Are you resting or working in the hallway while you wait for doors to open?

Hallways can be hallowed: When a patient is wheeled through on a gurney going to the morgue. When a patient’s family is being given an unwanted diagnosis. When a loved one anxiously paces back and forth.

Hallways can be places of work: When a patient walks with therapy after a long stay in bed. When a doctor and nurse discuss orders. When nurses and CNA’s rush from room to room taking care of patients.

Hallways can be places of rest: When a nurse leans her back against the wall out of sheer exhaustion and closes her eyes. When nurses laugh together at the Nurses’ Station over a shared joke.

What are the hallways in your life looking like these days? A large number of nurses are waiting in the hallway today. They are looking for new opportunities within and without of nursing. Many are wanting to leave the bedside and pursue different types of nursing jobs. What does it take to get that new job? What does it take to leave the current job? How do doors get opened? How can you be prepared when they do?

What you are doing while you wait for those new opportunities is important. Are you resting and becoming energized or are you working hard while you wait. Both are important as you wait in your hallway for those doors to open.

Resting in the hallway is like resting in Savasana at the end of a yoga session; or starting the work of yoga in a position of rest. Resting, not only allows the body to slow down and heal, but it allows the body to receive the work that it has been doing. It also prepares the body for work it is about to do. Sometimes resting is the hardest part. Finding stillness requires us to quiet the chaos around us and within us. After coming to the conclusion that you want a new job, sending out all the applications, etc., you might find resting is the best thing for you to do. But remember resting is not just being idle. It is an inside job. It is actual work to find the stillness in trusting that you have done what is necessary and that the right door at the end of your hallway is going to open.

What does working in the hallway look like? It might look like wandering the halls keeping busy until the door opens. Maybe you are asking for that raise and you won’t take no for an answer. Maybe you are finally starting that side-hustle and you need support. Maybe you are leaving nursing and you are getting a different education. It could be stopping working all the extra shifts and pursuing something that feeds your soul instead. The work might look like following up on all of the applications you have sent. The work in the hall will be actively participating in opening the door at the end.

Whether you are resting or working in your hallway, make it profitable. If you are wanting a different door to open, I hope that happens for you. Changing careers can be scary, but you have the tools. You deal in life and death shift by shift. You trust your own instincts every day at work. If you know you need to go down a new hallway, to get to a doorway that you have never gone through before, you can do it. Just start knocking.

For more ideas about changing your career: Whole life nurse

For more ideas about resting: The Willow