Pros and Cons of your job?

[Underoo]

I have worked as an RN on a med-surg floor for two years, both in a small community hospital and in a larger hospital. I will be relocating next year and hope to have a fresh start in my career. The only problem is, I can't decide where I should go next. I would love to hear your opinions about your current job. What is your specialty? What do you love about your job? What do you hate about it? All specialties and advice are welcome. I will start by telling you about my love/hate relationship with med-surg nursing: Love: -Patient care. -Getting to know my patients, learning about them. -Making a difference. -Starting IV's! -Doing things that make me feel like a "real" nurse (IVs, wound care, anything that teaches me a new skill). -Meeting new people. -New adventures. Hate: -Chaos of working on the floor. -Too much to chart and no time to do it. -Being in a very uncontrolled environment (things can go bad, fast). -Certain types of patients (drug users, alcohol withdrawals). -Staffing (not having enough time to really LISTEN to my patients. And forget eating or going to the bathroom!). Going home with sore feet and a painful backache! Am I asking too much, or is there a place out there for me in nursing? Thanks!

[beeker]

Ortho Trauma at a large hospital

PROS - they pay me to show up

The patients get mostly get better each day it is nice to see them improve

Some of the docs are very nice and helpful;

CONS- The pay is not good

VERY high stress

We are never properly staffed

We rarely have techs

It is very stressful and we have high patient ratios

We have a high turnover rate

Some of the surgeons are complete jerks

I do not recommend

[DoeRN]

I don't have a speciality since I am a float nurse. Pros- I set my own schedule and don't have to work weekends and holidays.

Cons- well there are too many to list. I'm in the process of getting away from he bedside.

But I wanted to point out something that I saw in your post. Why don't you look for a wound or IV therapy position? Your still doing care and making a difference but it different than working at the bedside the whole time. Technically you are at the bedside but you come and go.

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[SwansonRN]

Medical ICU @ a large hospital PROS- 1 or 2 patients, can be exciting at times (crashing patients, codes, if you're into that sort of thing), tons of autonomy, you get to learn a lot of skills/procedures and work with different technologies (rapid infusers, CVVH machine, ventilators), good for the book smart people of the world, good for anal nurses that like to have a lot of control, if things go wrong, you figure it out. There's no rapid response to help or swat nurses to take your patients away. CONS- not a lot of snacks on the unit d/t our patients mostly being on enteral feedings/NPO (of course this would be the first thing that comes to mind), obviously a lot of death (I had the delightful assignment of taking someone off life support on Christmas), super stressed out family members (enough said), total care (98% of the time I do fingersticks, vitals, ADLs/bedbaths, cleaning+stocking rooms, post-mortem care, I have NEVER delegated blood draws, and most of the time our aides just help with turns), too much responsibility at times (babysitting doctors, everything falls on the nurse), a lot of additional paperwork, noisy alarms

[ukjenn231]

I float and I have recently worked MS/Tele, ICU and ER. This is my opinoin...

Floor nursing:

pros- busy, see new things a lot, most patients can talk and tell you what they want, opportunities everywhere

cons- too many patients, staffing can be poor, lots of charting, physically demanding, if you don't have a good tech you're screwed, have to ask the doc for everything and he gets angry when you call, and also when you don't call...

ICU nursing:

pros- autonomy, lots of protocols and standing orders, doctors respect ICU nurses, have time to dive into a chart and learn about the patient and know their results, only have 1-2 patients, learn so much

cons- patients are sedated or unresponsive a lot (can be a pro for some, con for me), stressed out families, lose a lot of patients, can be a lot of downtime depending on the hospital acuity, not much ancillary support

ER nursing:

pros- autonomy, docs are right there - no need to page them, doctors respect ER nurses, high turnover, see lots of stuff, can be exciting

cons- don't get to see many outcomes, can be high stress, your patient assignment may not be acuity based because you can't control what comes in, lots of ridiculous patients

[Underoo]

Thank you for the informative feedback. I guess I'm trying to find something that gives me more time to breathe and actually learn about each individual, and less chaos and stress. I have thought about ambulatory care in a hospital setting - would give me tons of IVs to start, better hours I think, maybe less anxiety? Wound care is also a possibility. I love wound care, but get so stressed when there's no time to devote to learning about the wound and causes/treatments.. Don't like slapping a dressing on it and running to the next thing. Also, does 2 years med/surg/tele give me a good chance of getting a position practically anywhere?

[xoemmylouox, ASN, RN]

I think having some experience should help you land a job in another specialty. If you float you would see how many different departments work. Also try to read through the posts in the specialties section here on Allnurses.