I've been a nurse for 6 years in medsurg/tele (and 1 first year in peds).
I've applied to psych, nicu, ER, ccu, and ICU. I applied to school nursing. I didn't even get an interview for any of these applications. 2 New grad nurses got the nicu over me. I never gotten written up, never got in trouble, don't call out much (in my 6 years as a nurse), not late, good standing. I've handled 10 patients at a time. We get high acuity on our floor most of the time- acute stemis, acute strokes- and everything in between.
I've heard people say no one wants a medsurg nurse because then they need to be retrained. I'm sadly starting to think it's true?
so my options are:
1. I can be hired immediately at TCU with a 5/hr raise. The manager there knows me from a tech and already said she'd like me there.
2. Take a travel job. Salary isn't as high as it used to be, but maybe it would make me more marketable?
3. Home health? Would give me a flexible schedule but what if I wanted to go back to bedside, would it be even harder to get hired?
Any other ideas please?
I want something different, I am bored in medsurg/tele. Part of my appeal to nursing was the different areas you could I thought segue into. I want to learn a specialty or something new. I feel like I have a medsurg stigma.
And also I'm gonna be honest when I finally wanted to leave ms and applied to these other areas and one at a time never got an interview and just got denied and new grads get it over me, it's made me kinda down and a little bitter.
I agree, I did think that it would have benefited me more also. I might incorporate it into my cover letter how I've picked up when the unit was short staffed.
I think you've been given some great tips and sounds like you know of improvements you can make. I wouldn't advise relying solely on experience without further comment or doing anything to highlight your bedside nursing activities...I just thought it was weird to think someone wouldn't be given a second thought if they weren't busy doing projects and committees. And that's solely my opinion—I think it's weird and unfortunate.
Specializes in Nurse Leader specializing in Labor & Delivery.
Agree, JKL. That would not negatively influence my opinion on a candidate if they weren't involved in committee work. Everyone has different things happening in their lives and a lot of people can't/don't want to commit to extra stuff. As long as they show up when they are scheduled to work, and do a good job when they're there, that's mostly all I personally care about. There will always be those who want to do extra, and I appreciate them, but I also know that not everyone can or wants to.
Specializes in icu,prime care,mri,ct, cardiology, pacu,.
Have someone review your resume. Make sure it sounds professional, using the right keywords, skills. You should look into sitting for the med surg professional exam for aacn, or there's a med surg professional group. It's shows some initiative on your part. After your years working it would not be difficult drawing on your experience.
I sat the exam and passed with going over there review questions after 35 years of nursing. My hospital was less than 200 beds too but to move up the clinical ladder I needed to do something.
Ask your manager what can you do, ie committee work.
Have someone review your resume. Make sure it sounds professional, using the right keywords, skills. You should look into sitting for the med surg professional exam for aacn, or there's a med surg professional group. It's shows some initiative on your part. After your years working it would not be difficult drawing on your experience.
I sat the exam and passed with going over there review questions after 35 years of nursing. My hospital was less than 200 beds too but to move up the clinical ladder I needed to do something.
Ask your manager what can you do, ie committee work.
Thanks, quick question, is it valuable to take the medsurg cert while I plan to leave ms? Would I get asked "why did you take it now when you're applying to x unit?”
Honestly though, I haven't shared this feeling with anyone, but this is why I never got the ms cert, because I never intended to be here this long. My plan was never to stay in ms. (I remember as a brand new nurse thinking about how I wanted to go right for the NP hah!) But I was getting great bonuses for coming in OT, and I did enjoy ms/tele, I am just burnt out feeling now.
Specializes in Psychiatry, Community, Nurse Manager, hospice.
Nurse4lifewithparrots said:
My hospital is very small (<200 beds). The hospital system I'm in however, just allowed nurses to be able to work at more than one hospital within the system. So I've been applying to other hospitals within the system for per diem or PT. My idea was, I still had my job if it didn't work out, or if I hopefully loved where I went I would eventually get to be FT and leave the other job. At mine I've only applied to the CCU dayshift because there aren't many other specialties to go into (for example, we have no pediatrics, nicu and no official step down units). I wonder what the policy is for being hired at other hospitals, because at mine, I "hear" it's based on seniority but I don't know if that's official. I will talk to HR, good idea! thank you.
Okay so, if you want a transfer don't put in for per diem. Apply to the full time jobs. You will get one.
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JKL33
7,036 Posts
I think you've been given some great tips and sounds like you know of improvements you can make. I wouldn't advise relying solely on experience without further comment or doing anything to highlight your bedside nursing activities...I just thought it was weird to think someone wouldn't be given a second thought if they weren't busy doing projects and committees. And that's solely my opinion—I think it's weird and unfortunate.