The world of healthcare is known for being both personally and financially rewarding. Nurses earn higher-than-average incomes doing work they genuinely care about.
If there’s one issue with the job—and actually, ask a nurse and they’ll probably name more than one—it’s that it can be demanding to the point of interfering with family life.
Can you have a healthcare career that balances well with raising children? In this article, we take a look at how to work as a nurse and still make time for your kids.
A Typical RN Lifestyle
First, it’s worth pointing out that even typical RNs can potentially optimize their schedules to balance well with family life.
On the one hand, they do work 12-hour shifts—sometimes at night. This can obviously be problematic, particularly since these shifts often take place over holidays or on weekends. However, it’s increasingly common to see hospitals offering smart scheduling, where nurses are assigned hours that fit their preferences. In these professional environments, you may be able to have a pretty significant say in when you work.
For example, you might decide that you want to power through evening shifts so you’re there to take your kids to school in the morning and pick them up when they get home. Or, you might decide that you want to work weekends so you’re around during the school week.
Because the shifts are 12 hours each, you’ll probably only have two to three of them per week, which means that—even though working days will be difficult—the rest of your schedule is actually more open and flexible than many people’s.
It’s also worth mentioning that you can sometimes find part-time placements at hospitals that aren’t looking for regular support but do need people to pitch in a few days a month. These placements obviously don’t pay nearly as well as full-time jobs, but what they lack in financial compensation, they make up for in personal flexibility.
Don’t Limit Yourself to the Hospital
Hospitals are where most first-year nurses wind up, and many people spend their entire careers in them. There’s certainly nothing wrong with this, but in terms of flexibility, it’s not necessarily optimal.
Don’t forget that there are dozens of different ways you can use your nursing degree—many of which are considerably more flexible. You could work in a pediatrician’s office and enjoy typical business hours. You could work at a school. In that case, not only will you be getting in-service days off at the same time as your kids, but you’ll probably also get summers off.
There are even travel nurse placements, which can be admittedly intensive, but potentially beneficial for someone trying to maximize career flexibility.
Travel nurses take short-term assignments in high-need areas. The agency they work for arranges housing and placement. Nurses in these roles spend several months at a time filling in.
Obviously, that means moving around often, which isn’t always compatible with family life. However, travel nurses also make more money than regular RNs and are often able to work shortened schedules.
So, you could theoretically work summers and take the rest of the year off. Finding balance during your working periods will be difficult, but the rest of your time is yours to use however you see fit.
There’s More to Healthcare Than Being an RN
Of course, it’s also only fair to acknowledge that there is much more to the world of health care than just being an RN.
You might find more flexibility by leaning into specializations or advanced practice works. Specializations will typically require you to get an advanced certification, while advanced practice jobs require graduate school.
Naturally, the time you spend trying to get your new qualification will be less balanced. However, once you get your foot in the door, you’ll usually find that the work takes place over more typical business hours. You’ll still have forty-hour weeks—they’ll just take place during the far more conventional 9-5 timeframe.
And, of course, there is also a whole world of careers that are available to people who are willing to look beyond the patient care side of things. Not many kids grow up fantasizing about life as an administrator, but these jobs are financially rewarding and much more impactful than you might at first assume.
What can you do with a healthcare administration degree? Quite a lot, actually. If you want to pivot into work that resembles more typical business hours, this is a good line to get into.
Administrators earn competitive salaries, and while they don’t typically interact with patients on an individual level, they do make decisions that impact thousands of lives.
It’s less exciting than the various nursing roles we have discussed to this point but it’s an excellent option for people who want balance.
Added bonus? There is a clear promotion track in administrative careers that doesn’t really exist in the patient care end of the spectrum. As an administrator, you will see your responsibilities and your salary increase over time. Not necessarily typical for most nurses.
Balance Begins at Home
At home, it’s also important to strike a work-life balance within your household. This means communicating your expectations to your children and your partner about what needs to get done in your absence. It might also mean taking sometimes difficult steps toward achieving balance during your time off.
Many a night nurse has downed incredible amounts of coffee the day after a shift in order to stay awake for their family. These sacrifices are hard, but they’re worthwhile for working nurses.
Above all else, make sure that you are regularly reviewing your work-life balance. People—children especially—often remain in situations they’re unhappy with even when a solution is available. There are so many ways to live a happy and fulfilling life, both professionally and personally, as a nurse. Find the career path that makes the most sense for you.
