ER nurse transition-bedside or clinic?

[Brittany RN]

I am currently in my first year of nursing. I started in the ER. Which, honestly I love. I love the chaos, the patients.. but my anxiety has been uncontrollable. Not while at work, but leading up to my shifts I’ll have panic attacks and I can’t do it anymore.
Im actually good at keeping up with the pace of our ER, I just get so stressed out after the fact.
Our hospital is going through a renovation/expansion and we don’t have techs, we have paramedics that are super helpful but they have to be in triage revitalizing every hour so they are unable to work alongside us right now. I’m overwhelmed with the workload, we literally have no help from start to finish. Filling rooms, stocking, cleaning, transporting, vitals, blood, tests, physician orders, ekgs, blood sugars, medications... etc. idk if this is the norm in an ER or not. I just feel so overwhelmed and alone constantly. I connect so well with our pts, they tell me all the time that I’m calming and so nice and that makes me feel great.

i have an offer for neuro floor at a bigger hospital and I also interviewed at a pediatric clinic. I’m torn between the two because I love kids and one day want to be a pediatric NP. I also know I need more experience. I’ve been a nurse for 8 months. The bigger hospital has better benefits and tuition assistance but I also would like to get my foot in the door with peds...

neuro is nights-which I am now in ER and clinic is 8-5 mon-fri.
I have a 5 year old and would love the day shift life!

honestly, I’m unsure of my specific question. I just would like advice and any experiences from you all?

I feel that one day I may want to go back to ER when I get my anxiety under control but for right now, I need a change.

[JKL33]

18 minutes ago, Brittany RN said:

Filling rooms, stocking, cleaning, transporting, vitals, blood, tests, physician orders, ekgs, blood sugars, medications... etc. idk if this is the norm in an ER or not.

It may be the norm. It may also be why many people feel the same exact way you do about it and are thinking similar thoughts about the meaning of life.