Move onto new job or stay at current one?

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Hi ladies & gents,

I'm looking for some advice about whether I should accept a job offer or stay in my current position. I currently work at an endoscopy lab within a hospital.

It is Monday to Friday with one weekday off every other week. Weekends and holidays are on call and it rotates between the nurses. Weeknights after our shift ends is also on call which also rotates so you can be on call for that several nights a month. (Call is overnight into the next day). We've been very short staffed lately and have been worked to death.

Pros of current job: super short commute (10 minutes tops), familiar with hospital and doctors and other ancillary services, enjoy working with most of my coworker's. Kids only go to day care 1 day a week.

Cons: Taking call and constantly getting stuck late at work. Pay is not great.

New job offer is for an ASC (Ambulatory Surgey Center) located in a freestanding building run by a private company. Pay offer is $1 more than current job.

Pros: Monday to Thursday schedule. No Fridays or weekends, paid holidays, no call.

Cons: Commute has increased to about 30 mins a day each way and it is roughly about a 10-12 hour work day. One day a week must commute 50 minutes one way to a different office. Kids will have to be in daycare 3-4 days a week vs 1.

Thoughts? I'm not sure what to do. Each place has its pros and cons and there's always the unknown of a new position.

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I would NOT take the new job offer. It doesnt make sense to move in my opinion. Sure you are getting a 1 dollar pay increase, BUT, you are going to have to spend more money on gas to make up for that commute, not to mention daycare costs. No thanks for me.

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I would NOT take the new job offer. It doesnt make sense to move in my opinion. Sure you are getting a 1 dollar pay increase, BUT, you are going to have to spend more money on gas to make up for that commute, not to mention daycare costs. No thanks for me.

Thanks for the input. I forgot to mention that my husband works a crappy schedule so he's not home at nights or weekends and works every holiday which is why I had considered the new job offer. We don't have family here and I wouldn't have to worry about the kids for those days but yea the idea of commuting all the time is a turn off.

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Although the new offer does not make financial sense, I would love to have a 3 day weekend every weekend and no call. Depending on the financial situation, I would consider it.

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Specializes in Psych, Corrections, Med-Surg, Ambulatory.

A 30 minute commute doesn't sound all that bad. Sounds like you're weighing the extra days in daycare vs having 3-day weekends every week. I can certainly see why the offer is tempting. If I was in your shoes, I'd be looking seriously at those regular no-call weekends. Are your kids old enough to have any opinion at all?

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Specializes in retired LTC.

The only issue I see is that of increased child day care. There is a pay rate increase which can be considered to offset that extra cost.

I consider the commute to be negligible. When you read what others face ...

What I do see as the BIG plus is the schedule. You see that too.

You didn't mention other benes of PTO or health insurance, etc. But if they're OK, I'd still be looking at a change. JMHO

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Well, as someone who worked a job where I was on call every third week for thirteen years I definitely feel your pain. On call sucks. You have no life and you basically do nothing because the minute you try to make plans Murphy's Law kicks into effect and you get called in. I also did call after working a full shift, get called in that night, get no sleep, and have to work a full shift the next day (This was not nursing, but it was healthcare related).

Basically you have to weight the pros and cons. Overall it sounds like you'd be making less money in this new job with the daycare and the commute cost increase. But depending on how long this staff shortage has been going on and what your management is doing to remedy it, it may not be worth your sanity to stay and continue working all those hours. Personally, I would never do that type of on call again and would think seriously about taking any job with call. I'm too old for it.

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I can't tell how many hours you're working for the current job and why you'd need more childcare for the new job than the current one when you're being worked to death now. It seems you'd need less childcare with the new job, what am I missing?

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I am an endo nurse. Started at an ASC then went to hospital. Hated the hospital. Sure, the procedures were more interesting, but being on call was awful!! Dragging my butt out of bed at 2am to drive in to retrieve chicken out of someone's esophagus was no fun. The on-call $ were awesome- but not worth it to me.

I am back at my original ASC and am soooo happy. When I go to bed, I get to stay in bed. On weekends I drive by the hospital and am so thankful that I am on my way to my kid's baseball game or whatever rather than setting up for an ERCP.

You certainly do have some additional considerations with daycare and whatnot- but, in general, the quality of life at an ASC is so much better than the hospital. My opinion.

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My kids are 5 years old and 6 months old so I don't think they would care either way.

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My kids are 5 years old and 6 months old so I don't think they would mind either way.

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I can't tell how many hours you're working for the current job and why you'd need more childcare for the new job than the current one when you're being worked to death now. It seems you'd need less childcare with the new job, what am I missing?

My current job is 72 hour pay periods spread out over 2 weeks. So one week I have two six hour days (no childcare needed because I get home in time before hubby leaves for his evening shift) followed by three 9 hour days. Opposite week is two 6 hour days followed by one Wednesday off and two 9 hour days. Hubby's current days off are Thursday and Friday so we don't need childcare on those days. Sorry I know its confusing to follow but hubby's schedule changes ALL the time so it's hard to keep up.

The new job I would be working 40 hour weeks/10 hour days so I would have to put the kids in childcare 3-4x vs just 1 day a week with my old job. I wouldn't get home in time before hubby had to get to work so they'd have to go to daycare.

*** sorry it is taking me so long to respond. The forum is only allowing me a 900 second/15 minutes between posts/responses ***

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