Transfer from ICU to OR with 8 months of experience?

[melosa08, BSN]

Hello!

I am a new grad nurse with 8 months of ICU experience under my belt. I was hoping to wait it out for a full year before transferring, but I cannot see myself continuing on til then in the same unit. I feel sooo naive to say what I am feeling is burnout, but I have no other words to explain how I feel. My unit is constantly short staffed and what use to be a two patient load is more commonly becoming three. We have no techs, but occasionally a huc. We do a lot of total care with our patients, in addition to hourly vitals and I&Os, 1-2 hour narrative charting, additional assessments (ETOH, sucicide, epidural, hourly blood sugars, etc), vasoactive gtt titration (with 15 minute vitals), dressing changes, pts constantly on callight, etc. If there is a change in patient status because of xyz, and I have to start blood, gtt, or call anesthesia to intubate, it can put you behind in charting and other task I need to do. Sometimes I just dread going into work because I know I will be walking into a mess.

At first I thought with all this in mind, maybe beside nursing is just not for me. However, I did float to the floor a few times and had a good experience and even left on time. The times I was on the floor felt like a breathe of fresh air. You truly don't know how hard you are working til you float somewhere else. The change in acuity was nice and there were techs to assist. After giving it a lot of thought, I did talk with my manager about possibly transferring to a different area of nursing. She very supportive with my decision as she just wants to make sure I am happy in whatever area of nursing I pursue. She said she would look into the areas of interest that I stated to her to see if I can interview with the manager. I recently applied to several positions within my hospital and at another hospital. I did apply to a floor position, the rest either special procedure or OR. I really would like to try my hand at OR nursing. I've been browsing through this blog preparing myself for what may come in this area of nursing.

I just got a call from a nurse recruiter at the other hospital I applied to. She wanted to know why I wanted to leave a unit like mine before my year was up. I tried to explain wanting to find my niche in a new environment, change in pace, basically explaining burnout without really stating it. She did go ahead and forward my application to the OR manager.

My question to you all is how many of you or if you know of someone who has transferred to OR with less than a year of experience and has been successful in this area? I worry whether I would have a chance because it takes a lot of time and money to train someone and they want someone to stay for the long haul since I've only been at my current position for 8 months. I just want to be given a chance. I've read that people do grow to like the OR after overcoming the steep learning curve. Any tips, especially from people who have transferred with less than a year of experience is truly appreciative!