Leave Easy job for Subacute Unit?

[KayceeLeeRN, BSN, RN]

I'm trying to make the best decision for my family. I am pregnant with my first baby and I currently have a low stress job part time (8 hr shifts) 3 days/week in ambulatory surgery. I have weekends and holidays off. It's pretty nice.

I only have 6-8 weeks of leave to stay home with baby. I'm worried about going back to work 3 days/week with a baby that young.

So I applied for and was offered a per diem position on a sub acute unit my hospital. This will be only one 12hr shift/week. I could work a weekend shift and the baby could be home with my husband. However, I would be leaving behind a job I like that is low stress for a much more demanding floor. But it's only ONE SHIFT! I could essentially be a stay at home mom the rest of the week.

What is best for a new mom/baby?? Thank you in advance for advice.

[RNperdiem, RN]

What is best for your family? Only you can answer that one.

There is a lot of benefits to working one well-paying 12 hour weekend shift a week and having the rest of the week free to be home with your baby. This is what I did, and still do years later.

To make this work, you need to get experience in this department well before the baby is born. Transitioning to a more demanding job is hard when you only work once a week and have the sleep deprivation of new parenthood.

[firstinfamily, RN]

I loved sub-acute, I guess it would be more demanding than ambulatory surgery. Getting use to the weekends and holidays would be a problem but for only one shift a week I think you can do it. Stress and a newborn, well they kind of go hand in hand. Learning to be a new mommy can be stressful, nursing is just plain stressful. Why do you really want to leave ambulatory surgery? Is it because you will have to work 3 shifts per week? Could they decrease your time so that you only did 2, that would be a little beyond the 12 hours at the hospital, but would be less stressful and you would not be working the holidays etc. Holidays become more important when you have a little one. Yes, you need to do what is best for the family. Do you have family that can help care for the baby or are you looking at day care??

[KayceeLeeRN, BSN, RN]

Hello all, I'm trying to decide if I should accept a position...

This is a unit within my hospital that is being called a "transitional care unit" ...essentially a subacute rehab floor.

My nursing background is med/surg and telemetry, very high acuity patients. I have never worked in this type of area so I'm not sure what to expect. What kind of patients will I have? Will they be as sick/heavy in care as the med/surg pts? I was told the nurse/pt ratio will be 1:10. That scares me a little.. I never had more then 6 on tele and 8 on med/surg. Is this reasonable?

Thank you in advance

[mom2cka]

rehabnurse.org has great information about what a rehab nurse does - I highly recommend this site. I work inpatient, not TCU, but we give IV meds, antibiotics, blood, work with trachs and pegs, and often have patients for 2-3 weeks, so focus heavily on patient and family education to prepare them to go home. Good luck!