Clinical or non-clincal job?

Nurses Career Support

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New grad who finally received 2 offers yesterday. Share your thoughts, please!

Background: I'm pretty anxious, not too confident in my knowledge or my skills.. Single parent.. Would be primary provider for immediate family. Was looking for easy commute, interesting/exciting work, and good pay.

Offer #1: Med/Surg floor, small community hospital, short commute (10-25 mins on bus, or 10-15min drive; 3mi from home), great work vibes with friendly faces and nice coworkers, super clean and organized unit, liked/connected with nurse mgr and preceptor, advised orientation was 8 wks (was hoping for longer) but preceptor's goal is 6 wks (flag?), part of large well known health system so i would have monthly residency meetings 1x/mth for 1yr, nights-weekends 3 12's 0.8FTE.. $45/hr NOT including night differential, union job and benefits (Can't give accurate salary number as HR did not even discuss what union benefits are or what nights/holiday/weekend differentials would be..)

--> things to consider: would have to arrange for family to spend the night during shifts to watch my kid (not always reliable family), would be able to sleep while kid is at school and pick up every day afterwards to go to appt, could possibly drop off to school at morning but dependent on being able to leave work on time in the AM, won't be available to my kid every other weekend for shifts/sleeping for shifts, preceptor said he has had 12-14pts himself in the past(red flag--but could be rectified as NM was hiring for 2 RNs at my date of interview, and just hired agency nurse) and believes it gets crazy but assures if you can handle it there then you will be prepared for anything, personally have more interest in clinical learning but genuine FEAR of hurting pts, not knowing what to do, and being berated/abused/etc., i like to be challenged and believe my critical thinking is there but not confident in myself at all, horrible horrible experience with HR and lack of follow up and misrepresentation

Offer #2: Non-clinical admin position doing chart review, quality review/management, will have support and continued training prn, close commute (15min drive), easy parking, over 90k salary, Mon-Fri 8hrs, would most likely be able to pick up kid/drop off at appt during lunch hour because its so close, 4 wks vacation time not including personal/sick/holidays/bday, admittedly no micromanaging and low stress

--> things to consider: possibly make it difficult to enter into clinical position when kid gets older, i'm interested in audits and have some experience within other industry and low stress but i could get bored, loss of hands on skills but may not matter if i end up liking it and liking the stability it gives my kid, will always be available for bedtimes, weekends, and holidays, great friendly HR, RN director was pleasant, did not have chance to communicate much with only other RN doing quality management, dingy office setting, no work hazards (i.e., needlesticks, infection risks) that i could possibly bring home to my child

Thoughts?

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