Many women define themselves by their jobs. They identify with their professional identities. My occupation is as a nurse but i identify more with the schedule that i have. I'm a PRN RN. This means that i work when i want to and not when i don't. I tell the hospital when i can work and am only scheduled then. I can thus be a mom first and a nurse second. A wife first and a nurse second. A school-library-volunteer first, nurse second.
There's been a nursing shortage for as long as i've been in nursing (started nursing school in 1984). This is bad for most (hospitals and other facilities are chronically short-staffed) but good for me. Whenever i list myself as "available", i'm almost always guaranteed to be taken on. I can call often the day of and be put on the schedule for a shift.
As a PRN RN, i'm not required to do many of the "bad shifts" that my fellow nurses have as part of their conditions of employ. I don't have to work every other weekend, or any weekends at all. I am not required to work holidays.....ever. I no longer am required to cover "off shifts" like evenings or nights. I can choose to work any of these but am not obligated. This is an enormous benefit. I don't miss seeing the kids open their Christmas presents. I don't have to leave for work on an evening shift just as my kids are getting home from school.
This PRN schedule has been so great for our family that two years ago, my husband went to a more flexible schedule too. We are off, together, on average one weekday a week. With or without the kids. This flexible schedule allows us to be off for the three day ski weekends with the kids. Or a day off mid-week to be just the two of us. All day long.
My daughter and son are so familiar with my PRN schedule that they too are looking for occupations and professions that allow them flexibility to be people first, workers second. Life balance while still being a professional?
I love my PRN life.
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