I have a dilemma. I have received a job offer and I am having difficulty making a decision. I currently work in a cozy office job in informatics for the second largest hospital system in my state. I am well paid, have a nice desk by the window, can come in and leave when I want, every weekend and holiday off. But....I'm halfway through grad school to be an APRN. Next year I start clinicals and will need to have a flexible schedule, and right now I work Mon-Fri.
I applied for a job in the top ICU in the #1 hospital in the state on a whim, and I applied one afternoon and they literally called me back the next morning. I had the interview, went well, liked the unit but then when I got home figured I may not take it and just stick out my current job until clinicals. However, they called me back yesterday and offered me more money than I asked for! I'm just feeling apprehensive about giving up my very privileged position and going back to the grind, even though it's better paid. The thought of working every other weekend, absolutely having to get there at a certain time, and never getting to sit down and drink a coffee is playing with my head. I've done that for 23 years and I'm tired. I know that working in this ICU will look really good on my resume, expose me to the top medical teams in the state, and put me in a really good position to get hired right out of school. Am I crazy? What they're offering is basically just a couple thousand away from 6 figures. That's a heck of a lot of money and I feel like I can't turn it down. I am bored by my current job but it's so comfortable. I also feel like the longer I'm there the further away I get from keeping my skills and relevancy current. Of course I always planned going back to clinical, which is why I'm in grad school, but I wanted to do so as a provider. I have a lot of credentials and experience and I know I have what they need, but what do I need? I feel like taking the job would be a strategically correct move.
I miss clinical and I literally watch every single medical program I can, and if I watch something like Boston Med I am on the edge of my seat with tears in my eyes because I know in my heart that I want to do that again. I just want to do it as an APRN not an RN and I'm only hesitating because I was sick for over a year and am finally well again but worry that my body won't be able to handle it. I don't know what to do. I know they want me or they wouldn't have called me so immediately and offered more than I asked for.
Current Job:
PROS:
It's easy
No holidays/weekends
Nice office environment
Well paid
CONS:
Boredom
Don't really like the people
Not passionate about it
Won't have time for clinicals eventually
Losing my skills
New job:
PROS:
LOTS of money
Prestige
Experience
Exposure
Learning opportunity
Possible $10,000 sign on bonus
CONS:
Every other weekend and holiday
Hard physical work
Stressful
Rotating nights
Just about every other negative thing you can think about on a clinical floor
I know I will need to make a change eventually as I don't want to stay where I am forever. I feel like this new job is a huge opportunity that I may not get again but after being away for 2 years I'm apprehensive. I guess I got comfortable and lazy. This isn't like me!
Yes, my goal is to work in critical care. I'm in the acute APRN program so that's usually the endpoint. They're not desperate. It's a fine hospital and they can pick and choose. I just have what they want. However, the longer I'm away from the bedside the more irrelevant I become. Eventually I'll have to go bedside anyway, I just wasn't expecting it so soon. There are many pros and cons to take into consideration. If it wasn't for the money....
Specializes in Adult and Pediatric Vascular Access, Paramedic.
Take the new job! I think you will be thankful you did when you can hit the floor running as a new NP from all the knowledge you have gained working in the ICU!
What's the big deal about working weekends and holidays? If you're pushing 50 (23 yrs as a nurse?) then you've had plenty of weekends and holidays with a boring job to go back to on Mondays.
It's going to be the exhaustion that you're not accustomed to, as well as feeling like you're working like a dog after coming and going as you please, that I'd be worried about.
When was the last time you've had a realistic exposure to ICU? Not just breezing in and giving inservices but really looking at the work they do? Saving productive lives or prolonging the inevitable? The nurses and providers are exhausted walking dead or energized and inspired about their work? Do they look forward to going to work or dread the end of their days off?
Also, it's sounds a bit romantic to keep using the biggest and best hospital in state as a measure of how you will like and thrive in the working conditions.
ETA I also meant to say congratulations on the offer and good luck with your future career!
What's the big deal about working weekends and holidays? If you're pushing 50 (23 yrs as a nurse?) then you've had plenty of weekends and holidays with a boring job to go back to on Mondays.
It's going to be the exhaustion that you're not accustomed to, as well as feeling like you're working like a dog after coming and going as you please, that I'd be worried about.
When was the last time you've had a realistic exposure to ICU? Not just breezing in and giving inservices but really looking at the work they do? Saving productive lives or prolonging the inevitable? The nurses and providers are exhausted walking dead or energized and inspired about their work? Do they look forward to going to work or dread the end of their days off?
Also, it's sounds a bit romantic to keep using the biggest and best hospital in state as a measure of how you will like and thrive in the working conditions.
ETA I also meant to say congratulations on the offer and good luck with your future career!
Been in critical care most of my working life. Last exposure was less than 2 years ago. I'm in a small state and I go to the top school and so working at the top hospital makes career sense. I put a lot of pressure on myself and this isn't any different. But yes, I'm pushing 50 and it gets harder. Not impossible, but harder. I do enjoy my weekends I must say. I just don't see myself staying in informatics though. The fairytale has to end at some point. I'm just venting and talking out loud. I'm sure I'll make the right decision...it just helps to talk it out loud and hear other people's point of view.
Specializes in CCU, SICU, CVSICU, Precepting & Teaching.
The office job would bore the stuffing out of me! I'd take the ICU job in a heart beat. Of course, when I had the office job on a temporary basis and they offered me full time, I ran away screaming. I LIKE my weekends, holidays and bedside!
Find another way to satisfy the need for "excitement"
Keep that wonderfully cushy job. The first time you are on the unit and get the smell of poop.. that YOU have to clean up, you will kick yourself in the tuchas.
A good dilemma to have but a tough one for sure!!! I am leaning toward the new job since as an APRN you wouldn't be working the brutal, back breaking beside gig so it really is very temporary. It will look great on the resume, you'll make good connections, be up-to-date on best practices and you'll really need the flexibility for clinicals.
Specializes in Med nurse in med-surg., float, HH, and PDN.
To decide by a coin toss would be interesting. Assign 'heads' to one choice, and 'tails' to the other. Tell yourself that since you can't decide,you will let the coin toss settle it for you.
Then, once the coin has landed and revealed which choice it has made for you, see what your response to that is.
On a slightly different slant, once I was dating two really nice guys, each one I was crazy about for their own reasons. But after almost two years of dating, I felt it was time to make up my mind. They were each very different from each other. I went back and forth, fretting about how this one had these attributes, but the other one those attributes.
But finally I realized it didn't have anything to do, really, what each one of them was like.
>>>>It had to be about me.
What did *I* need?
What did *I* want?
It was only then that I 'knew' which guy was more aligned with what I needed from a relationship.
We are still together 28 years later, 26 of them as a married couple.
Looking back from this distance I can see what was attracting me, yet holding me back, about the other guy.
Since you are, as I was, caught up in the thrills and the fear of changes, it's hard to see clearly.
I know what I would do, were I in your situation. I had 3-4 job offers when I graduated nursing school. In that case, what I NEEDED was to NOT feel scared, being a newbie nurse, back out in the real world. Since I didn't want to feel timid and frightened, and since "the only way out, is THROUGH".....I chose to face my quivering fears, and chose the job offer from the biggest, scariest hospital (which also had a long history and an awesome reputation.) It wasn't the money, it wasn't the schedule. It was wanting to shake off that feeling of being just 'adequate' and getting by. If I was going to do this I wanted to be ready to rise to any challenge and I wanted to be REALLY GOOD AT IT.
The job where you are 'coasting' is not doing you any favors.
My first thought was using the ICU job to network for a future NP position. I know it varies by location but a lot of the new APRNs I know aren't exactly walking into jobs right now.
martymoose, BSN, RN
1,946 Posts
Ahh. So then it does make sense to take the job .
Good luck!