What is the appeal of the hospital?

[~Shrek~]

Why are so many New RN's so focused on working at the hospital? Is the pay better? Are the benefits better? Anytime I hear about a new RN working outside the acute care world, they want out. Why is the hospital so much more appealing than non-acute care?

The only thing that makes sense to me is the hours...4 days off with 3 days on is awesome--if you are working day shift. I would still prefer 40 hours on days than 36 on nights, any day.

[cat1235]

I am a new grad RN and just started in home health .... did LTC previously for a year as an LPN and briefly when I got my RN license. Where I'm from I got into the hospital via a residency program but turned it down to move and it's harder getting into the hospital here ... I personally can't wait to make it in though.

With both my Nursing Jobs so far I don't enjoy it. Boring. No real orientation. Not using many skills. And the ones I have used that I wasn't accustomed to in nursing school become strong but then I just don't learn any more because it's the same Patient(s) so hardly any room for growth and expanding my skill set a lot.

I wanna work with IVs, have new patients and new backgrounds every day. I'm a task oriented person ... hang an IVF here. Admit this patient there. Perform this treatment, discharge ... ya know ... an environment like that. Not the exact same meddpass everyday in SNF. not the same mundane routine in home health every shift. Some people like that kind of environment but not everybody.

I went into nursing with passion .... I feel none at my nursing jobs so far. Like a previous person said it took til they got in thr ER to feel passionate and love their nursing job. I feel it'll be the same for me .... not to mention, like some said, it's usually easier to transition from hospital to non. Harder the other way around usually. As someone who wants to do travel nursing at some point in a specialty I enjoy, I'm eager to get into the hospital and out of home health and SNF work environments.

[cat1235]

Also, it sucks alot more pulling long ten hour night shifts at my home health job 4 days in a row and sometimes plus an extra day that week. Though I'd like day shift in a hospital, I'm much more willing to work 3 twelve hour night shifts to get my foot in the door.

Pay wise .... here and where I moved from they pay me more in a nursing home and home health BUT it's not like RN pay in the hospital is horrible, it's still good ... and you earn your raises after 6 months experience, 1 year etc ...and I'd gladly take a small cut in pay to be happy with my job. And i think thats just in regard to starting pay. It might be that they pay me more starting out outside of the hospital but maybe theres more room for pay raises in the hospital than there are in home health or LTC as you gain experience. Im not actually sure. I do know that considering as a new grad you'd prob start on nights ... there's usually shift differential for that so before you know it you're off nights if you wanna be and have more experience and pay raise and it levels out that shift diff you were getting on nights as a new grad.

Besides, for me, this being my first real career, any nursing pay is awesome in my eyes... for me it's like SNF and home health pay is equivalent to a billion dollars ... alot of money. And then hospital pay starting out is like a million dollars ... a little less than what I was making but still good money if you get me.