My Unit is Closing (Warning: LONG)

Hi everyone,

I haven't posted for a while although I'm here every day. I have a dilemma for which I need some feedback.

This is a long story, but I am going to make it as short as I possibly can. I fell into my dream job about 14 months ago when I started in NSICU. I loved the patients, I even loved the docs, and I love my coworkers. There have been political problems in the unit since I started, but I didn't really care because I REALLY loved to go to work. Due to what I perceive as a complete lack of management, as well as escalating political issues within the unit, we recently lost about 5 nurses, which is half our staff (we are a small 5 bed unit.) Quite honestly, the nurses we lost are not a great loss to our unit, it left us with a great core group, but having lost half the staff, we are unable to completely cover ANY shifts; the powers that be have decided to shut us down, effective this weekend.

My facility is not a huge facility and things that go on are usually fodder for gossip. I have had to tell several people that they are not in any position to make judgements about what has happened in our unit because they haven't experienced it. I feel it's kind of like a marriage in that respect. No one knows what REALLY happens behind closed doors. But, of course, everyone thinks they do, and I feel we (those of us who stayed in an attempt to improve the situation) are being judged accordingly, and VERY unjustly.

The plan for our unit is that we will be absorbed into MSICU for approximately 3 years, when a new NSICU will be opened. I cannot tell you how heartbroken I am because as I said, I was very happy there despite all the goings on. Part of the problem is this: I feel that we are going to the new unit with preconceived notions already in place by the current staff in MSICU. I also do not feel welcome there at all. To explain my feeling, the director of our "new" unit wanted to speak to us all before we went to "her" unit so that she could tell us what was and wasn't acceptable in "her" unit. Unfortunately, she was basing her attitude with us on gossip and comments from an old manager who left us under less than stellar terms. When I politely tried to tell her that what she thought had happened had actually NOT happened, a deaf ear was turned to me and she continued along the same lines with hardly a missed beat. She was very nice about it all, but it made me feel that the pot has already been poisoned, so to speak. Add to that the fact that the house charge took me up to the units the other night to just have a look around, so I could see what my options were. The nurses in CVSICU were VERY nice and took lots of time to answer my questions. When we went over to MSICU, the house charge introduced me and told them where I was from. There were about 5 nurses sitting around. As one voice, they ALL started to laugh. I was very taken aback. I told them it wasn't very funny downstairs, and one of the nurses said "we aren't laughing at you," but they all continued to laugh with no forthcoming explanation. I can tell you that I couldn't get out of there fast enough. When I explained what had happened the to new director, she pretty much blew it off and said she hadn't heard anything negative.

Now to the 2nd part of my dilemma. On Wednesday, I interviewed for a position in NSICU in a very large, level I trauma center and was offered a job. I can't tell you how beautiful the place was, how clean; it smelled so good, I could just go on and on. And the manager and I just sat over coffee and talked about what we both wanted and expected. I think she is AWESOME. It went so well and I felt so happy when I left. If I had been able to start the next day, I wouldn't be in this position because I would have had no time to think. The experience I will gain is immeasurable. It's a 16 bed unit and is staffed like my current unit, 2 to 1. Everyone that I talked to was awesome and I left there feeling very welcomed and wanted, pretty much like I did when I interviewed for my current position.

What is my dilemma, you may ask? Well, change is very hard, even good change, and now I'm getting scared. I know my docs, I know my CURRENT coworkers, I've been in the system since I graduated from nursing school in 2001. Big deal, I know, I'm a people person and will do fine anywhere. So the bigger problem is this: the new facility is over an hour away from me. I currently travel about 25 minutes to work. I thought that the new facility would start me out at a lot more than they did, which is still more than I'm making now, about 10K more a year with shift diffs, but with gas prices and wear and tear on my car, I'm wondering if it's worth it. Not to mention my great fear of driving in bad weather.

I can't start at the new facility until Jan 9, which gives me three weeks. I thought I'd go up to the new unit and see how that goes. Is three weeks enough to make a judgement call like that? I am hoping that my perceptions of the situation are wrong, but I just can't help but feel things are off on the wrong foot from the start with this new unit. I'm feeling pretty torn right now.

I think that's everything, and that's the short version! LOL I am sorry for the length of this post, I really did try to keep it to the important points. And I really am looking forward to any advice/guidance/suggestions you all may have.

If you've read this far, thanks for taking the time to do so.