Need Advice! I have to make decision by Monday.

Nurses New Nurse

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I am a first year RN grad. I have worked almost 1O months on an ICU floor and have been so unhappy. My hours are awful and I have no life. I have wanted so badly to have a better schedule. I applied for a job at a state of the art cancer center and to my surprise I was offered the position. It's more money than I make now and I know I was chosen over other applicants. They also offered days only, no weekends, all paid holidays and 3 weeks paid vacation to start. I was pretty happy but now am having doubts. All my friends that I went to nursing school said I should stay the year and come do travel nursing. They said I will ruin my chances for other things of I don't stick it out. I am just really confused right now. Anyone out there have any thoughts? Also if I take this job they are allowing me to take 2 weeks and go with a team of doctors and nurses to Africa to work in hospitals. If I decide to do the travel nursing I won't be able to do that. But if I don't stick it out for the year I have been told it will look bad and hurt my chance for other positions. Very Confused!

You have the chance to break free and have a new job with great benefits. If the main problem with your current job is crappy hours and it is ruining your life, clearly the new job will solve these issues. And a 2 week trip to Africa to work in hospitals sounds amazing. You could totally do travel nursing later on down the road!

I'm speaking as a 6 month new grad who is miserable in current job.

What a fabulous opportunity for you.. Many new nurses find that their first jobs

just aren't the fit for them.. A trip to Africa? I'd take it in a heartbeat.

If another facility was willing to hire you knowing that you'd be leaving another place in 10 months, obviously that is not hurting you so badly. And if you end up happier at your new job, and you stick around longer than a year and apply somewhere else after that, then I don't see a problem here.

It sounds like a great opportunity, and it would be terrible to pass it up and then having to stick around at your current job even longer than one year because the wonderful new place had to fill the position and couldn't wait for you. It's okay to be selfish sometimes! Give them a two weeks notice and tell them thank you for everything.

Take the new job.

Specializes in Home Care.

Are you living your life for you or your friends?

Specializes in Med/Surg, Rehab.

The problem isn't 10 months at a job. It becomes a problem after a string of short stints at many employers. As long as it doesn't become a pattern, you shouldn't worry about leaving so soon. The new job sounds absolutely amazing!

Are you living your life for you or your friends?

So much truth in this statement. Live for you and no one else. As a new grad, I've realized how much I don't know. We need stability and if you've spent the last 10 months hating your job, have you gotten everything you need out if the learning experience? I say take the new job. Get another year in a position you'll hopefully love, get solid, learn and grow into a good nurse. Then maybe consider traveling?

So... your alleged friends (who have probably about the same amount of professional experience as you, which is to say, less than a year) tell you that not working for someplace for a year will hurt your chances of getting another job.

Except, of course, THIS ONE, which sounds like something many of your peers would be willing to sacrifice their right arms for.

Are you serious? TAKE IT!!!! Be on their doorstep with a big smile on your face at 0800 when HR opens.

And let us know how it works out!

This is a no brainer, take the new job! In the end, you have to do whats best for you, not your friends.

10 months is pretty close to a year... the cancer center didnt have a problem hiring you before that magical one year mark, so why are your friends telling you otherwise? TAKE THE JOB!!!!!!!!!

i am also a new grad fairly miserable in her first job, hoping to hang on long enough to start interviewing elsewhere.

Specializes in Oncology.

Go to the new job! No reason to be unhappy!

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