One piece of advice I give young people is that they don’t have to decide what they want to do for the rest of their life at age 22. Just think of all the jobs that didn’t exist 10 years ago and what might exist 10 years
from now.
As we acknowledge the nurses among us for National Nurses Week, think how much the nursing field has changed over the years and how many opportunities and different paths nurses can take these days. There is a growing need for nurses with informatics training but that is just one possible path among many.
My oldest daughter is a nurse practitioner. But she didn’t start there when she went to college. She got her undergraduate degree in hotel and restaurant management with a minor in business. She wanted to do travel and tourism – and see the world. On graduation day she looked at me and said, “Mom, I don’t know what I’m going to do with my life that’s meaningful, but I don’t think it’s travel and tourism”. I looked at her and said, “Just get a job and then figure it out”. That was the response of a parent having just put their oldest of two children through college and anxious for her to get started in the full-time work world. Can all you parents of young adults relate? Or did I sound like a callous and unsupportive parent?
She floundered for a year or two after college with a couple different jobs including work in the travel industry for a short time. But she started thinking early on after graduation about becoming a nurse. Whenever she talked to me about it, I told her she’d be a great nurse – super organized, able to multi-task better than anyone I knew, with fabulous people skills. But I also told her that she’d have to buckle down and study the sciences if she wanted to be a nurse.
She considered her options and decided to pursue a combined nursing / nurse practitioner program getting her second bachelor’s degree then her masters. She had found her passion!
Her nursing career since 2005 has progressed from staff nurse on a cardiac surgery stepdown unit, to staff nurse on a cardiac ICU, to nurse practitioner running an afib program, to chief nurse on an inpatient orthopedics unit. She now has a mix of leadership, administrative, and clinical work.
We periodically talk about what’s next for her. I remind her that she can go a lot of different directions in her career with her education and experience. She loves the clinical component and doesn’t want to get too far away from that.
I have two other nurses in my family – my sister and brother-in-law. They both started out as bedside nurses. My sister went on to get her master’s degree in public health and served as division head for several different areas within the Minnesota Department of Public Health before she retired. My brother-in-law pursued a path focused on addiction counseling with both a masters and a PhD. He served as a clinical VP at the Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation and prior to his retirement was professor and director of institutional effectiveness for the Hazelden Betty Ford Graduate School of Addiction Studies. He was instrumental in the creation of the Graduate School and is considered an expert in the field. Did they both find their passion over the course of their long careers? Absolutely yes!
I’m passionate about healthcare and making a difference in people’s lives. But I do it from the technology side instead of the clinical side. I have the utmost respect and appreciation for all the nurses and other clinicians I have worked with over the years and know that when we partner together we can achieve great things.
Do you know what your passion is? Have you found it in your work or are you still searching for it?
I’m also passionate about and committed to developing the next generation of leaders. “Finding Your Passion – How to Know When to Make a Move” is just one of the many topics I will be covering in the upcoming online course, “Equipping Emerging Leaders for Success” aimed at women early in their career. We’ll explore how to look at your strengths, personal and professional goals, and career opportunities in a comprehensive way while making sure you find work that you love. This course is just one of the offerings of C-change – a new service from StarBridge Advisors aimed at developing women leaders in health IT. You can learn more about C-change and this course here.
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Chris Greene Hutchings on said:
Sue, this post highlights two important factors for zeroing in on your passion. One is stepping into the water and getting your feet wet. The other is listening to those around you who care about you. The first of these helps you realize if you really want to swim, the other helps you find the right direction.
Sue Schade on said:
Chris, very well said!!! Remember how we talked about “Team You”?? Everyone needs their support group – team you!