Which Job to Take?

Specialties Operating Room

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I am lucky to have been offered new grad internships at two hospitals, and am completely stumped about which one to accept. I'm hoping those of you with experience might have some insights for a new grad that I haven't considered.

- I have job shadowed in OR's numerous times in school and spent a full day in each of these - enjoyed both tremendously.

- Both are large (1400+ beds) hospitals in a major city

- Both tend to have teams for all specialties (heart, ortho, neuro etc)

- Pay and benefits are comparable in both

- Hospital A is the Level 1 trauma hospital for the area and I will learn to circulate only. It is a very big, very busy OR dept.

- Hospital B is not a trauma hospital but is large and has a full heart section and transplant section (as does the other). They will teach me to scrub and circulate. It is part of the Adventist system.

My gut instincts are good about both, although the Adventist hospital has been extraordinarily nice, organized, and has pursued me vigorously. I'm torn between the advantage of learning to scrub vs working in a Level 1 trauma hospital.

All thoughts would be greatly appreciated!

Thank you

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Specializes in Operating Room (and a bit of med/surg).

Personally I would choose the one where you have the opportunity to scrub as well as circulate, but I enjoy scrubbing! :) Here RN's all scrub as well as circulate.

Having not worked in a Level 1 hospital I am not sure what the differences there would be. It sounds to me as though you would have a large variety of cases at either hospital, which is great.

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Other thing you may consider to help be a 'tie-breaker':

1. Retention rates-if in one hospital it is common for nurses to have longevity (been there for years) they may be happy in general; as opposed to if one or the other has a high turnover rate (why are they leaving?)

2. For what kind of reasons do they have openings now? (similar, but is it expansion, several retirements, or did nurses leave for other reasons?

3. Total compensation package; ie if two hospitals offere you $25/hr each but one also offers 20 days vaca and the other offers 30 days vaca, the second has greater value (benefits, tuition reimbursement, vaca and sick, holidays, any shift diff, etc) Look at the bigger picture

4. What kind of orientation will you receive? One may be more suitable to your learning style or preferences.

5. driving distance, traffic, etc

Best of luck!

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I posted this in another thread but on indicator of a healthy work place is a wide spread of experience in the nursing staff. If you have a spread of experience this usually means that you have nurses with different levels of experience working their way into positions that require more experience. Warning signs are places with all nurses that are new to the OR or new to that OR. Also an OR (or nursing unit) with a lot of inexperienced nurses and a bunch of very experienced nurses with none in the middle is usually a sign of a very dysfunctional unit.

David Carpenter, PA-C

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Thanks to all the great responses!

Does anyone have any feedback about the value of learning to scrub vs experience in a level 1 trauma hospital? This is the main point that has me really conflicted, I change my mind every few hours. :confused:

Thank you!

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Specializes in Operating Room.
Thanks to all the great responses!

Does anyone have any feedback about the value of learning to scrub vs experience in a level 1 trauma hospital? This is the main point that has me really conflicted, I change my mind every few hours. :confused:

Thank you!

IMO, learning to scrub is excellent. It makes you VERY marketable, especially if you want to do travel nursing later. You could always start in a smaller OR, get your feet wet, learn to scrub and move to the big hospital after a couple of years.
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I've decided to go with the hospital that teaches scrubbing within the internship program. That was my overriding gut instinct, but I was a little starry eyed about a level one trauma hospital. Based on the posted comments and PM's, my gut instinct was right!

Thanks everyone!

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