(Sorry for the long whining post/rant). Hi. I am at a point in my life where I am considering a new career. I am currently a nursing home administrator and have been in the business since '98. I am licensed in 5 states and was considered to be very good by some of my previous employers.

I used to have fun, but as I grew in the industry and started getting solid results, I became THE person to call when there was trouble at a facility.

I was the troubleshooter who would work night and day for weeks at a time to get a facility back into compliance with State and federal regulations so as not to be closed down or fined. i was the person who would drive to another state and wrap my arms around a facility and take care of whatever challenge it was facing. I was the person who could build census and tighten the reins on expenses. I was the person who made sure that my residents were taken care of everyday. I was the person who could turn a facility around that was losing tens of thousands of dollars a month. I have lived in Holiday Inn for 8 months at a time just to take care of problems at a building that no one else would touch.

Well, after doing that for a few years and constantly on the go, always on the road, I am burnt out. My company doesn't (in my opinion) put our residents first, I have a boss who I don't trust as I have seen her in action with other administrators, and I am just tired.

The building I am at now just had a nightmare of a survey which left them without an administrator (which is why I was brought in), without a director of nursing, a maintenance director, a business office director, an activities director, a staff development director, a social worker, an admissions director, a medical records director, a dietary manager, an MDS nurse, and multiple nurses and nursing assistants....all these positions open at the same time!

Well, as administrator, the buck stops here. I am THE person who has to manage to cover all the positions and ensure the work assigned to all these vacant positions is getting done. Luckliy, I have had experience enough to prioritize what is most important for each position and take care of it until I could hire a suitable replacements to fill those slots.

I have managed to fill most of the slots in the last 2 months and the work load has lightened for me slightly, but I still handle all the staffing/scheduling - so I get calls every shift and all throughout the day from multiple employees: 10 AM, 1 PM, 3 PM, 11 PM, 3 AM, 7AM, on and on. I got 16 calls the other morning between 3 AM and 7 AM dealing with staffing and facility issues. And I really don't have anyone to hand this off to because I have those people working on issues to clear the survey revisit.

I handle all the customer service issues and complaints in the building. I am responsible for the financial outcomes in the facility as well as overseeing collections.

This isn't the worst building I have walked into, but I think the culmination of years of doing this is starting to wear on me pretty bad.

I am looking for a change of careers and it seems like IT has a lot of possibilities and is something I am interested in. I would like to be able to work some days from my home and be able to rebuild my life (sanity). Since there seems to be a lot of people in the IT field on here, would you recommend the field?

Also, I know I am going to have to go back to school since my degree is not in IT and I have basically no experience. How long does it take to get the basics down so that I will have some kind of foundation to build from? Any info would be appreciated. Thanks! -M

I am totally impressed... with those kind of organization + people-handling skills... it seems you are both left brained and right brained. I don't know enough about the IT industry so others here who do will be able to chime in... but I suspect that your particular skill set would not be fully utilized in IT.. but I could be wrong. Yes, you have an exhausting job. No you can't go on living this way.

But you say you used to have fun but as you grew in the industry, the demands increased.

It seems to me that what is happening here is that you are being exploited. You are being taxed to the end of your energy. But given you are so good at what you do... you should have a pretty powerful bargaining position. And you should be able to negotiate a structure that allows you to live a more normal life.

It seems to me... but of course I am just speculating from the vantage point of a blue screen... that what you need is a team. A team of people you know work well.. maybe each member with a special skill set that work under and with you. And this team gets called in and you all get to live more normal lives because it is not one but many who are sharing the burden.

From what I gather, though you are in high demand, you are not high in the organization... what I mean is, you have a boss. That makes it more difficult for you to negotiate because your boss is the "leader.' (This apart from the fact that you don't trust her... which only compounds the problem.)

So a strategy that comes to my mind is that you start a consulting firm..where you get hired as a trouble-shooter and you build your staff with people you know you can rely on to do a good job and are people you can trust.

Somehow I think this would be a more effective use of your talents than switching to something entirely different like IT.

If I were going back to school. I think I would go to law school... not to become a lawyer but because it is a great training ground for learning to handle all kinds of situations professionally... for example, in your case, how to negotiate and set up a business, etc. I suspect you already have the "business" skills for setting up a business and would only need an accountant.

But this maybe totally useless advice... I am curious what you think of it.. and if it is not useful, to understand more about your business.

IT is a bit vague what part do you want to be involved in ?

Wilderbeast - which part would you recommend? I see jobs everywhere for systems analysts, network admins, etc. Just wondering what you guys in the field think.

Justitia - Wow, I think you are very perceptive and have great advice with the consulting gig. You are right, I haven't really made it to a high position in the corporate structure due to the fact I had reached the glass ceiling in the company where I'd spent most of my time. There wasn't anywhere to go. I reported to the Director of Ops, who reported to the VP of Ops, who reported to the president.

As far as a team, these companies don't usually go for that, due to the financial constraints. Longterm care operates on extremely tight labor budgets. That and the usual greed of many corporations.

As far as negotiating, they usually just give me more money rather than additional support. :rolleyes:

I would like a fresh start in a new career with slightly less stress.
Thank you for your responses!

I see jobs everywhere for systems analysts, network admins, etc. Just wondering what you guys in the field think.

Gah! No! The IT world needs your management skills, not another admin staring at server logs. :lol:

It sounds like you'd be an extremely effective project manager, a rarity in the field as many are promoted developers and system admnistrators with technical brilliance and very little experience managing things that feel emotion. How much do you know about IT at the moment? If you feel like some more time in the university would be beneficial then a general CS degree, combined with your healthcare and management experience, would make you a very attractive hire to a lot of companies. Truth is, you probably don't even need the IT experience. I'd be surprised if you couldn't get a job as a PM with a tech firm with your existing qualifications.

Buddy of mine's a business development somethingorother. He's got about eight years experience and a bachelor's degree. He was interviewing for his current job with a prominent local IT contractor and they started asking him a barrage of questions about the software he was proficient in. While relating the story of the interview to me he got the most puzzled look on his face and said, "I told them, 'I have people to master those things. They are what I use to do my job.'"

Frankly, though, I never thought I'd heard of anybody going into IT as a low-stress option. It can be insane. Have you looked into government contracting? By that I mean getting a job with a firm that takes on federal government work. You'd be able to bill at a good rate with your existing experience and the pace is...very relaxed. If you want even more kick-your-heels-up opportunity, take the civil service exam and see about getting a job with the government itself. Great job security and benefits with much lower stress than the private sector. EPA, NIH, DHHS, etc. all clamor for folks with experience in the healthcare industry.

I like Justita's suggestions a lot. I don't usually think in that entrepreneurial a manner and it looks like she definetly hit on some awesome ideas. The law degree makes a ton of sense to me too. I have a bevvy of attorneys in my family and many friends who've been through law school. I haven't seen a postgraduate degree that opens more doors. There may be a couple of better options right off the bat (MBA) but they seem to dictate specialization. A law degree appears to have great benefits and tremendous flexibility. That's an outsiders perspective of course. There's an excellent thread in this forum with all kinds of different opinions of the subject.

Good luck to you and success in whatever you may choose!

M@

Well, M@ seems to have even more on the inside scoop of IT and how to best use your skills...

(And I say this not just b/c he seems to think along the same lines as I do. :cool: )

M@: would you link to the thread you were referencing at the end of the post?... I wasn't sure which one you were referring to...

And in my experience, anything that is high accomplishing has a lot of stress. It is really a question of the manner and type of stress.

And you couldn't be so good at what you do if you didn't have a high accomplishment drive... i.e., you like to strive to accomplish well... not for the money per se but for the good feelings it brings.

So I think you are headed for some type of stressful life... But maybe there is a matter of degree.

The only profession I know that doesn't have the kind of stress that people usually think of, is academia... but it has its own... I wake up often in a fit of anxiety in the middle of the night...

And I am reminded of what Henry Kissinger (the Secretary of State under Richard Nixon and former Harvard professor) said in response to the question:

"Why are academic politics so bad?"
"Because the stakes are so small...."

:lol: So true....

You could use management skills, or at least interpersonal skills to take on a business analyst/specialist kind of role.

I think you'll need some solid technical savvy to be successful in that, though. Although M@'s friend thought he'd get other people to do it, I've never met a manager in an IT organization who didn't at least use to be a developer, or in some other capacity know pretty well what's going on. It's going to be nigh impossible to manage a project if you're not able to totally understand what's going on from a technical perspective. You don't need to understand each line of code but you would need a firm grasp of the overall picture.

A lot of people in IT wanted to get out a while ago but the market has picked up in it, so it's far better these days. Some jobs are incredibly high stress and others are very low, and some are a mix. For instance, I'm working 40 hours/week right now. The guy who sits literally next to me is working about 60. We were put on different engagements and his is messier, so it's taking a lot of overtime.

If you want the ultimate in low stress, try and find a job at any governement office because they are not even real jobs half the time. You just go to work, get paid, go on vacation, retire. Banks are the same way.

You just go to work, get paid, go on vacation, retire. Banks are the same way. I'm a programmer at a bank. No stress here. 8-5 job. Rarely do I stay past 5:00. Never worked a weekend in 5 years I've been here. I just got back from a week of vacation a couple weeks ago. In exactly 1 month, I go on vacation again. :D

Of course, I'm leaving all this to go back to school for a Masters in Information Systems.

-Mike

Hi. Thanks for the responses and the great suggestions. By the way, I am just looking for a job that has less stress than what I have been dealing with for the past few years. I can still deal with a moderate level, but I just want a life, too. I am just worn down and need to recharge my batteries for a little while.

M@: would you link to the thread you were referencing at the end of the post?... I wasn't sure which one you were referring to...

Jeez! Can't a guy be lazy around here?! :lol:

Law School Advice (http://forums.johnstonefitness.com/showthread.php?t=26518)

M@