Your First PRN Job

[Nurse3242]

For those of you who work two nursing jobs: When did you feel comfortable taking on a PRN job? And what was your first PRN job?

[missdeevah, NP]

Bump...curious

[LessValuableNinja]

My first PRN job was about a year after I was licensed. Everyone has a different comfort level. Many folks, I'd recommend 2 years rather than 1. People who orient slowly may need to work 3 different full time jobs, or more, before being ready for prn. Some are never ready. If you can't walk into a unit and be at least as competent as the middle-age nurse who works there full time, you may not be ready.

[MikeyT-c-IV]

I started about 2 years after licensure. My full time job was bedside on a tele/stepdown unit. My first PRN was working at a stand alone endoscopy center. I did that for awhile until I started a new full time job that required more days at work.

I currently hold 2 PRN positions but they are very, PRN. They're both pretty darned easy. I'm not so much interested in working a lot these days. My full time job is really enough.

[TheCommuter, BSN, RN]

I accepted my first PRN position one month after being licensed. I worked full-time 16 hour weekend double shifts at a nursing home and supplemented my income with a PRN gig as a medication nurse at a smallish psychiatric hospital.

[Okami_CCRN, BSN, RN]

I work full-time as a critical care nurse and took on a PRN position 2 years after licensure as same-day surgery RN.

[KatieMI, BSN, MSN, RN]

10 months after starting first job. At that point I lost my first nursing job (yes, NETY), and was terminated from the second one (yes, more NETY plus xenophobia). I was feeling like total wreck, and my first and foremost goal was to get money for grad program to get the heck out of bedside. I pretty much googled the first local agency which I found on Craiglist and sent my CV there. In a week, I did my physical and in two I was back in three PRN jobs at once, including one in the very same ICU in which I couldn't get an interview for whatever it took a few months before. I must say that time I was lucky: the agency cared for their nurses very well, we had 24 hour phone support, I was told to pretty much get up and leave if there would be any elements of mistreatment (and I did just that once, when I was denied bathroom privileges for 12 hours minimum). In total, I spent almost a year doing 2 to 3 shifts/week alternating ICU, LTACH and three LTC facilities. In the process, I figured out which facility I preferred and where I was treated better and accepted with all my quirks and accents; still working part time there for the last two years.

In the meantime agency paychecks covered 100% of costs of MSN degree plus some nice perks like new laptop and electives.

[LessValuableNinja]

My first PRN job was about a year after I was licensed. Everyone has a different comfort level. Many folks, I'd recommend 2 years rather than 1. People who orient slowly may need to work 3 different full time jobs, or more, before being ready for prn. Some are never ready. If you can't walk into a unit and be at least as competent as the middle-age nurse who works there full time, you may not be ready.

I just noticed something in a post. It should say middle-rate, not age! Bad autocorrect, bad! It just corrected it again.

[LessValuableNinja]

10 months after starting first job. At that point I lost my first nursing job (yes, NETY), and was terminated from the second one (yes, more NETY plus xenophobia). I was feeling like total wreck, and my first and foremost goal was to get money for grad program to get the heck out of bedside. I pretty much googled the first local agency which I found on Craiglist and sent my CV there. In a week, I did my physical and in two I was back in three PRN jobs at once, including one in the very same ICU in which I couldn't get an interview for whatever it took a few months before. I must say that time I was lucky: the agency cared for their nurses very well, we had 24 hour phone support, I was told to pretty much get up and leave if there would be any elements of mistreatment (and I did just that once, when I was denied bathroom privileges for 12 hours minimum). In total, I spent almost a year doing 2 to 3 shifts/week alternating ICU, LTACH and three LTC facilities. In the process, I figured out which facility I preferred and where I was treated better and accepted with all my quirks and accents; still working part time there for the last two years.

In the meantime agency paychecks covered 100% of costs of MSN degree plus some nice perks like new laptop and electives.

Doesn't sound half bad. Local agency or large one I can look up?

[KatieMI, BSN, MSN, RN]

Doesn't sound half bad. Local agency or large one I can look up?

From what I know, better look for local. Mine was local and rather small, almost mom-and-pop business. They were providing staff for LTCs for years and only started to work with acute care/LTACH around the time I joined them. No idea if that was the reason for good treatment or not but it was the first time I was treated as a human being since becoming RN. They paid a bit less than the majority but were known for tearing contracts with facilities where their employees reported bad treatment or poor working conditions.

[Meriwhen, ASN, BSN, MSN, RN]

My first job as a new grad was a PRN job in a psych hospital, and they were so short-staffed that I had no problem securing full-time hours. Orientation was the same for all hires so I wasn't short-changed in that department...or perhaps I was, depending on how you want to look at it :) But I made it work very well for me, and I signed on as a permanent employee a year later.

[mystory, BSN, RN]

I landed my first prn job (known as per diem in my neck of the woods) after 7 years of experience. I struggle with anxiety and the prospect of such a short orientation delayed it a bit. I also am not the highest energy person and it took me a few years to get in the flow and routine of shift work to accommodate a second gig. I am glad I waited until until I was ready.