Med Surg vs. Outpatient Surgery??

[passthedonuts]

Hello! I need advice!! I recently got an offer for a per diem training position on a med-surg floor, non benefitted at a local hospital in my city. I also just got a call for an interview for the outpatient surgical services in a hospital about an hour away. My ultimate dream is to be a PreOP/PACU nurse, and was thinking that working in this outpatient surgical services would help me to that pathway. However, I know PreOP/PACU nurses usually require critical care... acute care at least, and I believe an outpatient surgical service unit is not considered acute... I'm really not confident in my med-surg skills, so the whole.. "med-surg for a year" thing sounds like a good idea for me. What do you guys think??

Here's a little summary...

med surg

(+) it's local.. about 20 mins away

(+) 12 hour shifts

(+) hone on my nursing skills and judgment

(+) acute care experience

(-) per diem... afraid I won't really learn in the right environment?

(-) no benefits

outpatient surgical service

(+) may help me with preop/pacu??

(+) full time, benefits

(+) seems like a more supportive and organized unit

(-) almost an hour away (no 12 hour shifts)

(-) not acute care

[Shanua]

You have to weight the pros and cons. Many of the PACU nurses I work with are from the med/surg floor. They know what the surgeries look like post op and it makes an easier transition. Is this your first job? Do you want an PRN job? Many people need a full-time with guaranteed hours and guaranteed benefits. If the outpatient surgery center isn't associated with a hospital it could be harder to transition to an in hospital PACU or pre op job but a full time job has benefits.

Med/Surg is a great foundation for anything but a PRN job may not serve the purpose.

Good lucK!

[HeySis, BSN, RN]

Only you can make this decision. Can you finically afford to work PRN with no benefits? Do you have kids at home so that working full-time plus commute would make quality of life hard?

There are many other things to consider.. but, just looking at it from what do you need to get to PACU...

I'm working in a PACU that services an OR for both the same day surgeries(SDS) and inpatient surgeries. I think the acute care on med/surg will help you more, your patients will be sicker and require a higher level of interventions then will those walking in and out of same day. Not that things can't go wrong in SDS, or those nurses have less skills (they dot, just different ones). BUT when things go wrong in the PACU the patient doesn't go home but to the floor, so our survival nurses get more experience with complex, unstable patients.

I also would talk to others that work at your community hospital and find out hour many hours you can really expect per diem. I worked at one place that everyone that worked full time started out as per diem.. it's how they got their foot in the door and sometimes the move to regular and full time hours happened quickly.

Good-Luck.