Change jobs, again?

[Abbydrake, RN]

Hey all.

So I started my career at a rural community hospital on a small med surge/tele unit and stayed their for one year. I loved my job, loved my coworkers, but felt stagnant. There was no where to advance and I wanted to expand my nursing knowledge. I got a position at a city hospital doing cath lab recovery. 

I like my coworkers, I’m good at the job, but I miss being a floor nurse. I love planning my day and the challenge behind it. A position has become available in the ICU. I’ve always wanted to be in the ICU, but only being at this job 2 months I’m concerned how changing positions will look.

Should I stick it out longer? Or change departments to something more challenging?

Thank you!

[Rose_Queen, BSN, MSN, RN]

Check your policy. Many facilities have specific language regarding when transfers may occur. In mine, you must stay in your first unit for a full year before you are able to transfer. Then, you must stay in the new unit for 6 months.

[Jedrnurse, BSN, RN]

Stick it out. Get a solid 2 years in the lab. Find ways to make it stimulating and learn all you can about it.

There will be other openings if you still want the change.

[SarHat17, ASN, RN]

1 hour ago, Jedrnurse said:

Stick it out. Get a solid 2 years in the lab. Find ways to make it stimulating and learn all you can about it.

There will be other openings if you still want the change.

Are there cath lab patients that ultimately transfer to ICU? Any opportunity to connect more with that aspect while working in cath lab? (Just throwing out some ideas.) At my hospital, unstable STEMIs or cath lab patients with a lot of interventions are moved up to ICU vs CVRU (where I work.) Also, when balloon pumps and Swan-Ganz catheters are used/left-in, the patient is either transferred to ICU or downtown to the main hospital cath lab.

Maybe talk with the cath lab manager about your thoughts; there might be an opportunity to connect with ICU "stuff" while in cath lab, and then that could help your transition there, while also improving some needed ICU skills. Best of luck!

[Jedrnurse, BSN, RN]

1 minute ago, SarHat17 said:

Are there cath lab patients that ultimately transfer to ICU? Any opportunity to connect more with that aspect while working in cath lab? (Just throwing out some ideas.) At my hospital, unstable STEMIs or cath lab patients with a lot of interventions are moved up to ICU vs CVRU (where I work.) Also, when balloon pumps and Swan-Ganz catheters are used/left-in, the patient is either transferred to ICU or downtown to the main hospital cath lab.

Maybe talk with the cath lab manager about your thoughts; there might be an opportunity to connect with ICU "stuff" while in cath lab, and then that could help your transition there, while also improving some needed ICU skills. Best of luck!

Exactly! Make all the connections that you can...