Warning! This is somewhat lengthy but I am looking for insight and opinions so please read on!
Some background info first:
I left a busy busy level 2 trauma center ED to take a local travel assignment in a much smaller ED. I was driving 70 miles to and from the trauma center(140 mile round trip), spending mucho on gas and basically losing money because of the drive. It was awesome experience, but it started to kill me financially. I am now working a 3-month assignment 2 miles from my home making great money, and the plan was to take this assignment and then when the assignment was complete, to sign on as a full time employee at the local hospital in the ED.
Then I ran into an old co-worker. Tonight she tells me she supervises a physician-owned surgicenter and loves it, and she wants me to come work with her. She's spunky and excited, and it sounds great. Day shift, 10-hr days, 4 days a week, no weekends or holidays. An opportunity to learn a new specialty, while still staying PRN at the trauma center (so maintaining the ER specialty/experience as well)... an opportunity to return to a normal sleep schedule as opposed to being full-time locally, yes, but working my choice of 3p-3a or 7p-7a, 3 shifts a week, rotating weekends and holidays.
So now I'm kind of torn. I am a "travel nurse" at the local hospital until august 12th, and then I have unofficially accepted a charge nurse nights position... but I'm presented with a great opportunity that part of me would like to look into.
With the price of gas, I hate to take another job where I will be commuting. The surgicenter is about 30 minutes from my home. The plus side to that is that 2-3 other nurses meet in MY home town as a central point and drive from the WalMart here to the surgicenter. So, I would end up driving 1-2 times a week. Not bad, and if I have to drive more than that I do have a pretty fuel-efficient SUV (Honda CRV). And, 30 minutes beats an hour and 10 minute commute that I *was* driving.
I guess all in all I am really leaning toward the surgicenter position, even though I haven't even been offered the job yet. I know in a way I'm getting ahead of myself, but my friend and former co-worker is the nurse in charge of the OR, so I think that the likelihood that I would be offered the job is pretty high. That said, I think the thing that I am most concerned about is "burning a bridge" at the local hospital that I have been offered a charge nurse position (on NIGHT shift, ugh) at.
Another factor that makes me want to take this job 30min away instead of the local one is that the local PRISON that my boyfriend is employed at is supposed to be closing in Feb 09. Which takes away all opportunity for work for HIM locally. Which means if we stayed in town after that, he would have to commute even farther than me to work... whereas if I worked at the surgicenter, we would have the option to relocate to a MUCH larger city, and he would have a lot of options.
So now that I've talked in circles this whole time, does anyone have insight to offer? What would you do? How do you handle this situation -- what do I say to the director of the ER/nurse manager who I have already told that I want to stay after my travel contract as a charge nurse? Help!!
