Labor Market and Career Information

Registered Nurse (Nurse Manager)
Jennifer Zimmerman

	Introduction Jennifer Zimmerman loves her job and her enthusiasm is contagious. Her work runs the gamut from dealing with patients to managing other nurses to doing paperwork. Regardless of which role she's playing at any given moment, though, she's helping to save lives directly or indirectly. Nursing is an exciting, ever-changing profession. If you've ever seen an episode of "ER," you know why. No day is like another, technology changes all the time and everyone knows that nurses often are the ones who really help patients (no offense to doctors!). The future for nursing is rosy, as well. The Baby Boomers (the massive number of people born in the U.S. between 1946 and 1964) are getting older and sicker and they need nurses! People who get into nursing in the next few years can expect to find it easy to get jobs for decades to come. If like people, want to help others and have a flexible schedule, nursing may be the job for you. Read Jennifer's interview and you'll see why.

	What exactly do you do? I am a Nurse Manager. I manage a group of 45 health care employees including RNs [registered nurses], LVNs [licensed vocational nurses] and PCTs [Patient Care Technicians]. I help the hospital to meet the standards of regulatory agencies such as the Texas Department of Health. And I am in charge of coordinating all the travel nursing staff that we have here in the hospital and making sure they are compliant [meeting all the requirements, especially training and procedures] in the areas we have assigned them. I also have two other roles within our facility. I am a House Supervisor 40 percent of my time. This job entails staffing the hospital with any RN, LVN, or PCT staff that we may lack, placing patients in rooms as they are admitted and responding to all "codes" (such as when someone's heart stops). And I oversee the entire hospital when Administration is not available. Finally, I still work as an RN in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU). I do this on a PRN or "as needed" basis. I take care of critically ill patients and provide a wide range of things to these patients, such as medication administration.

	What's the coolest part of your job? Flexibility!!! Hospitals are open 24-7, so they always need people. I had the best schedule in the whole world when I worked as a full time nurse [before I became a manager]. I worked a rotating schedule which started over every 4 weeks. I worked three 12-hour shifts a week, only three days a week! My shift was 7pm-7am. Some people might think nights are not cool, but I love working nights, because then you are always home during the day. Nights also pay better. My schedule went like this: Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday Thursday, Friday, Saturday Wednesday, Thursday, Friday So, every four weeks I had seven days off in a row. I used to go on a trip using a cheap e-ticket every month and I never had to take a day off. I loved it!

	What's your favorite part? My favorite part of my job is knowing that I really made a difference in someone's life. I am no longer just a paper pusher.

	How do people react when they learn what you do? Sometimes they are grossed out because I love the really messy patients. I become fascinated with what we do to people in the many situations they face when they are really sick. A lot of people say "I could never do that" when I talk about ICU nursing. But anyone could do it. I had not taken a science class since high school when I went back to school to be a nurse. I have my first degree in Human Resource Management and I quit that and went back to school to be an RN. I never knew I could do these things--and if I can, anyone can. When I tell people about my nursing schedule, though, they say they would do that in a second if they could.

	What's the part you like least about your job and how do you handle it? I don't like the fact that hospitals have to make money to stay open. I handle it by doing the best I can and not wasting money on supplies and by being efficient in my duties so I don't charge the unit overtime money.

	How did you become a nurse? I quit my day job and started taking pre-requisites at a Community College while I waited tables to make money. Then I transferred to a university to get my Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BSN). Once I got my degree, I studied like crazy to pass the NCLEX exam, which is the board exam you take to be an RN.

	What pleasantly surprised you about your job when you first started? The schedule was great and I knew I can be employed anywhere. If I ever move, I can find a job in an hour. I am positive I will have that kind of job security for at least the next 20 years.

	What disappointed you? That sometimes people are just mean and you can't do anything about it, but smile and be nice back.

	How has your job changed over time? I have been promoted several times since I was a new nurse. I was first promoted to be the Nurse Recruiter of our hospital. I was then promoted to be the Nurse Manager of one area within the hospital. It is very easy to move up in a field where there is such a shortage of workers. However, I still truly enjoy the actual patient care the most, and that is why I still do it.

	What will nurses be doing ten years from now? We will be begging others to go into the field, because there won't be enough of us. Technology is constantly changing in the healthcare field. It makes our jobs easier, but it also increases the services we can provide to very sick people. Sometimes I feel that the advances that technology has given healthcare are wonderful. There are other times, though, when I feel we do way to much to keep people alive, when they really are no longer "living" their lives.

	What are some of the most important skills and abilities needed for this job? Common sense! Being good with people, being a caring and loving person. Knowing that you will never know everything, because nurses really do learn new things every day and things in medicine change every day. Never thinking you're perfect, because that is when you hurt people. Technically you could say a person should be good at science and math, but I do not agree. I never thought of these areas as my strong point and I had no problems learning what I needed to learn to be a nurse.

	How much of that is learned and how much has to be natural aptitude? The common sense, being a good caring person, understanding you're not perfect, are definitely natural aptitude. Everything else can be learned as a nurse if you don't already have it.

	What information do you need to keep up in your field and where do you get it? I am constantly offered continuing education courses by our hospital. We have educators that work here and provide information for free to employees. There are also many conferences and seminars offered to nurses all over the country. Nurses must get 10 continuing education credits a year and I have never had to pay for one.

	What advice do you have for people who want to enter this field? Just know that it will be very hard at first. I really thought I wasn't cut out for this the first 6 months that I was in it. I would go home and cry to my husband that I made the wrong career move. The problem is that at first it is scary to do the things we do to people--things that people normally would never let you do. Then we are set free to put tubes down peoples noses, stick them with needles, medicate them with very serious drugs, etc. It is scary to have that power. I think in those first months of learning your job it is hard to be good at something you are scared of and you just have to give it time. Then you wonder what you were so worked up over.

	What do you wish someone had told you before you left high school that would've helped you with your career? I wish I knew the opportunities then instead of going back into it 10 years out of high school. I never knew what a travel nurse was. I would have loved to have done that in my single life. Traveling from city to city with good pay and free housing. Now I am married and travel nursing just wouldn't fit in to my life. I wish I had chosen it as my first career. Maybe when my husband retires he will go with me on a travel nurse assignment.

	Quick Facts
	The Job in Brief
	Title:	Registered Nurse, Nurse Manager
	Description:	Helping critically ill patients, managing other nurses and ensuring that the department meets administrative requirements.
	Education level required:	Associate's Degree in Nursing A Bachelor's Degree in Nursing, however, brings more pay and opportunities.
	Equipment used:	A lot--monitors, stethoscope, blood pressure cuffs, balloon pumps, dialysis machines, blood sugar monitors, bladder scanners, IV equipment, needles, etc., etc., etc.
	Workload steady or fluctuating:	Whatever I want it to be.
	Dress code:	Scrubs
	Work environment:	Intensive Care Unit of a hospital: lots of equipment and seriously ill or injured people

	Demands on Worker
	Works hours (time and duration):	I can work as much or as little as I want to as a nurse. I have no mandatory overtime, but I can work as much as I want.
	Travel involved:	Score: 1 Not much, but I could travel if I wanted. Our hospital even offered us to be able to go work in Sweden for a contract if we wanted to.(1=never; 5=very often)
	Average stress level:	Score: 1 or 5; I can't pick which days are 5's, though (1=none; 5=a lot)
	Amount of teamwork needed:	Score: 5 - you have to be a team player. (1=none; 5=a lot)
	Level of self-motivation required:	Score: 4 - I feel you have to be very self-motivated, but I guess some people can get by being lazy some days. (1=none; 5=a lot)

	Labor Market Information
	Employment outlook:	Employment of registered nurses is expected to grow faster than the average for all occupations through 2008 (at least).
	Typical Texas salary:	$37,215 - $45,485