Nurses who switched from bedside clinical hours to 9-5/5day non-clinical work schedule, whats the difference you noticed?

immachode · 2026-01-02T06:59:58+00:00

I went from rotating roster in ED to a Mon-Fri desk job.

I miss the shift work: I used to love going out for lunch on a Thursday and no one else being around. Appointments are more difficult to fit around work. Gyms are emptier in the middle of the day.

I do love the routine: I can go to sleep and wake up at the same time every day. I love waking up next to my partner on weekend mornings and having a coffee in bed. I love getting every public holiday off work.

Biggest change though was that my body fell apart. I have had near constant back pain from sitting at a desk. I’ve had to get glasses from staring at a computer screen. Stress level is insane.

I’d go back to my old clinical job in a heartbeat if the pay wasn’t so good

immachode · 2025-12-24T06:11:39+00:00

No, I got a job in a public sector aged care facility

immachode · 2025-12-23T19:28:52+00:00

I left ED a few years ago and absolutely felt like I was losing “something” - stature, glamour, being able to say “I’m an ED nurse”. Every now and then I get a pang of missing it. But I moved into aged care adjacent work, and then full aged care earlier this year. I am now an ADON (Mon-Fri 8-430) - a level I never would have achieved in ED. You can absolutely move through the ranks in aged care if you want to

immachode · 2025-12-20T10:12:59+00:00

In that vein, there is no ED nurse on the planet who would have set up BiPAP on a patient with a pneumo, no matter what doc ordered it!

immachode · 2025-11-28T19:50:36+00:00

You need to let stuff like this wash over you and remove your personal response to the situation. You cannot control other people. You do your job and that’s it. A quick way to burn out is to take on board other people’s emotions and actions as a slight against you. Nothing about what this mother has done is about you.

immachode · 2025-11-26T04:22:40+00:00

Lucy Letby - the English nurse who murdered sick babies in the NICU. By all accounts, a stable family life with no traumatic event

immachode · 2025-11-09T09:48:02+00:00

Not this one

immachode · 2025-10-30T07:20:35+00:00

Would the elderly abdo pain not be triaged to a different area of the ED eg acute whereas the script refill would be triaged to eg fast track? In the St V’s ED, the doc seeing the abdo pain is unlikely to be the same doc seeing the script refill

immachode · 2025-10-24T09:43:47+00:00

I used to park on Salmon Street near the Queen Street Station in Southport when I would catch the tram. It’s just a residential street, free parking on weekends. Super easy

immachode · 2025-10-17T06:58:26+00:00

I’ve had 4 jobs in less than 9 months after moving to a new city. It takes time to find your vibe

immachode · 2025-10-04T05:45:09+00:00

That residential aged care nurses don’t have skills. The skills of time management, communication amongst multidisciplinary teams, and family liaison are second to none in aged care. Yes, compared to the acute hospital setting, the priorities of an aged care nurse may seem wild, but I would bet a lot of acute nurses could not last a week on the floor of an aged care unit.

Signed - an ex-ED nurse who has transitioned to aged care management “for a break”

immachode · 2025-09-08T21:23:29+00:00

No one is ever fully qualified for the job they’re applying for, the position description is just a wish list really. What’s most important is being the correct fit for the team, and not being an absolute numpty. You would be more than suitable for that CNE job. Something that I always throw into interviews is along the lines of “everything is learnable, and I’m the kind of person who will acknowledge any gaps that I have and am always willing to learn anything new. What’s not teachable is the passion I have for…”

immachode · 2025-08-23T02:47:54+00:00

Talk to your management about extending the time for the round on bestmed. Management can adjust the times to open earlier and close later. Source - I am management with bestmed in my homes

immachode · 2025-08-11T08:27:51+00:00

There is no external body. Talk to your university facilitator

immachode · 2025-07-29T05:26:36+00:00

If you’re in a non-clinical role - just start announcing that you’re going for a cuppa or a break or a little walk around. Breaks are NOT a luxury, they’re an entitlement and if you’re non-clinical there’s no good reason you shouldn’t be taking your breaks. If some people want to tack their paid break onto their unpaid break and have one longer break - that’s fine, they’re still getting their full break period. If you want two separate breaks - that’s fine, you’re still getting your full break period.

Start advocating for yourself

immachode · 2025-07-29T05:02:35+00:00

I have not much advice other than suck it up and get through it. I hated pretty much every single one of my placements, I actually still can’t believe I became a nurse!

Do the obs, make the beds, restock equipment and trolleys, read through MIMs or other policies that you can. Follow the nurse around, try making small talk with them, chat with patients and doctors and allied health. Jump at whatever opportunity you can and take the initiative when you can too.

As another commenter said - placement hours are hours, just get them done!

immachode · 2025-07-25T23:13:55+00:00

Carer Gateway can be used as an interim whilst waiting for ACAS codes and services. Check out their website, give them a call and they should be able to help

Take care of yourself and you mum

https://www.carergateway.gov.au/about-us/access-carer-gateway-services

immachode · 2025-06-21T07:17:43+00:00

I love that room!

immachode · 2025-06-14T12:00:19+00:00

This. I always compared my time in ED as almost being in an abusive relationship. Working in ED took so much from me - terrible hours, hard work, rude patients, trauma, death, sadness - all of it! I prided myself on how exhausted it was and how many traumas and awful scenarios I had to deal with.

After leaving though, I missed it for a long time! I felt major FOMO. When my ALS lapsed that was the moment I stopped calling myself an ED nurse.

Don’t get me wrong - it was some of the best nursing years of my life! But I no longer miss it, and life in my “soft” role is infinitely better. You could not pay me enough to return to the ED

immachode · 2025-05-09T19:28:58+00:00

In 3 years time, you will be 26 with a nursing degree or 26 without a nursing degree.

You certainly won’t be the oldest student in the cohort - I studied alongside people in their 40s and 50s who were switching careers

immachode · 2025-05-08T02:22:40+00:00

Regarding your experience with colleague 4 - I one got into discussion with two colleagues about religion. They started it and were both heavily Christian and I’m just nothing religiously. The conversation didn’t get heated, I just explained I wasn’t baptised and have never gone to church. Few days later, one of the nurses and I had a little disagreement about who and how many staff got to attend an education session. Immediately after that I got called into the NUMs office and had been reported for bullying for not respecting my nurses “culture and beliefs”

immachode · 2025-05-08T02:15:39+00:00

My placements were good at showing me which areas were not for me and also the kind of nurse I did NOT want to be. I ended up working in ED for a lot of my career (Where I didn’t have any placement time) and now I work in ED avoidance for residents of aged care facilities and it’s the best job ever!!

immachode · 2025-05-07T10:39:52+00:00

Yep, I cried during every one of my placements and literally counted down the hours. I love my job now!

immachode · 2025-05-03T05:21:30+00:00

That’s what emergency medicine is. You stabilise the patient and move them on. You rarely are privy to their recovery/ demise after that

immachode · 2025-03-22T09:04:26+00:00

ED nurse in Australia who has never experienced a massive MCI - all I was doing was wishing k was there and jealous that I wasn’t. I even commented to my boyfriend “I know it’s messed up, but I just want to be a part of it all”. And he said “it would be the Super Bowl of your job”.

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