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Discussion

Discouraged!

I have been an LPN for several years and prior to that I was a Psych Tech. The bulk of my LPN experience has been in psych and addiction except for the last 2 years I have work in home care, nursing home and a small medical group home. I will graduate in August with my RN and was very discouraged when they offered my a position in behavioral health.  They showed me the cardiac ICU and MICU and asked me where I wanted to work. I told them I was not 100% sure but pretty sure I wanted neuro ICU. After letting me shadow a nurse in the cardiac ICU & MICU they brought me back to HR & asked me what I thought then said they had a position in Behavioral Health.  I said I was confused. I actually was flabbergasted that I really couldn't speak that much. She said for me to think about it and give her a call. How can I get experience in medical if they keep offering me behavioral health!!?? I'm so frustrated!! I do love behavioral health and perhaps that came through on conversation but I never said that's where I want to work. How can I make this clear to employers?

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    After 4 years of being an EMT, I got my LPN in 1983 and was hired at the hospital where I took my clinicals in.. .Behavioral Heath, although I really wanted to work in medical.

    Throughout my 40+ year career, somehow, Psych always came into the picture. For example, I was hired as a HH NS in 1993 for Peds & hourly SN cases. The administrator wanted me to open & supervise an at home mental health SN visit program, since Medicare/Medicaid had just began funding for those services. Back into Psych. Again.

    There are a multitude of other similar examples, and when I finally accepted the Fates' guidance, after 20 years in the field, that Psych was where I belonged, I got along okay with the Fates. 

    For "The fates lead (those) who will, and (those) who won't, they drag".
    -Seneca

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    They are offering you mental health because it will save them money on training. You are offering your services with the advanced degree of RN.

    Do not be flabbergasted or discouraged. Simply decline the behavioral health position. Apply for open medical positions. You may not be able to start out in ICU. But you surely can get a medical position. Are there other facilities you can apply to?

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    I decided to apply to other facilities and decline their offer. I have been so proud of myself for even stepping out of my comfort zone and working with trachs and vents and I want to continue to push myself towards learning what I don't know and being more well-rounded.

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    FloridaLpn2015 said:

    I decided to apply to other facilities and decline their offer. I have been so proud of myself for even stepping out of my comfort zone and working with trachs and vents and I want to continue to push myself towards learning what I don't know and being more well-rounded.

    Did your past experience along with your current goals and desires come up as topics of conversation during your initial interview?

    I would surely think so, and that is the time to highlight your strengths, your positive attitude and your enjoyment of the learning experiences you have had so far in your nursing career....then segue right into how you are now seeking and looking forward to the opportunity to work in the medical specialties.

    It won't prevent them from offering you a BH position, but if they do...well, then you can do what you did (decline). I think above poster is correct in that they may hope you'll need less time to get up and running--but also that they are going to offer that BH position to someone with your experience because there are so many new RN grads who believe they want to work in the ICUs. They would be remiss to not at least see if you'd bite on that BH offer since they can easily fill the other positions.

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