What did you do with your RN?

[Felder]

So to tell you all a little bit about my situation I currently work as Career Firefighter in NY. I took this job a year ago while I was in my last semester of nursing school. At the time I spoke to my nursing department chair and asked if they would save me a spot in the program next year - as I was going away 8 months for the fire academy. Fast forward to August of 15 (after graduating the academy) and I am now 'on the line' working a rotating group schedule that averages 42 working hours per week not including OT and training. I did in fact return to school full time and after many sleepless nights and going right from the firehouse to the hospital/school I finally graduated 12/15...

I did a Kaplan review and took my NY boards 2/11. I paid the 7 dollars and got my quick results Saturday and found out I PASSED!

Before I got my dream job as a FF I always wanted to go into ED/ICU nursing (which is where I did my Capstone)... However, now that my schedule is already filled with working full time at the firehouse I am not sure I will be able to manage such an acute care setting.

I was offered a position in December after one of my clinicals at a local trauma level 1 hospital in the "Interventional Cardiology" unit, or a cardiac step down unit. I could negotiate either a 24, 28, or 36 hour a week part-time employment...

So my question is: What did you do with your RN license? Are there other options that work better for Nurses who can only take on a part-time nursing job? What did you learn along the way?

[HeartsAndLungsRN]

I work full time in my hospital's cardiac unit, I work 3 days a week with 12 hour shifts. I also just took a position as a substitute school nurse to fill in my off days. If you would like to work with your RN, does the unit offer a registry position? That way you could work around your other position?

[Felder]

I work full time in my hospital's cardiac unit, I work 3 days a week with 12 hour shifts. I also just took a position as a substitute school nurse to fill in my off days. If you would like to work with your RN, does the unit offer a registry position? That way you could work around your other position?

I am not positive if there are registry positions available but I would be concerned with being a new nurse who has not completed orientation. I think I would be better off I took a position and was offered a 3 or 6 month orientation assigned to a nurse vs taking a register or contracted position. Do you have any experience with a registry position? Also, thanks for your input.

[HeartsAndLungsRN]

Well in my hospital they traditionally do a 12 week orientation for all staff, including registry. Adjust the length as needed for the individual. I have never worked as registry at this hospital, but I know we have 3 levels. The pay and required hours per pay period increase with each level. Our schedules come out online and registry goes in and can view and request to work the shifts that need to be filled. When I was an LPN I was registry at a LTC facility and it had no requirements, I just submitted my availability every month and they would put me on if they needed me on any of those days.