Facing a tough decision! Please help!

Nurses Job Hunt

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Let me run a little background here. Graduated May 2016 and passed my boards June 28th 2016. I have applied to a few job opportunities and been interviewed for a few, but have been offered only 2. Now, I am facing a major decision. Choice #1 is with am EMR company managing annual wellness visits, diagnostics tests and preventive health teaching. Decent pay, good health benefits but here is the tempting part: Monday thru Friday 9-5, no weekends and no holidays. Choice #2 community hospital, average new grad pay (maybe $100 more than choice #1) good benefits and usual hospital policies ( every other weekend, commit 6 holidays and all of the other miscellaneous things). For choice #1, there is a very possible place for advancement in leadership, and choice #2 there is no place for advancement unless I further my education. With choice #1, I will be working as a bilingual RN and will be pretty much independent. My biggest doubt is that if I take choice #1, I will not gain any acute clinical experience, and if I choose #2 I will be locked in a contract until the program ends and if I don't like it I will be miserable until it ends. Any advice is greatly appreciated. Thank you

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Specializes in CCU, SICU, CVSICU, Precepting & Teaching.
Let me run a little background here. Graduated May 2016 and passed my boards June 28th 2016. I have applied to a few job opportunities and been interviewed for a few, but have been offered only 2. Now, I am facing a major decision. Choice #1 is with am EMR company managing annual wellness visits, diagnostics tests and preventive health teaching. Decent pay, good health benefits but here is the tempting part: Monday thru Friday 9-5, no weekends and no holidays. Choice #2 community hospital, average new grad pay (maybe $100 more than choice #1) good benefits and usual hospital policies ( every other weekend, commit 6 holidays and all of the other miscellaneous things). For choice #1, there is a very possible place for advancement in leadership, and choice #2 there is no place for advancement unless I further my education. With choice #1, I will be working as a bilingual RN and will be pretty much independent. My biggest doubt is that if I take choice #1, I will not gain any acute clinical experience, and if I choose #2 I will be locked in a contract until the program ends and if I don't like it I will be miserable until it ends. Any advice is greatly appreciated. Thank you

You sound as if you're leaning toward Choice # 1. If that is the case, take it.

I think the smarter choice is Choice #2. I think you need a foundation in the basics before you pick a specialty, so to speak, and outpatient IS a specialty. I also think you need to have some sort of idea what "sick" looks like and how illnesses progress. You shouldn't expect to advance in either case until you've mastered the job. That will take about two years (or more) and that's how long you should stay in either position.

Don't discount the possibility that you may love the bedside and/or hate outpatient. And as far as Choice #1 -- the hours sound like a nightmare to me. But that's just me. One of the most marvelous things about nursing is the flexibility, and Choice #1 doesn't offer you any.

Best wishes, whichever you decide.

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