HELP New Grad ER or Med Surg

[Samantha2199]

Hi I am graduating in a few months from nursing school. I currently work as a CNA to the hospital I want to work at when I graduate. I am conflicted on where to start my career. I was to eventually enter NP school so I want to enter a field that will be good to know while I go back to FNP school. My hospital does a 9 month residency program for new grads in the ER and it also has the same residency for the NICU for new grads or I can just enter the med surg field. What should I do? Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thank you!

[joe090909]

Really depends on what you want to do. Do you like working in a high intensive stress environment? If not, ER is probably not the place for you.

[Psychnursehopeful, ASN, RN]

Go critical care to challenge yourself.

[Nurse SMS, MSN, RN]

Apply for all of them and see what/if you get offers. Deciding before you even get invited to interview is putting the cart in front of the horse. ? Good luck!

[abbatar, BSN, RN]

Do you like fast-paced, intense, sometimes very stressful, quickly-changing environments? If so, the ER would be good for you. If not, do not do ER.

NICU is great, sometimes hard to go to adults afterwards, a lot of people will stay with neonates/peds afterwards. If you like kids and critical patients, this would be good for you. Very specific though.

Med/Surg will be the most general option out of all of these for you. You can go anywhere after it. Great starting place for new nurses to build skills and learn to manage your time. You could make it more specific and try for a respiratory, ortho, GI, etc unit if you like something in particular.

All of these choices are quite different. If possible, apply for all and see what opportunities arise. In the meantime, do some self reflection and really think about what you want in your career. What do you envision your dream job like?

[TheDudeWithTheBigDog, ADN, RN]

You have your entire career, why not do both?