Career dilema: did I make a mistake?

[Skwidward]

I feel like I just made a huge mistake.

I'm a new grad LVN. I Graduated in August 2007. I worked for 3 weeks on a med/surg floor. I just moved towns.

After a bunch of applications and resume faxing, I had 3 main choices.

1. Doctor's office - mainly office work, call backs, take hx, working with a med aid who can do everything I can, so I was told. Money was OK. They paid 50% of health ins. And the Doc said there would be opportunity for me as an RN in about a years time (when I'll be done with my RN).

2. Hospital med/surg - looked like hell. The discussion on preceptors for me between the director and "head nurse" wasn't very promising. In fact, it was very worrying. Basically I'd be having a new preceptor maybe every shift and I'd be changing from 12's to 8's and back and so on. Just looked like hell, and it looked like I was gonna get dumped. Scary.

3. Rehab - working nights 3x12's/week not acute care, so less stress. Still, somewhere I can do IV's, pass meds, mess with PEG, NGT's breathing treatments etc. Plus its nights, so I can attend nursing school for my RN easy.

The Doctor's office is the one I just turned down. I met the med aid they had just hired on my interview day and her first work day. She was wearing a hoody? Yeah it's 8-5 M-F but it's probably gonna be near 30 mins-hour in traffic each way, and my wife's routine is nearly the same, so our son would be on his own most school nights till 6-7. Weekends would be our get stuff done days. I cannot see how I'd schedule in RN school around a 9-5 schedule. The rehab is looking like my best bet, its like a 15 min drive, and I know it will be much slower pace than the hospital.

The Doctor for the doc office job even told me when I declined his offer that a position for an RN may still open up next year if I was inerested. He seemed more interested in my wife who's already an RN, because the RN position coming up is coming up in January...not something I could have made anyway. The RN position is going to be being his or another Doctor's nurse -it's a cardiolgoy practice- and working mainly in the hospital. He was only offering 36-40K/year for this RN position, which is low IMO. My wife earns just under double that right now.

Anyway, I figured a year or so down the line if something comes up, say I never got round to completeing RN school, I'll be an LVN with just office experience. I told him I really wanted to get some clinical experience.

It just feels like I made mistake, because I've heard its good to "get in" with a Doc because they'll take care of you especially if you're a guy etc... I dunno I just felt it was a risk and that a good foundation of clinical experience and time to complete my RN was a safer bet.

help:uhoh21:

[HealthyRN]

Sometimes it is impossible to know if we make the right choices or not. Just from reading your post, I think that you made a good decision in turning down the doctor's office. If you really want to work in a doctor's office in the future, there will be other opportunities. If you want to gain experience that will help you as an RN, the rehab doesn't sound bad. You would be gaining clinical experience that will definitely be useful as an RN.