how long to wait to apply for another position

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Hello

I am having a career crisis I believe. I have been a nurse for over 14yrs. I am so over bedside nursing and have been looking at other areas such as PACU, OR, Endoscopy. However, most of these positions require experience or critical experience. I tried to work on a critical care unit for a year and absolutely hated it. My co workers were supportive and so was my manager. I just hated the acuity of the pts and was stressed out everyday. I only lasted a year. I finally decided to go back to med/surg since that's what I am familiar with. I have been at my current position and hospital for 3 months.

So found a position in PACU at a hospital that I worked at previously. It says "new nurses welcome" which makes me think they will train you and no previous is needed. I of course want to apply. I figure, it can't hurt to apply. However, if I get the position, would it be wrong to quit my current job only after 3 months. I get so worried about moving around. Again I have been a nurse for over 14 yrs, and have worked at four different hospitals. I feel the only reason I lasted that long was because I moved around.

I am interested on how others feel about moving around, what's an appropriate length of time to stay at a place(if any) and trying different specialties in nurses.

Thanks to all who read and respond.

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Specializes in Critical Care, Education.

If you get an opportunity to move into a specialty - that you have been seeking for quite a while - you should take it. If not, it may be a long time before you get another chance. Just be honest with your current employer & work out your required notice. It's not unusual for someone to take a new job and then get contacted about a job that they had applied for months ago. If the PACU job had been open at that time, you would have taken it, right?

Keep in mind that the new job will have to be "do or die"... you can't afford to jump ship again because it didn't turn out the way you anticipated. You'll have to suck it up and stay put for a while. But that shouldn't be a problem with PACU - I can't recall anyone not liking their PACU job.

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If you have long tenures at a few different jobs in the past, leaving one job right after starting shouldn't be a problem for you.

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