I-Search "Why"

The reason that I'm doing my I-search on finding the best job for my personality, that also meshes well with my family life is obvious. I want to find the job that's right for me. I don't want to be "job-hopper", changing jobs every year or so when I get bored. I want to be happy with what I'm doing - who doesn't? I want to research many different types of jobs to make a determination of what is best for me. I have watched friends go to school for four years, get a degree, and two years later quit their profession because they hate it. I don't want to be like them.

I currently work twelve hour shifts at EMMC. It sounded perfect when I started - five days off a week. The twelve hour shifts proved to be grueling, especially when you work all weekend, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. The shift is actually 7am to 7:30pm, which of course would be thirty seven 1/2 hours in three days. There are other options to investigate - eight hour shifts, which I will be starting in a few weeks in another department, medical office work, which would be Monday through Friday and no holidays, and overnight shifts, which pay more. Unfortunately, I don't think my body was made for overnight shifts.

With each type of job, there are even more options as to the setting I might work in. For example, as a CNA I could work in a hospital, nursing home, hospice, home health, doctor's office, psychiatric facility, and private duty. As an RN, I would have the same options plus school nurse, management, and teaching, all with much better pay than a CNA, but less hands on patient care.

Health care positions are in great abundance, but most require you to work holidays and weekends, and EMMC only allows employees one week of vacation time in the summer.

I would like to find out if healthcare is the best place for me, or would I be better suited back at a school, with weekends, holidays and summers off, an office as a secretary or assistant, or maybe even the DMV or a human resourses department. Each potential position brings up more questions. Would I like this job? Will it suit my personality? Will the hours work with my home life? Will I be continually challenged? Will I be happy? Will I be able to find a job that meets all this criteria, or will I have to settle for something else for now and start this job in five years when my kids are out of school? Hopefully, by the end of my I-search I will have my answers.