LOST

[tbnorris2]

I'm graduating in less than a month and had a job lined up in the children's hospital where I have worked as a MST for a year now. The director kept encouraging me to apply, so I did and I got a call from HR saying they only had a PRN job available now, but hope to be able to offer me FT soon. I don't see PRN as an option because I need benefits and guaranteed hours. I'm feeling very discouraged because I don't know what else I want to do. Peds is my passion and my ultimate goal is to work in the PICU. I always hear to get a year of Med-Surg but I'm doing that now for preceptorship and just know that I will be miserable here even for a year. There is a position in Trauma I've been asked to apply for but don't think I'm ready for that. Someone please help ease my mind because I'm totally lost and discouraged.

[Sour Lemon]

Right now,you have one offer and not much of a decision to make. Apply at more places, get more offers, and then decide.

You don't need a year of adult med surg if your ultimate goal is to work with children.

[llg, PhD, RN]

Are there other jobs available at the children's hospital that you could apply for -- i.e. in other departments? I wasn't clear from your original post whether or not the unavailability of jobs was just in that one unit or whether it was hospital-wide. It's hard for me to believe that there would no vacancies within the whole children's health system for very long. Be sure they know that you are willing to switch departments if necessary to stay in peds.

If there are truly no open positions in the whole children's health system ... I would take the PRN job for a couple of months to see what happens. You may not be able to afford to do that for very long, but I think it would be worth it to do it for a couple of months. Get oriented, etc. while keeping your eyes open for any jobs within the system. Since they are not giving you a budgeted position, you don't owe them much. They should not be surprised if you leave once you land a budgeted position.