I Don’t Want to be Pigeon-holed….
I hear that phrase all the time and, to be frank, it is driving me bonkers.
There are so many students who talk about what kind of nurse they would really like to be…perhaps OR, ER, Critical Care, whatever! Yet, they decide to become general med-surg nurses for the experience so they aren’t pigeon-holed.
I’ve talked to many types of nurses on many types of floors to try and get to the bottom of this. Weigh in if you will! So far, what I’m finding is that while getting the one year of experience has been good in the past, it isn’t so much the case anymore. People are becoming so specialized that wherever you go…you may be pigeonholed.
Several critical care nurses/managers said they don’t like taking floor nurses in because it is fairly difficult (if not impossible) to break their old habits and make them think like an ICU nurse. One nurse that I had met in clinicals on a ICU floor got sent back to the floor because she couldn’t get out of her floor nursing habits. At one hospital I rotate through, the med-surg nurses are getting certified for that specialty! I have a friend in PICU who tried to move to another hospital closer to her new home. They said she was overqualified for their PICU, too specialized for general pediatrics, and had no experience to be in the E.D. So, she continues to drive over an hour and a half to work.
My thought? Go where you want! I want to be a PICU nurse. No wonder the burnout rate is so high! If I have to go to an geriatric floor, I’ll probably cry. [Yes, I know a job is a job. But my happiness counts for something. So yes, I'll be happy I have a job if that's all I can get...but I'll still cry because my dreams of being in PICU will be so far away. Just keeping it real...]
I dunno. What are your thoughts on the matter?



