Need some career advice, I'm at a loss

Nurses Career Support

Published

I've been doing nursing for almost 3 years now. I'm planning to go to grad school for my NP (I'm still debating family vs adult) by the end of the year. The hospital I've been working at has been going some radical changes. Our inpatient floors have been reduced so I was forced to move to the emergency department. So far the ED has been ok but the problem is the pediatric emergency department closed a month before my orientation period so now I have to take care of both peds and adults. I utterly hate taking care of kids, the thought of sticking them with needles bothers me and giving toddlers liquid medications is a chore. I hear some talk that the MICU has openings and while I was a floor nurse floating down there was like a vacation, I could be thorough with my patients and I felt like I was doing real nursing. My mother tells me I can bear it out in the emergency department for at least she can get me into a hospital that is only 20 minutes away from home (my current job is a 75 minute drive). The hospital she is working at is looking for nurses in the future with critical care/tele experience to start up their cardiac cath lab. A lot of the people I work with seem to understand that the current place I work at is usually a stepping stone for younger nurses like me for "greener pastures". However some things in the ER I do not like really get to me are: Kids Lack of a patient Cap Responsible for own labs and lines More Kids Seeing so much abuse of resources in the healthcare system (We are an ER not your damn clinic) I've only been in the ER for about 5 months and I've only taken care of two critical patients. A few of the doctors I've spoken to told me to stay in the ED saying it would be a stronger learning experience vs going for the MICU. My Educator that does both the ED and ICU also says the same thing but says floor nurses need extra time to adjust before making any impressions. Should I give it more time or take a stab at the MICU?

+ Add a Comment