Acute care to ambulatory decision help

[Dogmomnurse2016]

Hello! I am currently a pediatric ICU nurse at a big city hospital. While I absolutely love my job, I (like everyone else in nursing lol) want to move to a day shift position, (for health reasons and some "normalcy") however would not feel comfortable taking a day shift job in our picu for several reasons. A pediatric office job recently opened up and I am thinking about applying. (8-4. No holidays, no nights, no weekends, and no paying for parking and walking 3 blocks away?) While of course all huge perks, I wonder if I would be making the right decision?

So for those who have made the switch from acute care to ambulatory, did/do you miss the fast pace, adrenaline? Do you feel like "less of a nurse" stepping away from so much responsibility? ((Please don't take offense to that, I mean it with the best of intentions))

Any tips would be really appreciated!! Thanks!

[guest464345]

I've never been an ICU nurse, but worked for a total of about a year and a half in big EDs. Switching to the outside world - first to public health, now to a school - for me has been a game changer.

Yeah, at first it's "boring" in the sense you're implying....it took a few months to get used to not swiveling my head around looking for impending disasters all the time. But with some time, I realized that what I'm really good at is teaching, helping laypeople understand medical issues that affect them, public speaking, and planning/organizing. I can't tell you how gratifying it is to have 40 minutes to talk to a patient, and sometimes really help guide their choices. I never had 40 minutes to talk to anyone about anything in the hospital. I also have energy to regularly work out and socialize, and the concentration to read and learn new things outside of work.

Some people hate the 5-day schedule, I guess, and it does suck to go to the grocery store and Target at the same time as everyone else (that's why there's Instacart and Amazon!). I wouldn't take a 9-5 job that didn't have a decent amount of PTO, personally - two weeks doesn't cut it for me.

People are definitely impressed more by "ICU nurse" or "level I trauma ED" than they are by "school nurse." But: 1) not looking to impress people, and 2) you just learn different stuff. I can't manage a Swan-Ganz, but I can give a hell of an overview of safer sex options and healthy sexuality....which topic is more relevant to most people?

Good luck with your planning ? .

[Dogmomnurse2016]

11 hours ago, Dogmomnurse2016 said:

Thank you so much Iaflaca! Part of me would really like not having to work expecting the disaster all the time and being more mentally relaxed. I'm just afraid of losing my skills if that makes sense? I like your point in number 2!! Friends/family will ask me questions about their newborns/toddlers, and while I can give you a full run down on managing them in heart failure, I'm not to brushed up on growth and development, so I would like to learn more in that aspect!!

As far as PTO we accrue it per paycheck based on number of years of service. Right now I get 9.5 hours per pay, BUT can only take 2 week off a year. So looking forward to asking them about their vacation ad pto days!