NICU vs MedSurg

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Hi fellow nurses,

I am a new grad, and was recently offered a position in MEDSURG and NICU. I'm having a really hard time deciding which one to accept. MEDSURG is a broad unit, which I feel would be a great start to my nursing career. And NICU is specialty unit, so I'm not sure if this is the best choice to go with initially.

Please help! And thank you in advance :)

That was definitely a worry. Is there a good chance of getting another residency program with previous nursing experience? I thought those programs were for New Grads. This is something to take into consideration...

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Specializes in MICU - CCRN, IR, Vascular Surgery.

One of my coworkers spent 10+ years in the NICU and then moved to adult ICU. You can move to adults! I think NICU is the right choice, all things considered!

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This gives me hope! Thank you so much :)

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As a new Grad myself and in a similar predicament, go with ICU. I had a choice med/surg or cvicu and I was thinking the same everyone says you need med/surg but like many pointed out you can always go back if you dont like it. ICU is awesome and if you like challenges take the ICU. Great job on the hard work, it feels good to have it all pay off, huh?

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It sure does feel good to have all our hard work pay off! It's so amazing to have the opportunity to chose between two units in this job market. But it's also really difficult to pick one because they offer completely different things. Congratulations to you for your hard work! CVICU sounds super amazing!! :) And thank you so much for your advise.

I decided to go with NICU! I keep changing my mind, but after all of the really helpful posts here, I realized that NICU is awesome and a challenge. I can always change units if I don't like it. I'm willing to take that leap into NICU! I no longer feel MEDSURG has be the beginning of my career. The beauty of nursing is that there's so many things you can do, and you always try different units down the line.

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Thank you for letting us know what you decided. I hope your first experience is an awesome one!

Come back and let us know how you are doing.

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Of course! I will definitely let you know how things are going. I can't wait to start NICU next year. :) Thank you so much!

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Specializes in NICU, telemetry.

How do you like NICU so far, OP?

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How do you like NICU so far, OP?

What's OP? So far I'm loving NICU!! I'm so grateful for the opportunity, and feel so honored to be taking care of the little babies. I still have so much to learn, and have a long way to go before being an independent nurse, but I look forward to learning. I actually love getting up to go to work! I'm glad I went with NICU :)

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OP means original post/poster.

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