Icu opportunity

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I have 2 years experience on a medicine/oncology floor and my ultimate goal is to work in the NICU. I have tried applying to NICU and pedi ER positions with no luck because of my lack of experience in that area. I was told to seek pediatric or critical care jobs to gain experience. My question is, I have been offered an opportunity in Thoracic ICU and I'm unsure if I should take it to get critical care experience or keep applying to pediatric/NICU positions and hope to get a call back. I'm nervous I'll take the position and something else will finally open up.

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Specializes in NICU.

Since you are used to "big" people, a Adult ICU would help get you familiar with an ICU environment. Pediatrics would help you get accustomed to kids and babies. My advice would get a pediatric job at a children's hospital. It would be easier to make an internal transfer than going from adult to pediatrics.

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Take the Thoracic ICU offer! What an amazing place to work. Fresh open hearts.

My PICU job became available to me because I had adult ICU experience.

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Take ICU. Gen paeds is nothing like nicu. Nicu is very niche, and more like ICU then it is a paediatric floor, and experience with vents and lines/monitoring will be more valuable to them.

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Specializes in Critical Care.

I would also recommend taking the thoracic ICU position! It's immediately available to you and you gain invaluable ICU experience, which will give you a better shot at getting your ideal job in the NICU later! Good luck!

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Thank you all for your insight I really needed it. I just received a call wanting to offer me the ICU position and just interviewed for the Pedi ER which the interviewer did mention it is much more like clinic vs critical care and I would be rotating between Pedi and Adult ER. So i think I am going to call and listen to their offer and most likely go into ICU so I can get that critical experience, learn vents, and extra lines.

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Specializes in Critical Care.

Take the ICU experience. You will be marketable like no other nurse. And then CT ICU at that? That's GREAT! With your ICU experience you can easily be trained and work most sides of nursing (only division is pediatric vs adult). My point is, if you wanted to do cath lab down the road they would snatch you up in a heart beat (or lack thereof, get? Cath lab? Lol )

Anyway, if you wanted to do CRNA you could. If you did NP you could work clinic, acute, or critical.

ICU is the pathway to flight nursing too.

ICU experience counts a lot.

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Specializes in Geriatrics w/rehab, LTC, hospice patient.

I would take the ICU position, gain the experience and continue to seek opportunities in the NICU. Thoracic ICU sounds like an AMAZING opportunity, actually one I wish would be presented to me. Seize the opportunity before you no longer have it. After all, there are currently no other offers, and this might be the experience you need to get where you want. Once you have proven yourself in this job, you'll have an abundance of options, as others have said. Good luck!

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take the icu experience

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Specializes in CVICU, MICU, Burn ICU.

ICU all the way. You can learn the peds bit down the road. They'll like that you've experienced the super sick and learned to hold your ground.

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