57 Year Old With Multiple Choices

Dear Nurse Beth Advice Column - The following letter submitted anonymously in search for answers. Join the conversation!

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Dear Nurse Beth,

I have been a RN for one year at a 110 bed acute care hospital on a Med-Surg floor working 3-5 days a week on nights. I will be moving soon and there are many positions available at a 900 bed hospital or one of their smaller satellite facilities (300 bed). I enjoy being busy, talking to and educating my patients, and am terrible at charting. Rehab floor has an opening, as does oncology/stroke, acute care surgical, and observation. I love being a nurse, and I want to do well wherever I'm at in the field. I'm 57 and working towards my BSN also, with plans for a Master's degree and certification in wound care. Any suggestions?

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Specializes in Tele, ICU, Staff Development.

Dear Moving Soon,

Congrats on your accomplishments!

You're an inspiration to many who go into nursing later in life and you're a success. You've put in one year in MedSurg, you're marketable, you like nursing, and you have a lot of options available in a 900 bed facility! I had to put an exclamation point after the "900 bed" because that is very exciting. Typically large hospitals have more resources for education, equipment and services. 

It's good you're getting your BSN, it will be essential to qualify you for opportunities in the future. 

It sounds like your main problem is choosing a speciality. That's a pretty good problem to have :). You enjoy talking to your patients, patient education, and being busy. You can do all of those in any of the areas you are considering. Unfortunately, charting is intense everywhere. There's no getting away from it in our health care system. 

Rehab, oncology/stroke, and acute care surgical will all most likely have patients requiring wound care. You can continue to gain experience with wound care while deciding if you want to pursue that speciality. If the Rehab unit is sub-acute, I would not take that as you are still hard-wiring foundational acute care skills. 

My feeling- you can't really make a wrong choice here. It's all beneficial experience, and once you're in such a large organization, you will have insider advantage and be able to transfer. Nothing's permanent.

Good luck and best wishes,

Nurse Beth

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