Grad Position Decision

[sazsaz]

Hi all,

I would greatly appreciate some career advice. I'm in a very fortunate position to have been offered two graduate RN postions - one in pediatrics (12 months general med/surg followed by 12 months PICU) and one in neonatology (12 months SCN followed by 12 months NICU). I'm very undecided about which opportunity to take. Some RNs have told me that neonatal nursing is more boring than pediatrics - does anyone agree? If I started in pediatrics, would it be possible to easily trasition into neonatology at a later stage in my career? Any advice to help with my decision or insight from anyone who has worked in both areas of nursing would be greatly appreciated. Thanks so much.

[NotReady4PrimeTime, RN]

Neonatal is, for me, much less varied and interesting than pediatrics. There are only a handful of typical problems experienced by sick neonates but the range in peds is pretty much soup to nuts. You can make a fairly easy transition from either to either because there is overlap. I started in neonatal (which I likened to robo-nursing) and moved to PICU after 2 years. That was in 1997.