Help to change positions or not?

[nicu4me]

Hi, I am having a hard time trying to decide if I should change positions or not. One job is in an outpatient area of the same hospital with daytime hours, 4 days a week and 1 weekend on call a month. The other is in an intensive care unit on nocs 5 - 12 hours shifts pay period but that includes every other weekend. And of course all the holidays. The ICU area positives are the differential, I already know the job, I would be there less, 5 times rather than 8 times a pay period. However, it is playing a toll on my health and it is high stress. Managment is not good, unflexible staffing, but GREAT coworkers. The other outpatient area the manager is great, it's an acutal outpatient hospital job, not a clinic job, won't lose seniority or have to change benefits, but no shift differential (loss of about $5.00 and hour) and would be less stress once I learned the job. I have children, who are busy. I am worried if I take the outpatient job, I won't have several consecutive days off, it would be harder to go eat lunch with my kids at school, and do those things that are fun because I would have to be at work. The ICU position along with the differential has potential to pick up extra hours/overtime whenever I want. The outpatient area, I already shadowed for a day, the manager is after me (very flattering), and I tend to believe that it would be a less hostile place to work in. And for those of you that work nocs (I've been doing it 5 plus years), you know some of that time that I am home I am sleeping anyway or napping. I dread the nocs that I have to go in because it's always hanging over my head that you still have to go to work. A lot of my kids activities are later in the afternoon and every weekend. So every other weekend i lose all day Sunday to sleep. And usually can't spend the whole day on Saturday with them. Plus summer is coming (I don't need a babysitter, but want them to stay busy), but during the school year they are in school anyway so I wouldn't feel guilty, except I may not be able to go on that last minute field trip unless I have it planned in the schedule ahead of time. I feel guilty when I'm sleeping (therefore I do not get much) and I feel guilty working. However, I have a GREAT DH. I don't know if I went there and asked her for a pay increase to help match what I am making or if it's just if you were hired into the system as a new employee that you can negotiate. Any thoughts as far as helping me see the pros and cons? I really don't know what to do. The $ is partially a reason to stay, but I could make it with out it.

[kessadawn, BSN, RN]

The outpatient job sounds pretty great, I guess the main concern with taking that would be if you can afford to lose $5/hour. Yes you will miss lunch with your kids, but you will have so much more time with them outside of the school day, that sounds like a fair trade to me. If you have serious concerns with your health and stress, taking a nightshift position in an ICU where you get no support from management would probably be a bad idea. I have worked nocs in PICU for about 7 years now, VERY stressful, and we ARE supported by management, so I can't imagine not having that support. Where does your heart tell you to go? Good luck with your decision!

[arnie1234]

It sounds like you have a lot on your mind. Have you tried listing all the pros and cons for each? I have been working in outpatient for about 8 years. The one thing that stinks is trying to make dr appts, or if your kids are sick. The other thing to think about is how far your commute will be. Especially since the price of gas is going up- you will also be driving your car more, and using more gas.

One last thing, how often would you potentially go in on call on the weekend? You said call once a month, but how often would you actually work on call? In that situation, you would have worked 4 days, then your whole weekend is shot as well.

What would you be doing at your new job?