Is the grass greener?

[huggietoes]

I was offered a position at a large teaching hospital, while at the interview the nurse manager warned me, "you know, we eat our young around here." At first I felt I would be able to handle it, but now I am unsure. The money is considerably more ($10,000 more per year) than the smaller community hospital which is much closer to my home, but I know everyone at my local hospital and feel very comfortable there as many of my clinical rotations for school took place there. My peers and nursing instructors work there as well. My question is, should money be my motivator and does bigger necessarily mean better?

[4XNURSE]

huggietoes,

Bigger does not necessarily mean better. Nor does it mean worse. I've worked in some of the biggest in Ca. - (LA County USC & UC Davis MC) I've also worked in some of the smallest. (Mountains Community) Each has it's good and bad points.

As a generalization, the big teaching hospital will have more diversity, and more opportunity for learning the newest technologies, and proceedures. I found the learning opportunities to be broader at the big hospitals.

In a smaller hospital I found there to be less pressure, and more opportunity to develope relationships with both patients and other staff.

Remember these are generalizations. Everyone finds different things, based on their own preferences.

In reality, I've enjoyed both. fortunately I have been able to do a wide variety of things. I work as an agency nurse and have been able to work in HUGE, BIG, medium, and small. I like the variety.

just my $ .02

ken

[FF/RN]

I was always under the impression that grass is greener where its watered most! I made a similar move several years ago, when I made the decision to go from a walk-in clinic setting to a trauma center which tends to see almost 50,000 patients a year. My grass has never been greener because I choose to water it the most. Just a thought!

[live4today, RN]

Originally posted by 4XNURSE

huggietoes,

Bigger does not necessarily mean better. Nor does it mean worse. I've worked in some of the biggest in Ca. - (LA County USC & UC Davis MC) I've also worked in some of the smallest. (Mountains Community) Each has it's good and bad points.

As a generalization, the big teaching hospital will have more diversity, and more opportunity for learning the newest technologies, and proceedures. I found the learning opportunities to be broader at the big hospitals.

In a smaller hospital I found there to be less pressure, and more opportunity to develope relationships with both patients and other staff.

Remember these are generalizations. Everyone finds different things, based on their own preferences.

In reality, I've enjoyed both. fortunately I have been able to do a wide variety of things. I work as an agency nurse and have been able to work in HUGE, BIG, medium, and small. I like the variety.

just my $ .02

ken

Ditto, Ken, to everything you wrote here! :) I have worked both types of hospitals, and find the smaller ones to be less pressure, and more opportunity to form patient and staff relationships. I also found the staff in the smaller hospitals to be more "team oriented" -- willing to pitch in and help one another. :)

In the big hospitals, especially the university hospitals, the majority of kindesses that I encountered were from the other agency and travel nurses (like I was when I worked in them). Not many of the staff took the time to get to know us, or to care about how our day was going. This isn't true in every case scenario, but it held true for me for the most part. :)

If I were going to choose a place of employment, the money would matter, but I wouldn't accept a job solely based on the money because if I did, chances are, I'd end up quitting from misery and excess stress long before the money would even make a dent in my life. :chuckle Kindness and professional friendliness goes a long way on a job, and that's something money can't buy! :)

"Sometimes the road less traveled is less traveled for a reason." -- Jerry Seinfeld

:kiss

[RNKitty]

"you know, we eat our young around here."

You have been warned. If you decide to accept, I hope you have a strong back bone and a great self esteem - you'll need it. Money isn't everything.

Good luck - don't quit. We need all the good caring nurses we can get!

[Hella6191]

I can tell you for sure that the grass is never greener on the other side, it just looks that way. If you went into the nursing profession for money, go for it but if you went into the profession to care for people stay where you are and find a job where they don't eat you alive. Wish you all the luck, trust me I moved from Germany to Arkansas and I now know the color of the grass on the other side.

[pkmom]

Around here right now, the grass is still brown and only the weeds are green. just thought it was interesting!