Have you heard the one about Gen Zers aiming to choose ‘minimalist’ careers? Minimalist careers, it appears, are jobs that don’t require a lot of mental and physical energy and can be done well, while still leaving plenty of time for a healthy work-life balance.
Minimalist careers are the opposite of the ‘girl boss’ and ‘hustle’ culture that permeated the early 2000s. Today’s younger adults are all about cultivating lives that allow time for rest, better mental health, and, dare we say it, leisure and hobbies.
In today’s world, where nothing can feel certain, it makes sense that adults just coming into the workforce would be looking for jobs that can be lower-stress than previous generations. The prospect of working yourself at the expense of your life and health just doesn’t appeal the same way if there’s no reliable healthcare, retirement, or pension attached to it.
So, while minimalist careers may be what the next generation is looking for, is it possible to have a minimalist career as a nurse? Let’s take a look.
There is no one definition of career minimalism, but Forbes describes it as any job that allows someone to work to live, not live to work. That could look different for different people, but it’s a job that allows breathing room for both the physical and mental energy it takes to enjoy downtime, hobbies, and time with loved ones.
Technically speaking, nursing sounds like the ideal minimalist career. Working three shifts a week should allow for plenty of time “off,” right? But as any nurse can tell you, somehow those three days have a tendency to turn into more. Plus, days of recovery can soon make it feel like you have no life at all. Add in night shift, high stress from the job, and constant calls to pick up shifts, and nursing starts to look anything but minimalist.
That’s not to say it can’t be done, but choosing a minimalist career as a nurse might mean being intentional about the type of shift and unit you choose to work.
If you’re looking for a minimalist nursing career option, it can be helpful to first start searching for jobs in an area that interests you. While it’s not always the case that your interests or passions will align with a low-stress job, it can make the job more enticing if it’s an area that interests you.
Outside of choosing a job that interests you, here are some additional ideas for minimalist nursing careers.
Part-time nurse
Obviously, not everyone has the luxury of choosing a part-time nursing role, but if you have other access to health insurance or have the ability to afford purchasing health insurance, a part-time role can be a surefire way to create a minimalist nursing career.
Part-time hours allow you to create a better work-life balance, have more time off, and in some cases, still allow you to pick up extra shifts as needed.
Pain clinic nurse
As I am back on the hunt for a new bedside nursing job myself, I was exploring working at a pain clinic. Not only do I have a special interest in pain relief as one of my family members suffers from chronic pain, but the daytime hours, no weekends, and no holidays sound conducive to a positive work-life balance as well.
Wound care nurse
On Reddit, a speciality wound care nurse explained that she only works 8-3, has no weekends or holidays, and in her words, “there are no wound emergencies.” Wound care can require additional certification and training, however.
PACU nurse
When my daughter had her tonsils out recently, her post-op nurse in the recovery room explained to us that PACU is where they put the “old nurses out to pasture,” and we all had a good chuckle. But the truth is, PACU can be a straightforward job with stable hours and steady work, lower stress than many other in-hospital units.
Infusion nurse
Reddit nurses highly recommended infusion nursing as a minimalist nursing career, especially in the outpatient setting, because you skip all the hospital antics, noises, and politics. Infusion nursing can have flexible hours, daytime shifts, and no weekends or holidays.
Advice nurse
There are different names for this role, like call center nurse or virtual triage nurse, but essentially the role boils down to taking patient calls about medical questions, offering advice, and helping guide them if they need to seek additional medical attention.
School nurse
School nurse roles are harder to come by in many areas, as some low-income or rural areas have transitioned to county or community-wide nurses instead of school-specific nurses. But the schools that do have individual nurses can offer low acuity, holidays and weekends off, and of course, all schoolwide breaks.
Aesthetic/wellness nursing
Again, this can be another more competitive role to get into, but nurses with a passion for wellness and aesthetics can achieve the ultimate minimalist life with a clinic role administering aesthetic products like fillers, Botox, weight loss injections, and more. Some of these roles can be done in hybrid or mobile settings as well.
Outpatient surgical nurse
My sister works as an outpatient surgical nurse, and I’ve begged her to get me a job at her center, but open positions there are few and far between, for good reason. Once nurses are in that role, they tend to stay there, because the hours are good, the environment is positive, and weekends, holidays, and call aren’t required. The only tradeoff is that the pay can be significantly lower than what bedside hospital nurses would make.
Low-stress nursing jobs
Nursing jobs with lower stress levels, like employee or occupational health nursing positions, can also be a convenient way to try on a minimalist career lifestyle. Low stress = more opportunity for life outside of work.
There are clearly nuances to the nursing world, and not every nursing job can meet the requirements, but at its core, nursing can almost be the ultimate form of minimalist employment for a few different reasons:
- It’s flexible. You can work daytime, nighttime, swing shift, afternoon, or flipped shifts.
- You can leave work at work. Unlike some jobs, like being a business owner or even working from home, most nursing jobs have to be left at work, so there’s less risk of taking your work home with you (that may not apply to the emotional sense but in the literal sense).
- There are near-endless opportunities for growth and change. The nice thing about nursing is that there are so many options you can choose, and if one area isn’t working for you, you can try another to work towards your goals of minimalism in your career.
- Vacations can be true vacations. When nurses take time off, they won’t be bugged for a ‘quick question’ or asked to take a report to the beach.
- It’s stable. We can find different issues with nursing, but so far, it’s one of the most stable and trustworthy positions out there.
- It makes a difference. Minimalist careers aren’t solely about the employee—they’re also about careers that can make people feel good, and working as a nurse.
Not everyone will agree, of course, but after years of working for myself as an entrepreneur, there have been times I missed my “old” life working shifts as a nurse, because there is a simplicity to that kind of work. And the good news is, nursing allows you to try different jobs to find what works for you, which sounds like the ultimate form of minimalism.