dialysis or icu???

[vivcat11]

I am a dialysis nurse, although the daily job is very busy in a dialysis center, I feel like I am about to loss a lot of my nurses skill. I am thinking to switch to a more intense unit like icu or er? My coworker nurse think that I could never found an easy nurseing job like dialysis job that pays well. What do you think?

[SotaRN]

Hi Viv,

How long have you been in dialysis? Do you charge or work the floor? RN or LPN? I have been at a dialysis clinic for about 6 months now. I felt too that I would lose my skills but then had the opportunity to start charging and am feeling like my skills are growing again...my assessment skills have gotten pretty sharp & I've learned how to clue in on the abnormal very fast...my critical thinking has grown by leaps and bounds too. The company that I work for (major...just took over another large company) doesn't utilize their lpn's to their fullest ability which I think is a shame...most of the lpn's I've worked with call themselves glorified techs, so I'm curious to know which licensing you have.

As far as dialysis being an easy job, I beg to differ...granted you're not wiping butts but I think you're still stretched incredibly thin, running your legs off & responsible for clinical outcomes, meds, pt safety, staff, etc. I think the benefit to being a dialysis nurse is seeing the pt more than once & getting to know their histories & feeling like you're part of their care. That is part of why I like it. Maybe you should ask yourself if you really like dialysis or not or if you are just ready to try something different. If it's just a matter of skills, you could always try to pick up some prn work. One of the lpn's I worked with just quit our clinic to go work med/surg after 18 years of dialysis...she was burnt out and ready for something new. That's the great thing about nursing...you always have options!

That's my 2 cents...good luck! :icon_roll