New Grad with an offer at Magnet hospital

Nurses New Nurse

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Hello everyone I am a new grad and I was offered a position in an ortho-trauma unit at a magnet status hospital, my problem is that this hospital is located out of state and I have to uproot my family for this job. Pros are I do have family in the state I will be relocating to so my son will get to know his grandmother , aunts, and uncles, its a magnet status hospital, great educational opportunities after 6 months of employment 12 free credit hours at a state university per semester, self scheduling unit, this is a 500 bed hospital so a lot of opportunity to grow as a new nurse. Cons are I have to uproot my three year old son and husband, which he travels a lot anyways, basically that's all the cons I can think of.

My other option is to stay where I am at and work for a 100 bed hospital, pros would be I get to stay in this state.

The state I will be leaving is California and I will be going to Tennessee, yes I know pay is lower compared to California but cost of living is lower too, I have actually already found a house to rent that is a quarter of my house payment here in California. I am just so confused on what to do? I understand no one can tell me what to do but maybe you guys can give me a different perspective in the matter. Thank you for reading this and if you reply thank you for that too.:banghead:

Specializes in ER, ICU.

Your son is three so he won't care much, your hubby seems OK with it, you get to see family more, and you'll never get dropped off the continental shelf by an earthquake. I'd get your bluegrass on!

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you should go for it, if your husband agrees with your decision. you have more pros than cons with the possible move; sometimes change can be a great thing! :)

best of luck with whatever you decide to do!

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Go for it girl! I just moved out of California to get a job and it is not even that great of a job. I don't have a family yet, but it will be hard to find that great of a job in Cali.

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Specializes in NICU.

I have a bad habit of being random, but someone had mentioned that the largest nurses union in the US is opposed to the Magnet designation. Could that possibly be because having a nurses union is a detractor to getting Magnet status?

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Specializes in burn ICU, SICU, ER, Trauma Rapid Response.
I have a bad habit of being random, but someone had mentioned that the largest nurses union in the US is opposed to the Magnet designation. Could that possibly be because having a nurses union is a detractor to getting Magnet status?

*** My guess would be because unions empower nurses and put them on closer to a level footing with management. Unions make it hard for the hospital to dump on nurses. Conditions not very conducive to achieving Magnet.

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Specializes in Psych/CD/Medical/Emp Hlth/Staff ED.
*** My guess would be because unions empower nurses and put them on closer to a level footing with management. Unions make it hard for the hospital to dump on nurses. Conditions not very conducive to achieving Magnet.

The rationale can be found here (starting on page 22, it's a long article but there is a summary at the end)

http://www.calnurses.org/publications/national-nurse-mag/nn_mag_apr2010.pdf

While you do need to consider that this is the position of not only a union, but the main competitor of the ANA (which awards magnet status through ANCC), they do make some valid points. Their 2 main complaints are that magnet can put Nurses in a position where they are advocating for their facility potentially at the expense of patient advocacy, and that magnet doesn't address the biggest patient care/nurse satisfaction issue which is ratios, something that is the claim to fame of the CNA (the main founder of the NNU).

I think it can go both ways; If initiated by staff RN's, Magnet can be used as a carrot to waive in front of an administration that offers a plaque for their lobby and a logo for their website in exchange for allowing and facilitating better patient care. But on the other hand, Magnet initiated by Administrators often wastes energy and resources on an ineffective program, which often only exists in any meaningful sense for a couple months prior to each magnet review.

To get back to the OP's question, its good to check which category of Magnet a facility fits into before putting all your eggs in one basket.

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In my area Magnet has no meaning. Everybody's got it, and it's just for the marketing -- hence it's a worthless extra irritation for staff.

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