Dream job in my hospital only offers night shift position should I do it?

[daniela095]

I have been a nurse for almost two years as a med surg/tele nurse. I started on nights for my first year, and I had a lot of trouble with sleeping and my general well being etc. I am starting to plan my next move. To be honest my dream was always to work in critical care. In my hospital they only hire people into the icu starting off on night shift. I heard it’s not guaranteed when you will be able to move to day shift if you want. I know someone who has been on nights in one of the critical care units for 3 years with no hope in sight to switch to days. I want nothing more to work on critical care, and my hospital is one of the best in my area with the most to offer. Should I settle for a night position and hope to switch to day shift ASAP? Or look elsewhere?

[brownbook]

Visualize yourself happy, perky, good lifestyle, working 7am to 3, or 7, pm, on plain old boring med/surg, or wherever?

Visualize yourself happy? Perky? Good lifestyle? Maybe not so much? Working 7, or 11, pm to 7 am critical care.

Learning about cardiac rhythms, IV drips critical to keeping a patient alive, suctioning ventilated patients, ventilator settings and alarms, Swan Ganz pressure readings and wave forms, how to set up swan ganz and art lines, hanging blood on rapid infusers and blood warmers, dealing with 8 or more IV lines on your patient. Plus giving the patient a bed bath and linen change!

Paint a vivid picture in your mind of these two scenarios.

You decide which. We can't do it for you.

Are you going to work 8's or 12's. Could you do only doing 3 night shifts a week?

No disrespect meant to med/surg. I worked med/surg nights for 5 years. Loved it and know it's the hardest area of nursing!

I worked ICU 5 years nights and found it easy and repetitive. "Gosh, I have two patients, how am I going to get through the night!"

[JKL33]

4 hours ago, daniela095 said:

Should I settle for a night position and hope to switch to day shift ASAP?

This is just straightforward, not snark:

No you should not do that. If you want to take such a position, you should accept it fully believing, understanding, and accepting that the night shift stuff is going to be indefinite. You will compromise your own happiness in knowing the facts but "settling" and then banking on a fast switch, KWIM? ?