Happiest Areas to Work in Nursing

Interestingly, Beckers Hospital Review just published its 2023 rankings on an educational resource site called Nursing Process.  The survey determined the 15 happiest and unhappiest jobs for nurses.

I was surprised to see that nursing’s number 1 unhappiest job is the school nurse.  This is so interesting because as a school nurse, being surrounded by youngsters all day would seem to be enjoyable.  However, I once worked for an agency that assigned me to different places all the time.  And, personally I did not like being a school nurse. 

Guess what was number 5 on the list?  Legal nurse consultant!

When I looked over the unhappiest jobs, they tended to correlate with the Nursing Board complaints.  Although I have had very few school nurse cases, number 2 on the list was hospital staff nurse followed by emergency room nurse as number 3.  Also, at number 10 on the list was nursing home RN and at number 14 hospice nurse.

I thought, most nurses I speak to who do hospice care love it!  But, then again, hospital staff nurse, emergency room nurse and home health nurse seemed to have the highest number of Board matters.

Nursing home nurses are also on the unhappy list and again many of them seem to have accusations against their licenses.  

I also looked at this list to see how it might correlate with malpractice claims.  I know nursing home litigation is very big these days, primarily due to lack of staff.  Another big area of malpractice claims is in obstetrics, but I do not see obstetric nurses on the list of 15 happiest or unhappiest jobs.

What do you think?  What area do you work in and, are you happy or unhappy with your job?

I would love to hear your comments below.