59 // Don’t Wait Until You’re Burnt Out or Ready to Leave: How to Create Nursing Career Options Now

If your entire professional identity is tied to one nursing job, you might be limiting your growth — and your joy. In this episode, I share why putting all your eggs in one job basket could be holding you back and how to expand your skills, network, and opportunities without burning out.

Whether you’re an RN, APRN, or nurse leader, you’ll learn how to diversify your career, grow your influence, and create new possibilities before you need them.

Key Takeaways:

• Why long-term loyalty can sometimes limit career growth
• 3 ways to diversify your skills and network
• How to prepare for career transitions before you’re forced into one

🎧 Listen now and start building the nursing career you really want!

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Transcript

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Sometimes we stay there so long. That we start to pour out more than we are getting back. And we are expecting the old times to be like they were and they're not. And that's okay because that shakeup is there for a reason. It doesn't always mean you have to leave, but sometimes we have our feelings a little bit too deep in it. We have our ego a little bit too attached to the work and the job, and it's likely time for you to pull back and consider some other things. Are you feeling stuck in your current clinical environment? Do you want to make a change in your nursing career, but not sure what to do next? Exhausted, burnt out, and maybe even ready for different leadership? I'm Bonnie Meadows, a board ified clinical nurse specialist, influential leader, career coach, and wellbeing coach. Being in the nursing and healthcare profession since 2004, I have felt stuck and unsure about what was next for me. I wanted to be fulfilled in my purpose, to have a voice at the table and to be a resource for others. I kept telling myself I wanted more, but didn't have the direction I needed until I found clarity and career growth strategies for experienced nurses like. Me. In this podcast, you will find simple tactical steps that allow you to gain the clarity you need solutions for how to grow even without supportive leadership and guidelines for setting boundaries at work so that you can grow purposefully in your career as a nurse with a graduate degree who makes a huge impact in the profession. So get ready to trade your scrubs for yoga pants, pop in those earbuds and let's chat. Welcome back everyone. It's good to be here with you this week. This, episode will be a little bit more conversational. Just been ruminating on some thoughts really based around conversations that I've had with people regarding their careers conversations that I have coached other people through. This one part in particular is more so something that, I've seen a few of my friends go through and we've had to kind of coach our way through. Um, what's next for them if you have been on a job for a long time and, uh. You are, and it could be a hospital, a system for a long time, and you're feeling the need for change, but the thought of leaving behind all of the hard work and dedication that you've put into that current role or organization is holding you back. This episode is for you. I am here to help you navigate this transition and explore new career opportunities that don't feel fearful. I want to help you understand where you are, why this might be occurring, and what you can do differently. I am just gonna level it out and say it's okay to stay in that position for a long time. Although I'm a person who likes to move around, not frequently, but I like to move around and get a taste of different things. I have colleagues who like to stay in one place, and that's fine. I think that's great. However, when you're there, I want you to make sure that you're getting as much out of the opportunity as the people you're serving. Sometimes we stay there so long. That we start to pour out more than we are getting back. And we are expecting the old times to be like they were and they're not. And that's okay because that shakeup is there for a reason. It doesn't always mean you have to leave, but sometimes we have our feelings a little bit too deep in it. We have our ego a little bit too attached to the work and the job, and it's likely time for you to pull back and consider some other things. It's okay to stay in a position for a long time, but make sure you're putting in your efforts elsewhere when you can. So although you're with this job, you definitely want to expand your efforts beyond your current job for whatever your capacity allows i'm really big on operating within your capacity. Now some people think, oh, I don't have the capacity. And really you do, and you don't find out until you're forced to find the capacity. You don't wanna be limited to just one thing and then end up stuck and known only for that one thing. So for example, I'm a subject matter expert. In cardiac, cardiac surgery in particular and in telemetry, EK, G. But there are other things that I do. There are other skills that I have also, and so people know me for like one, one group may know me for one thing, another group may know me for another thing. But when you are. Expanding your repertoire, in that way, it helps people see your skillsets in different ways, and it actually creates a little bit of variety in your career. And so I call this not putting all of your eggs in one nursing job basket. Because there are so many facets of you and really using all of those facets of your personality, of your skills, of what you would like to develop, that's really what brings joy in your career. It's doing the different things. It's not necessarily staying on one track, only being known for this one thing and only doing this one thing. And being the one go-to for the thing. Trust me, if you're doing something that is unique that not many other people have the skillset for, don't worry. You'll still be the go-to person for that one thing. Or if you're just really good at it, and maybe there are other people who know how to do it, they could do it. You would still be the go-to for that thing. But I would charge you to try not to attach your ego to that thing, but be known for different things. And it doesn't have to be 10 things. It could be three things, three skill sets. It's just different. When you're walking into the room. And so I just wanna give you some reasons for why you shouldn't. I've talked about why you shouldn't put all of your eggs in one basket. We're talking about putting all of our eggs in one basket, one nursing job, one facility. You're just in this one pocket of place and no one really knows you anywhere else. That's the one thing I talk about when it comes to growing your career in this day and time, especially with so many things being artificial and, people being able to inflate all of the things that they know and do. It is going to come down to your network, which will make it much easier for you to grow. And be involved in different projects to help grow your skillset so that people can see you in different areas. So putting your eggs in other baskets allows you to see the options you have for yourself when you might be ready for change and don't know it. You might be coming into work frustrated. You might be dealing, with a toxic work environment don't want, but you don't wanna let it go or it might not be time for you to go there might be a lesson you're learning in that. And when you step outside of that work and do work for, for example, and I'm gonna use my example as professional organization, and you start to expand and you decide that you want to work in a committee. Within a professional organization. You start to meet new people. You start to understand what work they're doing and how they're doing that work, and starts to expand your thought process on how can I do my work differently or what is something new that I can do? And as you start to see those things, you start to see options beyond. The work you do or the four walls you work in and it starts building up that readiness for change, it starts getting you a little bit more comfortable with a possibility of moving into something different or a possibility of expanding. Number two, putting all of your eggs in other baskets allows for growing your network. I talked about this a little bit earlier, and when you grow your network, you are again, having these conversations about what others are doing in their communities, what others are doing within their hospitals, what others are doing, within there. Within their systems. The other thing that, um, growing your network helps with is when someone's looking for someone with an expertise on a particular skill set that you have. It may be a very, I wouldn't necessarily, say fully unique skillset, but it's a unique skillset. Then they're gonna look for you. They're gonna say, oh, I had a conversation with so and so, and she's been doing, or he's been doing some work on that. Maybe we should call them or, I know so and so works at this particular hospital. Maybe we should call them and ask them. I had a colleague the other day whom I am on the board with, we do not work together, but we're in the state of North Carolina. She emailed me and said, Hey. We're working on a code OB process for our hospital. Do you have anybody you can put me in touch with within your hospital who's been working on that? Well, because I've grown my network within my workplace and outside of my workplace, I was able to easily connect those two. And that's for the benefit of the patient because that person who was reaching out to me, works in a rural hospital. So now those patients who are coming in who may have some type of obstetrical emergency. Has now been able to benefit from that nurse leader reaching out to other hospitals and finding best practice for how to treat obstetrical emergencies. So this is not always even about you, but it's even about how we're growing the profession and caring for our patients better. That growth in that network, when you're not putting all of your eggs in one basket, you can grow your network to benefit the patients. That's really what it's all about. But you want joy in your work and in your career. Number three, by putting your eggs in other baskets. You can avoid placing your self worth in one area of your life when you place your self worth in just one area. It makes you vulnerable when your season is up in that area.'cause you don't wanna let it go. You're thinking no, no, it's not time yet because you are thinking I still have other things I want to do with this role, or I still have. More to give in this role, and you probably do, but it might be for somewhere else. So you tend to hold on longer than you should because you only saw yourself in that one area. Don't limit yourself. Expand the possibilities of service in all areas of your career and of your life. It is like moms who put so much into their kids' lives, then when their kids leave, they don't know where to pick up life. Don't do that to your career. I've been in several Facebook groups where the nurse writes a post and they say, I've been doing such and such and such for the last 15 to 20 years. It's time for me to make a change. But they've done no work on their career. In order to even have the options to make a change. They're trying to figure out what does that change mean? But you should be thinking about it all along. Even when you're not ready to move, you should be looking and scanning your environment to say, Hmm, that'd be nice to do one day. That way when it is time for you to leave, you're not rushing out the door. Or no one's pushing you out of the door, making life so uncomfortable that you gotta leave and you have some options of what you can do, and you've likely worked on your degrees to be able to easily flow into a new option. So what do you do instead? Of putting all of your eggs in one basket. Let's wrap this up with some action items that you can take away think of projects or subjects that light you up and bring you joy and that you can invest in, um, outside of work, even if it has nothing to do with your career. People say you should never have a plan B. If you're really passionate about something, I say, you should always have a plan B. If you weren't doing this job, what would you like to do? Maybe it's time. It's'cause to me career growth doesn't always mean up a ladder. Growth can mean many things. So would you like to own a business outside of your work? Maybe it's you cutting back a few hours so you can grow somewhere else. If you weren't doing this job or weren't working in this facility, what would you like to do? Or where would you like to go? What skills would you like to develop that don't have anything to do with the work you do right now? Would you like to work on speaking? Would you like to work on developing a skill for project management? Would you like to work on a skill for improving your quality management skills? Would you like to work on improving your skill with informatics? What would you like to work on in public policy? What more would you like to do? What's different that you would like to do? Would you like to build your skill in communications and marketing? Nursing needs that too. If you're wanting to stay in nursing, we need that too. What skill would you like to develop? Or even if it's a clinical skill, what would it be that has nothing to do with what you're currently doing? How can you expand into that work outside of work, even if it's for two hours a week? Think about how you can grow your network in the meantime, outside of your everyday work or within other departments at work. I advocate for this whole growth in your network by getting on committees within your hospital and within your area of work. If you're already doing that, people already know who you are. If everybody already knows who you are, then it's time to expand outside of work. The best way to do that is within a professional organization, get your name out there in those professional organizations. Start getting head down and doing the work within a professional organization. It expands far beyond what you do on your everyday job. That's the work that impacts the millions of RNs across the nation. If it's at a national level or the hundreds of thousands of RNs in your state, that is the benefit of being a part of a professional organization. It is the number one thing that helps you to not put all of your eggs in one basket and helps you to quickly pivot if you do it right, if you're engaged, it will help you to do something a little bit different when you're feeling stuck and need a change. I had love to hear your thoughts on this. If you have some thoughts on this or if you feel like this spoke to you, please drop me an email, let me know. Um, I even have a little thing in my podcast called fan mail. Leave me a fan mail text message and ask whatever questions you want to ask. I hope this was helpful for you. I trust that it was helpful to you, and I will see you the next time. I hope you enjoyed today's episode. If so, would you take 30 seconds and share it with another nurse who may be unsure of where to go next in their career or maybe need some career clarity? Also, please leave a quick review for the show on Apple Podcast. It brings me so much joy and so much encouragement to know this podcast is helping you now go get the career you want and not the one you settle for. And I'll meet you back here next Thursday for another episode. See you soon.