I have >20 years of varied ICU experience. I did almost 2 yrs of consecutive agency contracts at my current hospital ICU before I decided to "sign on" as a regular employee. Two months later, the manager quit and we ended up with a complete loser of a replacement (to cut a long story short). I've given this current situation more than 1.5 yrs, hoping she'd grow into her new job (had never been a manager, and was only an RN for 5 yrs before this) but she plainly has gone from bad to worse. I recently realized that I'm no longer expecting her to improve, I'm just waiting for her to either quit or be fired.
And so I'm quitting my job of 3 yrs tomorrow (with an appropriate and professional letter, brief/to the point, no nastiness). I am absolutely fine with this, despite not having a subsequent job lined up: I know that I can have a variety of per diem work through my old agency in a heartbeat, so no worries there. And additionally a manager from 12 yrs ago told me today, "You can be one of my nurses any time! Send me your resume." I am in the very blessed position of being able to immediately make per diem money to pay my bills, and surf around till I decide what job I *really* want to do next, as I'm contemplating "non-bedside" options.
My existing coworkers are fantastic, I'll miss them terribly. And they will be both shocked and (not tooting my own horn, just being honest) sad that I'm leaving, as I've rather become the "old den mother" to all the young RNs on my floor. There will be many shocked faces and comments when they hear I've resigned. I don't want to be unprofessional or catty, but I do want to give at least a SOMEwhat honest answer to the inevitable "why are you leaving/where are you going" from my wonderful coworkers/ancillary staff.
I don't like the idea of the seemingly smug little comments of "I'm not willing to share that just now", etc....we're a small unit, and the staff are, overall, very close with each other. I think vague "non answer" answers would seem snotty and insensitive to their very honest questions of why/where am I going next.
What I'd really LIKE to say: "I'm not quitting my job, I'm firing my manager...."
What I think is far more appropriate, but still gets the point across: "Management and I have different visions of patient care, so I'll look for a better professional fit."
Does this seem appropriate? Do you see any way in which this could reflect on me negatively in the future? (I don't ever expect to work this particular hospital again, but nursing repeatedly shows itself to be a small community, even in a rather large metropolitan area.)
Thanks so much for reading my blather, and I appreciate anyone taking the time to comment on this. :)
