Too soon to apply for dream specialty?

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Wasn't sure whether to post here or the nicu forum.

I've been on a med surg unit for 6 months coming up in January. I will have been off of orientation for about 4 of those 6 months.

Every so often I see NICU positions open up at a hospital in the same network for the one I work for. There's multiple hospitals in one big network. I'm tempted to just apply for one and see what happens! I'd be able to work right up the road from my apt instead of driving forever away. I wouldn't apply to this other hospital unless it was the exact specialty I wanted because otherwise it wouldn't be worth leaving the great coworkers and environment I have here.

Too soon to apply or should I wait til the summer if there are openings in NICU then after a year of med surg? I keep seeing a steady roll of NICU openings every few months for the past year but I guess I'm afraid that will stop and it'll be hard to get in by the time I've had a year of med surg. Maybe, maybe not ..and I'd wait longer if I had to ...but it's hard not to just go ahead and apply now ..

ESPECIALLY because my unit hired way too many travelers for winter and our own permanent staff is getting called off or floated to other units regularly because they can't call off travelers because of contracts. We also have a large influx of new permanent hires these past 6 months too inclusing myself and apparently they plan to contunue overstaffing for winter.So I wouldn't feel like I was leaving my unit in a rut...but I also love where I work and wouldn't mind waiting if it meant I'd be disrespecting my unit by quitting too soon.

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Specializes in ICU Stepdown.

What is the policy for transferring at your hospital?

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I'm trying to look it up!! Our system for searching policies online stinks and is difficult to navigate. I don't recall them telling us at orientation. I want to ask a coworker but don't want word to spread in the wrong manner.

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Wow ok just found it haha. It's 180 days (6 months). So looks like I'm coming right up on my mark to transfer if I want...

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Specializes in Dialysis.

Go for it. Let us know what happens

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I think I will ...can't hurt to apply right? I always could again in the future if nothing happens. At least my name would keep popping up and it'd show I was interested in this unit alot.

I also have a remote contact to the unit ...better than nothing.

And if I were to get it, by the time the interviewing process and hiring process panned out, and by the time I gave a decent notice to my floor (which I plan on giving as much as the new unit would allow me to before starting) , I prob would have been there for the full 6 months if not 7 or over. Hehehe I think I'm gonna go for it!

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if its the same network/ hospital remember to notify your manager, since I am pretty sure they will call him/her for a reference, then go for it

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cant see why not unless youre thinking you should cram a little more M/S experience under your belt before tranferring? Apply now because like you said, youll be kicking yourself later if for whatever reason that steady stream of openings slow down. after that 6 month mark I would probably apply each time i saw an opening.

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Specializes in Eventually Midwifery.

Go for it! I know a couple of girls from my nursing school cohort that got hired into NICU as new grads, so with 6 months of experience you would have a leg up on them.

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Thanks Guys!

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For the record!

Applied and application immediately got rejected and got an email saying I should try applying to the new grad position which requires less than 6 months RN experience. Obviously doesn't apply to me, called HR because a mistake was made ...

Sure enough, got a voicemail at the end of the day saying they DID make a mistake and saw my LPN experience and overlooked the rest I guess ...and said to expect a call from such and such for an interview within the next few weeks!!!! :))))

SO glad I applied! And a word to others, if you think a mistake was made or you don't hear back it's never a bad idea to contact HR...they get alot of applications and are human and can overlook things ...or sometimes it might not even make it to a human the way everything's online now....if I didn't call to question things, nothing would have gone anywhere yesterday. So Def look out for yourself and your application!

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Specializes in Eventually Midwifery.

Yay! Glad you were able to correct this. Good luck on your interview- let us know how it goes.

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