Best Jobs for Nurses with Anxiety (15+ List)
By
OptimistMinds
As a BetterHelp affiliate, we may receive compensation from BetterHelp if you purchase products or services through the links provided.
Author bio
The Optimistminds editorial team is made up of psychologists, psychiatrists and mental health professionals. Each article is written by a team member with exposure to and experience in the subject matter. The article then gets reviewed by a more senior editorial member. This is someone with extensive knowledge of the subject matter and highly cited published material.
This is a useful list of the best jobs for nurses struggling with anxiety. These occupations are set in relatively less stressful environments. Even if their anxiety is chronic, they can do well in these positions. Here, we have described how each of these roles will suit them.
What are the Best Jobs for Nurses with Anxiety?
If you’re a nurse dealing with an anxiety disorder, here are some specialisations that will suit you better:
- School Nurse
- Telehealth Consultation
- Palliative Care Nurse
- Public Health Centre Nurse
- Healthcare Information Technology
- Lactation Consultant
- Home Nurse
- Private Clinic Nurse
- Summer Camp Nurse
- Genetics Nurse
- Nursing College Professor
- Assisted Living Community Nurse
- Nurse Administrator
- Case Management Nurse
- Nurse Blogger
- Travel Nurse
- Clinical Research Nurse
- Occupational Health Nurse
Less Stressful Jobs for Nurses
If you’re a nurse with anxiety, you’ll prefer a job without the regular stressors of critical care or the ER. Instead, what would suit you better is a role that uses your knowledge for other useful areas of work. Such as technology, administration, or research.
It would also help if the job were rather slow-paced, predictable, and somewhat flexible. We have compiled a list of such jobs that you can do well at despite your anxiety. Read the descriptions of the following roles to find one that matches your needs:
School Nurse
School nurses are the primary medical resource for children and adults during the school day. The main focus of a school nurse is making sure every student has what they need to learn well. This often includes managing health concerns.
School nurses create, distribute and coordinate care plans for students who need health support to be successful in school. This is a slow-paced job compared to being a nurse in a hospital. And even though we cannot guarantee you absolutely won’t see horrifying things, they would be comparatively less intense.
Telehealth Consultation
A nurse in telehealth provides patient education, care and counselling with a telephone call. Examples of the nurse’s responsibility in this role may include assessing symptoms and discussing medication changes.
They may have to provide helpful tips for the management of chronic conditions and ensure that follow-up appointments are scheduled. Having a nurse available on the front line of communication can help to alleviate the provider’s daily patient burden. Along with this, it satisfies a variety of frequent patient needs, all done virtually.
Palliative Care Nurse
Take care of people without having to see them in almost fatal conditions by being a Palliative care nurse. Palliative care providers monitor symptoms over time and evaluate the health of patients to ensure that the proper care is given each day.
They help patients adhere to their medication schedules and protocols while maintaining a direct line of communication between all parties. They assist patients who need help with mobility. Additionally, they maintain and monitor equipment and assist with personal care needs such as bathing and feeding.
Public Health Centre Nurse
A principal goal of public health nursing is to address the health disparities within marginalized communities. They have to focus on the environmental, physical, and social determinants of health. Working for social justice is a key aspect of the role of the public health nurse, who promotes change.
Done through policy reform, community building, and system-level interventions, public health nurses work for physical and psycho-social factors. This is a great role for anyone who enjoys problem-solving, and impacting lives, just not necessarily in an operating room.
Healthcare Information Technology
The role of a Health Information Technology professional is to process and maintain the medical records of a hospital or clinic. Their core responsibility is to manage the information submitted by patients, doctors, and healthcare specialists.
These specialists handle the technical aspects of managing patient health information. They might also build, implement, or support electronic health records (EHRs) and other systems that store patient-related data. This is a job that doesn’t require dealing with a lot of people, especially those lying on hospital beds.
Lactation Consultant
The Lactation Consultant is responsible for providing support for the mother-infant breastfeeding dyad. The tasks include assessment, planning, interventions, and evaluation of lactation support. They also educate clients in the postpartum period. Lactation consultants work with new and expectant mothers.
That is a population that needs a lot of help and support. This is an exciting and fulfilling job and you would be working for the “miracle of birth”. If you love that, but the process of childbirth makes you anxious, then this is the apt job for you.
Home Nurse
Home Care Nurses provide care to patients in their homes under the guidance of a physician. They perform regular visits where they monitor the patient’s condition, assess their wounds, and change dressings as required.
When needed, they also write reports and communicate with the doctor after each visit. Here instead of caring for tens of patients at one time, you can focus on caring for a single one. It is significantly less demanding than the former.
Private Clinic Nurse
Private Clinic Nurses assist physicians in health care facilities and perform duties such as delivering patient care and administering treatments. They also monitor vital signs, perform tests, handle medical emergencies, and record the behaviour of short- and long-term care patients.
Clinic nurses serve as liaisons between doctors, care providers, patients, and patient representatives. Therefore, they have to be effective communicators. This position is perfect for nurses who get anxious in ERs and hospitals.
Summer Camp Nurse
Although camp nursing may seem like a break from the real world, camp nurses have to work hard too! They are required to provide routine and emergency care to campers. Monitoring their chronic conditions, collaborating with management to provide a healthy environment, educating staff etc. are requirements for them.
Additionally, they might also have to safely administer medications for those with acute and chronic health issues. Providing a comfortable, open environment for campers to discuss health issues, homesickness, etc. is also a part of their job.
Genetics Nurse
Genetics nurses perform risk assessments and analyze the genetic contribution to disease risk. They also discuss the impact of risk on health care management for individuals and families.
They also provide genetics education, provide nursing care to patients and families and conduct research in genetics. You might be more inclined towards researching and not care a lot for the adrenaline rush of the ER. If that is the case, then this work is ideal for you.
Nursing College Professor
If being around patients day and night is stressing you out, you may consider teaching. Nursing professors are registered nurses (RNs) who also hold graduate degrees. They are at the forefront of every nursing student’s education, teaching in universities and hospital-based nursing schools.
There is a high demand for nursing professors due to the increasing number of applicants to nursing schools. Excellent leadership, public speaking and oral communication skills are required of nursing professors in order to convey their knowledge. It is as fulfilling as it is challenging.
Assisted Living Community Nurse
Assisted living communities do not need the same level of skilled nursing care as a nursing home or hospital. In an assisted living setting, nurses typically help residents with daily activities, such as personal care, medication management, etc.
They assist the residents in exercising and general wellness. Nurses may also regularly correspond with a resident’s family members. They help the family understand their loved one’s evolving needs and level of care. It is much more sedentary than working in a hospital.
Nurse Administrator
This is mainly a managerial and office-based job and doesn’t need you to be in a hospital. Nurse administrators’ responsibilities involve overseeing nursing staff, motivating them to do their job well, and supervising assistant administrators. Other duties include managing finances, creating budgets, keeping a record of the facility services and resources, etc.
They are also responsible for implementing the necessary nursing procedures in a healthcare facility. Their administrative duties include attending meetings, conducting performance reviews, and developing personnel procedures.
Case Management Nurse
Case management nurses are registered nurses who coordinate all aspects of the care of individual patients. They ensure proper utilization of services and resources as well. Case managers provide assistance within, between, and outside of facilities.
Nurses working in case management facilitate outstanding patient care using fiscally responsible strategies. They are experts at obtaining resources and need to be savvy communicators, well organized, and creative. Thus, if you’re fascinated by the “working with people” part and not about the “dealing with blood” one, consider this!
Side Note: I have tried and tested various products and services to help with my anxiety and depression. See my top recommendations here, as well as a full list of all products and services our team has tested for various mental health conditions and general wellness.
Nurse Blogger
Today, blogs are a commonplace tool for sharing information, advice, expertise, and opinions. Nursing schools also have begun to integrate blogging into their communication practices and educational programs.
Nurse bloggers are, in general, avid writers, and many are widely recognized as experts in the field of nursing, education, and health care policy. They create authentic articles about various health and education-related articles to disseminate information among the masses. If you love writing and the practice, give this a shot!
Travel Nurse
Travel Nurses are healthcare workers who travel to patients and assist at healthcare facilities. They perform typical nursing duties and provide care in residential areas, at schools, and other organizations.
Travel Nurses also assist when hospitals are short-staffed. They temporarily fill nursing shortages at clinics and other healthcare facilities. Working on a freelance basis, you would have full control of your schedule. This is unlike regular nursing jobs in hospitals and clinics and thus, much more flexible.
Clinical Research Nurse
They play a vital role in ensuring clinical research studies run smoothly and that participants are safe and fully informed. The research nurse’s job is complex, varied and interesting. It is the research nurses who coordinate its day-to-day management.
This means leadership and organisational skills and a flexible and adaptable approach are vital. They need to be well-versed with the subject of the research and the various technical competencies required for research. However, it is vastly different but equally exciting like ER nurse roles.
Occupational Health Nurse
An occupational health nurse is responsible for providing basic first-aid, evaluating an employee’s health and providing initial diagnoses. They maintain employee health records, as well as appraising the safety and health hazards in the work environment.
Working in a corporate world, this profile is quite different from that of a hospital nurse. However, it is equally in demand and necessary. This job would require you to develop health and safety policies. You have to ensure that the company is up to date with public health and employment safety legislations.
Conclusion
This was a useful list of the best jobs for nurses struggling with anxiety. These occupations are set in relatively less stressful environments. Even if their anxiety is chronic, they can do well in these positions. Here, we described how each of these roles will suit them.
The jobs mentioned here were School Nurse, Telehealth Consultation, Palliative Care Nurse, Public Health Centre Nurse, Healthcare Information Technology, Lactation Consultant, Home Nurse, and Private Clinic Nurse.
We also described the roles of a Summer Camp Nurse, Genetics Nurse, Nursing College Professor, Assisted Living Community Nurse, Nurse Administrator, Case Management Nurse, Nurse Blogger, Travel Nurse, Clinical Research Nurse, and Occupational Health Nurse.
FAQs (Best Jobs for Nurses with Anxiety)
What is the most stressful nursing job?
Nurses working in critical care, emergency rooms, and psychiatric wards have the most stressful jobs. These roles require long hours, high vigilance, and exposure to trauma. Nurses working in these departments are prone to burnout.
Can I be a nurse with severe anxiety?
Pre-existing mental health conditions do not preclude individuals from being a successful nurse. There are plenty of jobs, like the ones mentioned here, that a nurse can do well despite any mental health condition, which includes anxiety.
Can I be a nurse if I’m bad at math?
It does not matter if you find math hard to do. Even if you are really bad at it, you can still be a nurse. Some nursing qualification tests have sections for math but these are quite basic. Nothing that a bit of practice can’t help you clear.
Citations
Was this helpful?
Take Control of Your Anxiety Today: Personalized Counseling with BetterHelp
