Nurse Clinician vs. Floor Nurse

[jmokeefe]

I currently work in critical care as a floor nurse, 4 patients to me and its BUSY and makes me nervous sometimes with the level of acuity and responsibility. Anyhow, I may have the opportunity to work as a Nurse Clinician in a pediatric urologist office. It's 8 hour shifts, not 12's, and its a day position...I currently work nights and am always exhausted. Considering my husband also works M-F from 7-330, he misses me and I miss him and my 4 kids in the evenings. WWYD?? I know the pay and benefits all play a role in my decision (which to be honest I have no idea what the salary is for a nurse clinician I even is) but do I want to leave the critical care nursing scene?! I fought so hard to get here, its a tough decision to make...any advice or ideas you can lend are much appreciated! Thanks!

[lkwashington]

You are taking everything in consideration family and money. You may want to find out how much the day shift job is willing to pay. I suppose they will take your experience in consideration. Going from a hospital setting to clinical setting there will be some money difference involved. Can you afford to take a pay cut? Will it affect you household? How your husband feel about it? Would you be able to adjust to the change? Keep us posted.

[himilayaneyes]

Ditto what the pp said. Also, have you considered becoming a clinical educator or switching to dayshift at your facility or another facility that does 3-12s.

[springRN]

Sounds like the 8 hour day shift would give you and your family a better quality of life and time together, working nights is hard if you can't adjust to it...you shouldn't have to live exhausted..good luck

[NurseFrustrated]

If it were me, I would take the office job. Even for a bit of a pay cut. Those jobs don't come around often and your family time is important. You will get weekends off, holidays off. You will probably feel so much better working 8 hours shifts too.