Switching from General Medicine to Geriatric Rehabilitation?

Nurses General Nursing

Published

Good evening! I am a recent graduate (March 2020) and have a relatively short tenure on my current position. 

I received a job offer for a position on a Geriatric Rehabilitation unit. Currently, I work on an acute medicine unit which also functions as the facility's ICU stepdown unit. The unit has several problems, including low staff morale, poor relationships between unit staff and management, high nurse/patient ratios, high staff and management turnover. 

On a personal level, I feel that general medicine is not for me; it does not allow me to build therapeutic relationships with my patients. The nature of acute medicine is fast admissions and fast discharges. Working in an ICU setting is not a goal of mine and has never appealed to me. 

Going to work everyday, I feel miserable. Walking in, the staff are angry after having a bad day which creates an awful feeling for starting a shift. I do not feel like I am working in my element and it ultimately feels like an unsafe practice environment. 

Rehab appeals to me as it seems to allow the opportunity to build therapeutic relationships with patients. 

My current manager is supportive of the job offer and had some surprisingly good things to say. If I accepted the rehab position, I would be allowed to retain a casual position on the medicine unit. 

My concern with the rehab unit would be trading one bad situation for another bad situation. Also, the fact that closing door of opportunity and locking them frightens me a bit. Can anyone share any thoughts about working in rehab, namely some pros and cons and the career limitations that it could provide? And any other advice would be greatly appreciated. 

+ Add a Comment