Help finding a "real" job.

[Jo Dirt]

I'm rambling I know but I'm between a rock and a hard place and I'm not quite sure where to go from here.

I've been doing private duty during my pregnancy. My patient I sat with regularly died so I've been working cases here and there to try to stay afloat since then, kind of like a transient, but I don't feel very secure doing this, and I guess it's just time to move on. I will deliver soon, I'm totally miserable but I realize I've got to think about getting another job.

I did home health for 8 months and I got to where I absolutely hated it. Hated it so bad when I got out of there I swore to get out of nursing. It's been four months and I don't feel so jaded now, but I'm not sure where to turn, either. I'm in a small town and the hospital and even the local nursing home is very clique-ish and only want certain kinds of people. So, it looks like I'll be driving regardless of what I do.

I've worked in either the nursing home or private duty most of my nursing career, but I'm wondering about hospital jobs now. I don't even want the "small-town" atmosphere where everybody knows your name. Just make me a number like everyone else, let me do my job and go home. I imagine this will mean traveling 60 miles to Nashville to do this, but at this point I'm not sure what else to do.

I just wonder what to expect going into a job interview at one of the hospitals?

I would prefer short-term work, wonder if 13 week at a time jobs through a travel agency would be good for me? I'm not experienced in the hospital, but from what I hear people say the nursing home isn't a whole lot different than a med surg floor.

Or maybe I should just hop the next train out of town...

[ShayRN]

I really hate to tell you this, but a hospital is like a small town. I worked at a very large Level 1 trauma center and everyone knew everything about everybody, lol. The only ones that really seemed isolated from the drama was nights. They just came, did their job and went home. Otherwise, I could tell you what residents were sleeping together, which doc was having an affair, which one was getting divorced because of an affair, which nurse was getting reprimanded for call offs, etc...

[dbihl, BSN, RN]

Yes as a male nurse I feel like I have joined a sorority house someimes. I think that for one 24 hour period, it would be interesting to see if there could be no talking about other people without them present unless it was something positive like "she had her baby" I suppose this would be appropriate for many other work environments besides hospitals as well. Oh and to answer your question motot mama, hop that train out of town!!!!! J?K try a step down unit, less patients and some different kind of cases can keep it interesting.