Started outside med surg or ICU: will specialty units really pass on you?
Discussion starterThe question
Someone on r/nursing asked this in early October: five months into a first job that isn't med surg or ICU, everyone warning that specialty units will pass on them because of where they started.
If you moved into ICU, ED, L&D or the OR after starting somewhere else, where did you start, how long did you stay, and what got you the transfer or the interview?
The conversation
1 replyWhere you started matters less than how long you stayed and what you can show from it. Most specialty units hiring experienced nurses ask for a year or two of acute care, and plenty of the nurses who answered these threads got there from step-down, PCU, telemetry, or a clinic with a high-acuity population.
The internal transfer is usually the easiest door. Tell your manager what you're aiming for at your next check-in, shadow on the unit you want if your hospital allows it, and pick up the certification that unit respects. Those three things turn a resume from where you started into where you're going.
What would you tell them?
Answer from what you have seen. It posts without your name.
