Did I Make the Right Decision (kinda long, sorry)

Specialties Geriatric

Published

Specializes in HH, Med/surg- liver & kidney transplant, ortho, ++.

I am going to try to make this LONG story short, thats why its a little choppy.

New grad, RN 6/2010 working 2 jobs because they are on-call and wanted hours to work. One place is skilled the other, assisted living. This post is about the skilled facility.

Third day of orientation I wanted to walk out and not come back but stuck with it. 60 residents total. Orienting for charge, txs, meds. Stuck with it as long as I could. There were days where I came home with red eyes and a stuffy nose from crying so much.

Different people are telling me to do things different ways and I am confused. One person who oriented me was just plain lazy. Every time I was finished with something I had to track him down and ask him what to do next. DNS tells me to be there at a certain time, others are telling me to be there at another time. I didn't get lunch a few days and didn't get paid for it because payroll didn't want to do their job to fix it. I hadn't been told policies on what to do when I didn't take a lunch so they automatically clocked me out for a lunch thinking I took the lunch and forgot to clock out. I was told "next week take an hour lunch or 2 45 minute lunches". SOme of them will clock out for lunch and continue working because there is so much work and they don't want to get yelled at for not clocking out for lunch. Everyone complains about what someone else didn't do.

Oh and state is suppose to be there ANY day. I have never gone through a state inspection EVER so I am not sure what entails of that. But I keep hearing, oh state wants it done "this" but we do it like this. So when state shows up do it according to state standards.

I come home crying, frustrated, angry, and upset. One woman has been there for so long she is set in her ways and does things TOTALLY different than everyone else, another one is a TOTAL know it all and never helps me. She is in a hurry all day long and does everything so that she can leave on time. She tells me "NO, thats not right its like this, or no no no thats not true, there is no such thing as a regular-irregular heartbeat. They are throwing PVC's" and continues to go on and on about how wrong I am about what I heard while taking an apical pulse. Oh and these are LPN's who are training me. The only person who is an RN that trained me was the treatment nurse and today was the only day I was being oriented with her.

So I basically went to DNS told them it wasn't a good fit for me and that I am not ready for this kind of responsibility. It is chaos and I need to learn a little slower before I start running around like a chicken with my head cut off and something ends up happening and I end up losing my license or something. So DNS wanted to bring in the administrator when I told her it just wasn't working out for me. So then I felt a little ganged up. Told them that I am just not ready for this and need to move at a more slower comfortable pace for me. They tried to get me to stay saying oh we really like you, hate to see you leave. Can we give you some more orientation? I said thats why I asked for more orientation last week. I was feeling like this from the very beginning and almost walked out one day. I tried to stick it out but it just wasn't working. Then finally everything was over. Since I was still on orientation they let me go today instead of in 2 weeks. Which I was fine with.

Am I overreacting? As a new grad I know I will be experiencing frustratlons and what not but am I making something out of nothing and crazy for leaving or was my reasons justified? Just curious because if it is going to be like this at other place, nursing is not for me. Might I add my other assisted living job I do charge and meds and love it there. I have made a few mistakes and have learned from them but things are going GREAT there.

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I think 60 pts (I think that's what you quoted) for a nurse is beyond ridiculous.

Glad to you for getting out of there. Enjoy your current job - life is too short to spend it being chronically unhappy.

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WELCOME TO NURSING.....

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Specializes in ED, ICU, MS/MT, PCU, CM, House Sup, Frontline mgr.
welcome to nursing.....

agreed, which is why i will never ever encourage anyone to become a nurse! doctor, lawyer, etc. amen... nursing??? no way. not the way the profession is right now. on the other hand, will not encourage anyone to quit.

op: if you felt your license was in danger, then by all means you did the right thing. if you are upset about how crazy your orientation was... well i have to agree with the above poster because this will not be the last time you are going to be placed in such a terrible situation. you need to learn a few rules in order to survive.

first of all, try to learn the protocols for your facility so when someone tells you something contradictive, you can always say that you were just following protocol and that is what you will stick too. if your facility has none, then run!

secondly, nurses who have experience can perform poorly when they do not keep up to date with things. you have to learn to discern between the ones who tell you something true and safe and the ones who have allowed nursing knowledge to leave them behind. also, you need to learn not to argue with experienced nurses or get upset when he/she corrects you... just nod and move on... trust me you will not convince most of them otherwise because you are nothing but a new grad. the word new grad in this economy is a curse word to many experienced nurses. again, discerning if the information you are given is worth your changing how you do things or not.

thirdly, keep up nursing knowledge. attend seminars and get certified in areas related to your interests as well as your current place of work. in other words, do not rely on your facility to get you up to speed. even within the hospital setting, knowledge provided to new nurses varies. some places go all out while others think baptism-by-fire is best (it is not, it is dangerous for all involved).

last but not least, despite being a new grad, you must be your biggest cheerleader! this means you need to have confidence in your own basic knowledge and abilities to grow. do not let your co-workers, employers, or anyone else decide the kind of nurse you are or the kind of nurse you are going to be. make that decision for yourself. gl!

-a new grad not so long ago

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Sixty patients for you total? That's insane. Also, I've seen a lot of facilities bring in new RNs as charge nurses and those nurses really struggle, not only because it's impossible to take on those kind of responsibilities right out of the gate, but also because the nurses that have been in there for the long haul don't pay the slightest bit of attention to them, and are sometimes pretty resentful.

To me it sounds like they are operating on the "warm body staffing" philosophy, meaning that it is so difficult to get and hold on to nurses that they just want someone on the floor to be able to say that they've got adequate staff in there.

If State is coming through then they probably are pretty desperate for you to stay so that State will see that they have got "adequate" nursing staff numbers.

Part of the state survey is that they calculate nursing hours to residents: facility has X nurses working Y hours, X patients, multiply by something, divide by something or other = each RN/LPN staff member is working X hours with each patient. If they can't show they have those numbers than they are going to have a problem.

I have a feeling once State is gone business will go back to usual. Doesn't sound like a workable situation.

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I think you did the right thing. I've been in LTC forever and wouldn't work at a place like that. What shift was that on? If it was an 11-7..maybe, but I don't see how 60 pts per one nurse is legal on any other shift.

Yes, we all take short cuts, but things still need to be done the right way and it didn't sound like they were willing to show you how to do things. As a new grad, you def need a good orientation in a LTC setting. There are so many "state" rules, but most of them are the rules that you learn in school. The big thing that they should have been helping you on was time management skills, leadership skills and all the other stuff you didn't learn in school.

Are you still interested in LTC?

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LTC can be a deeply gratifying and rewarding field! But just like any other nursing field, a meaningful orientation helps you to transition into the role. Without the proper training and consistent preceptorship, your experience can quickly shift into a nightmare! I'm sorry that this has been your first experience the in LTC area! I've been told that not ALL of these types of facilities operate in the same manner. :eek:

I wish you the best!

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Specializes in Peds Medical Floor.

Hang on....are you the supervisor for a building of 60 pts or are you the team leader, passing meds and doing txs for 60 pts? I work midnights as a charge nurse and am in charge of 43 pts, which can be more than enough. But the supervisor is in charge of all 90 pts in the building. But she doesn't do meds and txs. When I worked afternoons I had about 20 pts as team leader.

I would definitely say a new grad is NOT ready to be a charge nurse. (I'm in RN school and my teacher was talking about this the other day actually) Get a team leader (or whatever your work calls it) job first, learn the job, then maybe later you can be a charge nurse. I wasn't a charge nurse until I had 4 years of experience.

This might be different because I'm an LPN, but the RNs who are supervisors at my place are not responsible for med passes or txs.

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Specializes in HH, Med/surg- liver & kidney transplant, ortho, ++.

Dizzy, I was being oriented for charge, txs, AND meds. They are three separate duties but all three of them require responsibility for txs, or meds, or charge for all 60 residents. Some days I would work charge, some days I would work txs, some days I would work meds. In all honesty as all of this is unfolding and from the feedback I am getting I just didn't get a good orientation at all. I gave it a try, 3 weeks is all I lasted. It is unfortunate but I had to do what I had to do to cover my butt/license, and do what I felt comfortable with. Maybe if I had a better orientation things would be different.

I do have another job in LTC it is not a skilled facility. I am responsible for about 28 residents. The load is a lot less, even as charge. I have caught on really quickly and am thriving as a new grad at this job and learning a lot.

I know I am not suppose to compair the two but I can handle the job I stayed at. I don't think I am ready for what the job I left entails. It is way too much repsonsibility for me at this point in my career.

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Specializes in Peds Medical Floor.

Yeah that sounds scary as a new grad. At my place you do the job you are trained for on your shift only for the first 3 months to give you time to acclimate to it.

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I am going to try to make this LONG story short, thats why its a little choppy.

New grad, RN 6/2010 working 2 jobs because they are on-call and wanted hours to work. One place is skilled the other, assisted living. This post is about the skilled facility.

Third day of orientation I wanted to walk out and not come back but stuck with it. 60 residents total. Orienting for charge, txs, meds. Stuck with it as long as I could. There were days where I came home with red eyes and a stuffy nose from crying so much.

Different people are telling me to do things different ways and I am confused. One person who oriented me was just plain lazy. Every time I was finished with something I had to track him down and ask him what to do next. DNS tells me to be there at a certain time, others are telling me to be there at another time. I didn't get lunch a few days and didn't get paid for it because payroll didn't want to do their job to fix it. I hadn't been told policies on what to do when I didn't take a lunch so they automatically clocked me out for a lunch thinking I took the lunch and forgot to clock out. I was told "next week take an hour lunch or 2 45 minute lunches". SOme of them will clock out for lunch and continue working because there is so much work and they don't want to get yelled at for not clocking out for lunch. Everyone complains about what someone else didn't do.

Oh and state is suppose to be there ANY day. I have never gone through a state inspection EVER so I am not sure what entails of that. But I keep hearing, oh state wants it done "this" but we do it like this. So when state shows up do it according to state standards.

I come home crying, frustrated, angry, and upset. One woman has been there for so long she is set in her ways and does things TOTALLY different than everyone else, another one is a TOTAL know it all and never helps me. She is in a hurry all day long and does everything so that she can leave on time. She tells me "NO, thats not right its like this, or no no no thats not true, there is no such thing as a regular-irregular heartbeat. They are throwing PVC's" and continues to go on and on about how wrong I am about what I heard while taking an apical pulse. Oh and these are LPN's who are training me. The only person who is an RN that trained me was the treatment nurse and today was the only day I was being oriented with her.

So I basically went to DNS told them it wasn't a good fit for me and that I am not ready for this kind of responsibility. It is chaos and I need to learn a little slower before I start running around like a chicken with my head cut off and something ends up happening and I end up losing my license or something. So DNS wanted to bring in the administrator when I told her it just wasn't working out for me. So then I felt a little ganged up. Told them that I am just not ready for this and need to move at a more slower comfortable pace for me. They tried to get me to stay saying oh we really like you, hate to see you leave. Can we give you some more orientation? I said thats why I asked for more orientation last week. I was feeling like this from the very beginning and almost walked out one day. I tried to stick it out but it just wasn't working. Then finally everything was over. Since I was still on orientation they let me go today instead of in 2 weeks. Which I was fine with.

Am I overreacting? As a new grad I know I will be experiencing frustratlons and what not but am I making something out of nothing and crazy for leaving or was my reasons justified? Just curious because if it is going to be like this at other place, nursing is not for me. Might I add my other assisted living job I do charge and meds and love it there. I have made a few mistakes and have learned from them but things are going GREAT there.

If you saw my post I feel you. IDK if you made the right decision or not but if you felt unsafe you made the right choice. I feel unsafe at my job too and I want to quit. I never take breaks or lunches, but I can now squeeze in a break, I clock out for lunch (sometimes I forget and get in trouble) but work through it. It's rough and I don't know when or how it will get better. I wish you would have found the 1st year as a nurse discussion,because I went there today and it gives me hope. But my goal was 1yr, then 6 mos, then the beginning of nov (bc I can pay the unneccesary bills off), now I feel I should leave when my 90days is up, sometimes I just want to quit asap. So you were not alone I feel like you did so I guess that's just the way it is.

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