I’m not a nurse, but I’m married to one. She’s been doing it for 30 years, always a floor nurse on a busy floor (trauma, med surg, etc.). She loves the one in a million patients where they need help, appreciate the help, their families are nice and thankful, and she gets to help that person recover and get better. Makes up for the million other shitty things that happen.

She’s often thought about the pa thing, but never did it for a few reasons. 1) she likes being a nurse, and a pa isn’t nursing 2) job opportunity/need as you mentioned 3) she’s watched me climb the corporate ladder and she appreciates the simplicity of being an individual contributor. 4) she thinks pas ultimately lose their nursing skills and she doesn’t want that.

Anyways, the point of this novel is that we’ve moved around a bit and she’s learned that there is always a job available for her as a floor nurse, and that if “the grind” is too much - IT’S USUALLY THE FLOOR. Go somewhere else and it changes drastically. Hospital administration, managers, co workers - they all make or break the experience. Her toughest job was also her favorite because of her boss and co workers, one of her easiest sucked because of her boss and coworkers. So nothing wrong with the pa path (it’s never too late for anything), but don’t forget to look at your other nursing options - maybe there’s another floor or hospital that’s more of a fit for you.

Or just ignore me because I’m not a nurse and don’t really know what I’m talking about. I’m just parroting what I’ve heard my wife say. Good luck!

Why not a Nurse Practitioner? Seems they are more aligned with the parts you enjoy about nursing, come from a care/preventative model vs a PA who is more focused on a diagnosis/disease model.

It sounds like you are possibly in an ambulatory role (maybe?) with patient education. My spouse has bounced between a few different floor positions, including ICU, then went to ambulatory, and now does outpatient chemo infusion as sort of a compromise. Each move corresponded with burnout. The floor became too rough, ambulatory became too boring and bureaucratic (but learned a LOT from providers), but the outpatient infusion setting seems to strike a good balance, at least for now. She heavily considered a NP/PA route, but it’s more school, money, and you’re on salary with long hours (no overtime!). Sufficed to say, there’s probably a niche for you too!

I think the situation of first fear is incomplete. You'd be expanding your existing job pool. You can still fall back on your nursing degree. It isn't going anywhere. Some places may say you are "overqualified" for that position, but that doesn't preclude them from hiring you.

Do you see age discrimination where you work? I mean it is still the same job environment.

Is this really something you want to pursue? If it is, why not.

It depends what country you're in.