTJ careers in healthcare so I don't have to start all over again. Thanks.
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01-26-2010, 01:04 AM	#3
Night Knight New Member [01%] MBTI: INTJ Join Date: Jan 2010 Posts: 62	I'm planning to become a nurse myself. Right now I just finished my first semester in the nursing program and it was tough. I wouldn't recommend changing careers because the risk seems like it outweights the benefits. Remember you are doing this for your family and you have many benefits so why throw that away for a new career that you might not enjoy. Even though you get a new career that you like it will destroy the fun of why you joined that job. Kind of like making Art as a career if you are force to meet deadlines painting art wouldn't be the same joy and it will wear you down. Sometimes us INTJ have to sacrifice are independance for the greater cause. With these economical times it is hard to just switch careers. Maybe you can try to get a higher degree in nursing like becoming a CRNA. Taking the classes should challenge your mind plus you will be making much more money. You could try to plan a small business and work as a nurse at the same time. That might help your needs. Actually I wouldn't mind reading a book about your adventures of being a nurse and what patients you deal with so writing could be an option. Do you have any advice for me about nursing? I am just an 20 year old student trying to complete the program. I hope I didn't speak out of turn.
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01-26-2010, 01:32 AM	#4
thod Core Member [163%] MBTI: INTP Join Date: Jan 2008 Posts: 6,554	I would have thought that being a triage nurse would offer some degree of intellectual fulfilment in that you analyse and diagnose. If you don't like the human contact switch to a theatre nurse where the only patients you see are unconscious. Everyone thinks of the big career change. The problem is that it very difficult to do, your time is gone and you will never be young again. You have to leverage what you do know and not try to start at the bottom again with people 20 years younger.
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01-26-2010, 05:08 AM	#6
realitycheque Member [07%] MBTI: INTJ Join Date: Sep 2009 Posts: 307	Clinical Research Associate, working your way up to Project Manager or Quality Auditor. Problem right now is with the economy, most companies are requiring previous experience in clinical trials.
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01-26-2010, 06:30 AM	#7
themuzicman Core Member [284%] MBTI: INTJ Join Date: Jun 2009 Posts: 11,387	Stay where you're at. Yeah, it's frustrating. Put up with it for your family. Get to retirement, and then look at a change.
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01-26-2010, 10:08 AM	#8
realitycheque Member [07%] MBTI: INTJ Join Date: Sep 2009 Posts: 307	jzero, I thought of another possibility: Nurse Practitioner. There's more autonomy and higher pay. My SIL just finished her certification after 2 years of coursework on top of 12 years as RN. Jobs are available, and I anticipate a trend in which the need will increase (replacing physicians in GP work).
realitycheque is offline post a comment

01-26-2010, 12:00 PM	#9
jzero New Member [01%] MBTI: INTJ Join Date: Feb 2009 Posts: 8	Thank you all for the insight, I see this problem as a puzzle to be solved there has to be an answer somewhere. I did shadow a CRNA while I was in the military. Downside is that they always got deployed to different parts of the world at a moments notice (not good for family life). I was enrolled in an online Nurse Practitioner Program part time, however that got really hard on my wife and son because I was almost never available (either working or studying) and kids are only young once. The federal system I am in now has limited jobs available for the pay and benefits that I get (I am very aware that these are important factors in this economy). While at work I do try to remind myself that the work has meaning becasue I do it for my family. The overall challenge here is to balance my family life with my drive to succeed at something I half way enjoy. Thanks guys.
jzero is offline post a comment

01-26-2010, 01:45 PM	#10
Doppelbock Member [30%] MBTI: INTJ Join Date: Sep 2007 Posts: 1,213	Two words: lactation consultant. Leverages your nursing experience, and hey, boobs. Seriously, though, if you find some kind of specialty nursing like this, it could be there aren't too many people who can order you around, and you won't be helping to lift patients, etc. all day.
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