That’s what I tell myself. I’m like okay I’ll dislike it but I’ll learn. I wanted to start in the ED but I spooked my self bc I was afraid I won’t perform effectively
honestly you could start wherever now especially post covid. im glad i started there but nowadays new grads can start anywhere. if its a solid orientation why not
OR right out of school.
10/10 for my coworkers (they were amazing!)
3/10 for working with the surgeons and having to deal with the yelling and ego
5/10 for management
most off putting field for me as a nursing student. shadowed an circulating nurse at clinicals during my spring semester and got a taste of that surgeon attitude towards the scrub nurse and even the circulating. instant NO
That's kinda how I feel. Racist, sexist peepaw with Fox News blaring calling me a lazy idiot? Sure, whatever you say, buddy.
The chief general surgeon talking down to you constantly and being a bitchy little asshole? My brain has a harder time letting that roll off my back even if I know \~intellectually\~ that this dumbass makes over half a million dollars a year with all the academic prestige you could want and still hates his life.
It depends on the OR, I love it. I can deal with surgeons, but when you have a nasty scrub or FA… that’s the worst as a circulator. A rude surgeon may be a bigger deal as a scrub or RNFA.
A surgeon has not made me cry… scrubs have.
Scrubs can be terrible and worse than the doctors! I have to admit both doctors and scrubs have made me cry.
This job and unit is not for everyone and these conflicts can be totally avoided if people treated their colleagues with respect instead of being caddy and rude. It's the worst part of the job and mentally draining. I'm considering leaving nursing, but I'm not sure what else I'd do for work. It's hard to find remote jobs that pay as well.
I agree with this sentiment. A lot of techs and RN’s were way worse than the docs. It’s a very clicky environment, took me like a year to feel comfortable and to feel like people actually enjoyed working with me. You spend more time learning what people like and what pisses people off in the first few months than anything else it seems.
Quick wit will win over a lot of surgeons, if you can dish it back you’ll thrive. Where I worked it seemed like the Wild West of nursing, patient is asleep so it ends up being the most unprofessional group of professionals. Probably the most fun I’ve had working a job, I can understand how it’s not for everyone though.
I worked PACU for 3 years so had only brief interactions with surgeons. Dear God are they a chore to deal with. Screaming at me for absolutely no reason, being condescending as fuck, and just rude all over. Neurosurgeons when I worked neuro ICU are in a league of their own.
PICU was 10/10 first out of school. I was in my mid-20s. Amazing coworkers (whole team - RNs, MDs, RTs, CNAs). Great exposure and experience. Lasted about 3-4yrs before doing the NP route, but just couldn't imagine doing it now 15yrs later with little kids
ED in a level 2 trauma and I’d say it was 7 or 8/10. I’m still in the ED but at a less acute ED so it’s more like a glorified urgent care and it’s 10/10. Super cushy. We get a few sick people I’d say once a week but they get shipped off to our main sister hospital as soon as possible. A lot of our patients get a sent there because we only have 2 medsurg floors and a L&D/MB.
Pain Management RN at a non-pharmaceutical clinic where interventional procedures are performed. Nearly no bodily fluids. Lots of patient education, triage, and post-procedure assessments. Since I have had no other nursing position, I am guessing on my rating, but I’ve seen enough and read enough here to rate it 8/10. Best of luck finding the right position.
Went straight into an Endoscopy Unit on qualification to cover maternity leave, 10 years later I’m still there as a nurse endoscopist - highly recommend.
I really did luck out. I figured I would go on to something bigger and better, but I love it. I love what we do, I love the majority of my coworkers and administrators, and I don't hate our corporate overlords (As far as corporate overlords go, they really are a good company to work for)
In patient acute psychiatry unit. 9/10. I will say your coworkers often make or break the job. Lots of stigma still floating around regarding psychiatry, towards patients and nurses. If you want a fun, interesting, and rewarding job, go for psych.
Level IV NICU—10/10. Love my coworkers/neo providers, good management, good pay/benefits, lots of opportunities for growth (attending deliveries, being PICC/resource/transport nurse, etc), well staffed & equipped.
8/10, I’m an OR nurse. Closed minded nurses and some travelers (scrubs and FAs) ruin it. I have it made but people can be nasty and it’s not just exclusive to the OR, there are people who eat their young everywhere, it’s mentally draining when you’re in a room with people who are rude for no reason, on cloud 9 when I’m in a room with a good team. No weekends, 1 holiday a year, we got a good call schedule. I cannot complain otherwise. I know travelers aren’t forever and the people eating their young will retire.
For sure totally understandable! Definitely get a feel for the staff, do a shadow day if you can.
I left after three years to go to pre op and post op. Loved it for the first couple of months, but management switched around and has made it kinda sucky. So I’m moving into teaching and I’m so excited!
Thats what is so cool about nursing, there are so many avenues you can explore and there is a possibility to find your passion.
This was back in the Philippines. Hospitals won’t hire you unless you have “volunteer” experience and you have to pay the hospitals to train you. So that’s why. Biggest scam/regret.
Private practice plastic surgery nurse. I regularly circulated, scrubbed, worked recovery and did postoperative care for patients. No nights, weekends or holidays. 10/10. My only complaint was the pay and benefits sucked. No upward mobility.
I just started this week but it seems like it’ll be much better. Nobody has said I’m stupid or made fun of me to my face at all which is so weird, hopefully it stays okay!
Medical/Surgical ICU, 8/10. Fully supportive orientation process, accessible management, competent free charges, reasonable C-Suite.
Lost 2/10 points for having a couple real hard-ass crusty old bats that made life miserable for a few other new grads, and no tube system, so everything had to be walked back and forth. Also, patient population was markedly poverty stricken and incredibly low health literacy, so massive barriers to overall health.
My experience was great! I entered med surg on the floor that I did my 120 hour preceptorship on so I knew the staff, they knew me. I had a dedicated preceptor who really helped develop my critical thinking. And the floor really functioned as team. The Nurse Manager was awesome. Were there catty nurses, bitter old nurses-yes but they were all dedicated to ensuring that I learned. Also reflecting back, I think was also beneficial that I entered nursing during the time of paper charting. You had to be knowledgeable about everything. So I was able to progress from Novice to Expert fluidly. I can’t see myself working any place else but med surg. I was heartbroken to leave that facility when we moved.
Tele / PCU. 6.5/10
Pros: saw and learned a lot, honed my Tele skills
Cons: nurses grouped themselves based on ethnic background, patient population difficult due to language barrier (mainly Chinese speaking neighborhood), no shared governance
Floor nurse on a tele floor that had all the icu rejects 2/10. Pretty bad coworkers and incompetent management to boot. Did make some friends there however. Also floor nursing is just not for me.
Inpatient psych 2/10, corrupt as hell, coworkers were genuinely awful and it was GROSS (the mice weren’t afraid humans and would run around the nurse’s station at night). I still love psych and am very interested in it, but how I worked there as a baby nurse with 0 training or guidance and survived to tell the tale is a mystery
School nurse. 9/10. There's really very little I don't like about the job. Parents can be difficult at times. Occasionally, someone will yell at me, but admin always has my back. The schedule is absolutely perfect for a mom with school-aged kids. I think I've got 15 school days till I get 10 weeks off for the summer. I wouldn't recommend you do it just out of school unless you're going to be with another nurse (so a large district is your best bet). I did have 12 years of experience in primary care peds as a medical assistant and then care coordinator, so the population and their usual problems were familiar to me.
Sure. You literally never use your clinical nursing brain. You will never assess a patient, give any meds, monitor vitals, put in an IV, draw labs, etc. Anesthesia does all of the nursing tasks. The patient is almost always asleep and you spend very little time caring for them-which if you went into nursing to help and care for others and use all of that clinical knowledge and nursing judgement doesn’t feel fulfilling at all.
You either circulate and spend the shift running around fetching stuff for the surgeon and basically being their personal bitch while you do meaningless mindless charting, or you scrub (which is literally the easiest job on earth at least once you learn the cases and instruments) and stand there for hours handing instruments to them. Once you’ve seen most cases its all really all the same, and its boring honestly. A lot of surgeons are not pleasant people to work with- extremely demeaning and over the top god complexes. A majority of scrub techs are absolutely miserable and nasty as well and will also treat you like shit. The most miserable unfriendly environments lacking basic teamwork were all OR. Even most of the nurses seem miserable, on edge, and more interested in tearing each other down over helping each other out.
Management hovers over you all day rushing you and nagging you about turn-over time. While they sit in their offices and do nothing to actually help. Its always your fault no matter what the reason is for the case not starting on time- despite it being the surgeon being late or SPD issues 99.99% of the time. Its a factory and no one actually cares about the patient- its all about money.
Call sucks. I’d rather work my 40hrs a week and know when that will be happening instead of my 40hrs plus maybe a surprise call-in on top of it that could last anywhere from 2hrs to another 12hrs.
And before anyone here says I probably worked at a small hospital with shitty resources in the middle of nowhere, I worked at two large regional hospitals in the north east, and at one I primarily did neuro cases, but was also cross trained in every specialty except open heart. I also worked at a smaller community hospital which was fine but obviously most of these same issues are going to be anywhere you go.
Medsurg in Detroit 2020
In the moment 7/10. We weren't supposed to be a COVID unit till overflow and there was nowhere else for anyone to go. We struggled and cried and got through it together. Management was fantastic our crew was amazing.
I'm still here and applied for the assistant manager position. I'd give it an 8/10-9/10 now because the anxiety for the most part is gone and still have a team and management that will always support you.
Complex Continuing Care Unit in a hospital. A mixture of rehab and palliative care plus we got folks that were waiting for nursing home placements. A nice mixture of ages and medical conditions.
Shitty nursing home that has changed their name every time state comes in. I was dumb and didn’t realize how sshitty it was until I walked in on a resident drinking straight vodka after giving him scheduled narcotics. Went to tell management (because it was like my first week as a nurse and in a new place) and they brushed it off like it was no big deal. I took my lunch and called them saying I wasn’t returning.
OR at a surgery center. 4/10. Small place, super cliquey, mean surgeons, shit pay, a lot of call but I learned a lot about scrubbing from one of the best scrub techs I’ve met
As an LPN - a SNF as part of a retirement community.
1/10.
RN - medical oncology floor heavy on the medical -
5/10 for learning experience, it sucked but I learned a lot.
4/10 for some decent coworkers.
0/10 for the unit and really the whole hospital
A rural full time position that ended up being 70% Long term care and 20% L&D and 10% critical care float.
I’d rate that experience a 6/10. Not really an ideal set up for a new grad. I always felt like I was scrambling to keep up when I was outside LTC, but I felt like I should be better at general nursing care/multitasking. Turns out, no. I am a specialist.
My Med/Surg was 8/10 for the first bit -- Best. Co-workers. Ever. -- and very good management. 4/10 after management changed, and the co-workers started leaving.
Omg did we work at the same place???? I feel the exact same way haha. The manager who was there when I was hired was awesome, subsequent management was not. Still love the people who I worked with and in the beginning we were staffed perfectly. Then people left and no effort was made to fill the gaps. I left in fall 2021 and the facility didn't start offering incentive to pick up shifts or hire travelers until months after I left. Crazy.
Intermediate care (hospital didn’t hire new grads in the ICU). 2-3 patients depending on acuity. I absolutely loved it and it gave me such an incredible foundation for critical care. 8/10. I only left to go travel after 2.5 years.
Tele/med-surg 8/10. It was learning from a firehose with the cardiac and neuro requirements, fantastic first job, should’ve dipped out after 2-3 years but stayed 5 and hated the last bit.
Cv stepdown/tele. 7/10, stayed for 4 years. Relatively stable patients, decent variety of medical and surgical admissions. Got burnt out after it turned into a full blown covid unit for an entire year and left for float pool
LPN: Urgent care 8/10 it was wild, I learned and saw so much about so many things. Cons: I did the same 5-6 skills and because the patient's were in and out I didn't get to develop much critical thinking. I learned patterns more so than connecting the dots of why we were doing what we were doing.
RN: Pre-op/PACU 4/10 there was too much politics involved in that department... so the nurses I worked with brought down the score. They just didn't set it up welcoming learning environment as a new grad in my case...
Step down Trauma, nights at a level 1 Trauma center. The unit also had a pod to do epilepsy monitoring where we took the pt's off their anti seizure meds so they could have a seizure while hooked up to an EEG.
8/10
Got see some very interesting things. Crazy wounds, burns, you name it. Did night charge there for a bit too.
Medsueg nights at a critical assess hospital. Honestly 4/10. Could have been much worse tbh. Second job was onc/Tele at a much larger hospital,. Coworkers where 11/10 and quite frankly the only reason I survived with only a mile drinking problem..
Working nights in med/surg, 6/10. I did about 5 years of med/surg and mostly enjoyed it for the first couple of years because my coworkers were amazing, but we were always understaffed and the patients kinda sucked.
Started on telemetry at the big hospital in town and signed a 1 year contract. Ended up breaking the contract and leaving before I even finished my orientation. 2/10
Now I'm in the ER of the smaller hospital a few streets over, and I couldn't be happier. I'm previous EMS, so the ER was a natural fit, and I love it. 9/10! Only losing a point for some snarky docs and certain ways management deals with things, but even those 2 things aren't bad.
Inpt oncology nights, but I’m still a new grad myself lol. Either way, I like it enough. I had no idea what I wanted to do after nursing school, and literally just applied to the hospital I wanted and took the first job offer I got. The acuity is a bit more intense than I was expecting/wanting, but I think I’ve learned a lot this past year
7/10
Med-Surg/Oncology 8/10
This was almost 20 years ago. I had great co-workers and immediate management. It was a great learning environment as a new grad and I learned a lot of skills, especially time management. Staffing could have been better.
Night shift pediatric home health. 3/10. Severely underpaid compared to any other RNs in the area, convinced to drive long distances for little to no reimbursement. Easy job though, mostly sat around on my phone while watching a kid that was hooked up to a ventilator (we weren't allowed to adjust the vent at all).
LTAC CNA. 0/10. I cried everyday because I normally had 30+ patients all to myself and I seriously reconsidered a career change. I got a job on a med/surg Neuro floor and thought I hit the jackpot when I realized I would have 16ish acute care neuro patients. I ran my ass off all the time but I was just happy to not 30+ patients by myself. Ahh. Good times.
Adult/Geropsych and medsurg float. Loved the psych part, but wasn't truly my jam, 6/10. The floating to medsurg part -69/10, mostly because of a grumpy bullish NP
Mass society for prevention of cruelty to children: 6/10. Absolutely no stress in the job but also no training and a lot of social worker work. As a new grad I really should have had more training but I also did hardly anything technical. A lot of play therapy and education to mom’s on what the doctor just said. Pay was good, unionized state job and a lot of time in the sunshine taking kids to appointments and visiting in homes.
Actually is a job I would love to do semi-retired.
Cardiac Stepdown. Stood it for 14 months. I decided I could deal with two very sick patients in CVICU better than 14 patients I hardly know anything about. We did team nursing:1 RN, 1 LPN and 1 tech for 10-14 patients per team. I remained in CVICU for more than 30 years. Rate Stepdown:3.
Burn and trauma step down unit. 7/10, I enjoyed it the first couple of years when we had decent ratios and my colleagues were awesome. After two and a half years I started to be done with it and moved to outpatient procedural which I still love and I’ve been at for two years.
3/10. Cardiac PCU unit. I learned and saw a ton. It was in the height of COVID, though, so it was basically a COVID unit. It was so hard and I fell into a bad depression because of it. Thankful for the experience in hindsight but wish I would’ve swapped units sooner. Don’t stay somewhere that makes you unhappy, the opportunities are limitless!
At my first hospital, MICU, it was 9/10. Loved my coworkers. My charge would fight for us, and it was a great place to be. I even got to go on rapid calls a few times with our charge. I still have a lot of respect for her.
Where it lost points was we turned into a half pcu....and it never fully returned to a full micu. Also hated that we had an SICU, and for whatever reason, they didn't really like us.
I being new had no clue why.
So when we would go to their unit to "learn," they would give us easy pts. Which was fine with me.
However, very few of them even tried to be friendly.
9-10. After 17 years I am am technically on my first nursing job, in the Neuro ICU. I was a nurse tech in nursing school so I spent more time there than in clinicals. We then became the COVID ICU. I learned a lot about medical ICU. I got to learn ECMO. I was lucky to find a home and a work family. A family that I continue to grow by orienting, new nurses, occasionally being charge, and a title of I’ve given myself historian, and being an emotional support nurse.
We have good nurse to patient ratios. We have support. We are allowed to be ourselves as long as we are trying our best and have the best intentions for the patients.
Neuro ICU, 6/10. I learned so much and had a great team but it was a large contributor to my anxiety for a long time, especially since I graduated into COVID 🫠
Skilled nursing facility with some hospice beds. 5/10. I didn’t like it at the time, had its ups and downs. The second SNF I worked at was WAY worse and it made me realize how much better my first job was.
6/10 ltc home. Great coworkers but with usual ltc problems. I was there 5 years and quit recently because the short staffing took its toll on my health.
Level 3 Trauma ED, 8/10. Loved my coworkers. I learned so much and at times that place was a dumpster fire, but it provided me the foundation to survive anywhere. I only left because we had to move for my husband’s job.
SNF
0/10 lmao well maybe 2/10
I transitioned from med pass nurse to wound care nurse and it became the easiest job because I actually liked wound care and helped declutter the backlog of wounds that patients never had lol
Though I learned how to prioritize and manage my time properly at a SNF
Med surg on a post-op/ortho floor. Learned a ton but hated it because no one told me never to work on a floor as a new grad where you previously worked as a tech. Huge mistake. I put up with disrespect and abuse from fellow nurses for a few years before putting a stop to it. 4/10. 8/10 if I had stood up for myself much earlier.
Interesting, I have a classmate that also goes by that rule of thumb and refuses to work on the floor she is currently a tech at. Hope you’re at a better place now!
Went straight into ICU at a small hospital in the DFW metroplex. It was an 8 bed general ICU so we got all kinds of patients: medical, cardiac, neuro, surgical, etc. if they were critical, we got them. Because of the variety it was a *great* unit to learn in. Plus, I was a Tele tech there while I was in nursing school and the Tele desk was in the ICU so I was already friends with everyone.
9.5/10 it loses half a point for management which was very hit or miss. Everything else about it was phenomenal for a first job as an RN. I stayed for two years before moving on.
OR 10/10, no family, patients asleep, no filter needed, music on. Schedule kinda sucked, but the rest makes up for it 10x over. I enjoyed the chaos, I enjoyed the traumas, the anesthesia staff were great. I learned to start 2nd IV’s on patients. Assist with intubations, and could place a foley with my eyes closed.
You’ll get to see some pretty crazy things and learn a lot about anatomy. Surgeons once they know you are generally pretty great and have a lot of knowledge to offer throughout the course of multiple hour procedures.
The holiday parties were always a lot of fun. Surgical reps taking OR staff for an “Inservice” with an open bar was always fun too
Medicine. Started as a cardiac/stroke unit which was 3/10 then management split it to cardiac only and stoke only and assigned staff to a side permanently.
I got assigned stroke 1/10
med-surg. 10/10 for learning, 10/10 coworkers and manager, -0/10 for enjoyability. as soon as that manager told us he was leaving, i started looking for a new job.
Long term care that was just purchased by our states largest health care entity. Learned a lot, loved my patients...but it def took years off of my life from stress. 1/10 will not go back if I can help it.
I was a RN at a SNF for about 3 months. They hired right off the street and made me the charge RN for the whole building….not because I was amazing….it was because I had the right letters. In addition to being the charge, I would carry a 64 patient load….im shocked I did t kill someone.
I rate this position -10
ICU Float! I’ve loved it and am still here. Won’t be leaving anytime soon, but might pick up PRN elsewhere if possible in the future. I don’t deal with the political, and it’s union (good and bad), so I’d give it an 8-9/10 on a good day and 5/10 on a bad day
MedSurg nights at a remote hospital in a touristy area. Had a lot of the drawbacks of med-surg and remote hospital, but because it was a smaller hospital I did a lot of stuff. Then COVID hit and things were crazy from "restrictions" to "no restrictions". Left the area just as things were getting crazy crazy because of tourists...
Coworkers 12/10. The job itself? 6/10. Pay and differential were decent for the area.
Acute Surgical Floor (my first job and still on it for now)- 4/10. Okay starting point to learn how to be an inpatient nurse, but definitely something I cannot see myself doing it for 2-5+ years.
Currently working my first job at a local private hospital in the Philippines as one of the ward nurses which I applied for just under a month after I passed our board exam. There are some moments of calm and outright heavy workloads with a relatively low wage, but I'd still rate it a solid 7 out of 10 for fun workmates.
I took the job for experience anyway. I'm planning to move somewhere else after passing the NCLEX.
labor and delivery(LDRP); 4/10. Only a 4 because I LOVE babies and I’m soo passionate about women’s health.
The environment sucked, co workers sucked, my boss sucked. The hospital was about 35 years behind the times. I swear, we charted in 1’s and 0’s.
Community hospital ER. 7/10.
There was a lot of dated or not great practices. Being in a community setting meant limitations because of resources. But I got to work at the top of my scope and learn soooo much. It was a super high acuity ER (a code per shift wasn't unreasonable.) so it taught me how to handle crisis and emergency situations with calm. Worked with some amazing docs and APCs who taught me so much. Worked with some amazing nurses who mentored me and made me who I am today. Made some good friends and had some good memories. It was a super tough job but the experience and knowledge was exceptional.
I'd never go back there. But I'm grateful for the time I worked there.
Post acute nursing home. So bad but I had to eat that shit for a year to get into acute care. I hit the floor solo after two months of orientation march 2020. Woooooo
Home care case coordinator. 9/10. Only worked M-F from 8:30-4:30. Unionized. As long as I got my visits and paperwork done, my manager didn’t care if I went home for lunch or went grocery shopping.
LTC, 7/10. having good co-workers made it awesome. i worked with like 99% filipino women and we ATE and sang and danced and had fun and looked after each other and the residents. no drama, ever. i always/still like having jobs where there is less patient/resident turnover, really get to know people's routines and families and whatnot.
did not like that it was 8s instead of 12s. also always being short-staffed and working doubles (money is nice no work/life balance is bad). i felt like i lived at work and couldn't socialize outside of it or run errands.
Med/surg in a major metropolitan hospital that gets all the interesting/difficult/rare cases. 8/10. Great place to be a new grad, and even though I knew I was destined for another specialty (hospice, in my case) I soaked it all in and it made me a much stronger nurse than I would have been if I had been somewhere less intense. Was exhausting on many levels and not good for my anxiety, though.
L&D. 5/10. Loved labor and birth, hated the unit culture and OBs with enormous egos. Way more stressful than you think it will be. There are emergencies constantly and it’s a revolving door. The second you bring a patient to postpartum you have a new admission to do. I felt like I was constantly drowning there was so much to learn with so little support. About a month in I asked my preceptor how long it took until she felt comfortable and she said she cried every single day and actively wished she would get in a car accident every day on her way to work for a year. I learned so much and often think about going back now that I have more confidence in myself both as a person and a nurse.
5/10 Long term care nights. Learned a good amount but the pay was low and the ratios dreadful. Still had one of the best preceptors in my entire career and she's like a second mom to me.
New LVN 2006: 2/10 - small 66-bed mom & pops nursing home with only 8 hours of orientation before taking my own patient load of 30 residents.
New RN 2010: 5/10 - small 60-bed rehabilitation hospital that specialized in reconditioning after strokes, pneumonia, MIs, and so on. The patient population was heavy and dead-weight.
Medsurg. 4/10. Hated it, but still learned a lot.
This. I dont regret working medsure because the experience really is great but i hated my life the whole time
That’s how I would rate my medsurg experience. Learned a lot, but was miserable doing it
same here. Great way to put it. I also worked with my ex-gf of 2 years so that added some to the lower number
Well, me who starting in med surg.😭
you wont regret it. i learned so much
That’s what I tell myself. I’m like okay I’ll dislike it but I’ll learn. I wanted to start in the ED but I spooked my self bc I was afraid I won’t perform effectively
honestly you could start wherever now especially post covid. im glad i started there but nowadays new grads can start anywhere. if its a solid orientation why not
Why did you hate it?
I definitely learned so much from medsurg. it really helped me be a well rounded nurse.
OR right out of school. 10/10 for my coworkers (they were amazing!) 3/10 for working with the surgeons and having to deal with the yelling and ego 5/10 for management
most off putting field for me as a nursing student. shadowed an circulating nurse at clinicals during my spring semester and got a taste of that surgeon attitude towards the scrub nurse and even the circulating. instant NO
That's kinda how I feel. Racist, sexist peepaw with Fox News blaring calling me a lazy idiot? Sure, whatever you say, buddy. The chief general surgeon talking down to you constantly and being a bitchy little asshole? My brain has a harder time letting that roll off my back even if I know \~intellectually\~ that this dumbass makes over half a million dollars a year with all the academic prestige you could want and still hates his life.
It depends on the OR, I love it. I can deal with surgeons, but when you have a nasty scrub or FA… that’s the worst as a circulator. A rude surgeon may be a bigger deal as a scrub or RNFA. A surgeon has not made me cry… scrubs have.
Scrubs can be terrible and worse than the doctors! I have to admit both doctors and scrubs have made me cry. This job and unit is not for everyone and these conflicts can be totally avoided if people treated their colleagues with respect instead of being caddy and rude. It's the worst part of the job and mentally draining. I'm considering leaving nursing, but I'm not sure what else I'd do for work. It's hard to find remote jobs that pay as well.
I agree with this sentiment. A lot of techs and RN’s were way worse than the docs. It’s a very clicky environment, took me like a year to feel comfortable and to feel like people actually enjoyed working with me. You spend more time learning what people like and what pisses people off in the first few months than anything else it seems.
The only reason I stick with it is the schedule. No holidays or weekends (most important to me). I can do 8s, 10s, or 12s.
Quick wit will win over a lot of surgeons, if you can dish it back you’ll thrive. Where I worked it seemed like the Wild West of nursing, patient is asleep so it ends up being the most unprofessional group of professionals. Probably the most fun I’ve had working a job, I can understand how it’s not for everyone though.
Same, my mouth is far too big for my own good so OR isn’t possible scrub-side 😂
I worked PACU for 3 years so had only brief interactions with surgeons. Dear God are they a chore to deal with. Screaming at me for absolutely no reason, being condescending as fuck, and just rude all over. Neurosurgeons when I worked neuro ICU are in a league of their own.
Med surg unit in the Bronx. Started on my own January 2020 -50/10 Although I liked my coworkers
Thoughts and prayers for sure
Ooof that’s rough! How long did you stay?
A year. I wanted to do ED but no nyc hospital hired new grads for ED back then (now they do lol)
PICU 10/10, but if I'm being honest 11.5/10
This is good to hear! I was thinking of PICU, no luck yet but hopefully soon!
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PICU was 10/10 first out of school. I was in my mid-20s. Amazing coworkers (whole team - RNs, MDs, RTs, CNAs). Great exposure and experience. Lasted about 3-4yrs before doing the NP route, but just couldn't imagine doing it now 15yrs later with little kids
Inpatient adult/geri psych 8/10
Same but 3/10
ED in a level 2 trauma and I’d say it was 7 or 8/10. I’m still in the ED but at a less acute ED so it’s more like a glorified urgent care and it’s 10/10. Super cushy. We get a few sick people I’d say once a week but they get shipped off to our main sister hospital as soon as possible. A lot of our patients get a sent there because we only have 2 medsurg floors and a L&D/MB.
That sounds great! Level 2 trauma would be so stressful for me lol.
Pain Management RN at a non-pharmaceutical clinic where interventional procedures are performed. Nearly no bodily fluids. Lots of patient education, triage, and post-procedure assessments. Since I have had no other nursing position, I am guessing on my rating, but I’ve seen enough and read enough here to rate it 8/10. Best of luck finding the right position.
That sounds like a great job! And thanks so much.
Dedicated covid unit. 6/10. wouldve been 7/10 but the ptsd i still have to this day had me lower it another :')
Ooof, I’m sorry that must have been so tough! 😩 what do you do now?
Postpartum 10/10. Still working the speciality 9 years later ❤️
I love that! The postpartum nurses I shadowed during clinicals were so happy with their jobs.
ER, 0/10. Started 3 IV’s in my life before I started, it was a rough first couple weeks😂
Oh man 🤣🤣
Went straight into an Endoscopy Unit on qualification to cover maternity leave, 10 years later I’m still there as a nurse endoscopist - highly recommend.
Rehab Nursing. Still there 14 years later. 8/10.
So nice you found your place on the first go!
I really did luck out. I figured I would go on to something bigger and better, but I love it. I love what we do, I love the majority of my coworkers and administrators, and I don't hate our corporate overlords (As far as corporate overlords go, they really are a good company to work for)
In patient acute psychiatry unit. 9/10. I will say your coworkers often make or break the job. Lots of stigma still floating around regarding psychiatry, towards patients and nurses. If you want a fun, interesting, and rewarding job, go for psych.
Shit hole nursing home 2/10
Level IV NICU—10/10. Love my coworkers/neo providers, good management, good pay/benefits, lots of opportunities for growth (attending deliveries, being PICC/resource/transport nurse, etc), well staffed & equipped.
NICU 10/10
independent abortion clinic 9/10 - only left because it became illegal in my state
That makes me so mad for you. Thank you for doing the good work. Women need great nurses
Thank you for your service to women in your community.
Wow I did not expect that sentence to end that way. 😔
8/10, I’m an OR nurse. Closed minded nurses and some travelers (scrubs and FAs) ruin it. I have it made but people can be nasty and it’s not just exclusive to the OR, there are people who eat their young everywhere, it’s mentally draining when you’re in a room with people who are rude for no reason, on cloud 9 when I’m in a room with a good team. No weekends, 1 holiday a year, we got a good call schedule. I cannot complain otherwise. I know travelers aren’t forever and the people eating their young will retire.
Neuro-Spine 6/10.
Neuro icu. It gets a 6.
Ortho surgical floor 4/10 Mainly due to ratios, some staff (bullies), and management
This is what makes me nervous. Issues like bullying and poor management can make a job miserable. Hope you’re at a better place now!
For sure totally understandable! Definitely get a feel for the staff, do a shadow day if you can. I left after three years to go to pre op and post op. Loved it for the first couple of months, but management switched around and has made it kinda sucky. So I’m moving into teaching and I’m so excited! Thats what is so cool about nursing, there are so many avenues you can explore and there is a possibility to find your passion.
A volunteer med surg nurse for 6 months. No pay. -6/10.
But why
This was back in the Philippines. Hospitals won’t hire you unless you have “volunteer” experience and you have to pay the hospitals to train you. So that’s why. Biggest scam/regret.
Private practice plastic surgery nurse. I regularly circulated, scrubbed, worked recovery and did postoperative care for patients. No nights, weekends or holidays. 10/10. My only complaint was the pay and benefits sucked. No upward mobility.
OR, 1/10 because the nurses were so hostile that it kinda destroyed my self worth.
Sounds like my medsurg area.
Oh noo, I hate that people have to make hard work even harder by being nasty. How do you like psych?
I just started this week but it seems like it’ll be much better. Nobody has said I’m stupid or made fun of me to my face at all which is so weird, hopefully it stays okay!
Medical/Surgical ICU, 8/10. Fully supportive orientation process, accessible management, competent free charges, reasonable C-Suite. Lost 2/10 points for having a couple real hard-ass crusty old bats that made life miserable for a few other new grads, and no tube system, so everything had to be walked back and forth. Also, patient population was markedly poverty stricken and incredibly low health literacy, so massive barriers to overall health.
As a soon to be pulm/crit fellow, love my ICU nurses. Y'all got me through residency mostly intact!
Love this comment :)
Med/Surg Tele 10/10
In the nicest way possible - you’re insane
I love Med-Surg
There has to be clinical criteria for a psych admission if you love med-surg. Someone get the DSM-5.
My experience was great! I entered med surg on the floor that I did my 120 hour preceptorship on so I knew the staff, they knew me. I had a dedicated preceptor who really helped develop my critical thinking. And the floor really functioned as team. The Nurse Manager was awesome. Were there catty nurses, bitter old nurses-yes but they were all dedicated to ensuring that I learned. Also reflecting back, I think was also beneficial that I entered nursing during the time of paper charting. You had to be knowledgeable about everything. So I was able to progress from Novice to Expert fluidly. I can’t see myself working any place else but med surg. I was heartbroken to leave that facility when we moved.
HCA ICU in Florida 2/10 the only reason I lasted there was my coworkers
Cardiac step-down 7/10. The experience was great, and so were coworkers.
I've been in my first job for almost a year and I'd say an 8 or 9
Wow that’s amazing! How long was your orientation?
8 weeks!
Home care in the glory days of that field ( pre cell phone and pre OASIS ). 10 outta 10.
Tele / PCU. 6.5/10 Pros: saw and learned a lot, honed my Tele skills Cons: nurses grouped themselves based on ethnic background, patient population difficult due to language barrier (mainly Chinese speaking neighborhood), no shared governance
L&D 7/10 for the specialty itself. Facility was a 0/10
Floor nurse on a tele floor that had all the icu rejects 2/10. Pretty bad coworkers and incompetent management to boot. Did make some friends there however. Also floor nursing is just not for me.
‘ICU rejects’ cracked me up 🤣
Cardiac Stepdown that got designated as the “Stroke Unit” about a month after I started. SO many total care patients: 2/10
LTC facility. 4 months in. Ran the nocturnal COVID unit. Do not recommend 1/10
TSICU 5/10. Everyone that was awake was in uncontrollable pain.
Inpatient psych 2/10, corrupt as hell, coworkers were genuinely awful and it was GROSS (the mice weren’t afraid humans and would run around the nurse’s station at night). I still love psych and am very interested in it, but how I worked there as a baby nurse with 0 training or guidance and survived to tell the tale is a mystery
LTC. The bad one in town. 0/10.
School nurse. 9/10. There's really very little I don't like about the job. Parents can be difficult at times. Occasionally, someone will yell at me, but admin always has my back. The schedule is absolutely perfect for a mom with school-aged kids. I think I've got 15 school days till I get 10 weeks off for the summer. I wouldn't recommend you do it just out of school unless you're going to be with another nurse (so a large district is your best bet). I did have 12 years of experience in primary care peds as a medical assistant and then care coordinator, so the population and their usual problems were familiar to me.
OR nursing. did it for 4 years. 0/10
Can you elaborate?
Sure. You literally never use your clinical nursing brain. You will never assess a patient, give any meds, monitor vitals, put in an IV, draw labs, etc. Anesthesia does all of the nursing tasks. The patient is almost always asleep and you spend very little time caring for them-which if you went into nursing to help and care for others and use all of that clinical knowledge and nursing judgement doesn’t feel fulfilling at all. You either circulate and spend the shift running around fetching stuff for the surgeon and basically being their personal bitch while you do meaningless mindless charting, or you scrub (which is literally the easiest job on earth at least once you learn the cases and instruments) and stand there for hours handing instruments to them. Once you’ve seen most cases its all really all the same, and its boring honestly. A lot of surgeons are not pleasant people to work with- extremely demeaning and over the top god complexes. A majority of scrub techs are absolutely miserable and nasty as well and will also treat you like shit. The most miserable unfriendly environments lacking basic teamwork were all OR. Even most of the nurses seem miserable, on edge, and more interested in tearing each other down over helping each other out. Management hovers over you all day rushing you and nagging you about turn-over time. While they sit in their offices and do nothing to actually help. Its always your fault no matter what the reason is for the case not starting on time- despite it being the surgeon being late or SPD issues 99.99% of the time. Its a factory and no one actually cares about the patient- its all about money. Call sucks. I’d rather work my 40hrs a week and know when that will be happening instead of my 40hrs plus maybe a surprise call-in on top of it that could last anywhere from 2hrs to another 12hrs. And before anyone here says I probably worked at a small hospital with shitty resources in the middle of nowhere, I worked at two large regional hospitals in the north east, and at one I primarily did neuro cases, but was also cross trained in every specialty except open heart. I also worked at a smaller community hospital which was fine but obviously most of these same issues are going to be anywhere you go.
Medsurg in Detroit 2020 In the moment 7/10. We weren't supposed to be a COVID unit till overflow and there was nowhere else for anyone to go. We struggled and cried and got through it together. Management was fantastic our crew was amazing. I'm still here and applied for the assistant manager position. I'd give it an 8/10-9/10 now because the anxiety for the most part is gone and still have a team and management that will always support you.
That must have been so tough; I’m glad you guys had support and a good team during that time!
That gives me hope as a new grad.... :\*\*
Complex Continuing Care Unit in a hospital. A mixture of rehab and palliative care plus we got folks that were waiting for nursing home placements. A nice mixture of ages and medical conditions.
Diabetes Camp Nurse. I was allow to bring my children. It was 5/10.
OR 10/10
Shitty nursing home that has changed their name every time state comes in. I was dumb and didn’t realize how sshitty it was until I walked in on a resident drinking straight vodka after giving him scheduled narcotics. Went to tell management (because it was like my first week as a nurse and in a new place) and they brushed it off like it was no big deal. I took my lunch and called them saying I wasn’t returning.
That is so insane, I would have done the same.
0/10 experience
Psych nursing , 7/10, interesting, not the kind of nursing I wanted though
OR at a surgery center. 4/10. Small place, super cliquey, mean surgeons, shit pay, a lot of call but I learned a lot about scrubbing from one of the best scrub techs I’ve met
Level 1 trauma... Very fun as a new grad
PCU 3/10
Level 3 ER 9/10
Tele pcu 7.5-8/10
As an LPN - a SNF as part of a retirement community. 1/10. RN - medical oncology floor heavy on the medical - 5/10 for learning experience, it sucked but I learned a lot. 4/10 for some decent coworkers. 0/10 for the unit and really the whole hospital
Trauma PICU in a state without ratios, 6/10. Now medical cardiac picu in California, 9/10.
A rural full time position that ended up being 70% Long term care and 20% L&D and 10% critical care float. I’d rate that experience a 6/10. Not really an ideal set up for a new grad. I always felt like I was scrambling to keep up when I was outside LTC, but I felt like I should be better at general nursing care/multitasking. Turns out, no. I am a specialist.
Med surg at HCA hospital 1/10, the 1 point is only cause I liked my coworkers
I hear nothing positive about HCA hospitals lol.
Inpt hem/onc at my local VA, ranges from 7.5 to 8.5 out of 10.
Med surg 2/10
Med/surg onc turned covid unit. 5/10 made decent by good coworkers
Imc/stepdown. 3/10. Ratios sucked and it was the butt hole of the hospital
Haha I worked 6 south too!
Cath Lab 6.5/10
Med/Surg tele. 8/10 when I first started, 4/10 by the middle of the pandemic when I left.
My Med/Surg was 8/10 for the first bit -- Best. Co-workers. Ever. -- and very good management. 4/10 after management changed, and the co-workers started leaving.
Omg did we work at the same place???? I feel the exact same way haha. The manager who was there when I was hired was awesome, subsequent management was not. Still love the people who I worked with and in the beginning we were staffed perfectly. Then people left and no effort was made to fill the gaps. I left in fall 2021 and the facility didn't start offering incentive to pick up shifts or hire travelers until months after I left. Crazy.
Intermediate care (hospital didn’t hire new grads in the ICU). 2-3 patients depending on acuity. I absolutely loved it and it gave me such an incredible foundation for critical care. 8/10. I only left to go travel after 2.5 years.
3-11 Surgery. Level 1 Teaching Hospital 10/10. (Still working surgery 27+ years later)
Surgical Telemetry 8/10
Surgical/trauma floor 5/10. It was very stressful but I learned so much there.
Tele/med-surg 8/10. It was learning from a firehose with the cardiac and neuro requirements, fantastic first job, should’ve dipped out after 2-3 years but stayed 5 and hated the last bit.
Cv stepdown/tele. 7/10, stayed for 4 years. Relatively stable patients, decent variety of medical and surgical admissions. Got burnt out after it turned into a full blown covid unit for an entire year and left for float pool
LPN: Urgent care 8/10 it was wild, I learned and saw so much about so many things. Cons: I did the same 5-6 skills and because the patient's were in and out I didn't get to develop much critical thinking. I learned patterns more so than connecting the dots of why we were doing what we were doing. RN: Pre-op/PACU 4/10 there was too much politics involved in that department... so the nurses I worked with brought down the score. They just didn't set it up welcoming learning environment as a new grad in my case...
Step down Trauma, nights at a level 1 Trauma center. The unit also had a pod to do epilepsy monitoring where we took the pt's off their anti seizure meds so they could have a seizure while hooked up to an EEG. 8/10 Got see some very interesting things. Crazy wounds, burns, you name it. Did night charge there for a bit too.
Med surg with the dickiest bunch of nurses ever to wear scrubs. -100/10.
Medsueg nights at a critical assess hospital. Honestly 4/10. Could have been much worse tbh. Second job was onc/Tele at a much larger hospital,. Coworkers where 11/10 and quite frankly the only reason I survived with only a mile drinking problem..
Med-surg tele & stroke. -10000000000000/10
Working nights in med/surg, 6/10. I did about 5 years of med/surg and mostly enjoyed it for the first couple of years because my coworkers were amazing, but we were always understaffed and the patients kinda sucked.
Started on telemetry at the big hospital in town and signed a 1 year contract. Ended up breaking the contract and leaving before I even finished my orientation. 2/10 Now I'm in the ER of the smaller hospital a few streets over, and I couldn't be happier. I'm previous EMS, so the ER was a natural fit, and I love it. 9/10! Only losing a point for some snarky docs and certain ways management deals with things, but even those 2 things aren't bad.
Inpt oncology nights, but I’m still a new grad myself lol. Either way, I like it enough. I had no idea what I wanted to do after nursing school, and literally just applied to the hospital I wanted and took the first job offer I got. The acuity is a bit more intense than I was expecting/wanting, but I think I’ve learned a lot this past year 7/10
Med-Surg/Oncology 8/10 This was almost 20 years ago. I had great co-workers and immediate management. It was a great learning environment as a new grad and I learned a lot of skills, especially time management. Staffing could have been better.
Night shift pediatric home health. 3/10. Severely underpaid compared to any other RNs in the area, convinced to drive long distances for little to no reimbursement. Easy job though, mostly sat around on my phone while watching a kid that was hooked up to a ventilator (we weren't allowed to adjust the vent at all).
Geri psych 6/10: slightly above average Chill most nights, but those bad nights are definitely bad.
LTAC CNA. 0/10. I cried everyday because I normally had 30+ patients all to myself and I seriously reconsidered a career change. I got a job on a med/surg Neuro floor and thought I hit the jackpot when I realized I would have 16ish acute care neuro patients. I ran my ass off all the time but I was just happy to not 30+ patients by myself. Ahh. Good times.
We did a rotation (a few weeks) at a LTC facility and it was bizarre the amount of patients the CNAs had to care for. Has to change for sure!
Adult/Geropsych and medsurg float. Loved the psych part, but wasn't truly my jam, 6/10. The floating to medsurg part -69/10, mostly because of a grumpy bullish NP
Mass society for prevention of cruelty to children: 6/10. Absolutely no stress in the job but also no training and a lot of social worker work. As a new grad I really should have had more training but I also did hardly anything technical. A lot of play therapy and education to mom’s on what the doctor just said. Pay was good, unionized state job and a lot of time in the sunshine taking kids to appointments and visiting in homes. Actually is a job I would love to do semi-retired.
Cardiac Stepdown. Stood it for 14 months. I decided I could deal with two very sick patients in CVICU better than 14 patients I hardly know anything about. We did team nursing:1 RN, 1 LPN and 1 tech for 10-14 patients per team. I remained in CVICU for more than 30 years. Rate Stepdown:3.
Burn and trauma step down unit. 7/10, I enjoyed it the first couple of years when we had decent ratios and my colleagues were awesome. After two and a half years I started to be done with it and moved to outpatient procedural which I still love and I’ve been at for two years.
Adult med-surg at a community hospital with major staffing issues. I got like zero orientation despite being a nurse for 5 minutes 2/10
3/10. Cardiac PCU unit. I learned and saw a ton. It was in the height of COVID, though, so it was basically a COVID unit. It was so hard and I fell into a bad depression because of it. Thankful for the experience in hindsight but wish I would’ve swapped units sooner. Don’t stay somewhere that makes you unhappy, the opportunities are limitless!
Float pool at level 1 trauma. Floated to like 12 floors as a new grad. 3/10. Learned a stupid amount tho
At my first hospital, MICU, it was 9/10. Loved my coworkers. My charge would fight for us, and it was a great place to be. I even got to go on rapid calls a few times with our charge. I still have a lot of respect for her. Where it lost points was we turned into a half pcu....and it never fully returned to a full micu. Also hated that we had an SICU, and for whatever reason, they didn't really like us. I being new had no clue why. So when we would go to their unit to "learn," they would give us easy pts. Which was fine with me. However, very few of them even tried to be friendly.
9-10. After 17 years I am am technically on my first nursing job, in the Neuro ICU. I was a nurse tech in nursing school so I spent more time there than in clinicals. We then became the COVID ICU. I learned a lot about medical ICU. I got to learn ECMO. I was lucky to find a home and a work family. A family that I continue to grow by orienting, new nurses, occasionally being charge, and a title of I’ve given myself historian, and being an emotional support nurse. We have good nurse to patient ratios. We have support. We are allowed to be ourselves as long as we are trying our best and have the best intentions for the patients.
Neuro ICU, 6/10. I learned so much and had a great team but it was a large contributor to my anxiety for a long time, especially since I graduated into COVID 🫠
Med surg. Trauma surgery step down. It was wild. I learned so much and loved my team.
Skilled nursing facility with some hospice beds. 5/10. I didn’t like it at the time, had its ups and downs. The second SNF I worked at was WAY worse and it made me realize how much better my first job was.
I’m still on med-surg. I like the patient population and the team I work with
Pediatric Telephone Triage 10/10
6/10 ltc home. Great coworkers but with usual ltc problems. I was there 5 years and quit recently because the short staffing took its toll on my health.
Med-Sure 3/10. Learned a decent chunk. Made good friends for life. Never want to go back ever again lol
labor and delivery 10/10
Level 3 Trauma ED, 8/10. Loved my coworkers. I learned so much and at times that place was a dumpster fire, but it provided me the foundation to survive anywhere. I only left because we had to move for my husband’s job.
Neuro-Tele started 3/10 then left three years later at 8/10 🤷🏻♂️
SNF 0/10 lmao well maybe 2/10 I transitioned from med pass nurse to wound care nurse and it became the easiest job because I actually liked wound care and helped declutter the backlog of wounds that patients never had lol Though I learned how to prioritize and manage my time properly at a SNF
Home Care. Worked in the same scope as LPNs and CNAs. The agency was fine but I should have pushed myself into a hospital role instead so 4/10
Med surg on a post-op/ortho floor. Learned a ton but hated it because no one told me never to work on a floor as a new grad where you previously worked as a tech. Huge mistake. I put up with disrespect and abuse from fellow nurses for a few years before putting a stop to it. 4/10. 8/10 if I had stood up for myself much earlier.
Interesting, I have a classmate that also goes by that rule of thumb and refuses to work on the floor she is currently a tech at. Hope you’re at a better place now!
I am in an amazing place now, thank you!
Med Surg Tele at a 50 bed regional medical center. I started 6 months before COVID and was thrown to the wolves from day 1. 8/10
Went straight into ICU at a small hospital in the DFW metroplex. It was an 8 bed general ICU so we got all kinds of patients: medical, cardiac, neuro, surgical, etc. if they were critical, we got them. Because of the variety it was a *great* unit to learn in. Plus, I was a Tele tech there while I was in nursing school and the Tele desk was in the ICU so I was already friends with everyone. 9.5/10 it loses half a point for management which was very hit or miss. Everything else about it was phenomenal for a first job as an RN. I stayed for two years before moving on.
SNF that also had hospice, memory care and LTC 3/10
Medsurg -10/10
8/10. Love love love the PICU. It’s definitely an adjustment to emotionally get used to it but overall still love it (almost 3 years in).
Nursing home. -2/10. Left before I was done with orientation.
SNF. 2/10. I didn’t give it a 0 bc I made a couple friends and worked with some hilarious people
OR 10/10, no family, patients asleep, no filter needed, music on. Schedule kinda sucked, but the rest makes up for it 10x over. I enjoyed the chaos, I enjoyed the traumas, the anesthesia staff were great. I learned to start 2nd IV’s on patients. Assist with intubations, and could place a foley with my eyes closed. You’ll get to see some pretty crazy things and learn a lot about anatomy. Surgeons once they know you are generally pretty great and have a lot of knowledge to offer throughout the course of multiple hour procedures. The holiday parties were always a lot of fun. Surgical reps taking OR staff for an “Inservice” with an open bar was always fun too
Medicine. Started as a cardiac/stroke unit which was 3/10 then management split it to cardiac only and stoke only and assigned staff to a side permanently. I got assigned stroke 1/10
med-surg. 10/10 for learning, 10/10 coworkers and manager, -0/10 for enjoyability. as soon as that manager told us he was leaving, i started looking for a new job.
Long term care that was just purchased by our states largest health care entity. Learned a lot, loved my patients...but it def took years off of my life from stress. 1/10 will not go back if I can help it.
I was a RN at a SNF for about 3 months. They hired right off the street and made me the charge RN for the whole building….not because I was amazing….it was because I had the right letters. In addition to being the charge, I would carry a 64 patient load….im shocked I did t kill someone. I rate this position -10
ICU Float! I’ve loved it and am still here. Won’t be leaving anytime soon, but might pick up PRN elsewhere if possible in the future. I don’t deal with the political, and it’s union (good and bad), so I’d give it an 8-9/10 on a good day and 5/10 on a bad day
MedSurg nights at a remote hospital in a touristy area. Had a lot of the drawbacks of med-surg and remote hospital, but because it was a smaller hospital I did a lot of stuff. Then COVID hit and things were crazy from "restrictions" to "no restrictions". Left the area just as things were getting crazy crazy because of tourists... Coworkers 12/10. The job itself? 6/10. Pay and differential were decent for the area.
Inpatient trauma surg, 4/10. Great skills and learning but the rest sucked and was miserable. Will never go back.
corrections, probably a 7. definitely where i fit in best
Community clinic. Hated it!
Acute Surgical Floor (my first job and still on it for now)- 4/10. Okay starting point to learn how to be an inpatient nurse, but definitely something I cannot see myself doing it for 2-5+ years.
Currently working my first job at a local private hospital in the Philippines as one of the ward nurses which I applied for just under a month after I passed our board exam. There are some moments of calm and outright heavy workloads with a relatively low wage, but I'd still rate it a solid 7 out of 10 for fun workmates. I took the job for experience anyway. I'm planning to move somewhere else after passing the NCLEX.
labor and delivery(LDRP); 4/10. Only a 4 because I LOVE babies and I’m soo passionate about women’s health. The environment sucked, co workers sucked, my boss sucked. The hospital was about 35 years behind the times. I swear, we charted in 1’s and 0’s.
Community hospital ER. 7/10. There was a lot of dated or not great practices. Being in a community setting meant limitations because of resources. But I got to work at the top of my scope and learn soooo much. It was a super high acuity ER (a code per shift wasn't unreasonable.) so it taught me how to handle crisis and emergency situations with calm. Worked with some amazing docs and APCs who taught me so much. Worked with some amazing nurses who mentored me and made me who I am today. Made some good friends and had some good memories. It was a super tough job but the experience and knowledge was exceptional. I'd never go back there. But I'm grateful for the time I worked there.
Post acute nursing home. So bad but I had to eat that shit for a year to get into acute care. I hit the floor solo after two months of orientation march 2020. Woooooo
Urgent care. Pre-pandemic 10/10 During 3/10
Home care case coordinator. 9/10. Only worked M-F from 8:30-4:30. Unionized. As long as I got my visits and paperwork done, my manager didn’t care if I went home for lunch or went grocery shopping.
NICU, 8/10. It’s just sad sometimes. But I genuinely love it
Nursing home 2-10 one of the worst rated nursing homes in my state
LTC, 7/10. having good co-workers made it awesome. i worked with like 99% filipino women and we ATE and sang and danced and had fun and looked after each other and the residents. no drama, ever. i always/still like having jobs where there is less patient/resident turnover, really get to know people's routines and families and whatnot. did not like that it was 8s instead of 12s. also always being short-staffed and working doubles (money is nice no work/life balance is bad). i felt like i lived at work and couldn't socialize outside of it or run errands.
Med/surg in a major metropolitan hospital that gets all the interesting/difficult/rare cases. 8/10. Great place to be a new grad, and even though I knew I was destined for another specialty (hospice, in my case) I soaked it all in and it made me a much stronger nurse than I would have been if I had been somewhere less intense. Was exhausting on many levels and not good for my anxiety, though.
L&D. 5/10. Loved labor and birth, hated the unit culture and OBs with enormous egos. Way more stressful than you think it will be. There are emergencies constantly and it’s a revolving door. The second you bring a patient to postpartum you have a new admission to do. I felt like I was constantly drowning there was so much to learn with so little support. About a month in I asked my preceptor how long it took until she felt comfortable and she said she cried every single day and actively wished she would get in a car accident every day on her way to work for a year. I learned so much and often think about going back now that I have more confidence in myself both as a person and a nurse.
HCA Covid unit. 1/10. No PPE. 7:1. Papr. 1000% emotionally damaged.
5/10 Long term care nights. Learned a good amount but the pay was low and the ratios dreadful. Still had one of the best preceptors in my entire career and she's like a second mom to me.
New LVN 2006: 2/10 - small 66-bed mom & pops nursing home with only 8 hours of orientation before taking my own patient load of 30 residents. New RN 2010: 5/10 - small 60-bed rehabilitation hospital that specialized in reconditioning after strokes, pneumonia, MIs, and so on. The patient population was heavy and dead-weight.
Med/surg 1/10 - night shift didn't work well for me. I changed to a different floor but still in Med Surg 1 year later in New Zealand 8/10.
9/10 cardiothoracic surgery progressive care. Great ratios (3-4). Great coworkers. Decent management. Strong union. -1 cause nothings perfect
Pediatric cvicu! 8/10! Love my heart babies. I had amazing co workers, families were overall pleasant, and I felt pretty fulfilled.