Cardiac Nurse in the House!

In case you're new here, I just recently finished the long journey of nursing school and graduated in August.

Obviously, that meant the job hunt started in June. I had a few interviews on all different floors and when Anna and I talked about what the nursing link up was going to be this month, I just knew I wanted to share my job selection process with you.

Nursing is one of the few careers in which job security is pretty stable but it's definitely not foolproof. There were a lot of us in my graduating class that had jobs lined up before we graduated, a few that found out the week after graduation and a few that are still going on interviews.
I was lucky in that I had two hospitals, two different floors, that were willing to offer me a job. It was hard to choose. Much harder than I thought it would be.
Obviously, I ended up as a cardiac nurse, and I'm so glad I picked this job.
My first day was last week and although I'm still going through orientation, I absolutely love my hospital and each coworker I've met has been amazing. I'm also lucky enough to have started with 2 other new grads and we are hitting it off amazingly well! 
It has been a bit of an adjustment for me. I've been in critical care for my clinicals throughout school for the past two semesters. I'm used to being in the patient's room at the very least every hour and charting every two hours. I'm also used to procedures like crazy and having to go with patients when they get transported off the floor. It's a bit of a culture shock.
I know all you nursing students are wondering why I chose the job I did. There were a few things. The main thing was that the hospital I work for seemed so much more organized. There was a clear orientation process explained to me with a solid start date. At first, I was gungho for the other job, but as the days wore on, I realized that the organization and procedures were going to be a huge comfort for me in my first nursing job.
After I was done with my clinicals, I realized how stressed I was during my leadership clinical in an ICU unit. Leadership is basically an unpaid internship in which I had to complete a certain amount of hours in the semester. By the end of it, I was almost (I say almost because as a student there were a few things I couldn't do) completely caring for the full patient load. After I was done, I realized that starting in the ICU would be an amazing experience and I'd definitely learn a ton, starting on a cardiac floor might be a better transition. My preceptor in the ICU had already warned me that I'd feel like I was drowning a bit for awhile if I started in the ICU.
A lucky perk is that the benefits at the hospital I ended up working at are better but I'm a firm believer in not going somewhere for the benefits. 
My best advice to a new grad or a nursing student just looking for a bit of wisdom in the job search would be to keep an open mind about where you want to work, when you go for your interview-talk to the staff members, and to try to leave the benefits out of your mind when actually making a selection. They should be important but not the most important. 
I certainly never thought I'd end up as a cardiac nurse, but I'm so glad I did and I truly believe that my life has been pushing me in this direction the whole time!


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New to this link up?
If you're a nursing student, tell us about where you hope to work! If you're a nurse, talk about your first job and tell us all the great things you learned or why you worked there first!