Love my job but... opinions wanted

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I love my job! I love the people I work with. I like the work flow. I have worked here almost a year. It's a small hospital and I commute 30 minutes. There are a couple bigger hospitals much closer (like 5 miles away closer), but I really like smaller work environments. I got hired in as a med-surg/ortho nurse. The hospital has recently made the decision to close there med-surg floor and ship their pts to their sister hospital which is bigger. I really liked working med-surg with ortho. I find ortho by itself kind of boring. However, I still love my coworkers, love my job. Now, my concerns are keeping my skills fresh. There are lots of skills you do use on an ortho floor, but there's also a lot of things you don't see. I have been a nurse almost 2 years. I really would like to stay at this job at least 2 years (and honestly I could see staying here longer/indefinitely). My concerns are primarily losing skills and how to keep the job challenging. I have considered looking for a prn position at another facility, but not sure I can juggle both. So my questions are how do I keep growing as a nurse in a somewhat routine environment? Would you look for a PRN position to augment your skills? Do you think I am hurting my future career choices if I just stayed working on an ortho only floor? It is not a ortho/neuro floor, just ortho. There are still a lot of things I haven't seen med-surg wise because we don't take complex cases at our facility. I don't know. I feel like I'm getting into a good flow and feel comfortable in my position and I'm just about ready to start pushing myself to more challenging nursing. I don't know. I guess I'm rambling some, but wanted some feedback from other nurses.

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Specializes in Case Managemenet.

Tsm,

Nursing is a very dynamic field. People move, hospitals downsize, realign, managers change, administrators change, benefits change. You have to do what feels right to you. I have always been one to push for a challenge so I have worked a variety of jobs and worked more than one at a time. I have done agency, traveling, floating, per diem in a variety of settings. I have always loved a good challenge. So it really depends on what you want and can handle at any given time. I have only had one job with no overtime, one job with tons of overtime, one full time and agency work and one full time and one part time job at the same time. I learnt alot and was really motivated. Some can feel just as motivated by reading articles, being involved in the unit they work on. The great thing about nursing is you can try lots of options until you reach the one you are completely comfortable with.

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If you could see yourself indefinitely at your current place, then stay. Skills are easy to learn, honestly. I work at a larger hospital that gets many referrals, but I am a little jealous of nurses at smaller hospitals. They don't have as many resources or back up as I do, so I feel like they have to assess more independently and handle urgent matters. My point is... the grass is always greener. If the only reason to leave is to take a wider variety of patients, I'm not sure if it'll be worth it.

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If you could see yourself indefinitely at your current place, then stay. Skills are easy to learn, honestly. I work at a larger hospital that gets many referrals, but I am a little jealous of nurses at smaller hospitals. They don't have as many resources or back up as I do, so I feel like they have to assess more independently and handle urgent matters. My point is... the grass is always greener. If the only reason to leave is to take a wider variety of patients, I'm not sure if it'll be worth it.

Thanks for the feedback. That was very helpful!

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You sound like a great coworker. As one who knows because I did leave a place for greener pastures... having great patients and coworkers is important. I am sorry to this day that I left. Don't be too quick to leave a good thing. Maybe getting a prn for variety would be good to stretch your limits and explore something else if you have the time.

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Specializes in CCU, SICU, CVSICU, Precepting & Teaching.
If you could see yourself indefinitely at your current place, then stay. Skills are easy to learn, honestly. I work at a larger hospital that gets many referrals, but I am a little jealous of nurses at smaller hospitals. They don't have as many resources or back up as I do, so I feel like they have to assess more independently and handle urgent matters. My point is... the grass is always greener. If the only reason to leave is to take a wider variety of patients, I'm not sure if it'll be worth it.

I agree -- don't worry about losing skills. They come back easily, and when you change jobs you'll have to learn new ones anyway. Skills are easy to learn. If you love your job and your coworkers, stay and enjoy them! If you're worried about growing in your job, attend conferences, train as charge or a preceptor or volunteer for hospital committees.

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Specializes in Trauma, Teaching.

I switched to new things several times in my early (first 15) years. Changing from one area to another was always a good challenge, and like anything else, just takes some time to get into the swing of things. Current position and dept for 20 years, and have to learn new things and skills regularly, while at the same time enjoying my familiar surroundings.

If you are in a good place, enjoy it. Far too many of us can't.

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