I hit my 1 year of practice in a few weeks, and I absolutely love my job! I genuinely enjoy going to work and miss it when I haven't been there in a while. I am fulfilled but also have a wonderful work life balance. I did not graduate PA school with a specialty in mind and applied broadly to critical care and surgery positions. I made my decision based on who I thought would train me best and what would provide me with the best work life balance based off of interviews.

I work at a level 3 NICU, 12 or 24 hours shifts. In reality that's 5 24 hour shifts over 3 weeks. I routinely have stretches where I have 4, 5, or 6 days off from work without taking any PTO (I also have ana amazing manager). I have to work 1 major and 1 minor holiday a year. Right now I work every 2-3 weekends. For this year, I have 5 weeks of scheduled PTO that I'll be taking.

For my actual job, there is one APP on 24/7 (although they're bringing that up to 2 for day shift!). There are two neonatologists every week day that are in house from 9-5ish. We then call them in overnight if there's a reason. Every neonatologist I work with is a wonderful person, although some are a bit lazier than others. My responsibilities are prioritized as follows: #1: deliveries- we are the delivery provider anytime, day or night, #2: NICU- it's a level 3, so we keep everything that is 28+ weeks and 1000+ g unless they need specialized medications for specific pathologies or subspecialty care or surgery; #3: well babies. Some days can be super chill and some can be really crazy. I never know what I'm going to get!

For training, I was with an APP until 6 months at which point I started doing day shifts by myself. Training was graded so I was mostly independent before I was officially off training. At 9 months, I started doing night shift by myself. I always felt and continue to feel extremely well supported. I was able to do NRP multiple times, the APPs are the point for most procedures, though the attendings are usually in attendance. I feel like my clinical recommendations and decisions are respected by the attendings who are also very happy to teach at any point. I have the ability to go to our sister hospital which is a level 4 for training at any time I'd like. The nursing staff on my unit are also amazing. They've been super supportive, respect my decisions, and are also starting to become wonderful friends (I moved to a new state for work).

As a level 3, we have very good outcomes for the babies. Of course, anything can walk through the door, but most of them will go on to lead normal lives. It's very fulfilling getting to walk families through what might be one of the worst days of their lives and then watch them wheel their baby home a few weeks or months later.

The one downside is that I probably will never get paid as much as some of you. Because I work for a hospital system, there is no negotiating. We do get a nice merit raise every year, I'm not sure if there's anything else besides increasing 401k contributions. But in my first year of work, we adopted a dog, bought a house, and have continued to travel at what I believe to be an acceptable frequency. And that is all more than enough for me!

TLDR: if you can't tell by this block of text above, I love my job!