Am I doing the right thing

[UCTxNurse]

Hi Everyone, this is my first post on here. Well let me start off by introducing myself and telling a little about me. My name is Tracie I live in a small town outside San Antonio. I am an LVN or LPN in other states. I graduated last April after many years in Real Estate I finally figured it wasnt my true calling. So anyways, I went through school and finished. I knew when I graduated I wanted to go work in the hospital and I did. Landed an awesome job in PACU which I loved. Unfortunately, I did't love my paycheck and I told myself I didn't care how much I made I was gonna do it for the learning experience. Well then a few holidays hit and no surgeries were being scheduled during those days. Then of course since I was off I didn't get paid for those days and that put me in a major bind. A friend of mine told me that she was working for an agency doing private pediatric care. They needed people really bad and so I called figured I could pick up a couple shifts. But when they waved $30/hr in my face I was like UHHH WOW and working just one pedi case full time. I talked to my boss and the hospital and told her I loved PACU but I couldn't do both and I couldn't pay my bills with what they were paying me. She told me she would totally go and she understood that they were paying horribly but her budget was really tight. So I left. Now 7 months later I feel like I am totally losing my skills and I heard of an agency that will have me work at the hospital again. I miss all the action and I loved it plus I will be making about what I make now, thing is I'm kinds freaked. I feel like I'm gonna screw up but yet I tell myself just do it, but I feel like I forgot things or they will think like I don't have it together or something. I really want to go to nursery or Postpardum since we had to recover alot of L & D cases but what should I expect since I haven't really been on the floor in that way. Should I do this or am I too inexperienced. Help!!!

[TazziRN, RN]

There is no reason why you shouldn't do it if they're willing to train you.

[UCTxNurse]

Well they say that there is an orientation but they are sending me out to one major childrens hospital here. I'm just not sure how agency nursing works for hospitals?

[TazziRN, RN]

You can work agency but be sent to only one facility repeatedly. If you want to go to other facilities you need to make sure the agency knows that. Even so, you may not be sent to others if you're not needed.

[UCTxNurse]

Well I think they are only going to send me to 1 hospital for now. Should I tell my agency that I really want to work post pardum even though I dont have a ton of exp there?

[TazziRN, RN]

You can try, but the thing about agency nurses is that they have to be able to jump in with little orientation and take a load.