Help Please

[hopebewild]

WEll after months of searching I am pleased to announce that I have two job offers. Now I just need help choosing. Please read the following descriptions and post your opinion!

PLACE A: This place is located about an hour and a half south of where I currently live. It is in a smaller city which is not something I am looking forward to. However, it is the exact floor that I want, a cardiac icu. The hours are 12 hour shifts with every third weekend. It switches from day to night shifts, I am not sure how often. It is a hospital that is known world wide and it has some cool benefits for me a mother of a two year old and an 8 week old, such as free sick child care and back up daycare. It starts after the new year. I would have one to two patients and would do all of the cares. (which I love because I am kind of anal and a control freak lol) I would mostly have just one because these are all post surgical patients and they are one to one after surgery and the length of stay is usually no more than a couple of days.

Place B: This is a regional hospital located in the suburb that I actually live in. I live in a metro area of I think around a million people which is way better in my eyes than moving to a town of 90000. However, this is on a med/surge floor with a tele wing so I will have drips. I will be working straight nights 56 hours a pay period and every other weekend. I will have around 6 patients and will delegate tasks to an lpn that I share with another nurse. It just has the standard benefits and right now, at that hospital, there is only one icu. It is however, part of a larger chain of hospitals that I could transfer to. The position starts in November.

If i didnt have kids the twelve hour shifts are in my eyes the perfect shift ever! However, lately i have been realizing that for those 3 days a week, I will hardly see my children, no matter what shift I work. But it is my dream job!!!! They have a great new grad icu training program. So help please! oh, and the pay is pretty much the same.

[Little_Babycatcher]

I say go for the CICU floor. It sounds great and the benefits are huge when you have kids. I have a 13 month old and work 3 12 hour shifts (days), and it actually works out pretty nicely. Certainly being away for those 3 days is hard, but then you have 4 whole days with them. Also, working nights will still mean you're unavailable during the day prior to the shift. You *do* have to sleep sometime

[jadu1106]

hi!

it seems to me like your mind is pretty much made up! you stated 'its your dream job!"....go for it! it sounds like the cicu sounds like what will work for you. it has a training program and rotates shifts. i agree with the above poster...:)

best of luck to you with your new job!

jadu1106

[hiddencatRN, BSN, RN]

I say go for the CICU floor. It sounds great and the benefits are huge when you have kids. I have a 13 month old and work 3 12 hour shifts (days), and it actually works out pretty nicely. Certainly being away for those 3 days is hard, but then you have 4 whole days with them. Also, working nights will still mean you're unavailable during the day prior to the shift. You *do* have to sleep sometime

I agree! Position A sounds so much more appealing than Position B, so your preference really comes out clearly in the details you post. Sick day care is huge and it's on your ideal floor.