Well known hospital vs. preferred specialty

[Taylor1432]

I will be graduating from my RN program soon. I have already been told that I have a job waiting for me on a busy med/surg/tele floor at a hospital in my area(I am a CNA there) that is very well known and highly desired hospital to work for. The problem is, I know for a fact that I do not like med surg and I will want to spend a very limited amount of time there. The hospital that I'm orienting at is great but it's not very well known outside of that city(a city that I will never move to but I'd be willing to continue commuting to.) This hospital hires new grads for my preferred specialty which is peds and NICU.

My my question is, once I get enough experience to move to my dream job at a local children's hospital, would I be better off with experience at a well known hospital in general med/surg or with experience in my specialty at a hospital that they may have never heard of?

Thanks for reading! :)

[SDnursing, ADN]

My guess, would be the NICU/peds experience. Everything about NICU/peds vs general med surg will be different. Yes coming from a well known hospital is always good but I would think actual patient experience working in your specialty would be much more valuable. Also I didn't quite understand if you have the NICU/peds job in hand or you are turning down the med surg job for a chance to work NICU/peds? If that was the case I would take the job you have in hand.

[Taylor1432]

My guess, would be the NICU/peds experience. Everything about NICU/peds vs general med surg will be different. Yes coming from a well known hospital is always good but I would think actual patient experience working in your specialty would be much more valuable. Also I didn't quite understand if you have the NICU/peds job in hand or you are turning down the med surg job for a chance to work NICU/peds? If that was the case I would take the job you have in hand.

Oh I definitely wouldn't turn it down unless I had an official offer from this other hospital.

Thanks for the reply. I am thinking the same as what you said, if I'm given the opportunity of course. I just wanted to see if anyone had any information about it.