find my ideal career

I’m staring down the barrel of “return to work”, after having two weeks off, paid sick time, for the flu.
The time off gave me ample opportunity to sit with my feelings about my current job, look at other jobs in my field, as well as consider a return to school and complete change of career.
Because I’m fully recovered from the flu, I’m back to work tomorrow, but realize I am clinically depressed. I’m dreading the return, and unsure what it is I should be doing with my life right now.
Financial obligations dictate my return to full time work, but I worry- I am clearly depressed and burnt out. I need to make a change, but am unsure what that change looks like.
Perhaps a series of online quizzes will help me find the way.:P

I’m hoping that by shooting a little higher, I can make myself more marketable. Some direct work activities include: being on the diabetes team, being on the unit council, being an electronic health record super-user, and getting my med-surg nursing certification. I have also been part of the selection committees for job promotion. So I asked my boss, who had an outstanding resume, for her resume construction references. She recommended Knock ‘Em Dead Resumes, which I have ordered and should be arriving soon.

I think I will not change careers, or even jobs until after next June. My youngest is 17 and we need to help her find a college to attend in autumn 2010. She will be playing tennis and soccer next school year. Presently, my job affords me the flexibility to attend her games and the vacation time to go look at colleges.

Still in all, I need to keep looking and preparing myself for a career change.

I only take some of this with a grain of salt. With that said, I am going to explore a new avenue. That means gathering information on the web. So here goes….

Nursing Infomatics.

What inspired this? In the future, medical records will be computer based. The health care system in which I work is in the process of switching to computer charting. The rumor from the recently computer trained nurses in my facility, is that the system we will be using is not nurse friendly. I’m sure there needs to be more nursing input in writing the programs for medical record keeping. With my background in nursing, if I could get the appropriate training, nursing infomatics could be a great future carreer.

And yes, I’m getting older. Running 12 hours a day may have a limited future. Infomatics would be less physically stressful.

on diabetes was good. When I consider the magnificent progress in medicine over the years, I am proud to be part of the nursing profession. I got a better understanding of quite a few things and learned some new things last night. One of the frequent bonuses of continuing ed classes is that they spark an ongoing curiousity for further investigation.

a class titled, What’s New in Diabetes, scheduled for tomorrow. I’m thrilled to be kicking off my 12 days break from work in a productive way!

strong oral and written communication skills. I lack confidence in my written skills, so today I enrolled in a web based class – Effective Business Writing. It is eight weeks long with two lessons each week. I’m really looking forward to taking the class.

craigslist for jobs. Looking at the required qualifications will help to keep me fresh and motivated. I think I will also look at jobs outside of my field, just to keep possibilities open

I also found some EKG classes, ACLS classes, and some classes about diabetes for late March, April, and May. These need to be put on my calendar so I can ask for the time off work.

• review my resume
• explore the availability of continuing education courses
• schedule time off to take the courses
• check craigslist weekly

I want to either find a job I love or love the job I have. And I’m giving this quite a while to develop. Darling 3 graduates from high school May 2010. So that is the endpoint for this goal. The job I have now is flexible enough for me to be able to attend Darling 3’s tennis matches and soccer games. That is important to me.

I am considering some extra training to make me more marketable. Also, I’m thinking of following Agamum’s advice and interviewing for jobs that I don’t have my heart set on. Also, in a different thread, Mahinui suggested toastmasters. This might help my confidence, or at least provide a distraction from my job. I’m even thinking of seeing if any of my daughters would like to join me in toast masters.

With my job, I feel like if I can shift my perception, then maybe I’ll like it better. As the quote goes: “Change your thoughts, change your life.”