How bad is "Job Hopping"?

[JadziaSolo]

If you think you have had several legitimate reasons (I think)?

I worked for one place 15 years, wanted a change (from L&D to OR) and did not want to transfer to that particular hospital's OR.

So I went to a new hospital and worked for 4 years in the OR. I got tired of doing the same cases every day (it was strictly a Vascular OR), so I left there.

The next place I really liked the staff, surgeons, anesthesiologists and the variety of cases. But in the 8 months I was there 10 nurses left (not including me), because of the very high acuity. Since I was realitively new at working all of the services, I was afraid I would be the last nurse standing! Several of the nurses who left were long term employees (5-25 years)!

For the last 6 months I have been working for a short term stay hospital in the OR. I found out soon after my employment, that the place has NO certification (JCAHO, Ambulatory Surgery etc), a question I didn't even think to ask! Some days we do 1 simple surgery (like I&Ds), other days we'll do 20 cases. There's not enough instruments for all of the cases, so the same stuff gets processed over and over. I'm really concerned about patient safety, saw the worst postop infection EVER. I need to get OUT.

I applied to a 'real' hospital, JCAHO, great bennies, and a job back in L&D. So I'm talking to my husband and he's worried that I never stay long enough to accumulate any vacation time. Then he says he supports me in whatever decision I make.

Is it worth stayin a year at a place to show that you have some sort of stability? Or does the new potential employer just notice you've "job hopped"?

Have any of ya'll made a mistake twice in getting a new job?

Thanks for listening!

[llg, PhD, RN]

Your resume doesn't look like that of a "job hopper" to me. The fact that you have stayed in a couple of jobs for extended periods tells shows that you can and have made serious committments in your career. It looks to me that you have simply had some trouble finding the right fit lately.

I don't see anything wrong with accepting a good job offer now -- assuming you have learned how to assess a potential employer and feel confident that this is truly a good job that you'll want to keep for a while.

Good luck!

llg

[JadziaSolo]

llg -

I appreciate your thoughts. Maybe it's the whole OR thing. If I find something in another area of nursing, maybe it'll 'stick'. I'm really tired of moving around. Also this last year has thought me to ask ALOT more questions!