If You Can't Handle the Heat, Get Out of the Kitchen!

Nurses General Nursing

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Hi all,

I am a new grad-ish, I have been working the hospital for 6 months on a med floor. I am run ragged on a daily basis and hardly get my breaks. I know this is normal. If I get one break I consider that a success just as the other nurses do on my floor.

I got a written warning a couple months ago because of a documentation error, no patient harm. Just a bad day, so stressed I forgot to document.

I love caring for patients, hey I even had a couple cool moments with patients that made me think "Hey I have something to hold onto that makes this job worth while.'

But sometimes I feel my days are numbered at my job. At weak moments I desperately search and apply for non-hospital jobs looking for a way out. But when potential employers call, I don't respond...because by the time they do i have pepped talked myself back in staying at my job...."Just hold on for one more day..." Wilson Philips

Even though I keep my patients safe, I am just not going fast enough for management, I am expected to put up with poor staffing conditions, and abusive patients with a smile...welcome to nursing.

That's cool, I get it...the term "If you can handle the heat, get out of the kitchen!" slaps me in the face every time when I want to complain to myself about my job. Millions of nurses see the BS and they still do it. When I reflect upon my career path...lol...Scrubs some how deceptively guided me, foolish me.Too much day dreaming. Hospital nursing is like scrubs but with out the cool docs like Elliot or Turk. Just Dr.Cox with no charm and humor. Truth be told that is nursing, if you can't handle it you better get out because things are not going to change any time soon. Big fish eat little fish and keep it moving. Things move so fast, no one has time to mourn your untimely termination if it happens...on to the next one. The well of mercy in this world is desolate and barren.

I knew when i went into nursing it was not going to be easy...but I did not think it was going to be this hard and though squeezing a tear out of me is like squeezing blood out of a rock...I have a had moments on the floor in which the lump in my throat threatened to push the tears gates open. But with many deep breaths I have pulled my self together.

I want to be an ICU nurse, I know I am still very new to this game. I was elated when getting this job on the medical floor....my first step towards ICU then CRNA... I wanted to put in my years in med and serve my time but now I just want to get mine and ditch this place now that I have 6 months experience. I was willing to give them 1-2 years....but

The heat in the kitchen is hot and it is not my patients that concern me, it is management. I feel like I am a dime a dozen. If they fire me, there are a 1000 other willing applicants eager and ready to take my place. The world will un-remorsfully keep turning. Just another nurse who could not hack it. Sure they lose a little cash with the money they invested training me but they will be fine...but what about me? Start from the bottom again..?

I don't know if i will be fired but darn...I rather not wait to find out. A written warning...I have a feeling my supervisor has it out for me. She exaggerated everything in our meeting. That's fine, they got me. I take responsibility. But I don't think it needed to goto this extent. I am over medical. Documentation trumps patient care any day.

Sorry for the ramble but I need some answers...should i just start applying for ICU jobs and try and get out ASAP or try and tough it out some more and gamble not to be fired. Jumping to another medical job would be like starting at the bottom. I am okay at medical but i think with the right training I would be great in ICU. Many new grads do residency in ICU and succeed...Can't I as well with my med experience with a good icu training program?

I figure let me use this job as my leaping ground to get to ICU fast. I am not normally this cold. But I don't see why I should give my best years and energy to a place where the rewards are so few. They don't care if they suck me dry...."just work faster...harder...but go home on low census so we don't have to pay you' It does not seem like a good deal. This job is sucking me dry with no mercy. I might as well get what I can and get out with no remorse.

It is a doggy dog world in the hospital I work in.

Your thoughts....

The probationary period is 90 days at my job...passed that with flying colors.

I've been a new grad in the ICU for a year and I can tell you that in my case I loved it so much for the first 2 or 3 months...and then I was miserable. I was already looking for a way out, just like you. I hung in there and now after a year I feel much more comfortable and happy with my job. I think the first year is a roller coaster and I would suggest to try and go for the full 12 months before you leave. If after all that you're still unhappy by all means apply for some ICU positions. Just be ready to study study study and basically start from square one again.

I will try to stay for another 6 months.

It is my opinion that I am not looking for an excuse. I rather be wise. If I get fired...I have big girl pants...it has never happened to me...but I was not the first and wont be the last. But in this job market is it really worth it sticking it out, getting fired and then having that on my record? Then having to explain to every potential employer why I was fired.

I have a pharmacist friend after being fired it took him over a year to find a job. You all know how hard it is in the nursing market. Being fired in the medical field can black ball you. And at the end of the day it is your reputation that is at stake. Employers rather go with a clean slate than a nurse with a bad mark.

Being fired is not what is scary but the consequences of it. Why mess up my clean record and let myself be scr*wed over if I don't have to? Plus some hospitals report terminations to the Nursing Commission. Even if it had nothing to do with patient care. Been there, done that.

At a point it comes down to legality and business. Is sticking it out in MY best interest. If I am at real risk of being fired is it wise to stay? I don't think so.

It is not making an excuse, it is being wise. Nurses get scr*wed over all the time. Heck most of the women in my family are nurses. My mom warned me...but head strong, I was set on this career.

In the long run I have no intention of breaking my back doing floor nursing. I love the profession and the women (and men) in it. Strongest women i know are nurses. It amazes me their strength, smarts, and their hearts. But nursing is unforgiving in so many ways. They will ride your back till you break or you leave on your own accord.

I just want to know if I have a fair shot at staying or if I am on the path to being fired.

Are written warnings normal? Is this something I can bounce back from? How can I turn this around? No one ever talks about it when these things happen to them...everything is so hush hush at my job. I don't know whether I am one of the only ones who this has happened to or if it is happening all the time. The turn over rate at my job is very high.

If I can find a way to keep my job I will stick it out.

I think I will try setting my own goals based on the meeting I had with management. Trouble shoot on ways to improve daily. I want to give them a written response to this so they just don't have their side of things in my personal file. B*stards. I am going to try to stick it out.

But I will keep applying for better jobs just in case...

Sorry y'all can be a bit paranoid and I play out scenarios in my head. But I do think a written warning is serious and this has never happened to me before. I give them 150% when I am on the floor and they know it. They could not cut me some slack? SO they write me up for a documentation error.

You are dealing with professionals that "eat their young". Remember to breathe and that there is stress in ANY area of nursing, it may be a different kind of stress depending on where you are, but it is there. I have worked in clinic as a public health nurse and on a med-surg floor and they are both challenging, but in different ways.

I quickly learned I do not work well in a hospital setting and prefer clinic nursing. I thrive in the environment. Research different areas and find where you work best ;)

If that is management attitude ( which it also is at my facility) you'll probably only deal with more of the same in ICU. (getting 3 pts instead of 1 or 2 etc) . The grass is rarely greener. your description seems typical to me

I know...I know it will be even harder in ICU. But my goals require me to walk this path. And i want to. ICU is going to be hard but that is where I ultimately want to be. It is a toss-up if I will get a good or bad manager at a new job. You never know until you get there.

I thought I read that you "ultimately wanted to be" in CRNA school. Yay, flexibility! Good luck!

Specializes in CCU, SICU, CVSICU, Precepting & Teaching.
I know...I know it will be even harder in ICU. But my goals require me to walk this path. And i want to. ICU is going to be hard but that is where I ultimately want to be. It is a toss-up if I will get a good or bad manager at a new job. You never know until you get there.

If ICU is where you ultimately want to be, stay where you are and learn all that you can so that when you DO go to ICU you will be in a position to learn quickly and learn well.

But you've already told us that your dreeeaaaammmmm is to be a CRNA, and that means that ICU is not where you want to stay. It's just a stepping stone. I wish more people who sought out ICU jobs really wanted to work in ICU . . . it would be a whole lot nicer place to work without the constant churning of new grads with drreeeaaaammmmms.

Are you sure it wasn't a verbal warning that just happened to be written down? Some facilities will verbally warn you first, but you have to acknowledge that you were verbally warned and that usually occurs in the form of paperwork...

Stop playing scenarios in your head. The written warning you recveived was 2 months ago, THEN you got through your probationary period with "flying colors" after that. They would have had a reason to let you go before your probabtion was up, they did not.

Continue to perfect your practice. The last thing I would think you would want to do is to not have a great deal of experience, get to an ICU position, and be in well over your head.

And your ultimate goal? I would research where you want to be geographically, and the use of CRNA's. It may not be as easy to find a job as one would hope.

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