I've finally found my calling...in a general way.

[Tobin S.]

No, it's not gigolo. My wife is the jealous type. It's not professional beer drinker, either. That's my plan for my post-lottery-win career. Until then I'm going to have to figure out something else.

Yeah, at 44 I've finally figured out where I need to be. It turns out that I am a natural caregiver. I've been working with a therapist for the past couple of months. We did a psychological archetype inventory on me and I am a caregiver. I never really thought about that but it fits. I am empathetic and altruistic. I've been there to help my friends and family my entire life. When an uninsured friend of mine needed a down payment for hernia surgery, I gave it to him. When I was a little boy, I told my mother that I was going to grow up to be a doctor so I could take care of her. I've basically been engaging in talk therapy with an alcoholic friend of mine for the past year. I give to charity when I don't have a lot of extra money. I've saved two people's lives in my time- one an absolute stranger. If someone asks me for help, I usually help them or try at least. I'm a sucker for people who are damaged in some way.

Now I could use a hand. Here's where you guys come in. You've probably seen my licensed clinical social worker thread. I appreciate all of the responses there. It's an informative thread. But I suppose I should consider more ideas before I decide on a path to take. So we're going to have a little brainstorming session here. A good idea can come from anywhere and I've seen a lot of them on DU in my time. So given the idea that I would fit most naturally in a caregiver type of profession, what are some careers to consider?

A few details. I have a bachelor's degree in business administration from a Big Ten school, and while I have good business sense and generally understand that world, I haven't been able to land decent work in that field. I also don't think that's where my true talent lies. It's possible that I might be able to make use of that knowledge in a caregiver type of setting, however. All businesses need business people, including health care organizations and non-profits. I am also willing to return to school to get a master's degree. The bachelor's degree in business is pretty flexible in that regard. There are a number of different masters programs that I can qualify for with that degree, some of them almost totally unrelated like social work.

Other than that, I need to make 45k-50k a year. That's just to pay the bills and put 10% back for retirement- nothing extra. I suppose I could go a little lower and forgo setting back the 10% for a few years, but I can't make it on less than 40k. So I don't need a huge salary, and while I'd like to be rich that is not really my concern. I just need a roof over my head, transportation, enough to eat, and, ideally, to set a little back for when I'm old.

Your ideas? Here are a few of mine. Remember we're brainstorming here.

Occupational Therapist
Licensed Clinical Social Worker
EMT (But I'm not sure about that one. My age might disqualify me. I know police officers and firefighters have to be under a certain age when they enter those fields. I don't know if that applies to EMTs.)
Nurse (I don't know if I'd be able to afford that degree or get enough financial aid for it.)
Teacher
School Counselor
Psychologist
Teaching English as a Second Language

Your turn. Shoot!

[CurtEastPoint]

1. Bookmarking to revisit. Thank you for posting this.

[rug]

2. I vote RN.

https://www.ivytech.edu/nursing/index.html

You won't need another bachelor's.

[Sanity Claws]

3. What about Registered Nurse?

Good money and they are in demand. Problem: tough to get accepted in a nursing program.

[RobinA]

4. Where Are You

geographically? ESL is not going to make you any kind of money. I'd look into OT. Pay is decent and I think right now you can get a job. Or PT. As I mentioned in the other thread, LCSW can be interesting, but the pay ranges from horrible to if you are lucky you might not need a second job.

[Tobin S.]

13. I am in small town Indiana, however

I can commute to larger cities. I currently commute to Dayton, Ohio for work which is a pretty good sized town. Indianapolis and Cincinnati are also possibilities with the right opportunity.

[JustABozoOnThisBus]

5. How about Trucker/Philosopher/Writer?

The niche has been open for a few decades.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eric_Hoffer

[Tobin S.]

14. Hahaha! As you know, that's my current gig.

It's dangerous and not very rewarding. There is also the little matter of not being able to get published.

[Heddi]

6. Some thoughts from an RN

Just some quick thoughts...take as you will.

Been an RN for 10+ years, with another 3 or so in various areas of healthcare prior to nursing.

If you're looking at Nursing, realize that more and more hospitals aren't hring ADN (associate degree) RN's - they're going to BSN (Bachelor) as the baseline unless you have been an ADN for X years. Even those RN's aren't getting hired and are having to be in a BSN program upon hiring with a promise to complete in X years.

2ndly - getting into nursing school is hard. You will have to take 2ish years of prereq's -- biology, chemistry, anatomy, physiology, micro, math, etc. These are not considered in the 2-year nursing degree -- you have 2 years of pre-req, 2 years of nursing school, but only come out with a 2 year degree. Go figure.

DO NOT try to get a nursing degree through an online-only school (think University of Phoenix). You will never get hired. Hospitals want RN's with a lot of hands on experience, not just in the clinical setting, but in school. How do you interact with others? Can you be around 24 different people at once without losing your shit

Nursing is hard. It's hard work. It's thankless. Hospitals currently have the upper hand in hiring. Wages are lower now than when I started in 2006 because everyone sees nursing as this pie-in-the-sky wage dream and the market is flooded. I know many new-grad RN's who are still working at STarbucks because they can't get hired as an RN.

Nursing school admission is competitive. The classes are hard. There is no guarantee of admission even if you have a good GPA. They want volunteer hours, other certifications (like CNA or EMT or phlebotomy)

You will start out at the bottom of the barrel -- you say your'e 44 now. Say you get into nursing school when you're 46 or 47. Are you willing and/or able to work 12 hour nights 7p-7a 3-4 days a week, every weekend and holiday for the rest of your forseeable future? Because that's what new grads get. You won't start in the ER or ICU. You'll be starting on med-surg with 10 patients and little help. More hospitals are getting rid of CNA's and MA's and it's total nursing care.

You may be a natural caregiver, but are you a natural ass wiper? A natural punching bag? Are you able to go multiple 12 hour shifts without having a break, without having a lunch, with only peeing once? Are you okay with literally saving lives every day and never being thanked by a family member or a patient?

Another aspect of nursing is that while you have endless opportunities (do you want to do community health? hospital? acute care?), your prospects for advancement only come with education, work experience, professional certifications, and luck. I was in the ER for over 7 years and had no chance of being anything other than a stand-in charge RN. I had to eventually get out of bedside nursing before I was able to actually advance in my career and my salary.

I'm the most pro-RN there is, but I also think that people need a realistic view of what nursing is. It is messy, dirty, bloody, poop and vomit filled. It's standing on your feet and not getting a break, it's not getting career advancement (in many cases). It's working in the trenches without any thanks from your patients, their family, your boss, or your employer.

It is a physically demanding job - I've already had 2 back surgeries because of it. I have a worn out neck from other people improperly handling patients. I've been hit, punched, sexually assaulted, grabbed by patients. I've had 2 needle stick injuries that required a month of anti HIV prophylaxis. I've had urine and shit thrown at me. I've been the victim of lateral violence from coworkers.

I make an excellent salary, but it is not just because of the RN behind my name. It's because of my licensure, it's because of my education (I had to get my BSN a few years ago), my professional certifications, my professional memberships, my experience in various levels of care and patient settings. I did not get where I am or what I am paid easily, or without sacrifice. I worked over 7 years of overnights 7p-7a, every other weekend and every major holiday. It is an incredibly hard, but an incredibly rewarding profession.

Don't look to nursing (or any other job) to save you, or to fulfill your inner needs. It's not about you or your needs. When your'e at the bedside doing CPR for 40 minutes, it's not about whether you are fulfilled or does this job make you happy. It's about the patients. And you will not last long in this field if you are expecting/wanting/needing validation for everything you do vis-a-vis nursing. You have to WANT to do this, not NEED to, if that makes sense.

I worked with a lady where every aspect of patient care was about her, how it made HER feel, what SHE liked about it -- honey, that hiney doesn't care WHAT you need, what IT needs is a cleaning and a new bedsheet and an incontinence pad.

[Heddi]

11. Also, realize that nursing, as a profession, is glamorized in the media/tv

to the point as being nearly unrecognizable when compared to actual nursing.

Before you hitch your wagon to any health-care-related field, make sure you know *exactly* what you are signing up for. I can't tell you how many new-grad RN's or nursing students whose only ideas of nursing are what they see on TV -- which conveniently leaves out the high (and unsafe) patient loads, the department manager with unrealistic expectations of staff, the screaming MD's who are never satisfied, the violence, the monotony, the paperwork.

People tend to think nursing is just this omg so cool like one patient at a time getting to know you really helping people. It's not. It's grunt work and you'll never feel like you did a good enough job. Everything you do is rushed because you've got 309 other things to do that are just as important as what you're doing now.

It's not glamorous. It's not 12 hours of life saving adrenaline excitement. It's charting, and repetitive tasks, and being pulled aside, and constantly re-arranging priorities, never having enough time, enough hands, enough brains, enough staff.

[Skittles]

29. and

I am sure nurses fear that under all that stress they could make a terrible mistake

I have a lot of respect for nurses - when a friend of mine died of an aneurysm, I sent a thank you card to the nurses who cared for him for four days.......they were amazing

[Heddi]

34. It certainly is a fear, and one of the reasons I was happy to get out of bedside nursing

I have always carried professional liability insurance - even now, working in an office setting without any direct patient contact, I have the bare minimum policy b/c shit happens, and nurses get none of the respect and all of the responsibility. Doctor fucks up? Nurse responsible. Pharmacy fucks up? Nurse responsible. Nursing Assistant fucks up? Nurse responsible. Patient fucks up? Nurse responsible

And using the "oh, we were short staffed by 3 RN's, had no CNA's and each RN had a careload of 15 patients each, no break, no lunch, and mandatory overtime" isn't an excuse. You're basically expected to quit your job and refuse an assignment vs working in the chronically understaffed units.

Hospitals look at adverse events/sentinel events as a cost of doing business. I mean, think of it this way - out of every 100 adverse events/sentinel events, maybe 1 will result in a lawsuit. Out of 100 of those that go to lawsuit, 1 goes to court. THe rest are settled or dropped. It's much cheaper to run the risk of getting sued (even if it means someone dies...) than pay the cost associated with hiring and training an RN, providing salary, education, benefits....

[femmocrat]

7. It is very hard to find a teaching job.

ESL might be a little easier, or special education. Both of those fields would take more than a master's degree. You would have to go back and pick up a lot of undergraduate courses, plus field work and practicum. And then you would still have a hard time finding a position.

I would highly recommend that you read through our DU Education Forum to understand what it is really like today. Teaching is not the highly respected, secure profession that you remember from when you were in school. The work can still be very rewarding, but there are a lot of people in education who know nothing about working in a classroom, and they control everything.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=forum&id=1124

Here is a good place to start: http://www.democraticunderground.com/112411777

[hunter]

21. It's not difficult to get a teaching job in the rougher neighborhoods of U.S. big cities.

The hard part is surviving. I didn't. When my wife got accepted to graduate school out of state I was so ready to go...

I used to spend an hour after I'd graded papers and such mindlessly tidying up my classroom just to achieve a mental state where it would be safe for me to drive home.

And stuff was always gnawing away at me in my head. The needs were so great and the resources so limited.

[femmocrat]

22. I started out in an inner-city district.

I understand. It is not for the faint of heart.

[Goblinmonger]

25. Wisconsin has a shortage of teachers.

Going to be a state-by-state situation. Then there is the urban discussion below as you indicate.

Teaching is tough. This is my 26th year, and I love it. But is can very easily become the big suck, take over your life, and mentally kill you. It takes a very special mindset to teach, take the abuse you do, and continue on because you love it. Those people that come into it later in life because they think it will be a good job usually flame out. You have to do it because you love it. Because it is who you are. I started as a civil engineer in college and switched because I knew it is what I was built to do. I have the right personality for teaching high school. Taught middle school for two years and will never go back.

My son will graduate with a special ed degree in two semesters. I had the talk with him this semester about how he needs to make sure he learns to deal with some of the anxiety he feels in certain situations because, if you let, teaching will eat you alive. I love it, but it ain't easy.

Also, depending on the state one is in, it is a bad climate to start teaching.

[sweetapogee]

8. my opinion fwiw

EMT: I'm an EMT (and firefighter). As far as firefighter is concerned I'm a volunteer and always have been. I do have a lot of paper... national/state certs. As far as EMT is concerned unless your a paramedic it is a low paying job and paramedic isn't a whole lot better. In my state, you first become and EMT which takes about 5-6 months then you work in the field (can be a volunteer) for 1 year then apply to medic school which lasts a year. Most paramedic students continue to work FT as EMTs during the year of training. Around here, medic school costs 5-6K but if your a working EMT the company will generally pay if you graduate but you will be required to agree to work for them for 2-3 years. One good thing about EMS is you are finding out if having actual patient contact is really for you.

I worked PT for 5 years with the regional EMS council here and as such I know many in the EMS service and have enough connections to get employment in the field with ease. The money is just not there and it's really a young persons job. However your age will not disqualify you at all. If you want to be a paid firefighter, your chances are vastly improved if you are a paramedic already but you will have to work as a medic for some time before switching over to fire. The highest paid city firefighters in my state start at about 45K. This is hard work but very satisfying. I truly love fighting fire.

Teacher: My BS degree is in Elementary Education and my partner is a school teacher with a masters degree. Pay is great and hours fantastic. Getting a job in our area is problematic. To get certified to teach in a public school will certainly require more schooling, I would imagine at least a year probably two. I don't teach btw. ESL I would imagine would be difficult unless the primary language is either native or you are very fluent in that language.

Nurse: Your pay requirements demand that you look at being an RN minimum. If I were young again this is what I would do. As others have said most RN programs require acceptance into the program. My state, and I assume others may be headed that way, is looking into requiring all new RNs have a Bachelors degree. I would be imagine that there is little in a business degree portfolio that would transfer to an RN program. I know nursing students in the community college I attend that are in their 60s.

Again if I had it to do all over again I would go for a BSRN degree, work in the field for a time and then go for nurse practitioner.

Having said all this I urge you to dream big and never give up.

ON EDIT: as Heddi above as said so well, health care in it's various forms is hard on the body and demanding of your time. It is rare that you will be thanked for your efforts. I have been on the hose line where we have saved lives and homes and not a word of thanks. I have cut people out of wrecked cars and performed CPR in ambulances and in the ER in my bunker gear as a volunteer with similar (lack of) acknowledgement from patient or family. You do these things for you not for the compensation. Getting out of bed at 01:30 hours to run a call then leaving for work at 05:30 requires that you love doing the job.

[Heddi]

10. Re: thankless

I was in the ER, major bad code. Everyone in the department in this room, all hands on deck kind of thing. Multiple code carts outside the room, Xray was there, anesthesia, the whole kit n kaboodle.

You know how ER bays are separated by curtains....

so the curtain is closed-ish, open enough to get the stuff out of the code cart half in the room half in the hallway but closed enough that looky-loos can't see what's going on

I'm on the step-stool doing compressions. I see the curtain flutter and look up to see if it's pharmacy bringing the meds or whatever and standing there with the curtain pulled all the way open is another patient's daughter with a cup in her hand, shaking it back and forth.

"Um, you told my dad you'd get him water like 10 minutes ago and he's still waiting," she says in the most annoyed, entitled voice EVER.

I'm pumping away "um, little bit busy here...."

The doc closes the curtain, asks her to please wait in her dad's room. SHe storms off.

Files a complaint RIGHT THEN with the hospital via their online "feedback" form for unprofessionalism that her dad, who was there to get stiches or some shit removed (totally benign visit) wasn't attended to in a timely manner.

Shame on us, saving someone's life.
idiot.

[sweetapogee]

17. you remind me of an incident

responded with fire dept to a lightning strive patient at a lake. First it was thunder/lightning/rain and a patient in the water and still swimmers had to be threatened with arrest to get them out of the water. But I digress.

Myself and another FF did compressions for 35 minutes in a moving ambulance while the medic and EMT assigned to the truck intubated and kept the meds flowing. A third ff drove the truck. Pee, Puke and Poop all as your know.

At the ED the ED staff took over compressions and they got a rhythm finally but they had to resume compressions and the ED staff was running out of gas so I did a few rounds of compressions and so did my ff partner. Same thing, had to stand on a foot stool and generally had to deal with the sinking feeling which I'm sure you know so well. But at least the family got to say goodbye which if it were me I would have appreciated but all I head about were the complaints that we didn't do enough.

But still I would do it again and again as I do this for me.

[Heddi]

19. people kill me

had a 21 year old girl on halloween going wrong way on the innerstate, hit another car (of course), airbag deployed. SHe's life-flighted to the trauma center. We get her, tubed---the whole 9 yards.

She's doing okay and then suddenly starts crumping. CPR to no avail. Head of surgery is there with residents and she says "let's open her up" so they do an emergent thoracotomy on the patient -- open her chest like a car hood. Right there on her heart is in tamponade b/c of a clot the size of a fist wrapped around her heart. Surgeon reaches in WITH BARE HANDS, pulls clot off, heart starts beating again and down to OR she goes.

Now, statistically, only like 1% of people in cardiac arrest even qualify for thoracotomy. Out of that 1%, only 1% actually survive the procedure (your fricking chest is opened to the world, ribs up in the air. Again, it's like an open car trunk).

This nasty thing with a BAL of over 400 is in ICU, and under arrest for DUI. a few of the ER RN's go up there to see how she's doing because damn, she fucking SURVIVED and she's like "Yea fuck you. You broke my ribs and that really hurt and now I have this stupid fucking scar and I"ll never be able to wear a bikini again or model."



Okay. So you're 1% of the 1% that survived this shit. YOU and the person you hit didn't die even though you both should have.

You have a sad because your ribs hurt and you have a scar?

YOU ARE LUCKY TO BE ALIVE.

I only hope it's her age and possible addiction that made her have that nasty attitude (although her family were real pips as well lemmetellyou so I think it's probably genetic). I hope with age comes the wisdom that she should be dead 14 different ways and yet lived to tell the story about her "fucking scar"

[sweetapogee]

27. wow

amazing story. I have never seen a cardiac tamponade. I think from time to time what if I ran into one in the field I wouldn't know what I was seeing. I'm aware that the only hope is to get a Dr. to the patient and I've heard of Dr.s being flown to the scene and then even it's grim. That patient you had is so lucky it isn't even funny.

About a year ago I responded to a MVA on a expressway we have that's in a rural mountainous area. There were two car loads of friends, they were both driving like assholes, one of the cars hit a pick up truck and left the roadway, up an embankment, back down to the road, 360 into the jersey barrier where a back seat passenger was ejected. Dude faceplanted into the barrier. There is like nothing we can do, no pulse and when we started compressions we were just aspirating the patient, right there on the roadway. So we suction and bag basically for show until he is in the truck.

So then we turn our attention to the others. I was asked to assist a medic who was working on two that were in an old school bus that a church was using to take to a retreat. The people going to the retreat were senior citizens and the two patients are teenagers. They are telling the medic that both suffered LOC, the medic is now stuck. So I ask the kids if they were in the bus when the crash took place they say no they were in the car. So they walked over to the bus to get away from their dead "friend" and lie about the loc and got airlifted when there wasn't anything wrong with them. But because the claimed loc protocols say fly the patient.

Protocols require that we collar and board and we should have removed the seats from the bus but there was no possible chance I was going to do that. So we get them packaged and I have one of the patients pocketbook and three bottles of Jack Daniels falls out of the pocketbook. Both claimed to be 16 years old, bitching and moaning about their bumps while they couldn't ask one word about their dead friend. Several other passengers just started walking away from the scene which is comic because they were 25 miles from anything living. They were not from the area.

Anyway, we have gear all over the place, backboards, stokes, all kids of tackle and we are waiting for the state police to take all their measurements and the coroner and so I'm gathering up our stuff just to pass the time. I pick up this bag amongst our stuff that didn't look like ours but there are 3 EMS units plus fire and DOT. So I'm like what in the hell is in this bag and turns out it's about a half pound of weed all rolled up. The kids just tossed it out so the police wouldn't pin it on them. One of the kids cell phones was actually imbedded into the inside of the skin of one of the car doors, the engine block was about 150 feet from the rest of the car. One passenger is being fitted for a body bag the rest are fine and asking how we are going to get them home. They were going to some kind of rave party to sell drugs. I was on scene for 8 hours while they reconstructed everything, one is class 5 and the rest had not a care in the world except to divest themselves of their contraband.

[elleng]

9. Been thinking about you and your quest, Tobin,

as many of us have been.

A thought I had, before seeing your post here: 'Survey' your 'neighborhood' for what positions are open/available, so you can 'back into' such.

Next: My daughter is an Occupational Therapist! LOTS of satisfaction and $$$ in many of those jobs, which come in a variety of flavors: Private/hospitals/schools/nursing facilities, etc. Does require schooling. She obtained a graduate degree.

BEST!

[Laffy Kat]

12. About the EMT thing:

I'm really glad I got my EMT because I always wanted to know how to help if the situation called for it. However, you won't make much money, at all. Also, EMTs are a dime a dozen, they're a lot of us, so I would suggest, if going that route, to continue on to paramedic. Paramedics learn A LOT more than EMTs and make more money, although nothing you're not going to get rich.

[nolabear]

15. I'm a psychotherapist but many social workers are. It varies a lot.

If you go the LCSW route think about your specialty. Do you want a private practice? An agency setting? Do you aim to do therapy or to provide other services such as helping people with housing, getting mental health services, working with the physically or mentally disabled, working in schools, etc.

The money and the hours vary too. There are many unpaid hours in private practice, which is one reason we charge a pretty big hourly fee. Insurance companies try to make your life hell and you can't charge for that. You can charge for such things as court appearances and writing letters to the court (which you do in a desperate attempt to keep records from being subpoenaed and in support of clients) but you'll take calls, escort people to the ER in the middle of psychotic episodes, talk with psychiatrists as you try to coordinate therapy and mess, etc. Yes, you can make a pretty good living and you're going to work for it. You'll have to work under supervision (you pay) at first and you should always have consultants or groups to help you get through the land mines. It's hard.

I absolutely love it. ❤

[TexasBushwhacker]

16. You'll have to be a teacher before you can be a school counselor

School counselors and librarians have to get a couple of years in the classroom under their belt. I was a middle and high school science teacher for 9 years. My original game plan was to be a counselor but I found the counselors were mostly administering tests. My students knew I liked them and that they could trust me, so they would sometimes stay after school just to talk and ask for advice. That was pretty much what I saw myself doing as a counselor, so I just stayed in the classroom.

That being said, the most "caregiving" teachers are also the ones that are the most susceptible to getting burned out. 9 years was all I was able to handle. I always thought I would go back at some point, but when I talked to my friends who were still teaching they all said DON'T DO IT and were planning on retiring ASAP.

Salaries have gotten better in the urban areas. You should be able to find a salary schedule on the websites of your local area school districts. I'm in Houston and the area school districts are starting at over $50K, but the raises thereafter are very small. They will keep up with inflation, but not much more. A teacher with 16 years experience in HISD only makes 4K more than a brand new teacher.

However, retirement is another thing. Teacher retirement is usually more generous than Social Security. In Texas, you get 2.3% of the average of your best 5 years salaries for every year you taught. At your age you could get in 25 years, so that would be 57.5%. After 25 years, let's say your best 5 years averages out to $70K. That would be over $40K in retirement benefits per year, plus whatever you get from Social Security. And yes, there are COLAs for teachers too. My aunt and uncle were retired educators with over 30 years each and they retired to a very comfortable assisted living facility when the were in their late 70s.

There's such a need for school teachers (especially elementary), you may be able to get a teaching job next fall through an alternative certification program like Teach For America. Look into it!

[csziggy]

18. A very big need right now and over the next few decades is for home caregivers

Most of the ones that were supplied to my parents have not been licensed registered nurses or certified nurse aide though most do have some health care training.

Many of the older people don't need true nursing care. For instance, my Mom needs someone with her because she falls, forgets her medicines and now forgets to eat, bath and to change clothes. So someone with basic training in helping people with those things is fine. They are also supposed to clean the house and do the laundry now that Mom can't. It's a bonus when we can find a caregiver that will take Mom to places and events that might interest her - a current one takes her to flower shows, antique shopping and even takes her along to feed her dogs.

I'm not saying that your new niche should be doing the actual care. Instead, maybe see about starting a home care business. Some of the companies have franchise opportunities and the biggest need are competent local managers who can supervise the home care workers, deal with the paperwork and make sure everything goes smoothly.

The company that my sister found to supply home care workers for my parents was a new start up and since we were among their first clients we get a slightly lower than normal rate. The woman who runs it was a beautician with her own salon prior to starting this business. She vets the workers, does spot checks to make sure they are doing their jobs, and checks on the welfare of the clients. On rare occasions she subs for a worker if they are sick or if there are scheduling problems - but I think a good manager would have a substitute available at all times.

Here in Florida if there is 24 hour care the workers have 3 to 4 day shifts - then change out. They do NOT live in the home but they do stay there for their full shift. If they lived in the home, they are considered residents and the landlord-tenant laws kick in and make it hard to get rid of them if they are fired. Because of scheduling irregularities Mom has 2 to 3 workers per week - some only work on weekends, some work part of the regular work week then trade out, etc.

Friends of Mom's just have the home care workers come in during the day or just one or two days per week. Duties can range from semi-nursing care to maid, driver, shopping assistance, cook, and more. It just depends on what the clients need. With Baby Boomers getting older, it is a growing market.

With your business degree, this might be a good fit. The hardest part is finding good workers and keeping after them to do their jobs correctly - or maybe interfacing with the clients and their families.

ETA - a note about your small town - often it's in the smaller towns that there is more need for home care givers. Where Mom lives, there are no buses, no taxis, no way for an older person who can no longer drive get to stores, doctors, etc. That is one of the easier services that the company we use offers.

[TexasBushwhacker]

30. It's hard to find good caregivers because the jobs pay squat

Generally less than $10 an hour. Just sayin'

[csziggy]

31. True - some of the best we've had were students or retired nurses

Since both groups want to work part time with flexible hours - something they can't get from most low wage jobs anymore. One was training to be an X-ray tech, another had been an elder care specialty nurse who no longer wanted or needed to work full time.

I think there was a move to increase the minimums for home health care workers but the Republicans in Congress killed it.

[TexasBushwhacker]

32. The move was for them to be eligible overtime wage rules

If someone is working two 24 hour shifts, for example, they should be paid 40 hours at their regular pay rate and 8 hours at time and a half. But NOOOO! There was a big objection from the home health industry. I'm sure their argument was that the caregiver would be sleeping part of that time. While that's true, if Granny needs to go to the bathroom in the middle of the night, that caregiver will have to be there to help her. Firefighters get paid for their sleep breaks. Caregivers shouldn't be any different.

[csziggy]

33. Yes - Mom's caregivers work 72 hours straight most of the time

And they should get paid more than they do. Mom is now at the point where she needs 24 hour a day monitoring. A couple of years ago she got up in the middle of the night, fell and cracked her hip. Eventually the caregivers will need to be in the same room with her 24 hours a day. Even if the client is easy to deal with like Mom, that is stressful.

Last Christmas I stayed with Mom for a week while we gave the caregivers the week off. I was a wreck by the time I headed home! I worried the entire week about everything and tried to keep up with Mom every second. After that I'm willing to pay the caregivers much more than they are making.

With the management of the company that supplies the caregivers, I expect if that law took effect she would schedule them for 36 hour shifts, just to keep the costs down. Same way a lot of companies cut workers' hours to keep from having to provide benefits.

[PasadenaTrudy]

20. Do some volunteer work

in a social services setting. Good way to get some experience and test the waters. Looks good on grad school application, too. I'm a nurturing type myself, but I couldn't work in the helping fields. I've tried. Too draining, and I suffer from depression, so not a good combo! Library school was my choice.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

23. Volunteer work is a great idea. It will give you a sense of whether

it's something you really want to do before you invest a lot of time and money training for a job in that field. The thing about working with people who have problems - psychological, physical, social; it doesn't matter - is that it can eventually cause burnout. Day after day you are dealing with troubled people, and when people have problems they are often depressed and angry and they may take out their anger and frustration on those who are trying to help them. Sometimes they are grateful but often they are not. And sometimes you can't help them at all.

I have never done social work but I did go into law with the idea that I could use the legal system to help people. Legal clients are also people with problems, but unfortunately some problems can't be fixed. Sometimes courts rule against you. Sometimes there's no evidence to support your case. Sometimes the clients are lying. Sometimes opposing counsel treats your client horribly. Sometimes you lose the case no matter how much work you put into it. And the system definitely does not favor the little guy. Litigation is no fun for the client and unless they end up getting absolutely everything they want (which is almost never), they will be angry - usually at their lawyer. After about fifteen years I burned out and left the business. I got tired of the stress and the anger and not getting paid and the inability to fix things and help the people who needed it the most.

So before you invest a lot in a career change, be sure you can handle a steady diet of angry, depressed, ungrateful people as well as a system that will throw roadblocks in your way. I don't mean to be a Debbie Downer but when your job involves working with people with troubles, their troubles tend to wear off on you.

[hunter]

24. My sister is an EMT/Paramedic and she's older than you.

She started that after she burnt out in a career-type job, a job that had little to do with actually helping people despite any cheery corporate advertising you see on television.

As an EMT she's had some employment troubles, of two sorts, the first being a women in a job that's a boy's club in much of the nation, and the second not being able to pull up stakes and relocate as a young single person might. I know it's not the job for me. Sure, I can turn into a man of steel and do what needs to be done in a bloody horrible situation, but it always leaves scars on my mind.

In spite of my altruistic nature I'm just a loser who sits at home writing code, ranting on DU, and reminiscing about days long past, when I was a monstrously strong lunatic who could load and unload trucks all day long. (No worries, I'm laughing when I write that.)

I'm thinking there may be other hospital and hospital related jobs you might already be qualified for, jobs that involve some positive interactions with patients and their families. (No, God no, not collections!) The trouble again, of course, may be salary.

You'd be fantastic as a college instructor, a man of all trades, from business to math to the counseling office. But jobs are hard to get, and salaries are notoriously low for those starting out, many colleges only paying inadequate per-class wages to those hoping to make a career of it.

I mentioned parole officer in the other thread, that's a kind of social work, right? In our community most of them seem to be pretty good apples, but I don't know anything about Indiana.

Honestly, I think U.S. culture takes advantage of altruistic people, underpaying and not respecting teachers, nurses, primary care physicians, and so on...

[mia]

26. Social Worker Patient Advocate

I've come into contact with many "Social Worker Patient Advocates" over the past few years. They have all been very helpful in times of great need for my family as our parents have been in and out of hospitals and various rehabilitation settings. I consider the Social Worker at my mother's current home to be the best advocate for my mother and have gone to her whenever I had a problem.

Look up "Social Worker Patient Advocate" under job searches.

[mackerel]

28. Teacher and that can segway into to school counselor

[Lisa D]

35. How about Respiratory Therapist?

A friend of mine got her associates degree in respiratory therapy at a community college.

It's a caregiving role, usually in a hospital--and a quick Google search shows the average salary in Ohio is around $55,000. Just something to consider.

[mopinko]

36. agree w others about volunteering for a while.

the stuff i have been doing as a hospice volunteer has been incredibly satisfying. it is an amazing institution. i wasnt sure if it would get to me, but so far it hasnt bothered me. i guess i am kind philosophical about death. it isnt something that scares me. i can see the smiles that i bring, both w my dog, and w my presence. w my time.
but then again, i am a volunteer. i have little investment it this. if i decided i couldnt take it, i could leave and it wouldnt hurt the bottom line.
and people dont generally take their anger out on the nice grey haired lady w the funny dog. (tho it has happened!)

i think there are a lot of great midlevel jobs in the medical sector, a lot of which pay good money because of supply and demand.
ot is a good one, i think. your patients will hate you, i would guess, as i sure have hated my trips through pt/ot. but i think that the rewards are concrete. seeing someone getting better, walking again, getting back to their lives.
you dont get dragged into a lot of the really sad stuff, although there is some of that, too.

i think nurses any more need that bsrn, and if you werent broke and tired enough when you finish that, there are some really good jobs in nursing specialities. i have a friend who did very well as a surgical nurse, who went on to be a nurse anesthetist. she is making loooooong dough. she loves her job, too.
funny thing was that she couldnt really get the money she wanted here in chicago, because the supply was too good. the family moved to kalamazoo, where she was offered $30k more, and housing is dirt cheap.

another good but hard program is nuclear medicine techs. long, hard, but good money for a pretty easy job, as these things go.

thinking about you as a teacher, tho, really makes me smile. i can see you surrounded by a couple dozen 5 yo's. lol. what a picture in my mind.