rnsimmons

Cardiac! Thanks so much! I'm SO glad I did :)

So I recently graduated as well and am currently still in the on-boarding process for the hospital so I have yet to go through this but I can tell you my friend from school calls me every day on her way home and tells me all about how overwhelmed and crazy it is. I can also tell you that at school our mental health teacher had a master's in psychiatric health, went in did it for four months left and said she couldn't take it. She said she always wanted to do it she has such a passion and interest in it but, unfortunately, as humans we tend to chalk things up in our heads and make them more than they are. We forget to add in all the other little details. Just relax! You're overthinking this WAY too much. Calm down, go to work, learn what you can, and maybe keep applying and searching for another job on the side. Did they make you sign a contract? Because if they did you will have to pay them if you want to leave early, if you didn't, keep interviewing and searching for something else like home health or urgent care or something and tell them you received a better offer. But really, relax! I know it's probably not what you want to hear but you sound like I sounded every day for the first 3 semesters of nursing school lol, but when I got to that last semester it was a walk in the park! Just take it easy and stop over stressing yourself. When you go home, stop worrying about it and relax, think of other things. You got this!

So I just had 2 interviews at the same hospital one for ICU and one for Cardiac step down. I went into them thinking I wanted ICU, I've wanted it for a long time. I left very unsure. I did not get a good vibe at all from the ICU nurse manager, she seemed really lackadaisal and the very first words out of her mouth were "as you can see we're very laid back here". The whole interview seemed more about her making chit chat than providing me with any information or asking any questions. She was definitely very nice but I didn't get the impression that she was very passionate or concerned with patients or patient care. On top of it, no one in the unit, besides her, has been there for more than 2 years suggesting both a high turnover and that I would be trained by a novice preceptor. My meeting on the cardiac step down was everything I could have wanted, efficient, clean, passionate, organized, etc. Based on my first impression I absolutely want to go with cardiac but everyone, including 2 nurses who currently work at the hospital and 1 who worked for that ICU over 15 years ago, keep telling me what a huge opportunity ICU is - which is the whole reason I wanted it! My gut is telling me cardiac but am I giving up the opportunity to work with a wide range of critical patients? Especially since this is literally the unit I have dreamed about? Need some serious experienced nurse advice! Thanks guys! Btw critical care is my end game, either ICU or CVICU.