Advice needed to branch out

[Grace04]

Hi,

I've been doing Emergency Nursing for about 13 years.

I've been blessed in this arena with fantastic employers, training, and coworkers.

I'm 48, and ready to try something new. I'm finding with my specialized training, I apply for an unrelated position, yet receive callbacks asking if I'd be interested in working in their ER departments.

Seems I'm experiencing reverse new grad descrimination.

I've never done Med-Surg, Cardiac, etc and would welcome an internship type situation if it were available.

I'm a Nurse very content with being a Nurse. I've done the Director/Management thing enough to know, I do not want to do it again. I love direct Patient care, and am very content with Nursing in this capacity. I would just like an opportunity to learn some new tricks!

Has anyone found themselves in a similar situation? If so, I would love the feedback.

Thanks So Much

[turnforthenurse, MSN, NP]

What about trying to float to those areas in your hospital? I was the opposite, I worked on PCU and wanted to branch out to the ER, so I started to float there a lot and pick up extra shifts. Now I'm in the ER permanently :) It can also help you hone in on what you're more interested in...so maybe you float to a cardiac unit and decide you don't like it and would rather do something else.

[Grace04]

Hey TurnforthenurseRN, Thank You for sharing your experience, and suggestions. I'm going to talk to my director about being a part of the float pool, just have to make sure I don't go over my hours. I can explore, and already have a foot in the door. I'm in a small hospital, so I am going to check into the closest teaching hospital as well.

[zmansc, ASN, RN]

If I wasn't doing an FNP program, I would have done one of two things. One, cross train within my hospital to the ICU for experience there. Two, get a PRN job at the trauma 1 ER that is about 2+ hr away. Either one would give me good experience to build on my existing experience and would make me a better RN.