Peds CVICU nurse taking PICU position

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After my husbands military transfer last summer, I've had no luck in securing a job in our new small town. Being that I only have peds CVICU expierence and have now been out of a job for quite sometime, I decided to give traveling a shot in hopes of landing a peds CVICU job in a large hospital. I told the recruiter I wanted CVICU, but would consider NICU or PICU if that's all that was available and if they would take me despite not having experience in that field. I got a PICU offer and the hospitals nurse manager was aware that I had no PICU experience. She told me to think about it over the weekend and get back to her Tuesday. Since I didn't want to loose out on the PICU position, I told my recruiter I'd take it since I hadn't heard back from my CVICU pick and thought I was no longer a canidate. We went over the pay and everything over the phone and she said she confirmed me and would send me the contract Monday. Ten minutes after I got off the phone the CVICU called me and offered me the job!! Two questions- how set in stone is being confirmed over the phone-can I back out? If not, how hard will PICU be with only CVICU expierence?

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Same agency or different? Either way, you should have called the recruiter immediately and bailed. I think 10 minutes rescission time is fair! If same agency it should have been an easy conversation.

If a different agency, it is easy enough to find a deal breaker in the contract: most agency contracts have unacceptable default language in my opinion. That is somewhat unethical of course, and would have been easier if you didn't have a holiday weekend in your way here.

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It's the same agency. I was on the phone for a about 30 min total since the hospitals PICU called and interviewed me, then transferred me to the CVICU who also interviewed me. The recruiter who I'm working with (my recruiter is out of the office) didn't answer, so I left a message explaining the situation. Do you think they'll let me switch Monday or Tuesday when they get back into the office? After being out of the hospital for some time now, I'm lacking the confidence to jump into a new area I guess.

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Probably. It will be tons easier if your agency didn't confirm the first assignment with the hospital, but even so. I think it is too late to do anything further about this until Tuesday, but see if your agency has a weekend person to talk to, or can get you in touch with your recruiter - do you have her cell phone number, possibly in an email? That will help reassure you and get you on the record. Worth sending an email now just so they can see you made an immediate decision that was best for you very early, not several days later.

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Thanks so much for your advice-it's greatly appreciated as I'm new to the in's and out's of travel nursing!

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