Postpartum or Critical Care for New Grad offer?

[AlmostRN96]

Hi everyone, I have received offers from 2 different hospitals and I’m having such a hard time deciding which route to take. One offer is from a postpartum unit in a women’s hospital. The second hospital offer, I would have my choice between CV ICU, and CV/Transplant Post Op. I’ve always seen myself working in Obgyn and that’s where my heart is, but I’m also being told my many people in the healthcare field that postpartum will limit my future options if I ever want to do something different. I’ve never pictured myself working in critical care or post op, but I know taking one of these jobs would give me a lot of experience, I would learn a lot and it would make me more marketable in the future. I also have met with the managers of the post op units, and I really like them. The hospitals are similar in terms of size, location, benefits, etc. the biggest different is pay. I would be making around $10k less per year in postpartum, and the hospital does not have many pay increases. I don’t have the opportunity to shadow beforehand due to travel and time restraints.

Do I follow my heart and go with postpartum, or my head and go with critical care/post op? I would love some advice from experienced nurses on which route I should take!

[mdsRN2005, ASN, BSN, RN]

I’ve never worked either but nursing specialties are vastly different, what one nurse might love another will be miserable at and vice versa. I say go with your gut. If you’ve always wanted to do Ob, and you have an opportunity, why would you instead choose something you can’t picture yourself doing?

As to limiting your future career options, who cares if it’s something you love? Besides you can always go from postpartum to L&D, nursery, or NICU. And if you’re happy where you’re at, you may never leave!

Nursing is a hard job and having been in both positions, I can tell you a bad day in an area you love is better than a good one in an area you hate!

Best of luck! Keep us posted what you decide and how it goes!

[blastfellow]

Depends on your end goal and what you love truly.