Jumped ship, treading water

Nurses General Nursing

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Specializes in dialysis, m/s.

Hi,

I'm an RN with 7 years experience. Did the typical 2yrs MedSurg before moving on to nephrology nursing (specifically hemodialysis) which I did for 5 yrs. I recently resigned from the dialysis unit and took the first available position offered to me by the only hospital within 40 miles of my home...MedSurg...again. Now I've been there a couple of months and we have good staffing ratios, great doctors, manageable management...BUT, I know in my heart that I don't care for medsurg. I'm a specialty kinda gal but now I may be stuck for a while!

I live in a rural area and the small hospital rarely train in some specialty areas; basically ICU, step down,and ER, but they do it VERY rarely, and there's a line of MS nurses waiting their 'turn' (Seriously, one gal broke down the waiting list for ER preceptorship, and it's 5 nurses long!) Other specialties like OR, PACU, and FBU flat out don't train.

Any one else ever been in this situation? Any other avenues for small town specialties?

Thanks, momo

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Have you considered moving?

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I live in a small town and we cross-train all the nurses who want to be cross-trained (some refuse). I do med/surg, ER, OB, OR.

We need nurses too!

steph

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Specializes in dialysis, m/s.

My family really wants to stay where we are, and other than the job situation, I like it here, too.

I've thought about commuting to the next closest hospital, getting a job in ER or ICU for 6-12 mo, then going back to the hospital I'm at now when a position opens up...Is it unethical to do that and 'skip line'?

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Specializes in dialysis, m/s.

Steph, I LOVE that your hospital does that. The reasoning they don't here is that because its 'too small and the trainee wouldn't get the necessary experience'. Seems bogus to me.:madface:

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Bribery? Bribery is a good thing.

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Is there any way to "add value" so you can get to ER? EMT??

Just brainstormiing...

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Specializes in Community, Renal, OR.

What about home health nursing?

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Specializes in Geriatrics, Cardiac, ICU.

What is FBU?

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Steph, I LOVE that your hospital does that. The reasoning they don't here is that because its 'too small and the trainee wouldn't get the necessary experience'. Seems bogus to me.:madface:

That is funny . . . . . how small is your hospital?

steph

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Specializes in dialysis, m/s.
Is there any way to "add value" so you can get to ER? EMT??

Just brainstormiing...

That is a GREAT idea! I'm definitely gonna look into this...Mahalo

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Specializes in dialysis, m/s.

Bribery...I think you need MONEY for that! Or favors I'm not willing to dole out!

FBU=Family Birthing Unit (The staff there has mad skills, I actually had the 'honor' of floating there to do postpartum care a wk ago and the two nurses there had a combined experience of 32yrs, one having been a lay midwife for many yrs and now getting her CNM in the near future. Mind you this is the typical night shift crew!)

Home health: It doesn't really appeal to me. But I should check it out...

Steph, our hospital has about 5 ER 'beds', 4 ICU beds, 3 stepdown rooms, and maybe 20-24 med surg beds, (postpartum usually utilizes a couple of those). I think FBU has 5 rooms of their own.

Update; Rumor has it that there may be a cardiac cath lab in the future. Hmmm, time to start kissing up to the cardiologists!

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