Better unit for new grad?

[JJL618, RN]

I will be graduating in May. I have two job offers but I’m struggling to figure out which would be best for a new grad with no healthcare experience. Both are day shift offers. The first is on a general surgery floor with 41 beds. This will be lower acuity patients so a lot of bariatric/vascular/abdominal type surgeries. The nurse manager is awesome and I would love to work for her. I’ve heard some good things about this floor, but no personal experience.

The second is a trauma step down unit. It has 41 beds. The nurse manager is awesome as well. I would love to work for him, too. These patients are higher acuity patients with lots of wound vacs, trachs, chest tubes. I’ve heard this unit has a hard time keeping nurses plus some rumblings about some difficult nurses on the floor. Again no experience with this either and I realize it’s a possibility to have difficult nurses on any floor you work.

I was leaning towards the step down unit, but now I’m not so sure because I have a lot of growing and learning to do. I’m worried a higher acuity floor may overwhelm me. I’m just trying to gather opinions, so any help or tips would be greatly appreciated!

[River&MountainRN, ADN, RN]

Go for the more supportive experience for your first year (minimum). If you've been lucky enough to catch wind of a difficult floor, with difficult nurses, with retention issues before signing on, use that to your advantage to avoid having to job hop so soon after graduation. The last place you want to be is on a super challenging unit with unhappy nurses (at best) and unhelpful nurses (at worst) as a new grad who doesn't know what he or she doesn't know.