Being an ER nurse can get you any job?

[dmoorer76]

I'm a pre-nursing student and I have heard from many nurses that if you get a good background in the ER as a practicing nurse, you can pretty much get a job at any hospital with any position. Is this true!

[CritterLover, BSN, RN]

well, i think you probably hear things like this because good er nurses have a wide range of skills, know how to treat/assess a wide range of conditions, have good organizlational skills and are adaptable. they have to be ready for whatever walks through the door.

i've worked in a wide range of nursing specialties in my fairly short career (i've been a nurse for about 7 years), and let me tell you, my first few weeks "on my own" in the er, i was terrified going to work. and i had an icu background. i got over it :) eventually. but there is a complete lack of control over what is going to happen next when you work in the er.

that being said, not every er nurse is a good er nurse. and not every good er nurse will do well in other locations. we have the luxery of only having out patients for a few hours (usually). but, the skills you learn in the er are desired in other locations, and you will probably have had contact with just about every type of patient there is. so just about anywhere else you can apply, you can truthfully say that you have experience caring for that type of patient.

[fergus51]

The same could be said for ICU or med-surg IMO. The reason I say that is because those areas are all somewhat generalized, meaning you deal with a wide range of patients. That makes you desirable to hospitals. It can be harder to find a job in a specialized area simply because not all hospitals offer every specialty or they may just not have job opportunities at the moment. I work neonatal ICU and while it's been easy for me to find work where I live, that isn't the case everywhere especially in smaller towns.

[piper_for_hire]

It's not like it's a walk in the park though. I had a pretty easy time going from ICU to CCU and ICU to PACU - but the ER is very different. I had to learn how to work in that environment. Some ER nurses recently transferred to the ICU and they had a rough time - but it was mainly the difference in *how* you're busy. I really enjoy working in lots of different places though. Sort of like cross training. Highly recommend it.

-S

The same could be said for ICU or med-surg IMO. The reason I say that is because those areas are all somewhat generalized, meaning you deal with a wide range of patients. That makes you desirable to hospitals. It can be harder to find a job in a specialized area simply because not all hospitals offer every specialty or they may just not have job opportunities at the moment. I work neonatal ICU and while it's been easy for me to find work where I live, that isn't the case everywhere especially in smaller towns.

[fergus51]

Sorry, I didn't mean to imply that the transition between all those areas is easy, just that hospitals will hire you. I don't think any of those nurses would have a hard time finding a job anywhere in the country. I've seen ICU nurses crash and burn in the NICU, but a manager will still be interested in hiring ICU nurses in the future.