5 Career Options for Nurses With Joint Pain

Nursing involves a lot of physical work, including turning and lifting patients and standing for extended periods while engaging in repetitive motions.

If you have joint pain caused by arthritis, tendonitis, bursitis, an infectious disease, or injury, doing your job can be challenging and may even worsen the pain. You can tweak your career path to engage in joint-friendly activities.

Here are five career options for nurses with joint pain.

1. Ambulatory care nursing

Ambulatory care nursing involves treating patients seeking routine medical care for chronic and acute illnesses and injuries, normally outside a hospital setting.

This healthcare discipline handles the diagnosis and treatment of those who don’t require an overnight stay in the hospital. It’s less physical and ideal for nurses with joint pain. The work involves examining patients, taking their medical histories, ordering tests like bloodwork and X-rays, and prescribing medications.

To work as an ambulatory care nurse, you must be a registered nurse specializing in healthcare for patients who aren’t in the hospital and need minimal bedside services. You’ll offer care for patients who have been discharged but need follow-up visits.

As an ambulatory nurse, you’ll use techniques, treatments, and therapies suitable to a patient’s house setting or healthcare facility. You can work in a hospital, nursing home, clinic, or rehabilitation center.

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2. Clinical research nursing

Research nurses offer direct patient care and treatment to scientific or medical studies or experiment participants. As a research nurse, you’ll monitor the patient’s safety and health under stringent regulatory oversight.

You’ll also gather and interpret data for research purposes. You’ll also ensure ethical standards compliance throughout the research or study. To work as a research nurse, you must possess outstanding technical skills, knowledge, and understanding of research practices and principles that ensure high standard patient care.

As a research nurse, you can work in dedicated clinical research centers in research laboratories, academic medical centers, hospitals, pharmaceutical companies, and medical research institutions.

Based on your career goals and specialty, you can work as a clinical research nurse, research nurse supervisor, clinical research coordinator, principal investigator, or research nurse practitioner.

3. Home care nursing

Home care nursing involves providing health care services to patients in their homes under a physician’s guidance. They conduct regular visits to monitor their patients’ conditions, examine their wounds, and even change dressings where needed.

As a home care nurse, you’ll also write reports for the doctor after each visit. To be a successful home care nurse, you’ll need good report writing skills, resilience, and mental strength to care for patients while offering emotional support to family members.

4. Telephone triage

Some health and community districts provide a health advice line or lines for patients to call whenever they have health situations and don’t know what to do.

Since you’re an experienced nursing professional, you can work as a telephone triage offering much-needed advice to your callers. This role doesn’t involve physical work, making it ideal for nurses with joint pain.

5. Teaching

To work as a nursing educator, you must be a registered nurse with higher education and extensive clinical experience. You can teach standard courses or specialize in pediatric nursing, nursing informatics, or geriatric nursing.

As a nursing educator, you can work in nursing schools, technical schools, community colleges, and other academic settings.

Endnote

Performing your nursing duties with joint pain can be challenging. Consider these career options for nurses with joint pain.