Suffer through or quit?

Nurses Job Hunt

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I have a dilemma.

Through nursing school, I have worked in a hospital setting as a tech. My manager assured me through school that I would start as an RN when I passed boards.

I graduated in May and passed my boards in June. Now, I'm being told that there are no positions on my floor in the foreseeable future.

At first, I was very upset. I had used tuition reimbursement all through school and am required to work for a certain amount of time because of that or pay back a large chunk of money.

I then considered transferring to another department. I can't get my application past the hiring manager. When I called and spoke with her, she gave me vague nit-picky reasons for not passing my application along ("you don't have experience on this floor", "you don't have this 'preferred' certification").

So, I expanded my search and was offered a full-time home health position making double what I make as a tech right now. I took it and have been working both for just about 2 weeks.

My question is: should I kill myself working two jobs to wait the hospital out (for who knows how long) or quit and incur the costs of paying back my tuition & lose out on an "in" with the hospital?

Personally, I would stick it out as long as I could handle both. Give the situation a time limit, say, one year. If you don't have what you want by then, reconsider your options. Of course you should apply to other hospitals in the meantime. Don't put all your eggs in that one basket. Good luck.

It's tough, but truthfully I would stick it out as long as I possibly could...

Scale back your hours at the hospital if possible

Thank you for your replies. It's been a rough week for me. The frustration with my job at the hospital is growing now that I've gotten a taste of RN work. I can't scale back my hours, but I'll hang in there.

Specializes in Critical Care, Education.

Suggest you talk to someone in HR about your situation. It would seem that if there are no jobs available, the terms of your tuition payment agreement are moot. There is also the question of whether you have a verbal contract with the organization since your manager - who is an authorized representative of the organization - made you an employment promise. It is absolutely inappropriate for an RN to work in a 'lesser' (license-wise) capacity .... multiple areas of potential liability for both the clinician and the employer.

Specializes in Critical Care; Cardiac; Professional Development.

My "contract" stated there would be no repayment required if there was any reason that I could not be hired after graduation. Look yours over.

Stick it out! You haven't been busting your chops this whole time for nothing!

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