Easy decision right?

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Forgive me if this gets a little wordy.

I am currently an Advanced Patient Care Tech in a city ED for over five years. While my job is busy, hectic and stressful I really love my job and the people I work with. I am respected and appreciated. I feel blessed to have good management and a state of the art facility. I do EKG's, start IV's, settle medics, insert foley's and basically assist with anything that goes on in the ED. I make 13.04/hour. Unfortunately we had to move and I now have a 1.5 hour commute to work. Also 5 of my co-workers recently either quit or went on disability leaving us pretty short.

I have been offered a position at a rural hospital that is only 30 minutes away. The position is a Technical Partner which is basically a nursing assistant. The catch is that I will make $1.80 less/hour and will loose the ability to do all advanced tasks. I have my choice of the ED or a med/surg floor. The managers both seem nice and accommodating, however I am leery of them because I have been lied to in interviews before. When I do the math accounting for differences in for gas, tolls, parking fees and extra commuting time the pay evens out to about the same.

I don't understand why this decision is so hard. I guess it's shallow, but I don't want to go back to being a nursing assistant. I feel like I am giving up all the ladder climbing I did to get where I am. I wouldn't even be considering this, but I have two young children and I feel like I spend all my time in the car instead of with them. Please tell me what you would do. Would you go back to being a nursing assistant under any circumstances?:confused:

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I think it would be really hard going from what you do now to not being able to do those tasks anymore. I wouldn't do med surg if I was you. I have a feeling you would be unhappy with it after what you've been doing (and working in an ED). But, considering the commute, I would probably choose the closer hospital. You do have 2 kids and you have to decide if those tasks at your job are worth not spending the commute time with your children. I don't have kids so I can't really pick one for you.

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Specializes in ICF-MR.

Ouch, what a hard choice! If it was me, I'd be torn too, but I know for myself I'd become very unhappy losing my ability to do the more advanced procedures.

I'd probably stick it out at the ED while continuing to search for something closer that wouldn't make me feel I was taking a step down. Good Luck! :)

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Thanks for the replies. I am waiting for everything to clear HR. When they call I will put in my notice and cross my fingers hoping that I made the right decision. I will be going to the ED for the sake of familiarity. My husband made the most sense out of the situation. He said that he thinks I may keep delaying nursing school because I am comfortable with my advanced skill set and challenging environment. If I loose that in favor of something a little more menial I will probably be more motivated to finally go back to school and be an RN. He is so right, who knew he was so smart??? lol

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