Career Choice!!!

Nurses Career Support

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I am a recent graduate nurse; I am getting ready to Start in the O.R. at a Level I trauma center. One of my instructors said that it is not very wise for a graduate RN to start their career in the O.R. because some skills may be lost. Has anyone had this experience? Do you agree or Disagree with this thinking? I am trying to determine if I should take this job in O.R. or maybe do some Med-surg to get my skills up to a more proficient level. I would love to hear any thoughts or opinions on this subject.

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Specializes in Med-Surg, Trauma, Ortho, Neuro, Cardiac.

My thought is that you should go for what you're interested in. If you want this job in the OR and they are hiring new grads and have a good orientation, then go for it. No matter where you go there are going to be skills specific to that area and skills you are going to loose,. For example, as a med-surg nurse, I know nothing about L&D or peds, and am functioning just fine.

In the future should you decide to do something else, you can learn the skills of the new job on the job.

Go for what you want, what will make you the most happy. Why toture yourself with med-surg if you don't want med-surg in the long run. Why should a facility invest the time to orient you to med-surg, only to turn around a year later and orient you all over again.

Good luck in whatever you do. There are indeed arguments to both sides of the issue.

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I agree with Tweety. Some older nurses still have the mindset that everyone should start in med-surg because that is what they did. Health care has changed drastically though and I don't believe that this should be a requirement anymore. If you don't want to do med-surg, you will only end up being miserable. Good luck!

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thanks guys for your responses. i have talked with other nurses; pretty much everyone says the same thing. so i will take the job that i want and genuinely am interested in, instead of wasting a year or two just to end up where i really wanted to be anyway.

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Specializes in Med-Surg, Trauma, Ortho, Neuro, Cardiac.

Good plan. Best wishes in all you do. I hope you stick around Allnurses and share your experiences along the way. :)

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