Looking for some career guidance...

[AlhendyRN]

Hi all!

a little background here: been a nurse for almost 3 years now. Started out in a level 1 trauma peds ICU. Found the overall stress, combined with short staffing and unsafe patient ratios to be far to overwhelming as a new nurse. Stayed there about a year and a half before deciding to try something new. Had a small interest in potentially going back to school to do derm NP so worked in a derm office for a short few months.... dear lord was that boring! Glad i learned that early on before spending time and $$ on that. Anyway, I am currently at a really small rural hospital in the "ICU". I say this with quotations because it's a 7 bed ICU and we do not do Cath lab, dialysis, major surgeries, etc. here. Anything of higher acuity gets transferred to our larger facility about 20 miles away. We rarely get a vent patient and a lot of times I will have med surg overflow patients. I find it to be pretty monotonous, and I don't feel that I am learning much. I actually live much closer to the larger facility and am planning to transfer there when I reach my transfer eligibility date.

My question is: what department would be a good fit for me? I really miss the acuity of a more urban hospital and I'm ready for the change. I also really want my next position to be somewhere I will stay for somewhat long term. I hate that I've only been a nurse 3 years and have already job hopped this many times!

the departments that reall pique my interest are ER, PACU, Cath lab, and of course ICU. But I really think I would enjoy the ER. I've read many times on this forum that the ED is for us ADD folks. Well go ahead and sign me up! anyway, just wanted to get some opinions on the topic. Thank you in advance!!