My last blog, I wrote about what you should do to try to get hired in your ideal unit. Lots of people have opinions about where you should start, some “old school” thinking as I like to call it, is that new grad nurses shouldn’t go into specialty areas. I disagree with this though for a couple reasons. One, EVERY floor is a specialized floor now. There is no general med-surg anymore, all floors usually have some kind of emphasis: Diabetes, HIV, Neuro. You would then end up in a career that is just as specialized as starting in the ICU or ER! Two, patients are a lot sicker now than they were fifteen plus years ago. Think about it, back in “The Day” the patients who are currently on our Med-Surg floors would have been on a telemetry unit, telemetry patients would have been in the ICU and ICU patients would have been dead! Our technology has come a looooooong way and our nursing has caught up with it—meaning, it is pretty rare to find a true jack-of-all-trades med-surg floor these days. So don’t be deterred, go out there and find your utopia! But what if you don’t know what your ideal unit is? Don’t fret my pet! Find a hospital that you like and see what they have available. You might be surprised what floors make you feel at home!
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Scrubs Blogger
Scrubs Blogger
Rebekah, GREAT point. The patients are much sicker, and much more complicated. That goes for all nursing units. It does make job searching interesting from that respect.
Thanks Rebekah!! This is great advice for us students!
Scrubs Blogger
Scrubs Blogger
RN
Registered Nurse
Don’t let anyone discourage you! If you want to work in a Trauma Burn ICU out the bat and you think you can do it…get out there and find a unit! I promise its possible!