June 26, 2025 • 18 mins
Feeling stuck in your nursing career—even with years of experience or an advanced degree? You’re not alone. In this episode, Bonnie breaks down the real reasons nurses feel uncertain about what’s next—and introduces a simple tool to help you get clear. Whether you're an RN, APRN, or nurse leader, discover how self-awareness and career reflection can reignite your purpose.
Key Takeaways:
- Common causes of career stagnation
- The power of clarity over job searching
- How to use the free Nurse Career Growth Roadmap
Want to continue the conversation? Send me a text right here.
Trying to figure out your next career step?
The Nursing Career Growth Roadmap gives you proven strategies to move past uncertainty and advance with clarity.
Grab your free roadmap today! Click Here
Join me for a **1:1 Nurse Career Clarity Coaching Call**—a 1:1 coaching session where we’ll get you unstuck and find clarity to make the next move in your career.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Just because you don't see it inyour organization, doesn't mean
(00:03):
it doesn't exist.
Just because you don't see itdoesn't mean that people can't
create it.
Sometimes my question is, haveyou told anyone that this is the
thing that you're looking for?
(00:24):
Have you told someone what yourgoals are?
Who have you connected with?
Are you feeling stuck in yourcurrent clinical environment?
Do you want to make a change inyour nursing career, but not
sure what to do next?
Exhausted, burnt out, and maybeeven ready for different
(00:47):
leadership?
I'm Bonnie Meadows, a boardified clinical nurse specialist,
influential leader, careercoach, and wellbeing coach.
Being in the nursing andhealthcare profession since
2004, I have felt stuck andunsure about what was next for
me.
I wanted to be fulfilled in mypurpose, to have a voice at the
(01:08):
table and to be a resource forothers.
I kept telling myself I wantedmore, but didn't have the
direction I needed until I foundclarity and career growth
strategies for experiencednurses like.
Me.
In this podcast, you will findsimple tactical steps that allow
you to gain the clarity you needsolutions for how to grow even
(01:31):
without supportive leadershipand guidelines for setting
boundaries at work so that youcan grow purposefully in your
career as a nurse with agraduate degree who makes a huge
impact in the profession.
So get ready to trade yourscrubs for yoga pants, pop in
those earbuds and let's chat.
Hello my fellow nurses.
(01:53):
It is good to be back.
I appreciate you all hanging inthere while, I had my top 10
episodes from 2024, on replay Ihope you enjoyed them.
I am so happy to be back here,to talk with you about all
things nursing career growth.
(02:15):
As I go forward I will probablybe, talking about a few other
things that I have been activelyworking through and working in.
Especially as I grow in my roleas, president of the North
Carolina Nurses Association, Iget inducted in September and I
am learning a lot about advocacyand much more about leadership.
(02:40):
So I hope to bring more advocacyand leadership topics.
I am very much a person whodoesn't necessarily like to be
controversial.
I like to give people tools onhow to advocate for the
profession better than wecurrently do.
And as I grow and I learn moreabout advocacy and how much is.
(03:09):
Out of our control, buttechnically could be in our
control.
I want to be able to get thatmessage out to as many nurses as
possible.
So I will be incorporating thatin, some episodes going forward.
Also have to say Happy NursesWeek.
I know I'm late.
But I had a very eventfulnurse's week.
(03:30):
I spoke at a pending ceremonyfor a nursing school and then I
did a speech, for my.
Case management colleagueswithin my organization.
It was about a group of, 80something nurses and much of my
conversation focused aroundfinding joy and work.
(03:52):
I really, I.
Am a glass, half full type ofperson.
My talk there was about how tofind joy in work, even in the
midst of everything that isgoing on right now.
As I move forward in episodes, Ihope to encourage you, and to
equip you to find clarity inyour career.
And so that's what I'm talkingabout today.
(04:13):
I'm getting back to the basicsof the question that everyone
usually has in their mind Idon't know what I wanna be when
I grow up.
And it's not just nursingstudents coming into nursing
saying, I don't know what Iwanna be when I grow up.
This podcast is for experiencenurses, because so many have
(04:38):
come up to me and said, I don'tknow what I wanna do when I grow
up.
Some of these nurses are fiveyears in, 10 years, in 15 years
in master's degrees, doctoratedegrees.
I was sitting in a session fora, task force in the state in
(05:00):
which I work, which is in NorthCarolina.
This particular task force did astudy focusing on the workforce
of North Carolina.
Within that study they did asurvey.
One of the things that stood outto me was.
There were nurses in the surveywho felt a future or hopeful
(05:22):
about their current job, but notnecessarily had a great outlook
about the their nursing career.
And to me, that says you're notaware of all of the options.
Of things that you could do as anurse.
Because you're not aware of allthe options, all you see in
(05:44):
front of you is your currentjob, and then you look out and,
you see what is right therebefore you, whether it be, and
most of the time it's whatever'sright in your organization.
You're looking out within yourorganization and in your mind,
you're thinking, there are noopportunities for me, so I'm
(06:06):
gonna stay where I am.
I'll stay here for a while, butI don't really see any growth
opportunities in my organizationin my 20 years.
I will say I'm a firm believerin just because it's not here
today doesn't mean that it won'tbe available.
And about a year or 2, 3, 4, 5years.
(06:30):
Just because you don't see it inyour organization, doesn't mean
it doesn't exist.
Just because you don't see itdoesn't mean that people can't
create it.
Sometimes my question is, haveyou told anyone that this is the
(06:50):
thing that you're looking for?
Have you told someone what yourgoals are?
Who have you connected with?
Like these are the questionsthat I ask people because we all
have this idea of what type ofwork we want to do, and
sometimes that doesn't match upwith the reality that is right
(07:12):
in front of us, but it is areality that actually could be
if we just reached out toothers, got a mentor.
Found a coach.
I'm here and had someconversations about
possibilities of what is outthere for you.
(07:33):
As we go through this podcastepisode, I'm gonna talk a little
bit about why people feel stuck.
I've got a little tool to shareto help you get unstuck.
I've developed a new tool calledthe Nurse Career Growth Roadmap.
It helps to take you through afew action steps, some
(07:58):
reflection points, not a longreflection point.
Like it's not, it should nottake you.
It should only take you about 30minutes to get through the
document.
You need to take 30 minutes tosit down and take, take
inventory on what is it that Ineed to do.
But it it, it goes throughseveral questions, helping you
(08:20):
tease out your thoughts to helpyou get unstuck.
Let's talk about why.
Experienced nurses feel stuck.
There are several reasons whynurses feel stuck.
A few things I hear thattranslate into stuck is there
are too many options.
(08:43):
Like I said before, I don't knowwhat my next step is.
I don't see the job I want i'vebeen applying and can't seem to
get hired for a new role.
That's a little bit differentthan not having clarity, but to
me that's why people are stuck.
I don't know when I wanna be,when I grow up.
(09:03):
These comments come from severalsources.
They stem from lack ofawareness.
Lack of clarity about what youwant.
You don't want to admit what youwant because you wanna keep all
your options open.
Fear of trying something newthat may not work out.
(09:27):
Some of it is lack ofconfidence.
You might blame it on impostersyndrome, but it's really lack
of confidence.
Some of it is not being willingto step out into a new identity.
Like it really might be time foryou to garner a new identity in
nursing, but you're afraid to doso, so you stay stuck.
(09:50):
You don't see yourself in ahigher role, but others may see
you in a higher role.
You're self sabotaging to staywith what you know because you
don't like change.
All of these are reasons why.
Many nurses tend to feel stuck.
(10:10):
They tend to stir right wherethey are.
Not really knowing whether it'syou that's doing it or whether
other people are doing it to youi'm not necessarily gonna say
other people are doing it toyou.
'cause I don't believe in,blaming others for you being
(10:32):
stuck, for you not being able toget the opportunities?
Do people do that?
Oh, they do.
I'm currently reading this bookcalled The Slight Edge, and they
talk about blame versusresponsibility and really just
digging into people who aresuccessful are responsible.
(10:55):
Meaning they feel like it istheir responsibility to move
forward in whatever it is thatthey're trying to move forward
in, regardless of who's tryingto step in their way.
I am a person of responsibility.
Yes, there are others that couldbe blamed.
(11:16):
They need to get their handslapped, whatever the case may
be.
But it's still up to me to bedetermined to overcome that and
get to the place of success thatI believe is purposed for me.
These are.
Some of the reasons that youwanna think about as to why you
(11:39):
may feel stuck?
When you are feeling stuck andwhen you don't have clarity.
One of the main things I said isbecause it's a lack of
self-awareness, and so I wannadig into that one clear reason.
'cause I could probably giveyou.
(12:03):
I could go deeper into all ofthese topics, but the one topic
I wanna go into further into isthe importance of improving your
self-awareness and having somesort of career reflection.
When someone approaches me aboutbeing stuck in their careers,
(12:25):
they usually start with thejobs, they have searched for,
and the lack of passion they seefor what is available.
When I start to have aconversation with someone that
I'm coaching, they will startwith, I don't know what I want
to be when I grow up, or I don'tknow what I wanna do next.
And then they will go to well,I've been looking at this job
(12:47):
and that job.
And that's not a wrong thing todo.
It's not wrong to do at all, butI wanna challenge you to start
differently.
I like to help people considerwhat they want first in their
(13:07):
careers.
Because many of you could be ata place where you already have
your master's degree, youalready have your doctorate
degree, and it's usually thatgroup trying to figure out the
next job.
And yes, nurses who have theirBSN, they're looking for the
same thing.
But we tend to think that oncewe have the master's degree or
the doctorate degree, thateverything else should just fall
(13:29):
into place and it doesn't.
It's essential to reflect onmoments that brought you joy and
peace in your career and to havehope that you can find that in
work, yes, you will always havepolitics, but if you like the
(13:50):
work that you do, if you havejoy about the work that you do,
that will make the difference.
It is necessary to reflect onwhat you do well and what you do
not do well.
This helps you to shift yourfocus away from a job search and
(14:10):
to a discovery route to findwhat works best for where you
want to go.
This practice is careerreflection and the development
of self-awareness.
In nursing.
We have so much autonomy in ourclinical practice, but for the
most part, we are told a lot ofwhat to do.
(14:34):
Once it comes down to ourcareers, it's hard for us to
navigate out of.
Okay, this is, I, I need to dosomething differently and us to
wrap our heads around what doesdifferently mean?
I am asking you to develop yourvoice to say, this is what I
(14:57):
want.
I would like a job that includesthis, or, this is what I want to
do next, because you've donesome reflection.
You now understand.
What brings you joy?
What brings you peace?
What helps you to operate inyour core values?
(15:22):
And when you do that, itprovides clarity about what you
like about your career, and ithelps you to understand why
you're stuck.
It gives you the tools to knowwhere you may want to go.
It provides direction for yournext steps and goals for your
career.
And so now that you have thatconcept of why you feel stuck
(15:44):
and why your career reflectionand self-awareness can help you
get clear on your next steps, Ihave a way for you to gather all
of that information in your headand put it on paper.
It is my nurse career growthroadmap.
It was developed because many ofyou stated you didn't know what
your next step was, and many ofyou see it as a job issue, which
(16:09):
may be tripping you up.
We put the cart before the horsewhen we search for our next job,
but we must begin with what isin us.
That we want to grow to be thebest nurse in the profession and
the healthcare professional wewant to be.
(16:30):
In this guide, I take youthrough four steps to help you
jumpstart your thoughts onwhat's next for you.
Best of all, it is free.
My call to action to you is toclick the link below.
And join my email list.
With that, you will get accessto this free nursing career
(16:55):
growth roadmap.
It takes about, five to 10minutes to go through the first
exercise and start identifyingwhat you truly want in your
career.
So go ahead and download thatguide and feel free to reach out
(17:15):
to me if you have any questions.
Send me a fan mail if you haveany questions, and I'll be happy
to answer it on the show.
You click the link in the shownotes and I'll see you next
week.
I hope you enjoyed today'sepisode.
If so, would you take 30 secondsand share it with another nurse
(17:36):
who may be unsure of where to gonext in their career or maybe
need some career clarity?
Also, please leave a quickreview for the show on Apple
Podcast.
It brings me so much joy and somuch encouragement to know this
podcast is helping you now goget the career you want and not
the one you settle for.
(17:58):
And I'll meet you back here nextThursday for another episode.
See you soon.
Just because you don't see it inyour organization, doesn't mean
(00:03):
it doesn't exist.
Just because you don't see itdoesn't mean that people can't
create it.
Sometimes my question is, haveyou told anyone that this is the
thing that you're looking for?
(00:24):
Have you told someone what yourgoals are?
Who have you connected with?
Are you feeling stuck in yourcurrent clinical environment?
Do you want to make a change inyour nursing career, but not
sure what to do next?
Exhausted, burnt out, and maybeeven ready for different
(00:47):
leadership?
I'm Bonnie Meadows, a boardified clinical nurse specialist,
influential leader, careercoach, and wellbeing coach.
Being in the nursing andhealthcare profession since
2004, I have felt stuck andunsure about what was next for
me.
I wanted to be fulfilled in mypurpose, to have a voice at the
(01:08):
table and to be a resource forothers.
I kept telling myself I wantedmore, but didn't have the
direction I needed until I foundclarity and career growth
strategies for experiencednurses like.
Me.
In this podcast, you will findsimple tactical steps that allow
you to gain the clarity you needsolutions for how to grow even
(01:31):
without supportive leadershipand guidelines for setting
boundaries at work so that youcan grow purposefully in your
career as a nurse with agraduate degree who makes a huge
impact in the profession.
So get ready to trade yourscrubs for yoga pants, pop in
those earbuds and let's chat.
Hello my fellow nurses.
(01:53):
It is good to be back.
I appreciate you all hanging inthere while, I had my top 10
episodes from 2024, on replay Ihope you enjoyed them.
I am so happy to be back here,to talk with you about all
things nursing career growth.
(02:15):
As I go forward I will probablybe, talking about a few other
things that I have been activelyworking through and working in.
Especially as I grow in my roleas, president of the North
Carolina Nurses Association, Iget inducted in September and I
am learning a lot about advocacyand much more about leadership.
(02:40):
So I hope to bring more advocacyand leadership topics.
I am very much a person whodoesn't necessarily like to be
controversial.
I like to give people tools onhow to advocate for the
profession better than wecurrently do.
And as I grow and I learn moreabout advocacy and how much is.
(03:09):
Out of our control, buttechnically could be in our
control.
I want to be able to get thatmessage out to as many nurses as
possible.
So I will be incorporating thatin, some episodes going forward.
Also have to say Happy NursesWeek.
I know I'm late.
But I had a very eventfulnurse's week.
(03:30):
I spoke at a pending ceremonyfor a nursing school and then I
did a speech, for my.
Case management colleagueswithin my organization.
It was about a group of, 80something nurses and much of my
conversation focused aroundfinding joy and work.
(03:52):
I really, I.
Am a glass, half full type ofperson.
My talk there was about how tofind joy in work, even in the
midst of everything that isgoing on right now.
As I move forward in episodes, Ihope to encourage you, and to
equip you to find clarity inyour career.
And so that's what I'm talkingabout today.
(04:13):
I'm getting back to the basicsof the question that everyone
usually has in their mind Idon't know what I wanna be when
I grow up.
And it's not just nursingstudents coming into nursing
saying, I don't know what Iwanna be when I grow up.
This podcast is for experiencenurses, because so many have
(04:38):
come up to me and said, I don'tknow what I wanna do when I grow
up.
Some of these nurses are fiveyears in, 10 years, in 15 years
in master's degrees, doctoratedegrees.
I was sitting in a session fora, task force in the state in
(05:00):
which I work, which is in NorthCarolina.
This particular task force did astudy focusing on the workforce
of North Carolina.
Within that study they did asurvey.
One of the things that stood outto me was.
There were nurses in the surveywho felt a future or hopeful
(05:22):
about their current job, but notnecessarily had a great outlook
about the their nursing career.
And to me, that says you're notaware of all of the options.
Of things that you could do as anurse.
Because you're not aware of allthe options, all you see in
(05:44):
front of you is your currentjob, and then you look out and,
you see what is right therebefore you, whether it be, and
most of the time it's whatever'sright in your organization.
You're looking out within yourorganization and in your mind,
you're thinking, there are noopportunities for me, so I'm
(06:06):
gonna stay where I am.
I'll stay here for a while, butI don't really see any growth
opportunities in my organizationin my 20 years.
I will say I'm a firm believerin just because it's not here
today doesn't mean that it won'tbe available.
And about a year or 2, 3, 4, 5years.
(06:30):
Just because you don't see it inyour organization, doesn't mean
it doesn't exist.
Just because you don't see itdoesn't mean that people can't
create it.
Sometimes my question is, haveyou told anyone that this is the
(06:50):
thing that you're looking for?
Have you told someone what yourgoals are?
Who have you connected with?
Like these are the questionsthat I ask people because we all
have this idea of what type ofwork we want to do, and
sometimes that doesn't match upwith the reality that is right
(07:12):
in front of us, but it is areality that actually could be
if we just reached out toothers, got a mentor.
Found a coach.
I'm here and had someconversations about
possibilities of what is outthere for you.
(07:33):
As we go through this podcastepisode, I'm gonna talk a little
bit about why people feel stuck.
I've got a little tool to shareto help you get unstuck.
I've developed a new tool calledthe Nurse Career Growth Roadmap.
It helps to take you through afew action steps, some
(07:58):
reflection points, not a longreflection point.
Like it's not, it should nottake you.
It should only take you about 30minutes to get through the
document.
You need to take 30 minutes tosit down and take, take
inventory on what is it that Ineed to do.
But it it, it goes throughseveral questions, helping you
(08:20):
tease out your thoughts to helpyou get unstuck.
Let's talk about why.
Experienced nurses feel stuck.
There are several reasons whynurses feel stuck.
A few things I hear thattranslate into stuck is there
are too many options.
(08:43):
Like I said before, I don't knowwhat my next step is.
I don't see the job I want i'vebeen applying and can't seem to
get hired for a new role.
That's a little bit differentthan not having clarity, but to
me that's why people are stuck.
I don't know when I wanna be,when I grow up.
(09:03):
These comments come from severalsources.
They stem from lack ofawareness.
Lack of clarity about what youwant.
You don't want to admit what youwant because you wanna keep all
your options open.
Fear of trying something newthat may not work out.
(09:27):
Some of it is lack ofconfidence.
You might blame it on impostersyndrome, but it's really lack
of confidence.
Some of it is not being willingto step out into a new identity.
Like it really might be time foryou to garner a new identity in
nursing, but you're afraid to doso, so you stay stuck.
(09:50):
You don't see yourself in ahigher role, but others may see
you in a higher role.
You're self sabotaging to staywith what you know because you
don't like change.
All of these are reasons why.
Many nurses tend to feel stuck.
(10:10):
They tend to stir right wherethey are.
Not really knowing whether it'syou that's doing it or whether
other people are doing it to youi'm not necessarily gonna say
other people are doing it toyou.
'cause I don't believe in,blaming others for you being
(10:32):
stuck, for you not being able toget the opportunities?
Do people do that?
Oh, they do.
I'm currently reading this bookcalled The Slight Edge, and they
talk about blame versusresponsibility and really just
digging into people who aresuccessful are responsible.
(10:55):
Meaning they feel like it istheir responsibility to move
forward in whatever it is thatthey're trying to move forward
in, regardless of who's tryingto step in their way.
I am a person of responsibility.
Yes, there are others that couldbe blamed.
(11:16):
They need to get their handslapped, whatever the case may
be.
But it's still up to me to bedetermined to overcome that and
get to the place of success thatI believe is purposed for me.
These are.
Some of the reasons that youwanna think about as to why you
(11:39):
may feel stuck?
When you are feeling stuck andwhen you don't have clarity.
One of the main things I said isbecause it's a lack of
self-awareness, and so I wannadig into that one clear reason.
'cause I could probably giveyou.
(12:03):
I could go deeper into all ofthese topics, but the one topic
I wanna go into further into isthe importance of improving your
self-awareness and having somesort of career reflection.
When someone approaches me aboutbeing stuck in their careers,
(12:25):
they usually start with thejobs, they have searched for,
and the lack of passion they seefor what is available.
When I start to have aconversation with someone that
I'm coaching, they will startwith, I don't know what I want
to be when I grow up, or I don'tknow what I wanna do next.
And then they will go to well,I've been looking at this job
(12:47):
and that job.
And that's not a wrong thing todo.
It's not wrong to do at all, butI wanna challenge you to start
differently.
I like to help people considerwhat they want first in their
(13:07):
careers.
Because many of you could be ata place where you already have
your master's degree, youalready have your doctorate
degree, and it's usually thatgroup trying to figure out the
next job.
And yes, nurses who have theirBSN, they're looking for the
same thing.
But we tend to think that oncewe have the master's degree or
the doctorate degree, thateverything else should just fall
(13:29):
into place and it doesn't.
It's essential to reflect onmoments that brought you joy and
peace in your career and to havehope that you can find that in
work, yes, you will always havepolitics, but if you like the
(13:50):
work that you do, if you havejoy about the work that you do,
that will make the difference.
It is necessary to reflect onwhat you do well and what you do
not do well.
This helps you to shift yourfocus away from a job search and
(14:10):
to a discovery route to findwhat works best for where you
want to go.
This practice is careerreflection and the development
of self-awareness.
In nursing.
We have so much autonomy in ourclinical practice, but for the
most part, we are told a lot ofwhat to do.
(14:34):
Once it comes down to ourcareers, it's hard for us to
navigate out of.
Okay, this is, I, I need to dosomething differently and us to
wrap our heads around what doesdifferently mean?
I am asking you to develop yourvoice to say, this is what I
(14:57):
want.
I would like a job that includesthis, or, this is what I want to
do next, because you've donesome reflection.
You now understand.
What brings you joy?
What brings you peace?
What helps you to operate inyour core values?
(15:22):
And when you do that, itprovides clarity about what you
like about your career, and ithelps you to understand why
you're stuck.
It gives you the tools to knowwhere you may want to go.
It provides direction for yournext steps and goals for your
career.
And so now that you have thatconcept of why you feel stuck
(15:44):
and why your career reflectionand self-awareness can help you
get clear on your next steps, Ihave a way for you to gather all
of that information in your headand put it on paper.
It is my nurse career growthroadmap.
It was developed because many ofyou stated you didn't know what
your next step was, and many ofyou see it as a job issue, which
(16:09):
may be tripping you up.
We put the cart before the horsewhen we search for our next job,
but we must begin with what isin us.
That we want to grow to be thebest nurse in the profession and
the healthcare professional wewant to be.
(16:30):
In this guide, I take youthrough four steps to help you
jumpstart your thoughts onwhat's next for you.
Best of all, it is free.
My call to action to you is toclick the link below.
And join my email list.
With that, you will get accessto this free nursing career
(16:55):
growth roadmap.
It takes about, five to 10minutes to go through the first
exercise and start identifyingwhat you truly want in your
career.
So go ahead and download thatguide and feel free to reach out
(17:15):
to me if you have any questions.
Send me a fan mail if you haveany questions, and I'll be happy
to answer it on the show.
You click the link in the shownotes and I'll see you next
week.
I hope you enjoyed today'sepisode.
If so, would you take 30 secondsand share it with another nurse
(17:36):
who may be unsure of where to gonext in their career or maybe
need some career clarity?
Also, please leave a quickreview for the show on Apple
Podcast.
It brings me so much joy and somuch encouragement to know this
podcast is helping you now goget the career you want and not
the one you settle for.
(17:58):
And I'll meet you back here nextThursday for another episode.
See you soon.
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The Joe Rogan Experience
The official podcast of comedian Joe Rogan.
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