New Nurse Having Bad Experience with Nursing - How can I get on track to ED Nursing?

[Nurse Beth]

When I finished nursing school my belief was I was going to be easily hired within my organization into the new grad program, unfortunately, that was not the case. When I questioned my seniority with the other candidates that were not already employed I got told that I would have to wait another year to reapply for the new grad program because they didn't have the time to go through all the applicants to see who was already hired within.

I decided to apply with another organization in town in which I got offered a position with their new-grad med-surg program. I signed a contract for 1 year in which they promised to guide me through my 1st year as a nurse and provided me with all the support I would need. Unfortunately, the work environment was terrible, short staffed, harassing physicians, high patient acuity, and lack of support from the program when told of issues with the unit and that fact that it was affecting me emotionally and physically. At the end of one of my shifts in April, I resigned and I had never quit a job without giving at least two weeks' notice.

I then got employed with a long-term facility for which I thought was going to be a floor nurse and to my surprise, they hired me to be charge nurse. The facility has been open for 8 months and they have had 7 charge nurses hired and resigned because they don't provide proper training and also the few RN's they do have are not too happy I'm not of the same ethnic group as them and spend all day speaking in their native language. Most days I come in and feel like I have no clue what I'm doing, luckily most of the LPN's I'm "supervising" have years of experience.

I started for the third time looking for employment again and decided to try a staffing agency while I still worked the long-term facility. The staffing agency offered to give me assignments at the hospital I had worked for as phlebotomist and in other facilities that had med-surg floors.

Unfortunately once I finished the hiring process and all their test and paperwork, I got offered assignment in another long-term care facility because they stated that orientation for the hospital wouldn't be done till September and the other hospitals require more experience from nurses.

Now I'm stuck with two employments I don't like and have no clue how I will get back into acute care. When I worked as a lab tech I loved my job when I worked trauma E.R. and my heart was set in me becoming an E.R. nursing. How do I get back on track to acute care and potentially prepare for emergency nursing with my current background?

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Dear Having a Bad Experience,

You are right, you have not had a good experience thus far.

In 8 months of being an RN, you have worked in acute care which you quit without notice after signing a 1-year contract, and then in long-term care, which wasn't what you expected.

Reading your letter, you had expectations of being hired at hospital A because you were employed there as a phlebotomist. Is there a reason you believed you would automatically be hired as an RN, meaning did you talk to any nursing managers, or did anyone lead you on?

Being hired by Hospital B was good fortune because you were given an opportunity as a new grad to work in acute care. What was your career plan when you resigned without notice due to frustration? Unfortunately, nursing can be a small community and let's hope this event does not trail you from facility to facility.

My question about working registry is how will it be tolerable for you working in acute care as a registry nurse if it was not tolerable working as a staff nurse? Plus you really need 1 year's experience minimum to work as a registry nurse.

Your strategy now is damage control. That will take some reflection and insight into yourself to avoid future rocky employment situations. Were your expectations unrealistic? Do you consider yourself to be impulsive to your detriment? What part of this unhappy 8 months of employment is your responsibility?

You may get lucky and land the job you want, in ED, and that would be great, especially if they give you a good orientation. Be careful what you wish for, because ED is stressful and demanding. Talk to some ED nurses so you know what you can expect.

You may have to compromise and work in another setting for a time, such as long-term care. Look for a job that is not a Charge Nurse position so you can get the experience you need.

Best of luck to you,

Nurse Beth

[LadyFree28, BSN, LPN, RN]

For those who allude to LTC not being a great wealth of experience-I disagree.

I worked in LTC as a Charge nurse; to be able to have the ability to perform assessments, manage complex pts, interpersonal relationships and peers, identify without all the machines if a patient needs to be sent out successfully and work indisciplinary successfully ALL prepared me when I started working in a Level 1 Trauma Pediatric ED.

People discount LTC as major experience; however, being able to assess, educate, and interact with the basic to below basic equipment and using ones nursing process gives one the instinct to question the monitors when the pt doesn't look right, and give a spidey nurse sense and be on anticipation mode in the ED.

[Nurse_Linda]

It is pretty sad that LTC doesn't count as nursing experience, at least in the city where I'm living. The places that I have interviewed don't take into consideration my LTC experience. They only see the acute-care experience and because I have not worked much on it I'm not considered for jobs. I have been told that my LTC background will not help me get into acute-care. Unfortunately moving is not an option.