Professional Advice

[msdaschcav]

Hi everyone, I finally got a job offer asan RN after seaching for almost 2 years. It will be with a nursing home near my home on the 3-11pm shift whihc is great. One of my classmates at the college i did the nurse refresher course referred me to the DON and I got the job! :yeah:I start next week. I have a bit of a tight situation. I applied for a position at a local hospital and got an interview, which went well. Now I have a second interview at the hospital with the Nursing Director. I found out they are looking to hire within the month for the position. My question now is: WHAT DO I DO ABOUT THE NURSING HOME IF OFFERED THE HOSPITAL POSITION? While I would like to gain the LTC experience I am also a new nurse and would like to get the proverbial "1yr" hospital experience everyone has been talking about. I don't want to let my fellow classmate down by declining but I also do not want to miss the hospital opportunity(if offered)! What should I do? Any advice is greatly appreciated. thanks

[mentalhealthRN]

you have a couple options.......you could let the hospital know your dilemma. You could take the LTC and if you get the hospital job take it and drop to per diem at the LTC. This would allow you to keep both doors open and that way if you hate the hospital you can stillgo back to FT at the LTC and if you love the hospital and don't like the LTC you can let the LTC go. What unit at the hospital? The thing to keep in mind at the hospital is that you will have more opportunities. If you love the unit you start on great, if not you can explore other departments/areas and stay with the same hospital. Weather that you working med/surg and after a few years deciding to move to ICU or ED, or you decide medicine isn't for you and you want to try a specialty like psych, OB or OR or Cath lab, etc.You have more options. So it depends on your personal goals and interests too. If you like slower pace or fast paced work. Good luck with your decision.The fact that you are finally being offered any job after 2 years has got to be huge all by itself!! CONGRATS!!!!!!

[guest83140]

You are not sure that you have the hospital job yet. Don't turn the nursing home job down just yet. If you don't have it on paper and better yet you haven't started work, I wouldn't turn it lose on just a hunch. Start work at the nursing home, go for the second interview. Sometimes it takes weeks for a decision, you maybe competing against others for the hosp. job. If you definitely get the hospital go for it and politely decline the nursing home job just in case you need it. Hope this helps. Yes hospital first if you can get it.

[MouseMichelle]

Like above don't turn down the LTC job. Go for the second interview. Also as stated in another post what are you plans? I worked in LTC straight out of school so I never got my one year in acute, and I don't regret it. Also does your hospital have home health, home health is a great thing to do as I did it for several years. If you do go to LTC and work there for a few years and decide you want to do acute I don't know how "easy" it would be to get into acute. Like I said LTC is my field, I love it, and it takes a certain person to work LTC. I doubt that I could get into acute now although I do have experience with IV's etc, however, I've "lost" what I was taught in school about acute so it would be like starting all over.

If you go to the hospital then that's great you have MANY options there, OB, ICU, rehab, med surg, OR, ER, and even home health. It all depends on what you want.

If you do decide to take the job at the hospital (acute) then that's okay. I had accepted a position one time at home health and then a week later got accepted into adult day healthcare, I decided to go with adult day health care as at that point I no longer wanted to do home health. So I explained the situation with the home health manager, apologized profusely, explained why I decided to take the other job and they were very accepting. Also right now don't let the LTC know you are interviewing for the acute care job. Also perdiem at the LTC facility is a great way too to learn about LTC, if you are so inclinded.

Good luck

Michelle