newbie need advice

[loongway2goRn]

hi people! just wondering if someone can give advice on my current situation..

have been a hemodialysis rn for about a year and some change now.. was a hemotech for several years before that while in nursing school. currently in a hospital hemodialysis but outpatient only, not acute. i admit i took the job because i wanted to get my foot in the door since hospitals are not hiring anyone without hospital experience now. but also because i was in dire need of change. only 1 year as a nurse and i was already getting tired and burnt out (mostly because of previous job situation). it was a good decision. i do not go to work everyday dreading that i might lose my license because of unsafe conditions that are out of my control.

anyway, there are a few openings within the hospital in critical care that have been there for a while now. i do not wish to transfer (yet) seeing as how i am still on orientation and i just think that's kinda tactless. anyway im thinking about asking the critical care depts if i can possibly shadow someone just to get a vibe of the unit see if it's really something i would wanna pursue. i read the idea in one of the other threads. eventually i want to do critical care and i told my current manager this in the beginning. question is, is this a good idea now? i mean i think it is since i have the free time right now and i think i would learn something new. but would that be a little blunt as well? i just need something else going on with my profession because i am honestly not getting challenged anymore.

not that i know everything in hemo because i sure don't. i have yet so much to learn. but i would like to learn more NEW stuff OTHER stuff. plus i like a fast-paced environment. i dunno maybe that's newbie enthusiasm for new knowledge. that's why i need an outsider to maybe tell me what's goin on in my head. should i actually pursue the other positions now, or see if i can shadow someone to really just have a clue of critical care, or should i just stay where i am right now and don't do anything at all, maybe wait a few more months? how many months? just need an idea to push me to the right direction. thanks!

[westieluv]

Since you are only wanting to shadow and not necessarily change jobs right now, I think that I would just focus on the hemodialysis job for now and get very proficient at that before trying something else. If you stick it out for at least a year, then you will have built a reputation as a good worker who didn't have her mind on other things while you worked in that unit, which would look good when the critical care supervisor contacts the hemodialysis supervisor for a reference. If you have just started your present job and word gets out that you are already wanting something different, it won't be appreciated by your supervisors, to say the least. If you put in a good year on the dialysis unit you can still shadow someone in critical care later, there are always going to be opportunities to shadow, and it will look much better on your resume that you were a successful dialysis nurse for a year before looking for something else, and being a dialysis nurse, with the constant potential for someone to crash during their treatment, would probably look good to a critical care supervisor. My experience has been that time flies, and it will be no time before you have been at your job for a year or more.

Good luck!

[loongway2goRn]

thank you so much for the reply! i appreciate you taking the time to read through my post!