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!
Your current job sounds really nice. However, you have already been away from the bedside for almost 2 years so if you wait another year it may make you less marketable. In addition, starting a new job plus clinicals will be tough. If you start now, you may be switched to days by the time you start clinical. From what you've written, if the hours get tough, you can afford to go part time.
Can you start the ICU position per dium and keep the cozy office job? Maybe ask office job if you can do 4 10 hour shifts and have every friday off for hospital...or 9 hour shifts and get every other friday off?
If you have recent experience and know what to expect but still say you're tired (after two years of *rest*) and don't care for clocking in for shift work, are you sure working as a APRN in CC wouldn't require similar work hours?
Wouldn't going back and getting used to the exhausting conditions be better now than as a new APRN when you'll be learning the new job as well as trying to acclimate to the schedule?
When it comes time to leave the M-F job for clinical flexibility, will opportunities like this still be around? Next fall is never far away. I would take the ICU job!
I was doing an FNP program and turned down a M-F job with the VA because I would need my flexible ER schedule to make clinicals work. Since then I have had an epiphany (namely that I really don't want to be an FNP and I need to do what I want to do, and not what everything thinks I should do) and I am changing focus, which would allow me to take an M-F job. The idea is ... oddly appealing. I dunno. I would probably be bored out of my skull away from the bedside, but that's the beauty of ER - I could work somewhere casually to keep dipping my toes in the pool.
Good luck, whatever you decide! *cough*Take the job*cough*
Specializes in CCU, SICU, CVSICU, Precepting & Teaching.
Gucci RN?
Yup. That's the one. She wears her Gucci suit and carries her Gucci bag to work in her top floor corner office of a large hospital system. Hasn't been near a patient since 1983. Or thereabouts. But she knows all about ICU, CCU and any other specialty that comes up in conversation.
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canigraduate
2,107 Posts
Can you go part time at one and PRN at the other?
Best of both worlds.