Forced to Resign at the end of a Versant Residency Program

[sanaalam]

Since I graduated nursing school I have always found great advice on this site to guide me along the way. Unfortunately I never saw myself in this situation. It took me a almost 10 months to find a new grad job in California and I was so excited it was a great hospital and in pediatrics med/surg. In my second phase of of residency I was unable to handle 3 patient load required on our unit. I made some medication errors, not that I hurt the patient thank god. However it showed to my managers that I was unsafe. Part of my anxiety was having more 2 preceptors who just very different. One made me feel super confident and I did work smoothly and the second was always picking on each step and undermining my confidence. Her expectations were so high and she made me feel stupid. I finally was given one more chance and the managers helped me by giving me new preceptors and gave me room to grow. I switched to night shift and had an extension for 1-month. I was always so uncomfortable and anxious that I was going to make a mistake. I was doing well and then made the mistake of forgetting to double check insulin when multiple things came up. I was in my last week and I was felt like I was going to make it out of residency!

Since I was making such progress they said they wanted to give me the option to resign and I had to choose right at that instant or they'd have to terminate me. It was the hardest thing to do as I signed my resignation letter, turned in my badge, and walked out the door.

I've been quite lost for some time and am trying to get back into the applying game. There are so many questions I don't know the answers to.

1. For instance if I worked for 5 months do I still qualify for a new grad residency program?
   
2. Do hospitals hire someone who was at another residency program?
   
   
3. Can I apply to another Versant residency program or would I get denied?
   
   
4. Should I list my 5 month experience on my resume as Registered RN I or RN Resident?
   

I would like to try outpatient clinics or home health jobs but I don't have the minimum 1-year experience. I feel embarrassed when I read about other new grad's experience with getting fired. It seemed they had worse situations such as more patients in their work load and in more harder specialties. I was on a transplant med/surg unit and I usually got RN I assignments. I find more fault with myself than I do with my place work except for how they trained preceptors. When I reflect on all this I dont know how to respond to the burning question about why I resigned when people ask?

I would really appreciate some guidance. I just want to get back into the game and I try again to see where I fit in. If there is anyone else whose left pediatrics or in a similar situation I 'd like to know what areas of nursing you chose next.

[hurleygirli1]

So OP.... Did you got with the research job?

And everyone else, what do you say to future employers when you made some errors as a new grad (no med errors and no patient harm, more just technicalities/charting issues) and you're encouraged to resign? And then you decide to resign because the work environment is hostile already (bullying and such) and the job isn't worth fighting for? What is a political way to spin that in an interview for a new employer after only about 5 months of nursing experience?

[Psychcns]

You have to say something about the job not being a good fit. If they dig be prepared to discuss what you didn't like and what you learned. You have to convince the new place you will be a good fit there.

A different group of nurses might be all you need.

I think floor nursing is very hard- the time management, the detail, the amount of tasks, the perfectionism. But you can learn a lot.

If you have trouble moving in from being pushed out of an environment that was not working for you, you might want to get some counseling- it can only help.

[hurleygirli1]

Fortunately, I have access to EAP benefits for 30 days after I am no longer with the hospital and am taking advantage of my 3 counseling that are paid for by my benefits. I am just scared that another hospital won't want to take a chance on someone who was with their first nursing job for 5 months :/

[sunmaidliz]

Counseling can never hurt. But I'm recognizing more and more that most new grad problems is a lack of confidence in themselves. Yeah, floor nursing is hard because is it such an involved job that requires a high level of competency - in other words, it's a job where you need to do it right and well the first time out with little orientation. That's where I have trouble. And I think the nature of the job creates a level of stress in a person that creates a work culture were colleagues will bully each other.

I think hospital nursing is awful. It isn't caring for acutely sick patients that's awful, it's the culture of the job. It requires the nurse to pull out her inner b*tch and from what I noticed... the b*tchy ones are the new grads who are successful on the floor. It's a shame...

It took two years, a long time of looking, two failed jobs, and a hard look in the mirror to finally believe in myself that I am what I had trained to be. I am a nurse. I am a REGISTERED NURSE. I think if I believed in myself and had the confidence I had now when I first started, I wouldn't have been the first on the chopping block to be layed off on my first job and I wouldn't have let my bully of a boss intimidate me to tears (and eventually fire me) on my second.

And second of all, it's all about finding your niche, where you shine at your brightest. I started a new job at a blood bank as the RN supervisor and find that I'm shining brighter than I ever thought I could, given my failed experiences. Maybe the floor is your niche. Maybe it isn't. Maybe your dream job isn't the dream you thought it would be. I got into nursing because I had a brain tumor 10 years ago and I wanted to be on the neuro ICU ward, giving care to people whose shoes I had been in. But that's not my strength, even though it was my dream.

Jobs will want you if you project that you are want-able (if that's a word). No one will care about your past experience if they feel confident in you that you can do the job. And only you can project that confidence if you believe it of yourself.

[alexis_xoxo]

I was given the option to resign at the end of a really lousy new grad orientation. I took the termination because it made me eligible for unemployment.

Nursing sucks, darling. You got caught up in why it's so hard for new nurses to transition and why there are now an abundant of policies that exclude new grads. Most of it has to do with confidence. So, let's look at several pointsL

-A med error doesn't make you unsafe. It makes you human. We have all made med errors. Your preceptors, your managers, the head of your residency. The fact that they gave you a *chance* after you made a med error is... well, pretty bad. Because studies have shown that when nurses are disciplined for med errors, the more likely they are to cover up errors in the future, which is actually very unethical. You were set up for failure. And that's nursing.

-After 5 months, they should have better prepared you. Since this is a residency program, it's designed to make nurses succeed. They should have had ways to deal with your lack of confidence, how many patients you could take on. Residency programs are residencies for a reason. They are supposed to be designed to make a nurse completely functional at the end of it. They failed YOU.

- Just because it's a *residency* doesn;t mean they are a residency. A lot of the time, it's a fancy way of precepting new grads for less pay. I don't know much about the Versant residency but I wouldn't get too caught up that you didn't make what you think is a good residency. The fact that you were assigned preceptors that didn't help you grow, that they penalized you for med errors, they didn't address your needs.

I am from California, too and I know how tough the market is. After I left my new grad position, it took a full year for me to find another one. It was nearly impossible to get into a residency with the competition so bravo to you. I took a job at an LTC, HATED IT, and got fired after three months for the stupidest reason, like Nancy felt that I disrespected her because I talked over her and I had unauthorized overtime for the day I stayed 4 hours late ON MOTHERS DAY (I have a 2 year old) because someone called off "sick" that day. Stupid.

That gave me a total of 6 months experience. To be honest, I didn't want to do a residency. By the time I left my second job, I had been out of school for 2 years. And secondly, after a lot of soul searching, I realized I didn't like bedside nursing. Not because I didn't like the patients. I LOVED being there for the patients at the bedside and that's why I went into nursing. But it's the culture of floor nursing that I don't like. How managers can be bullies, how there are cliques and drama with your coworkers.

6 months of experience put me in a better position than a fresh new grad and I found another job rather quick. I took a position as an RN supervisor at a blood bank. I had to think outside the box to find that job and got turned down for a LOT of jobs becaues I lacked the magical year. And blood bank nursing is known not to be heavy on the clinical skills you will need on the floor. But it works for me because I will probably never set a toe on the floor again. But it might work for you and I'll tell you why.

-You have the skills. You are very smart and you can do it. Your problem with that the culture or nursing psyched you out. And that is not a failing on you at all. Switching gears and working a low stress job might fill in the blanks to get you your magical year and giveyou time to build your confidence and reflect on your past experience. I bet after you fill in the gap you will be stellar!

You can always try an LTC but LTC nursing is... well, it takes a special kind of nurse to do LTC nursing. It's hard work and you don't utilize the skills you did in acute care. And there's a culture to LTC nursing that is icky. If the hospital culture psyched you out, I don't think you will be happy in LTC and it will be a LOOOONG 7 months.

One final thought is that the hospital is not the end-all-be-all of nursing. There are a lot of ways to connect with patients that avoid the icky-ness of floor. Don't get tunnel vision and think that the only place you should be is in the hospital and in a residency.

And in terms of what to tell people when they asked why you left. "It wasn't a good fit". Everyone understands that one. If they ask why, just say "I feel as if I can learn and grow as a nurse much more effectively in an environment like your facility/hospital/company" and no one will argue with that.

Good luck.

This was an amazing post! I whole-heartedly agree with every word.

[MsMamaShort]

Thanks for your replies sunmaidliz...Wish there were more nurses out there like you.