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Discussion

Transfer after 6 months?

I graduated with my Associate's degree in May, and started working on an Acute Geriatric floor in June. I've been on the floor about 4 weeks now. I was VERY surprised to find that I was not completely overwhelmed at all by this job. Only one day did I feel overwhelmed, when I had my first patient ever go bad on me, and now that I have had that experience, I think I will handle it better next time.

My question. I have always been interested in mor critical care type nursing. On our floor, the aides don't help much, and most of my job is turning/positioning patients, assisting them to the bathroom, assisting with feeding, and passing meds. The dressing changes that we DO have, the doctors usually do (at least with the patients I've been assigned to). I was told by one of the nurses that I work with that I'm "too smart for this floor". She said that I don't practice enough of my nursing skills either.

I am considering trying to transfer to a cardiac step-down unit after my 6 months is up. Do you think it is smarter to stay in one position for a year before transferring? (I've heard it is) Or is it better to try to transfer even earlier if I don't feel like I'm getting the learning experiences I need?

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You might want to find out how long your floor can hold you before they left you transfer. At my hospital I think it is 30 days at the most. I transferred from a cardiac medical unit to cardiac recovery after 6 months and it worked out well for me. If you feel like you're ready to move on after 6 months then go for it!

I may be in the minority here, but I think you are still pretty green at 6 months. I would think it would take at least a year to gain baseline proficiency.

Whether you stay or move on in six months, remember the experience that you're building isn't just skill-based. You mentioned having a first patient turn bad and how you learned from it. That kind of experience, seeing the symptoms, what needed to be done, etc, is incredibly valuable. Each patient is different, so it takes multiple experiences to really get a feel for it.

Can you shadow a nurse on another floor? That might be a good way to help determine where you want to move next as well as help you see what parts of your current job you can focus on to help prepare you for such a move. If you shadow a crazy floor, you might decide you're happy to be a on relatively slow floor when you're just starting out.

Personally, I think it's wonderful that you can work somewhere where you don't feel overwhelmed as a newbie. Even in LTC, where the patients are usually more stable and the nursing care less varied, is often overwhelming because of the high number of patients per nurse (eg 30+ patients to pass meds to in under two hours!).

You may decide after some time to challenge yourself by moving on. Another thought would be to see if you could take PRN work somewhere to test out other areas without completely leaving your current position.

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