What should i do? Should i stay or should i look for something else?

[JMorel]

Hello Everyone,

I just join Allnurses today and i am looking for an advise. I graduated January 2010 with a BSN and it took me an entired year to find a job. Last January, 2011 i got hired as a per diem nurse in community health center in my area. They trained for two weeks in pediatrics, then moved me to Internal Medicine (IM) where i thought i was going to hate it since my goal was/is women's health... I trained there for 2.5 months and i loved it. It is a very busy clinic and even though i hired as per diem i was doing full time hours almost since day one. I loved IM but i was told at the begining that i was going to be trained in all departments especially because i was a per diem nurse. I accepted the position for different reasons (1) i want to work with the community, (2) i was looking for a job for a year and i was very discouraged and (3) this is a federal funded clinic and i think they offer many oportunities for nurses to grow (i guess those who want to grow). Now everything was going great, i was able to adjust to the nursing position quickly and got a lot of great feedbacks from the supervisors, doctors and co-workers in general, many of them didnt even think that i was a new nurse to the fact that i was doing a great job. Two months into IM i was transfered to women's health what i really wanted but i was able to train for only two weeks because one of the nurses from the public health department was leaving on maternity leave and they needed to cover for her and therefore they pick me (of course, me being one of the new nurses, and to top it off per diem). I was not happy but i have to accept it cause i needed the job. Public Health nurses do an awsome job when i comes to communicable diseases investigation and education. I was trained for a few days and then thrown on my own. It was pretty scary at first but i have grab the hang of it and i have received great feedback from the State Health Department, the Local HEalth Officers and my supervisor who is great at doing what she does.

What is my issue? well as stated many times i am a per diem nurse. Even though i do my full time hours i dont have benefits and the worse is that as a public health nurse i have minimum contact with the patients and i miss clinical area soooo much. This week my supervisor told me that she likes how i work and completed an evalution to which i pretty much score a perfect score (4 out 4.5) and she is going to request my status to change from per diem to full time because the nurse that went on maternity leave is going to be out for 6 months and she states that she needs somebody like me in public health. I did requested a full time position in Internal MEdicine but they came back to me saying that they didnt have anything at this moment and that i was needed in public health.

Ok after this long story, what is my dilemma? well, i feel that i need more clinical experience and i know if the full time position is offered to me i will be stock in public health for a long time. I do like public health but i miss the clinical area.

I dont know what do to because i really need this job and i have sent out my resume after i started working but i havent heard anything. Many people tell me that i should wait at least 6 months to a year in order to start applying at the places where i want to be. What should i do. I like what i am doing but i miss clinical.

Should i accept the position and stay there for a while and then apply at the hospital i want to be? what should i do?

By the way i have been in this clinic for 5 months now as a per diem/full time hours.

sorry if there is too many details but i need some advise...

Thank you in advance and hope to hear from you soon

[Nurzelady]

I think you should do what people have been telling you to do, which is to stick it out for 6months at least. Even if you chose to not accept this job, what would you do in the mean time while looking for your clinical experience position. In this economy, you take what you can get until you can get what you want. Hold onto this job, it sounds like you're getting great experience anyways. Since you haven't heard of anything yet, just keep applying. And then when something opens up, you can leave. But for now, I would definitely accept the position if I was you.

[IMOKAY, BSN]

Accept the position and watch for Womens health to open up.

[JMorel]

Thank you for commenting. And yes, i have been applying. I have also been bitting my tounge and sucking up to it. I guess that is how many of us start.

Again, Thank you.

JMorel

[carrie_c]

I would accept the job. I am a new grad having a very hard time finding a job. I would take anything at this point. You can always do something else later.