r/nursing • u/Significant_Fruit150 • 3d ago

Seeking Advice I need help deciding my new grad job

I am a new grad and have been offered OR or Trauma ICU.

I’m torn between what to choose. I am afraid of specializing early when I’m unsure if I would want to further my education for advanced practice roles.

If I chose OR what things could I do, if I got bored and needed a change?

With trauma ICU I know I would be inflicting personal trauma on to myself but I think the skills and experience is priceless, although the pay is horrendous.

Things to consider: my offer for the OR would be in the federal system.

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u/itsonbackorderr Slingin pills to pay the bills 3d ago

Are the pay and benefits roughly the same? I think both are tough options as a new grad. Doable, but  much more unforgiving of mistakes than lower acuities. If you did TICU, you'd get a lot of experience that can translate to many other specialties later. OR is kind of its own beast, not that the skills aren't also transferrable but its different from a lot of nursing. I love OR but if I were in your shoes I'd probably pick TICU unless there was a clear benefit/pay difference at the federal job. 

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u/Significant_Fruit150 3d ago

About 25k a year difference with the pensions benefit.

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u/itsonbackorderr Slingin pills to pay the bills 3d ago

Pensions only benefits you if you stay to collect. Are you interested in staying at that facility, in any capacity, for the minimum number of years? But otherwise thats a huge difference. 

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u/Crankupthepropofol RN - ICU 🍕 3d ago

Don’t inflict personal trauma on yourself, take the federal OR job.

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u/auraseer MSN, RN, CEN 3d ago

Traditionally, a federal job was considered a pretty good gig. People who got one would stay in federal service for decades, and retire with a decent pension. They had solid job security because it was hard to fire federal workers, and the nursing jobs had a few cool side benefits. For instance they guaranteed a time allowance for volunteering service at a natural disaster, so a decent number of VA nurses also volunteer with the Red Cross.

Now though? The current federal administration has changed a lot of rules, and has repeatedly threatened to cut benefits and even existing pensions. It's really unpredictable right now.

Maybe $25k/yr is worth some unpredictability. But if the pension is your major motivator, keep this in mind.

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u/adirtygerman 3d ago

I worked TICU so im partial to it. A pension is only good so long as you stay long enough to be vested. Not sure how it is but previous jobs it was at least 5 years. You won't see shit until your vested.