ONC vs. Med/Surg…I dream of outpatient ONC

[JLA]

Hi there-

I am a newer nurse…recently just hit the one year mark on an Onc/Med Surg floor. I like the people I work with and the floor…however working nights combined with an over an hour commute is getting to me. I've almost fallen asleep driving home (more than once) and it scared me. I have the opportunity to transfer to a sister hospital close to home and work med surg. My drive would be 10 minutes vs. over an hour. My dilemma is I've always wanted to do outpatient oncology. I am not chemo certified yet. Although the floor I am on is labeled onc I very rarely get onc paints. Most of the time it's just med surge or comfort care pts. Do you think it looks better to stay in the Onc/Med Surg position to eventually get a outpatient onc position? Or would you take the med surge position to be closer to home? What to do….? Thanks!

[raeraekan]

Hi! Im also working in Oncology/Med Surg. This is my fifth year. Recently ive started working per diem in outpatient infusion center. I have to tell you, even though you are still dealing with oncology patients, outpatient is very very different from inpatient. In oncology/medsurg unit, i usually wont get more than two patients that are on chemo and there are only several chemos that are commonly given in inpatient setting (Ex. 5FU, cisplain, carboplatin, etoposide, doxorubicin, rituxan. etc ) Also the doctors montor the patients' lab more closely..... In outpatient, i need to give a wide variety of chemo, some of them ive never even heard of, and also im the one that has to info the doctors if the certain lab values are out of the parameters.. and i also get 7-8 patients a day that are getting chemo. Its very fastpaced. So you have to have better knowledge of chemotherapy to work in the outpatient setting. Take the chemotherapy/biotherapy certification course before you switch to outpatient.