As you may or may not know, I have recently changed jobs. I feel like I've done a complete career change, to be completely honest. I've gone from Case Manager (aka Medicare-guidelines-follower/glorified social worker) to "Nurse Coordinator for Pulmonary and Interstitial Lung Disease". Talk about a mouthful, right?!
Actually the term for my position is "Nurse Navigator". But I find that to sound silly. And bring to mind images of this:
Actually the term for my position is "Nurse Navigator". But I find that to sound silly. And bring to mind images of this:
So what exactly is a nurse navigator? I get this question a lot. In fact, while going through "general company orientation", I was asked this a lot by people that work for the organization...and I didn't really have an answer. All I knew upon taking this position was my job was to "better" patient care, and keep patients out of the hospital.
Basically I am clinic coordinator for 3 sub-specialty clinics: Asthma Clinic, COPD clinic, and Interstitial Lung Disease Clinic (which takes up the most of my time...because these patients are on some intense therapies, and need a lot of TLC). Going from ED to case manage to such a sub-specialty, the past few weeks have involved TONS of education and studying (hence my lack of blog posts).
I have the autonomy to do whatever I think is going to make life better for my patients. And it is pretty awesome! Being I manage about 300 patients, and I tell each one I make contact "Call me anytime you need anything - I am here for you!"...my phone rings a lot during the day.
But there is nothing more rewarding than having a patient state about how happy they are to have someone that has time to listen to them! Our healthcare system is so inefficient and over-crowded. I think we all (at some point in time) have been on the receiving end of being placed on hold forever just to get a simple doctor's appointment.
Normally a clinic operates by a call system, maybe a medical assistance that will transfer verbatim what the provider said - back to the patient. Our doctors/nurse practitioners/physician assistants are so incredibly bogged down these days. I think it is amazing that clinics are finally seeing the light, and adding RN's to their payroll who can triage, and provide medical advice within their scope of practice!
This is probably extremely boring to anyone that dares to attempt reading this, but I am just so excited about what I'm doing these days! It feels amazing to enjoy what I do 40+ hours/week.
What is your favorite part of your job?
Comments
I used to love my job but the bond market has really not changed much in the 4+ years I've been in a strategy role, so I feel a little bit meh about it right now. It feels like the same thing, different day x 4.25 years these days... But in the past I liked that my job allowed me to write, research, and talk to clients. I still get to do these things, I just have a hell of a time coming up with things to write and talk about because we are still in the same, endless low rate environment. :P
I LOVE my job. I do marketing/communications/fundraising for a non-profit and have a lot of autonomy in my job as well. I'm kind of a 1-person marketing department and get to make all the decisions about our marketing collateral. I also work with a really fun team and we're all friends outside of work and finally the fundraising side of my job means I'm doing different things every day, especially during our Campaign season. I might be in a pencil skirt and heels to do a presentation at a bank in the morning and then I'll change into jeans, a hoodie and old boots to make a presentation to a bunch of guys in coveralls at the mine in the afternoon! Things are never boring and I enjoy that aspect a lot.