Charge nurse?

Hello All,

I right now I have 5 years of experience in inpatient psych and just recently took a job at a skilled/long term facility to beef up my nursing skills. I was afraid of being labeled as a psych nurse "with no real nursing skills". I am getting a lot of skills at my new job, (jg tubes, trachs, wound, ect.) but I was just offered a charge position at my psych job.
For those who have been in this game longer than me, which do you think looks better down the road on a resume??
Being a charge at a psych hospital or getting the medical skills that I'm not getting there?



Thanks!
How long have you been full time at the skilled/LTC facility? Can you take the Charge RN position and continue PRN at the skilled/LTC facility? Since you just started working there, I don't know if you'll be able to negotiate your hours. If not, I would choose learning skills over a psych charge RN position. Plus, if you just took a new position, you should probably stay there for at least a year, unless things are really bad.

I've been there for only about a month but I applied for PRN and they sort of pressured me into taking 28 hours a week to help cover the floor. It's pretty bad . They have the worst staffing issues I've ever seen. In fact, I've seen direct care staff there working 40 hours straight just to cover the floor. I'm thinking I could stay PRN. They finally hired at least more nurses.

Nursing skills can always be relearned. What is your nursing career goal? What aspect of nursing do you like most?

To be honest, I'm not really sure what my goals are now. I thought I wanted something more medically geared than psych but now that I'm doing it, I don't know that I like it. I feel horrible saying this but some of the things I do are just kinda of gross. . I don't know that anyone LOVES digitally stimulating someone though. I guess I just want to keep my options open. The real big draw for the charge nurse position is that it pays about $8 more an hour.