Tired of bedside nursing

[krn85]

I am so stress and tired as a bedside nurse. Been working in telemetry/pcu/imc unit for 3 years. I wanted to have a department change but don't know where to begin with. Any advice? I want to move to surgery dept. but they only want with experience.

[HouTx, BSN, MSN, EdD]

I feel your pain. Telemetry is arguably the most stressful nursing environment in acute care... high patient complexity with very high workload. But - to borrow a well-known phrase - if you can make it in Telemetry, you can make it anywhere! The skills and knowledge you have acquired in those 3 years have prepared you for just about anything.

As a telemetry veteran, you've had to deal with a wide variety of patients/clinical problems and you are a master at prioritization/time management as well as dealing with all kinds of physicians and 'difficult' families...... My hat's off to you!! If your ultimate goal is to work in a perioperative (OR) job, I would encourage you to look for a job in a 'transition' area that provides more exposure to working with fresh surgical patients. What about SICU? PACU? Day Surgery? You could also look at ambulatory 'diagnostic' areas such as Endo .... assisting with endos would help you learn sterile technique and assisting physicians with procedures.

Best of luck on your career transition

[renardeau, BSN, RN]

Has the surgery dept. explicitly said to you that they won't take nurses that don't have surgical experience? I've been told a lot of times to ignore the job experience requirements and to just apply or ask about the position. Would it hurt your standing with your current job to apply? After all, you are an internal applicant and perhaps that would keep you competitive even with 'experienced' outside applicants.