What was your favorite nursing job and why?

Cricket183, BSN, RN · Aug 7, 2019

My favorite position was as charge nurse for an inpatient oncology unit. We had a mixture of patients receiving inpatient chemo, on reverse isolation (neutropenic), and inpatient oncology patients with a variety of medical/surgical issues. I loved the variety but especially enjoyed working with the leukemia patients who were often with us for at least 6-8 weeks at a time. We did a lot of blood products. I learned a lot during that time and we had a great team of oncologists, nurses, etc. Very rewarding.

I’m also enjoying where I’m at now. I live in a very small, rural town and we have a small community owned hospital. I’m hired for the med-surg unit. Our census can range anywhere from 1 (yes, at one point last week we had one patient for a few hours) to 18. Usual ratio is 5-6:1. We also have a 4 bed Special Care Unit for higher acuity patients that for whatever reason can’t be or refuse to be transferred out (on cardiac drips, unstable, etc). Usual ratio is 2:1 and because I’m one of the few RNs, I get transferred there as needed. We also have a small OB/PP unit (5 total beds) so the med/surg floor gets the overflow of PP mother/baby couplets when we have an abundance of laboring moms. A few weeks ago we had 12 deliveries in a 24 hour period! I like it because my day is never the same! In the past week, I had a crazy day with two critical patients in SCU, a very slow day with 3 med/surg patients, two who were discharged before noon (and then I got one from surgery and another from ER), and a day with 2 PP couplets and another medical patient. It has stretched me and my skills, but I like that. I enjoy the challenge.

brownbook · Aug 8, 2019

My favorite nursing job was out patient surgery. No nights, no weekends, no holidays. (Although the first clinic was part of an acute care hospital so I had to take call on nights, weekends and holidays.)

The second clinic was free standing so no being on call.

The patients are healthy. They come in and go home like an assembly line. But still time for teaching and friendly interactions.

Great way to end a career if you've already done the acute care 24/7 routine.

Mortaaaay · Aug 8, 2019

26 minutes ago, brownbook said:
My favorite nursing job was out patient surgery. No nights, no weekends, no holidays. (Although the first clinic was part of an acute care hospital so I had to take call on nights, weekends and holidays.)
The second clinic was free standing so no being on call.
The patients are healthy. They come in and go home like an assembly line. But still time for teaching and friendly interactions.
Great way to end a career if you've already done the acute care 24/7 routine.

Did you get paid more doing outpatient surgery as opposed to being in the hospital? We’re you trained in surgery initially?

brownbook · Aug 8, 2019

I never pay attention to my salary so can't answer that.

An out patient, or ambulatory, surgery center employees pre op and post op (PACU) RN's, and operating room nurses. I am not an operating room nurse. I only worked pre op and post op.

klone, MSN, RN · Aug 8, 2019

The primary nurse at an inner-city women's health clinic in Denver. We were a Title X clinic, and we did a lot of contraceptive and reproductive healthcare. I did all the new OB intake appointments, took histories, managed labs, answered triage phone calls, worked closely with the midwives, saw patients for contraceptive appointments, etc. It filled my soul, I felt like I was making a difference, and the midwives and MAs I worked with were so ***ing awesome. We would all frequently go out to lunch together. It was such an amazing team.

harvestmoon, RN · Aug 11, 2019

@klone I would love to work in that same environment but I worry that in order to really have any choice in future work that I need that acute care component. Did you have acute (med/surg or whatever) before you worked at that job and did it limit your choices afterwards? I'm envisioning Planned Parenthood or something.