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I just got this job part-time at a smaller hospital (160 beds) at the end of November. Short orientation, I'm already on the floor. I really like it, I'm with a great preceptor, and they bend over backwards for my school schedule (going back for my BSN) It's a Medical Telemetry Unit. I drive an hour one way for this job, and it is 8hr shifts. So I have to drive 6hrs a week just to get 24hrs of pay. If I were to get a full time position it would be 10hrs of driving! Did I mention I hate paper charting?

I went for an interview last week (after my first week on the other job) at a (800+ bed) hospital with a New Grad program that doesn't start until February. I would be on a monitored Nephrology unit. I have to sign a 2 year contract after working 5 months, if I want to continue in the New Grad program. The assistant Nurse Manager seemed a little hesitant about working with my school schedule. Today they extended a job offer. The unit is newer and on 12 hr shifts, but they rotate and are kind of sporadic, according to what the manager said. Some days and nights in the same week.

It's so much to weigh, I have no idea what to do. ugh.

Nick.

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Specializes in MPCU.

Is it any more clear, now that you have written it out?

I've noticed that nephrologists and cardiolgists have different opinions about how best to treat a patient. I would think that working on a monitored nephrology unit would be very interesting. So, just to hear about your experiences, I would vote for the monitored nephrology unit.

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Specializes in NICU.

To make it easier, is it possible to move closer to your current hospital? Do you plan on working full-time while going to school? If you like your current hospital and don't mind the commute, it wouldn't be so bad. I would be hesitant on a job that made you switch 12hr day and night shifts. Other coworkers who have worked those kinds of shifts say it screws up their sleep schedules. If you stay with your current hospital, maybe you could record lectures and use all of your driving time to help you study by listening to them again on your commute! :)

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Specializes in pulm/cardiology pcu, surgical onc.

Rotating shifts on a newer unit while going to school with no guarantee of staffing scheduling you around your class time + nephrology unit= recipe for disaster. Just my opinion though but nephrology pts are sick usually non-compliant pts that have every co-morbidity under the sun, high acuity/heavy care.

Is there anyway you could work 12 hr shifts at your current job?

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Id stay with the place you know that you like. The fact that they are willing to work with you & your school schedule sounds like icing on the cake.

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Specializes in Hospice.

days and nights in the same week.............flip flopping is very hard on the body. also the hesitation about working with you would make me nervous. good luck!

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Specializes in Health Information Management.

In order to give you the best possible answer I would need a little more information. Are you desperate for F/T money? Is your BSN program F/T or P/T? (I'm hesitant to make an assumption in either direction, though if I had to place money somewhere I'd probably go with P/T.) Do you have a solid plan to cope with the impact of F/T work on what sounds like a rather complicated academic schedule? Which currently has top priority for you, school or work? Would the answer change if you accepted the job at the larger hospital?

Absent those answers, here's my analysis: the opportunities at the bigger place would be nice, as would the money, but would they console you if you were to crash and burn in your BSN program because the demands of school and F/T work pulled you in too many directions at once? The fact that the manager from the larger hospital has even now shown himself/herself unwilling to work with your schedule should give you a pretty solid indication of what's likely to happen if you take the job there. I wouldn't expect much consideration for your academic needs. What happens if you have a 12-hour night shift ending at 7AM and then classes starting at, say, 10AM? You could be setting yourself up for an academic disaster. The smaller place has shown itself to be a supportive setting up to this point. Based on the information you've provided so far, I'd probably stay there unless you are painfully in need of the money or there are other major factors in the new job's favor.

(On a tangential note, I second @rockabye's suggestion of recording lectures or, alternately, finding audio versions of your textbooks, and listening to them during your commute. Not only would it help you to deal with the impact of that commute on your study time, but it might improve your grasp of the material! Studying course material through multiple learning modalities can often be very helpful - I know it's helped me! That commute could actually end up doing you an academic favor, in an odd sort of way. ;))

I wish you the best of luck with both your program and your job decision! :)

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to me it's a red flag that the nurse manager at the new place is 'hesitant' to work with your school schedule. i would stay at the place that bends over backwards for you.

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I don't want to move to the town that the smaller hospital is in, there just isn't anything there for me. It would be cheaper to live in near the larger hospital, and I have a brother that goes to the university there.

The school schedule issue would only be for about 2 months of employment (March & April) I'm taking the last two prerequisite classes for an online RN-BSN program. The last three semesters of the program are online. This hospital is the flagship hospital for the university providing my BSN.

She didn't seem "hesitant." I may have used that for lack of a better word. She just said that they work their best to fit in peoples schedules. I believe the unit does self scheduling, like the one I am already working on. It just wasn't the same reaction I got from my current place of employment.

Thanks for all of your replys... and reading all of this. lol.

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Specializes in pulm/cardiology pcu, surgical onc.
I don't want to move to the town that the smaller hospital is in, there just isn't anything there for me. It would be cheaper to live in near the larger hospital, and I have a brother that goes to the university there.

The school schedule issue would only be for about 2 months of employment (March & April) I'm taking the last two prerequisite classes for an online RN-BSN program. The last three semesters of the program are online. This hospital is the flagship hospital for the university providing my BSN.

She didn't seem "hesitant." I may have used that for lack of a better word. She just said that they work their best to fit in peoples schedules. I believe the unit does self scheduling, like the one I am already working on. It just wasn't the same reaction I got from my current place of employment.

Thanks for all of your replys... and reading all of this. lol.

Well with these updates of info and since your classes are only for 2 more months I would say go for the closer job to get into the larger hospital. You can always transfer later on if you find that particular patient population burns you out (it would me personally).

But the rotating shifts? That would bother me. Are they just hiring you to 'fill' in gaps in the schedule or will you get a regular shift? I know with newer units it takes some time to work out all the kinks with scheduling and the needs of the unit. Good luck with whatever you decide.

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Specializes in Health Information Management.

Well, you appear to have reached your decision. I'll enter one last caveat: don't discount the workload of your program simply because it's online. The issues of having to be somewhere at a specific time will probably lessen (unless you frequently have to be "present" online for something like a mandatory class discussion via chat or a proctored test at a given time), but the overall workload probably won't. Beware of overloading yourself in your natural desire to move to your university's hospital. You might want to investigate whether you'd be able to switch to P/T and still remain in the new grad program should the strain of F/T work and school together be too much. Good luck with your new job!

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Good point about the schedule.

I would also have to take an entrance exam to practice at the larger hospital.

I've got 6 days to decide.

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