From Stethoscope to Crossroads: A Nurse's Journey Through Career Evolution and Self-Discovery

“How on earth did I even get here?” One question that makes its appearance every so often at different points in life. I swear I was just in high school the other day, without a care in the world. Now, it’s just a constant anxiety about nothing specific. Oh, the joys of employment and adulthood.

I swear I was just in high school the other day, without a care in the world… Now, it’s just constant anxiety about nothing specific.🥲

I got my Bachelor’s Degree in Nursing some 14 years ago, 4 years after I told my mother I wanted to be a writer. It’s the typical Asian eldest daughter story really. Ever since I started nursing school, my mother did not miss an opportunity to tell me that my future was working in a hospital in the USA. I was never really sold on the “American Dream,” but I also didn’t expect I would end up living and working in the United Kingdom.

You’d think I would have gotten my life together by now, after 14 years of nursing experience. But here I am, turning 35, widowed, financially stable, but not yet financially free. The long shifts and patient care routine have become exactly that, a routine. It got to a point where I could work my clinical shifts with my eyes closed. I was getting bored, rather than burnt out. I decided to go for a nursing management role and I found myself wishing that I could just go back to being bored doing clinical shifts again. The human experience is truly complex, isn’t it? Having more than what we need, but still wanting what we do not have.

I was getting bored, rather than burnt out. I decided to take up a nursing management role and I found myself wishing that I could just go back to being bored doing clinical shifts again.

Don’t get me wrong, I love being a nurse. It’s the only thing I know since I became an employee. It’s exhausting, but the clichés about it being fulfilling are true. It’s the only way I can justify being in a workforce that is overworked, underpaid, and under appreciated by the rest of the world. So, what do you do when you want to quit being a nurse?

Beats me, but I guess we are about to find out.😅