amedRN

Hey everyone, so need some advice. I was a med/surg nurse for 2 years when I started as a new grad, and the last 7 months I've been in the ER in a separate hospital. Currently have two offers to go back to the hospital I started at, either in float pool or ER. Float is for days, ER for nights. I'm stumped at which to pick because I originally left med/surg because I wanted to try something new and experience a specialty area. However, the ER I have been in for the last couple months has not been the greatest experience, I feel as if the staff is not very supportive and I've experienced bullying by some of my coworkers. Now part of me wants to stay in the ER and I feel like the time I've had in it obviously isn't enough time to make me an efficient ER nurse, I understand it takes at least a year until you feel better at what you're doing. But then I'm also worried if my experience won't be any better as far as the environment and coworkers .. And float pool has its advantages since it'll be day shift, I wont have to worry about unit drama or politics.. but disadvantages of course is not always receiving ideal pt assignments, not really being able to get to know your coworkers or getting comfortable with the units you go to. any thoughts or advice

oops disregard my last comment haha, I just had to go back and look at your original post

are you an experienced RN who is relocating? I really want to do the same but I imagine it's going to take months and months for me to get a Cali license. I'm heading to San Diego the beginning of July for vacation and was going to do my fingerprints there when I go to hopefully help speed up the process ?

Is it possible to relocate to San diego and get a job in a different specialty of nursing and trained for it then what you're in? I'm currently in med/surg but not sure if I like it and it would be a dream to live in California. I was thinking of travel nursing too to start out but I'm not sure.

Trying to see if i can bump this thread back if someone can answer this question. If I decide that I just want to switch units first is it possible to up and move to a different city to be hired on another floor and trained for that floor? Say ER for instance? Do hospitals typically hire other nurses that aren't new grads and would be willing to train them for an ER position ? I've been looking at that too but it seems like most ER positions want experienced ER nurses only. I honestly can't decide what other specialty I may like but I know I'm getting tired of having 6-7 patients all the time and practically being total care for all of them with little to no help. It's affecting me mentally and physically and basically almost makes me want to leave nursing altogether and question if I made the right decision with this career. I've just been researching into the travel gig on the facebook groups and honestly the posts I see seem way more NEGATIVE than positive in the travel world and it's really discouraging for a newbie to make the decision to jump into traveling in the first place.

SO I want to do traveling and I know I want to end up in California for at least one of my assignments, but does that mean I should apply for a license there now? And I've been to the California BON website but I feel like it's all so overwhelming. If I'm in Arizona, is it faster to just go to California to do the fingerprinting? I'm really not that far from San Diego so I could just go there and do it, and then you submit online ? Or do people actually drive to Sacramento and give their application in person to speed things up? Any advice from anyone who has gotten their cali license would be much appreciated :)

I guess my issue is that I do not or cannot see me staying in my hometown any longer past August/September. I know I don't want to go to ICU, I don't think I could handle it because although you only have 2 patients usually, I think I'd just be way too stressed out even more so than I already am on this type of unit. I thought about ER, but from what I've researched it seems like everyone says you should have minimum 2 years in the ER before actually traveling in ER. So I don't know if I should just tough it out since I want to move so badly away from where I'm from and just stick to M/S for now.

technically I could probably move floors within my hospital but not sure that I want to stay where I'm living for more than another year past August. But then again I don't know if it's possible to move to a different hospital and be trained in a new specialty when it's not the hospital you started at?

Hello first post ever here. Always used to skim this site while in nursing school but not always the best idea because it was especially discouraging when I was studying for the NCLEX since it scared me, LOL! Fast forward to now. I'm ~1.5 years in as a nurse. Before I get attacked, no I am not already trying to get a travel job as of yet (I do realize that you should have at least 2 years before your first travel job) but I've been doing my research into it, joined travel groups on facebook, etc. I just want to get a few opinions and/or feedback. I work on a what my hospital calls a "med/surg tele" floor. However, I feel like my floor is not technically med/surg nor is it really "telemetry". To give you an idea of what I mean, we have other units at my hospital that are more surgical than mine and typically get all the fresh post-ops. We hardly ever receive post-ops on my floor unless they're post-op choles or lap appys. And not all of our patients are on the telemetry monitor. Some of them are, but they're also being watched by monitor techs in another room in the hospital. However, I have taken the EKG course at my hospital and can read the strips. Also the only drips we ever have on our floor are heparin or protonix drips (if that even counts). Otherwise if they need to be put on cardizem or any other drips it's off to the cardiac or higher up floor they go. Now I work nights and we usually have 6-7 patients a nurse. I will always have 6 and recently when we're short staffed we will get 7 each. If it wasn't for my wonderful coworkers I would not have survived as long as I have on this floor. To give you an idea of how "bad" this floor is, I am considered the "most experienced" besides the charge nurses left. We are nothing but new grads on my unit because people come and go so fast. Turnover rate here is horrible. These are basically the types of diagnoses of patients we have: "altered mental status" (typically really confused/demented geri patients or metabolic encephalopathy pts), pneumonia, CHF, COPD exacerbation, cellulitis, dialysis pts w/ some type of infection going on, cancer patients whether they are on chemo or not (we don't do the chemo), total care patients with feeding tubes/NG tubes,etc. MOST of the time we receive a lot of drug addicts and alcoholics. So pain medications around the clock and/or CIWA. If anything I feel as if my floor is more of a "general adult medical" floor. ANYWAYS, I've always wanted to get into traveling but I'm in funk because even when I hit my 2 years I'm not sure if I'll be able to "handle" traveling in med/surg? Does my unit even qualify to have given me the experience I need to know enough to hit the ground running as a traveler? obviously you can probably tell I'm no longer happy with being on this unit, not even sure if I was ever happy to begin with. I'm finding myself more and more drained whenever I go in. Half the time I don't even feel like a nurse and as if I'm just trying to get the next "task" done in order to get it done and manage my time well and see all my patients. When we're pushed to 7 this is especially hard because there will usually be 1-2 of those patients who I worry about more and focus more my time on hoping to god that my other patients are okay! I just don't know if the experience I have had comes down to me "knowing enough" to be a traveler in med/surg. Will I be okay once I hit my 2 years to do traveling in med/surg? Or do I switch specialities and get another 2 years AND THEN travel? My dilemma though is that I'm in my hometown and I really don't want to be in this city for another 2 years. Do I just up and move and start a new job somewhere else on a different floor? I appreciate if anyone actually takes the time to read all of this and respond, I'm sorry I know it's long. But I'm in a bit of a funk here. This floor is already starting to make me feel "burned out" and I haven't even hit 2 years as a nurse. I need some type of change and soon. Any opinions/advice would be appreciative.