Being the smart nurse that you are, I am sure by now you have figured out that I, Alicia-joy Pierre RN, am the founder and head honcho here at Transitions In Nursing. And yes, that’s my smiling picture to the left.
You’re probably wondering “who in the world is this chick and what’s her story?” Hold your horses, I am about to tell ya. Grab a cuppa tea (or glass of wine) and read along. Ok, it’s not that long of story…but grab a glass of wine or your favorite drink anyway. Why not?
I can remember the day of my first nursing shift. It’s funny, I remember it like it was yesterday. Can you relate? It was 2005 and I had landed a job on night shift in Med Surg for a Non Profit Hospital.
I remember walking down the hall in my starched blue scrubs (that was the assigned color uniform for Med Surg at that hospital-who thinks of these things?). My stethoscope around my neck, my mini kit on hand with scissors, my pocket nursing guide, pens, and all my other nursing trinkets. Just in case. A prepared nurse is a good nurse right?
As I walked down the hall I felt like a bumbling ball of nerves, excitement, and fear all wrapped up in one.
Fast forward 2 years and that jittery, nervous, and excited feeling had morphed into: “Get me out of here”…FAST. Although I learned a lot, and had some moments feeling very rewarded for helping my patients, I was not happy. It was not a fit for me. I watched other nurses on the floor who loved what they did and I wondered “is something wrong with me?” It took me years to finally realize that NOTHING is wrong with me. And if you don’t like your nursing job, I want you to know that there is nothing wrong with you either.
Over the next 7 years I positioned myself extremely well and landed a number of what would be considered very good nursing jobs (from bedside and home health nursing to case management to nursing informatics). I usually always worked 2 jobs so a few of my positions were held concurrently (working full time at one place, while per diem someplace else).
As you can tell, I was searching. I wasn’t willing to settle for spending most of my waking hours of the day doing something I didn’t like. And you don’t need to either.
I knew in my heart that there HAD to be a better way.
After trying different positions, I received coaching and did a lot of soul searching. The one thing I could not deny was that there was something inside me that was driving me towards independence. I knew I wanted to use my nursing background more independently. But I had NO CLUE of what I could do. In my spare time I studied and became certified in so many things. From career coaching, executive coaching, writing, you name it. Yes, I am an avid learner. Always have been.
Somewhere in the mix I found out that nurses could write and get paid for it. Say what?????I had always loved writing so this was a smart choice for me.
For 2 years I did freelance writing including copywriting on the side, while working at my nursing job. It wasn’t long before fellow nurses started asking me what I was doing “on the side” and how they could do it. At that point I dug up the material I had studied on career coaching and for free, I started helping friends and coworkers who weren’t happy with their jobs to figure out how they also could also transition to work they enjoyed.
It was fun and especially rewarding when they started getting results. I knew I was on to something.
Eventually, I totally left my nursing job, continued doing writing projects for websites, started charging for various coaching services, and continued building my business along the way. I have not looked back since.
I love the variety of what I do.
I love helping the people I help.
I love creating my own income.
I finally enjoy what I do….Can you tell?
And I want you to enjoy what you do also. That is the goal of Transitions In Nursing (TIN).
I must tell you that my journey to finding work I enjoy wasn’t all peppermint and roses.
- Everything didn’t immediately fall neatly into place like a box of alcohol swabs.
- There were nights I lay in bed asking myself: “what the *&%#!!! are you doing Alicia-joy?”
- There were nay-sayers and negative nellys who told me repeatedly to “get real” and give up my dream.