bdyeamans

HouTx, Thanks for sharing your knowledge. Of course, I most surely will not get to pick and choose, but I will take you and ChristineN's input into consideration. Thanks again.

ChristineN, Thanks for answering. I am interviewing for the two positions this week, so I may not have to choose if I don't get an offer. It sounds like you agree that the step-down unit would be more advantageous for someone who wants to be an FNP, and I had thought the same. Take care.

Hello everyone. Let me elaborate. I am a new RN and former teacher. I entered nursing school intending to go on and get my FNP, and still intend to. I am interviewing for my first RN job, and wonder how selective I should be with my FNP goal in mind. Obviously, I don't intend to go into hospice or mental health presently, but I am interviewing for an IMCU position at an outlying hospital and a NICU position at a centrally located hospital. I am both ACLS and PALS certified. Everything I have read and heard stresses that advanced practice nurses need critical care experience. The IMCU position requires ECG knowledge, and I was thinking that it would be a good way to get some experience that I could later parlay into a position in the CICU or another ICU or the ED. It seems that the NICU would not be as advantageous for my long term goals, but I wonder whether that may be an incorrect assumption, or whether that might be outweighed by the fact that I could, at some point in the future, try to transfer to another department in the hospital. Any advice would be appreciated. Thank you. New RN

Hear, hear tokebi!

European, I am a man, and was formerly a teacher. I graduated this last Saturday, so what follows will probably seem painfully precious to the more jaded readers. I was being promoted out of the classroom, which was not what I wanted, and I realized that there are not very many opportunities to move laterally as a teacher. You can be made the head of a department, and have fewer hours with the kids, or become a principal and have no classroom time at all, or you can get a Masters and be even more underpaid than before. Nursing appealed and appeals to me for its wealth of technical knowledge that demands that one be a lifelong learner, as well as the fact that one can continuously grow and change without having to begin your career path all over again. Tired of Level III NICU? Come on over to Pediatric Oncology, maybe part-time hospice nursing. Want to get out of bedside care for a while? Maybe Nurse Education will appeal. And so on. Indeed, growth and change are positive attributes in nursing, as far as I can tell.