Need some reassurance that this is an OK move

[Nire83]

I graduated in December and have been working as a nurse in a pediatric office (where i worked as an MA) for the last 3 months. Mostly I do phone traige with the occasional IM med. I dont really feel like a nurse at all, just a medical secretary and the pay is pretty awful. I love my patients and co-workers though. My managers are basically doing me a favor by even letting me work there, as there are NO open positions but they fill me in per diem when then can.

I was offered a full time job last week working with early intervention. There are only a few nurses on staff and i would be doing home visits and assessing the development of children 0-3. NO clinical component to it at all. I'm hoping i would at least make some good connections at the local hospitals which refer children to EI. I'd be making 15 dollars MORE an hour.

Am i going to kill any chance of ever working in a hospital by taking this job? I wont be able to work at the peds office anymore because the EI job is 40+ hours a week. I have 2 kids and simply cant work 6 -7 days a week. I'm so afraid about forgetting everything i learned in school, and that I'm pigeonholing my career right of the bat.

[llg, PhD, RN]

If what you really want is a hospital job ... the new job won't help you there. But why would you want a hospital job if you can get a job like you have just been offered? It sounds really good -- like the kind of job hospital nurses dream about. It sounds like a job with decent working conditions, a great schedule for a working mom, a reasonable salary, etc. That sure beats working nights, weekends, and holidays on an understaffed inpatient unit!

Yes, your inpatient skills will deteriorate. But if you can have a good career without them ... maybe that's OK. If a hospital job is what you really want, take the new job for now and keep trying to get into the hospital. But maybe that is just not the career path that is going to be available to you. But the path you have found sounds good, too -- different, but good if you can make the most of it.

[NC Girl BSN]

Take the job. You will be working as a RN and making more money. The pediatric job is not getting you any closer to getting in the hospital either. At least this is a job in your profession. Good Luck!