First Nursing job, and I drowned!

[galenanurse]

Hello everyone,

I am so stressed, I finally was hired as a new nurse, and fired after only 3 months

I have been through hell, I went thru a divorce while in nursing school, chemo & radiation for cancer, and now I am feeling totally worthless, and am not sure if I am cut out to be a nurse?

Here was my situation, please point out where I slipped?

I was hired at a skilled nursing facility/nursing home, and was given 3 days out of an 8 day orientation period and put on the floor early due to shortage. I worked second shift, and had to come in a half an hour early for the weekly mandatory meeting. I was supposed to be on the floor by two, after report, and be ready to pass meds by 2:30. I worked the skilled until dealing with pt's the facility had never taken on before; there were 3 tube feeding, wounds, pt's on rounds the clock narc's, ect ... pt's that needed a lot of time sensitive care.

Our meeting went 3 hrs late, I wasn't allowed to start my shift until 5:30, all my feeding were behind, and when I was finally able to get out on the floor I was told I was the only nurse on both wings, with no med aide, and to top it off I had two new admits! I was very stressed, this was a huge load. I asked the ADON for help, and she said no she had to go pick out her wedding music.

I pulled out both meds carts, and passed meds priority first instead of one hall after another. I know this probably wasn't the best way to handle the shift, but I had tube feeding, and time sensitive meds that were already late, and as a new new nurse w/o experience that's what seemed right to do? I also had skin skeets that had to be done asap on our new admits & they both were on coumadin & covered head to toe with bruises!

Long story short I made a few med errors, and was devastated with myself. I was drowning with out a life boat to save me! I look back at the situation, and did the best I could, but still feel terrible. I was fired for med errors, but the DON said to still use her as a reference, that I was a very compassionate nurse, and every one liked me.

I need to get my confidence back and start applying for new jobs,My question is what to put on my applications now? I only worked there 3 months?

Thank you for listening.....

J

[caroladybelle, BSN, RN]

Be glad to get out of that ridiculous situation, with your license intact.

[whitneyLOL]

First off, congratulations on getting through nursing school while enduring so much. Nursing school is hard enough (so I've heard.. I'm only in pre-reqs!) and you had some serious issues to deal with on top of all that.

I'm not a nurse yet, but I'd say take this as a lesson learned. I don't feel I could tell you what should have been done or anything, but if you did your best, that's all you can do. It sounds like you definitely got the short end of the stick at this position. Of course this can happen in life.

I'm sorry you had to deal with this, and do NOT be discouraged over your skills. You are a new nurse, and like I said.. clearly you have gone through a lot. Be proud of yourself. Lots of people can't even GET hired right now. Keep pushing through.. you are tough!

[Leelee2]

""I was hired at a skilled nursing facility/nursing home, and was given 3 days out of an 8 day orientation period and put on the floor early due to shortage. I worked second shift, and had to come in a half an hour early for the weekly madatory meeting. I was supposed to be on the floor by two, after report, and be ready to pass meds by 2:30. I worked the skilled until dealing with pt's the facility had never taken on before; there were 3 tube feeding, wounds, pt's on rounds the clock narc's, ect...pt's that needed alot of time sensitive care.

Our meeting went 3 hrs late, I wasn't allowed to start my shift until 5:30, all my feeding were behind, and when I was finally able to get out on the floor I was told I was the only nurse on both wings, with no med aide, and to top it off I had two new admits! I was very stressed, this was a huge load. I asked the ADON for help, and she said no she had to go pick out her wedding music.""

my first advice is to learn from past mistakes. Do not let anyone take away your orientation time, until you are ready to be on the floor alone. Second point, you should have left the meeting earlier, patients on the floor should be the first concern. Thirdly, ADON's answer of "no" to help, unacceptable, and I would have called her out on that. So just learn from the experience. The management was wrong in my opinion to do some of the above as well. As far as applying for other jobs, I think you should still list this job as experience on resume/apps- in reason for leaving you could chose to leave it blank, and explain briefly the circumstances during the interview. If the interviewer has half a brain, they will see that you were put in an unfair position there anyways. I would also suggest looking into hospital, or clinic settings, and stay away from LTC! Keep looking up there are Better things in your future!!

[Redhead28]

A lesson learned. It sounds as if the place was chronically and dangerously understaffed. Be glad to get out. Start applying for positions you would like to do. If they try to shorten orientation tell them you're not ready if your not. Put this on your resume and be honest about what happened. If I was a nurse manager and heard that tale, I would understand that the fault was with the system not necessarily you, and give you a try.

[itsmejuli]

OMG....that is just insane! Be glad you are out of there.

The more I read about LTCs around the country the happier I am with the LTC I work in.

[Fiona59]

I'd have a chat with the DON and find out what she planned to tell anyone who called for a reference. If she's willing to give you a good reference, why isn't she willing to give you an extended trial period?

Then I'd probably use "I realized that while LTC helped me develop my time management skills, I realized my heart lay in active treatment" line at future interviews.

[CRNAorBust]

Dear First NUrsing job,

I'm very sorry you had such a lousy first job but , and I hate to say it, welcome to real world nursing. I am 57 yrs old and I have had 3 jobs so far and none of them have taken.....the longest one was 2.5 yrs and now I'm out on my can as well.

What you need to do is take a couple of days or so and regroup yourself. You can't possibly understand anything that went on in total when you're so upset. It never feels good to get let go but when it does you have to look at the bright side of things and say to yourself the next job will be better...........and it could very well be.

I started after graduation in an ICU residency which had me on the floor in 6 months when I tought it was going to be for a whole year of training. I made one mistake and boom out i went in 6 months. Then I was on a med surg floor and for whatever the reason I could not tell precisely when a pt was going bad. Plus i had a host of other poor critical thinking issues. So that one lasted 10 months. Then I figured well if I can't manage people who we're trying to make better maybe I could manage those who were dying....well that took the 2.5 yrs before it just ended today. So you see, for some of us newbies we have to do trial by fire before we can understand where we belong.

So after your two days of getting over the shock sit down and start a journal or talk with some people or even a therapist or career counselor (I'm doing the counselor thing). This will help you figure out your strengths and weaknesses and then at some point you'll be ready to figure out what challlenge to try next. Think of it as a learning lesson. You picked up some knowledge, you certainly got dumped on from the sounds of it. So now you have an understanding of what questions to ask if you were to decide to try the same type of nursing. If you feel it really didn't suit you then you need to figure out what might work better for you. Its all about knowing who you are and what might work best for you.

Hang in there and I wish us both the best :)..........SMILE cause its only a job....NOT your entire life.....be glad you're not still in such a stressful place that's constantly sapping your energy and making you sick. LIfe is about balance.....go find your balance.....

All the best.....

[roser13, ASN, RN]

Do NOT consider this a failure on your part. It is a massive failure on the part of the facility.

While this is all fresh in your mind, write down every little detail of that shift, just as you did here only with more detail. If you are ever questioned in an interview situation about why you were let go, you will be able to explain the circumstances under which you were terminated. Plus, in the future, when you have some experience under your belt, you will be able to re-visit that shift and realize how grossly mistreated you were.

If it were me, I would be tempted to write a very calm, factual letter to the owners of the facility, outlining your experience. I don't know if that's a wise course of action, though, because I don't know your location and circumstances. If they're almost "the only game in town" I guess you should not do that.

Whatever you do or don't do, remember that a new nurse should never be placed in the situation that you were placed in. Heck, alot of experienced nurses (myself included) would have drowned after a shift like that!

[galenanurse]

Thank guy's I was feeling so down about the whole thing, I always envisioned myself as this great nurse, especially after being so sick myself. LeeLee2 the problem is where I live there is not a nursing shortage, and it's a take what you can get situation....I hope to get into hospice or Oncology one day, but for now a job will do : )

[PhotoNurseMan]

You do not want to work in a place like the one you describe and I feel very bad for the patients as well.

As a new nurse you need to find a place to work that allows for an adequate amount of orientation. Your confidence has been injured here and you need confidence to be a nurse. We all hear stories from experienced nurses how they were "thrown to the wolves" and how they survived. This leads to the old adage how "nurses eat their young". We should not continue this attitude as a profession.

Good luck with your future.

[rosey2007]

IMO I think that they were setting you up to fail. You already had way too many strikes against you when you started that shift. Hopefully your next job will be better.