New Grad RN offered Hospital Position & Dr.'s office Position Need Advice :-)

[kaylynnd06]

Hi everyone. I am a recent new grad BSN, RN in NJ. I've applied for well over 300 jobs and finally got 2 job offers and now do not know which one to accept. The first is for a large Pediatric group that is about 30 minutes away from my home and all of the staff seem really nice and willing to take on the responsibility of training me for my 1st RN position. It is a 9-5 position Monday - Friday with the occasional Sat. (no nights, weekends, or holidays) and it pays pretty well for a dr.'s office ($24/hr) with full benefits. The 2nd position is for a hospital that is about 50 minutes from my house for a Cardiac Rn position. It is full time (36hrs/wk) and pays $26.75/hr for the day shift which I feel is kind of low. I feel extremely lucky to have both offers because I know how difficult it is to find a job out there, especially in NJ. I always saw myself as a Pediatric nurse but I am afraid that if I take the dr's office position I will never be able to get into a hospital for lack of acute care experience. On the other hand, I am afraid if I accept the hospital position I will be stuck in Cardiac and stressed out. I know in nursing school we are told to take any hospital position we can get our hands on, but what if we are offered a dr.'s office position in the specialty we really want? Any help, comments, suggestions, advice would be really appreciated :-) Thank you in advance!

[netglow, ASN, RN]

Here is what you do if you can.

Call the Dr. office and ask to shadow for a few days! You will see how the Drs and the nurses interact with each other. Great if you also could do this at the hospital too, but that is less likely these days.

Here is the thing. They all will show their colors pretty fast. The wheels will ALWAYS fall off even if they manage to fake it for ya for a few hours. You'll see. If there is serious bad, you'll be able to see it at work.

[RhinoRocketRN]

If this were me, I would consider my career goals and focus on which would better prepare me to reach them.

Good luck!

[HeartsOpenWide, RN]

I would say the Hospital hands down. You need that acute care experience as a new grad. We had a woman who worked in a clinic the first two years of her nursing career who recently was hired per-diem but wanted more hours in the summer; it never worked out due to the fact that she never worked in a hospital before...she could not even remember how to run an IV pump! (she is gone now, her acute care skills are so nill with no experience that we could not even use her when we were short staffed) I have worked in a hospital for over two years now and I could easily get a clinic job right now...

[diva rn, BSN, RN]

I would say the Hospital hands down. You need that acute care experience as a new grad. We had a woman who worked in a clinic the first two years of her nursing career who recently was hired per-diem but wanted more hours in the summer; it never worked out due to the fact that she never worked in a hospital before...she could not even remember how to run an IV pump! (she is gone now, her acute care skills are so nill with no experience that we could not even use her when we were short staffed) I have worked in a hospital for over two years now and I could easily get a clinic job right now...

Exactly what I was talking about!!!!!! I can't imagine even thinking twice about this!

[Guest717236]

I vote for the clinic job if Pediatrics is your passion. With some experience

you could always ask the MDs you work for to give you a reference to

work per diem Pedi inpatient (general, not acute care). Then you will have both areas covered....

Whichever job you select, best wishes to you!

[dpiana]

Do what you love...peds. Plus you will save on gas with the shorter trip.

An extra 2 hours of commuting on top of a 12 hr shift is a lot...you will be pooped!!!!!

[MomRN0913]

wow, you are lucky to have two offers in new jersey. i cannot even get a hospital interview in central new jersey. i have been trying to get acute experience but no one calls me. they all want bsn.

if i were you, i would take the hospital job. it is hard to go from non-acute to acute but easy to go from acute to non-acute.

in any case, compare the cons and pros and decide. good luck!

e.t.a.

if you take the clinic job, please give me the cardiac hospital job, please?

sorry to go off on a tangent here, but have you tried dialysis nursing? is it something you are interested in?

with hd tech experience, you probably could score an hd position in a hospital, and with time end up doing icu hd.

try fresenius. if you haven't already.

[agldragonRN]

sorry to go off on a tangent here, but have you tried dialysis nursing? is it something you are interested in?

with hd tech experience, you probably could score an hd position in a hospital, and with time end up doing icu hd.

try fresenius. if you haven't already.

thanks for your suggestion but dialysis is not my cup of tea even though i worked as a dialysis tech for 4 years. most of my rn friends are all hd rns and they told me do hd when i am about to retire.

[kaylynnd06]

Just thought I'd update everyone... I chose the Pediatric RN position and am absolutely loving it. Since I work for an office/emergency walk in pediatric group I get to see a lot. You'd be suprised how many nursing skills I'm using and the NP's are great at showing me new things. Thanks for all of your advice!

[TheDreamJourney]

Hi I am so happy that you updated us all and I strongly believe that you made the right/best choice!!!!!! Good luck

[kaylynnd06]

Thanks ! Good Luck to everyone out there in their search :-)

[pedsnurse112]

How did you go about applying for the office position? I'm currently working in a Pediatric Hospital and would love an office job. I'm just having trouble finding out how to apply and when places are looking. Thanks and congrats!