I’m a German nurse applying for a job office as a clinical coder. The main reason to leave bedside? I’m tired of dealing with arrogant, non compliant patients and being blamed for things I cannot control: think about the diabetic patient that keeps drinking coca cola or a patient that outright lies to me claiming he took his medication, but he doesn’t or being blamed because a patient didn’t go to angiology on time because I had to assist with another procedure. There are much more examples but I’ll stop now.
I just want a quiet job with regular working hours and to have a life, time and energy for my hobbies. Being a clinical coder could be it. A simple, repetitive, boring office job looks like a blessing as of now.
I don’t believe you should find accomplishment in a job: I work because I need the money and I have no idea what to write to imply I’m passionate about assigning numbers to medical cases so my hospital gets paid. It’s like being an accountant. What do accountants write in their apps to impress potential employers? I like large and properly filed databases?
It doesn’t look good if I write that I’m tired of working bedside (for the reasons I mentioned) and I just want to find a quiet job and go home and leave work at work, does it? But writing that I’m a nerd for figures and love assigning numbers to cases and also love large and properly formatted data files sounds ridiculous.
At the same time, I still don’t want to shut the door completely to bedside because it still pays more than this position as a clinical coder and I may decide to go back later in time.
ETA: In Germany we also work with NANDA Diagnosis and Diagnosis-related Groups, like our American counterparts.
IMHO the most important thing is to always have positive reasons for your desire for a new job. Always present it as moving toward something you want, not as running away from something you don’t want.
You can say that you’ve been working with patients for however many years, and need a change. Everyone gets tired of things after a while, they can’t take anything negative from that. You can also say that you are in the right spot in your career for a transition into a more regular office environment.
You can say that you are detail oriented and like working with data and feel that your nursing background can help you put all that data into context.
As long as you are focused during the interview on how you can use your experience to help that group, you’ll be fine. Good luck!
Yeah, saying “I left because I didn’t like it” makes prospective employers wonder what will stop you from leaving your new position when its downsides reach you. It sounds like you’ll just bounce around until you find the job you hate the least.
If it’s framed as “I want to leave because this job has things that I want”, then there’s no reason to believe that something new will push you out.
… though I do find myself wondering why OP believes it’s unrealistic to value a well-maintained database… especially in Germany, given the stereotypes! Lol
