Nurse work dillema-Advice needed

[Lunalitsa]

Hello Im quiet in a dillema here..Ok heres the story..I am a new grad 1st year RN, I got my first job in an acute care hospital on a med/surg floor and so far I have 6 months experience working there. I have wanted to be an ICU nurse from the beginning but I took the med/surg job because that was the only job job i was offered at that time, so i took it.I tried to get an icu job from the beginning, but of course no one hardly ever hires any new grads into the icu. Its not bad, its good experience, but its not what I want to do. Im currently in school for my BSN at the same time. I have kinda of a strict timeline to follow, I want to go travel nursing as soon as I can but with Icu experience, not med/surg. And then later i plan on going back to school to become a CRNA. So my dillema is, would it be wrong to leave my current job at six months? Or should I try to stick it out for at least a year? Was thinking of transfering at my hospital or getting a new job altogether. Would it make me look bad and unstable to other prospective employers that I only worked there for 6 months? Honestly, I dont even know if I can get a job in the icu with the little expericience i got, and plus it being med/surg. What the best way to go about this? Dont know what to really do..any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks, in advace!

[llg, PhD, RN]

A year in your first job would be better -- and since you say "It's not bad" and seem to be successful at it, I would recommend sticking it out a little longer. Times are tough right now, and a slight delay in moving to ICU is not such a big sacrifice to make to strengthen your basic med/surg skills and establish a positive professional reputation.

However, if you might start discretely looking around at the ICU jobs to give yourself plenty of time fully investigate the possibilities before you make the move. You don't want "just any ICU job," ... you want a "good job with a good orientation program ... a unit where the morale is high ... etc." You can privately contact the recruiters or managers of units with posted openings and ask a few questions without officially putting in transfer papers or a resignation letter. The key is to be discrete and to maintain a positive attitude at your current job. The "clock" will keep running on your current job as you investigate. So, unless you rush your investigation and jump at the first ICU opening you see, you'll be at least over the 9-month mark on your first job before you actually resign.

In other words ... it's OK to start looking now ... but don't rush into anything. You can afford to be a bit picky and in fact you NEED to be picky with this 2nd job. If your 1st job is short-term and then your 2nd job doens't work out, it will look really bad on your employment record. So don't leave your 1st job early and then jump into a 2nd job that might not work out. That would be really bad. So, take advantage of your good fortune to have a 1st job that is OK and that can give you that opportunity to have a good solid beginning to your career -- and take your time finding a really good opportunity to move to the next step.

Rushing it may seriously hurt you in 2 ways -- give you a short-term 1st job, and give you a 2nd job that doesn't work out either. Avoid that.

[Lunalitsa]

LLg, great reply makes much sense thanks so much for the advice!