Okay, I'm new to this site, so I hope I'm submitting this correctly. I am really hoping to get some perspective on a tough choice I have to make. I have been a nurse for a little over 2.5 years, but all my experience has been in psych. I've decided though to leave psych, although I love it, to go med-surg,because I feel like I could learn a lot of skills I haven't gotten due to only being in psych. With that said, I recently applied to a few positions at a hospital and all 4 of my interviews went well, so the ball is in my court in as to where to go.
First floor I applied to was med-surg with telemetry capabilities that is the transplant floor. They see a lot of bad kidneys and livers and these patients have either received a new organ already, needing some observation post surgery before going home, or on the list to see receive a new organ.
Second floor was a cardiac step-down unit, seeing patients with a-fib or from cath lab. One example the nurse manager gave me was perhaps a patient post CABG, once they are off the vent. This one seems a little overwhelming perhaps to me, considering I don't have any med-surg experience so I've thought of shying away from this.
Third floor is a med-surg floor with telemetry capabilities the mixture is med-surg with cardiac patients.
Fourth floor is an ortho-neuro floor a friend of mine set the interview up with. She had told me there are a lot of bad backs and hips, and the floor received ESRD overflow from the transplant floor and stuff the ED sends up (COPD exacerbation, stomach pain).
I feel like I could really gain good experience which ever floor I go with but I feel stuck as to where I want to go. Any advice would be deeply appreciated.
Specializes in CCU, SICU, CVSICU, Precepting & Teaching.
I kinda keep leaning towards transplant, but I'm not sure. I haven't really though too much of ICU, it always made me nervous though in school and I struggled with it back in school, so I'm scared I would struggle for with it now.
The 3 types of med-surg floors would give me 8 weeks of orientation, while the step-down would be 12.
If you're leaning toward transplant, that's where you should go.
Once you've become competent in whichever of the positions you've chosen, you'll have a much better idea of your interests. You may discover that you're very interested in kidneys or livers but the heart patients aren't your cup of tea. Or vice versa. But until you get in there and get your hands dirty, it's going to be difficult to know for sure.
All but the 3rd option are at the same hospital. Choice 3 is at a different location but under the same company as the other 3 options.
It sounds like it'd be hard to go wrong with any of the different patient populations. So that being said, the deciding factors can be related to other things -- commute, whether or not you can work your ideal shift, number of required weekends, pay grade, length/type of orientation, benefits. Some of those things will all be the same for the floors in the same hospital but different floors in the same hospital can still have different cultures, bosses, lengths of training, etc. Ultimately it doesn't sound like you can make a bad decision here. Congratulations!
At the hospital I work at, we hear a lot of codes get called from the ortho floor right outside of our ICU unit. Fat embolisms from them long-bone fractures, gotta love it.
Ruby Vee, BSN
17 Articles; 14,051 Posts
If you're leaning toward transplant, that's where you should go.
Once you've become competent in whichever of the positions you've chosen, you'll have a much better idea of your interests. You may discover that you're very interested in kidneys or livers but the heart patients aren't your cup of tea. Or vice versa. But until you get in there and get your hands dirty, it's going to be difficult to know for sure.
Good luck with whatever you choose.