Please help, super conflicted!

[FSUMurse94]

I am a nursing student who is about a week and a half away from graduating with my BSN. I have applied to several hospitals in the Tallahassee area and fortunately have received two offers. Now, the issue is that I can't figure out who to choose! Below I'll give some details about each job and if you can help me decide that would be excellent!

Job #1: Capital Regional Medical Center - ED Night Shift

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• 15 minute commute
  
• $21.78 starting pay
  
• $3.25 shift diff for nights and an extra $2 for weekends
  
• 16-week orientation
  
• Staff was cool (at least on day shift they were)
  
• Pretty big ER, not a Trauma center
  
• HCA hospital
  
• Cafeteria open at night
  
• Lots of opportunity for overtime
  
• Future Career paths - Nurse Prac, Trauma, Management, anything else?
  
• White tops, maroon pants.
  

Job #2: John D. Archbold Memorial Hospital - ICU Night Shift

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• 1 hour commute each way
  
• 22$ starting pay
  
• 3.30$ evening shift diff, 4.40$ night shift diff, 5$ weekend shift diff
  
• Not sure how long the orientation is.
  
• Awesome crew on night shift (I worked with them for my preceptorship)
  
• 18 bed general ICU, 2:1 ratio
  
• Local hospital, serves a large area. Level 2 trauma center.
  
• ICU nurses respond to codes, which I enjoyed doing.
  
• Cafeteria closed at night.
  
• Royal blue scrubs
  
• Basically I already was doing the job of a nurse on the unit, and was doing well!
  
• Excellent jumping off point for CRNA, Nurse Prac, Trauma, Flight nursing and grad school.
  
• Oh yeah, GA has a state tax, and Florida does not, so about a $2,000 loss per year.
  

Thank you in advance for your assistance in making this tough decision!

[canigraduate]

This decision isn't difficult for nurses who know people who sustained spinal cord or traumatic brain injuries after they fell asleep while driving after night shift.

Or the ones who have family members who died on the road because they fell asleep. My 25 year old cousin fell asleep at the wheel and went off the road into a tree. He had been married about a year and was expecting his first child. Broke my heart.

[FSUMurse94]

CRMC. They need good nurses. I had an emergency CT guided paracentesis there back in May of 2008 after being sent there from Thagard for a mediastinal mass and shadow around my heart that showed up on an x-ray. Doctors were great, and there were so many people in the room when it was performed so it seemed teaching friendly. However, the nurses were AWFUL. One tried to pull my JP drain out of my chest even though I was screaming in pain. She literally told to be quiet because I was scaring the other patients. Wanna know why? I switched doctors half way through my 10 day stay here because my doc went on vacation. It was not noted in my chart that there was a coil that prevented the drain from coming out. It ended up being surgically removed. When I went down for my last CT scan prior to discharge, the nurse pushed me into the hallway. My IV got caught on the side rails of the bed and ripped out of my arm. I was bleeding all over my sheet and on the floor. I stopped several people in the hall way who said they would send help, but they never did. Finally I just walked back up to my floor. My nurse got mad because my bed was still downstairs and she didn't know how to retrieve it. Granted, this was 8 years ago, but I loved the doctors and support staff but dislike the nurses. Hopefully it has gotten better.

If you're going to be driving up and down I-10 beware of the state troopers - I'm sure you're already familiar with them. I still drop to 70 on cruise control whenever I drive through Madison County. I wish I had the opportunity to start in the ER as a new grad. You'll learn time management skills and will see a wide variety of ailments and chronic conditions.

I wish we still lived in Tallahassee. I met my husband there while at FSU. I loved the town but the college kids got to us so we moved south.

Also, GO NOLES!

Thanks for your insight. That sounds awful! I'm sorry you had such a terrible experience there! The nurses on day shift seemed to be pretty on top of their game, my only worry is that I haven't seen how their night shift works together.

[sailornurse]

CRMC. Cafeteria's open at night.

Plus it's closer. Hour commute doesn't sound bad, but that effectively turns your shifts into 14+ hour nights.

Also 12 hour shifts can turn into 13 or 14 hour shifts in addition to the commute.

[sailornurse]

This decision isn't difficult for nurses who know people who sustained spinal cord or traumatic brain injuries after they fell asleep while driving after night shift.

I know of one nurse who died driving home from a job in a town one hour away. He had been an instructor also. His picture hangs at the nurses station at local psych hospital. Just saying.

[needlesmcgeeRN, ASN, RN]

Go for the 15 minute commute. I commute 1+ hours one way, and I have an easy-breezy job, I can't imagine a long commute after a potentially stressful, potentially physically demanding job.

[nurseinthezoo]

15 minute commute is the one I'd take. No state tax part is good too. Good Luck.

[FSUMurse94]

15 minute commute is the one I'd take. No state tax part is good too. Good Luck.

It's starting to sound better and better to me. My dad actually made a good point by saying that proximity would make me more accessible for picking up extra shifts if I wanted to or if they needed me to.

[NutmeggeRN, BSN]

To do my career over, I would go with the ER.

[sailornurse]

It's starting to sound better and better to me. My dad actually made a good point by saying that proximity would make me more accessible for picking up extra shifts if I wanted to or if they needed me to.

Good point, I worked ER while in NP school and I would get called in at times. The ER I worked at was not confined to 12 hour shifts, sometimes there were "holes" in the schedule, Also there were 11a-11p shifts and some 6 hour shifts at times. Many times I would come in at 4pm, supposed to get off at 10pm but would still be there at midnight. That's the reason that 12's turn into 14's, another ambulance rolled in & I could not leave. Driving home after those shifts at 9am I would be singing at the top of my lungs trying to stay awake on the drive home with the AC full blast. No job is worth falling asleep at the wheel which is what is suspected happened to the nurse I mentioned. He was in his 30s.

[FSUMurse94]

Good point, I worked ER while in NP school and I would get called in at times. The ER I worked at was not confined to 12 hour shifts, sometimes there were "holes" in the schedule, Also there were 11a-11p shifts and some 6 hour shifts at times. Many times I would come in at 4pm, supposed to get off at 10pm but would still be there at midnight. That's the reason that 12's turn into 14's, another ambulance rolled in & I could not leave. Driving home after those shifts at 9am I would be singing at the top of my lungs trying to stay awake on the drive home with the AC full blast. No job is worth falling asleep at the wheel which is what is suspected happened to the nurse I mentioned. He was in his 30s.

God that's horrible. The more I think about it, the better the ER sounds. My only trepidation is that if I was to decide I wanted to do CRNA, I'd have to switch units. I'm leaning more towards NP school though, do you enjoy your job?

[mmc51264, BSN, MSN, RN]

I drive an hour, don't mind as I can de-stress on the ride home. I chose #2 to avoid and HCA hosp. Perhaps they have changed-did not have great experiences with them as a pt.

[Prestia]

I hate to commute more than a few minutes but you must go with your gut feeling and pick what is best for you. If you do choose to commute can you relocate if you decide to stay? An hour both ways is a big chunk of your life spent in the car, not to mention the wear and tear to your vehicle. Good luck and congratulations of earning your BSN!!!