OR nurse to floor

[owen1234]

Hello,

I've been an OR RN since right out of nursing school. I thought it was my dream job, but turns out I dread work everyday.

I've been a nurse in the operating room for a little over 1.5 years. Things got a little boring and I needed something to push me, so I joined the Open Heart Team. It's an extremely valuable experience to have and usually every OR would go crazy for you to join their team easily. I'm tired of all the call because it's like being on house arrest for so little pay, I'm sick of doing the same stuff everyday, I no longer wanna be a secretary for the surgeons, I don't wanna just count items or open packages, also tired of a lack of interaction of patients. Also, I joined this new facility and their open heart team in hopes of renewing my love for the OR. The new job hasn't done that and I've been in the facility for 3 months now. I think i'm just burned out of the OR. I really want more patient interaction. I want to work WITH the patients, not on them.

It just looks bad leaving a new facility after 3 months. I would love to work on an ortho floor or any med-surg floor to be honest.I don't have any floor or CNA experience so I feel like I'm basically fighting with new grads for a position. Do you think it's possible for me to find another job outside of the OR with only OR experience and having this new job of 3 months on my resume?

[brownbook]

Honestly a med/surg nurse is usually sooooo busy they don't have the time for much patient interaction. Certainly not as much as they would like. I don't know if you would find working a busy med/surg or even ortho unit allowing you as much patient interaction as you expect?

The most patient interaction I have found in my limited ASN degree nursing career is working pre-op and PACU. I'm referring to a PACU that has a level II or out patient surgery PACU. Not acute care PACU where you may have a minimally responsive patient for an hour then they go to the floor.

Maybe you should look into out patient surgery with your OR skills. Even if at first they hire you for OR maybe you could ask, have it in writing, that they will cross train you for pre-op or PACU, or both.

The grass is always greener on the other side......and the grass is always greener where you water it.

[owen1234]

Thank you for taking the time for your response! I really appreciate it. I especially enjoy your last sentence as well. I will for sure use that as a motivation in my next job!

[owen1234]

So as an update, I got a new job!

I got a job in the cardiac cath lab. Really scared and I'm hoping for the best. I applied to probably a total of 20 general and ICU floors and barely heard from any of them. I got an ICU and a cath lab interview. I'm taking this opportunity of working in the cath lab as a huge god send because I think it'll make me more marketable in the future for any floor I apply to if I decide to change jobs again. I hope this job sticks for at least 5 years!!