PRN Scheduling Worth It?

[alb1993]

Hello all!

I do not typically post on this website, usually just read the discussions that have already been posted. However, I have been struggling with a dilemma for a few weeks now and I am looking to get any sort of input if you all have any!

I am an RN who has worked for the same ER full time for two years now. While I love my team and have grown incredibly close with them all, we have been struggling on night shift with short staffing and it has honestly been an absolute nightmare every shift for the past 6 months or so. Not to mention dealing with a director who can honestly be considered a bully in some regards. Because of this, I applied to a job where my friend moved to that is a PRN, ER specific float pool that staffs 5 hospitals in my city. He says he loves the job and after two interviews, I was hired.

Upon hearing the news, my directors at my current job offered me a position that includes PRN pay with the full time hours as a charge nurse, they said they really don't want me to leave. The pay was another reason I was looking for another job, but now that I have been offered this position, the pay will be the same at both jobs.

I am so completely torn, I love my ER family and have grown so comfortable where I am at now, I have grown as a nurse as well having learned how to be charge.

I guess it really just boils down to whether or not I am ready to move on, the new job I would be starting allows me to choose my schedule week to week which some say is totally worth it. My job now dictates when we work and it can be difficult getting shifts covered if need be.

I suppose my questions are as follows: Is it worth moving on when things get tough? I know every job suffers from short staffing now and then, our directors have hired several new GNs so it is probably only a matter of time before that issue is solved. Is the freedom of choosing your own schedule worth starting over at a new job? Have any of you all been in similar situations and regretted the change? Liked the change?

Just for a little background, I am recently married, no kids yet, and am in graduate school for my MSN. Benefits are not an issue. My husband and I really want to travel before we start having kids, hence the reason for liking the freedom of personal scheduling.

I appreciate everyone's feedback!

[Been there,done that, ASN, RN]

The bully director should have never gotten the "news". The fact that you obtained a PRN job should have remained private. Bully manager is now offering what you should have been receiving all along.

Hiring several new grads will not solve the staffing problem, it is applying a bandaid to a gunshot wound. Why would bully manager need to hire NEW GRADS?

Get out of your comfort zone.. much bigger things await you.

[alb1993]

Thanks for the advice. This director never found out, it was my immediate one for the unit.

[Been there,done that, ASN, RN]

Thanks for the advice. This director never found out, it was my immediate one for the unit.

"Upon hearing the news, my directors at my current job offered me a position "

Please clarify. One of the powers that be got the news.. and upped the ante.