Bad start in nursing/poor job history

Nurses Job Hunt

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Where do you apply if you are off to a bad start as a new nurse? I was fired during orientation from my first job. It was a poor fit for a new grad. Second job I quit after a month and I am now seriously regretting it even though I was so sure it was the right decision. I was in over my head at a nursing home and I was truly worried about safety issues, my license, and being sued. My grandmother died in a nursing home due to serious neglect and was part of a big dollar lawsuit so I take this stuff seriously. I had already heard from other nurses there that the facility had been involved in a law suit. I was only working very part time so I put my notice in and decided to cut my losses.

Now of course I am struggling to get anyone to hire me with this job history. No job history was better than this. I have seriously contemplated leaving both jobs off my application, but one I really just don't feel good about that. I feel that's lying and not how I want to start my career. Two, I am concerned about it showing up on a background check, but honestly the first reason is the biggest reason. I quit the nursing home job because of ethics and safety and kind of made a pledge to myself that I would not compromise my ethics going forward ever again.

Not sure what type of jobs to apply to that I stand the best chance of getting hired at with my job history. I busted my butt getting through school and am so discouraged right now. I know it's my own fault. I should have spent more time making sure I really was qualified for the first job and I should have taken the time to ask about typical staffing ratio and job responsibilities. Ugh!!! Now what. Relocating is not an option. My husband makes too much money for us to up and move. Pay is not important right now. Hell, I'd do an unpaid internship if it'd get me the job. Best suggestions for places willing to take a chance on employees like me. I do have a BSN and have 5 years of employment at my previous employment (however I was self employed) before this so I really truly am not a job hopper and do stick through on my commitments.

TheCommuter, BSN, RN

102 Articles; 27,612 Posts

Specializes in Case mgmt., rehab, (CRRN), LTC & psych.
I was in over my head at a nursing home and I was truly worried about safety issues, my license, and being sued.
Disclaimer: I started my nursing career in the nursing home industry and remained there for six years before moving on.

Here are some cold realities... Nursing home residents die all the time. Nursing homes are sued quite regularly, and you will have a hard time finding a facility that has not been involved in litigation.

With that having been said, nurses are rarely (if ever) targets of lawsuits. It's usually the physician and the facility that becomes the target due to their deeper pockets. The proof is in the pudding: a physician pays tens of thousands in premiums each year, whereas nursing runs about $100 annually. The lower premiums are representative of the immensely low risk of nurses ever being personally sued.

You are going to run into issues revolving around ethics, safety, moral distress, and imperfect care wherever you go. Your license is not at risk, either: nurses generally do not lose their licensure over patient deaths, med errors, or mistakes in care delivery. Statistically, the vast majority of licensure revocation is related to addiction issues such as theft, diversion, impaired practice, and failure to fulfill the terms of impaired nurse programs (IPNs).

The places most likely to hire someone with your spotty work history are other nursing homes and private duty companies. However, your conscience seems extremely active, and I suspect you'll keep quitting if the quality of care falls below an Ivory Tower standard. If the next job is crappy, my advice is to suck it up for a year before moving on. Anything less might be career suicide.

Good luck to you.

Ruby Vee, BSN

17 Articles; 14,030 Posts

Specializes in CCU, SICU, CVSICU, Precepting & Teaching.

We oldtimers here on AN hear this all the time: "I had to quit -- my license was on the line!" "There were huge patient safety issues -- they didn't do things at all like I learned in school."

If you can find a hospital or nursing home that has never been sued, you've likely found a hospital or nursing home that JUST opened. They all get sued. Some of those suits have merit, some don't. Having lived with a malpractice attorney for several years, I can tell you that the validity of the lawsuit seems to have absolutely nothing to do with the settlement awarded. I read through some of his journals -- patients who absolutely had grounds to sue lost because their attorney focused on the wrong thing or wasn't as good as the hospital's attorney. Some who sued for totally frivolus reasons won. Go figure. Most suits don't involve nurses, though -- we don't have very deep pockets.

You'd be hard pressed to find a real world environment where they do things like you learned in school. Your instructor doesn't teach things the way nurses do them in the real world. Probably because your instructor and the pHD who wrote that textbook haven't been practicing nursing in the real world for years.

As far as risking your license? Don't steal narcotics meant for patients. Don't take drugs at work. Don't have sex with unconsenting patients. Don't falsify documentation (saying that you have that Dilaudid to your patient when you actually injected it in your own arm). Those are the things that cost licenses, not legitimate mistakes.

If you find another job, suck it up and stay long enough to become competent, even if it's not your dream job and even if you think you see patient safety issues.

tsm007

675 Posts

I have thought about that a lot lately that a nurse actually "killing somebody" would not really be that simple. Even if I forgot every single patient's medication in the nursing home they wouldn't die from that and there probably wouldn't be any "harm" either. I know in my head that patients miss a med at home all the time and I am worrying more than I need to on that part.

Don't falsify documentation (saying that you have that Dilaudid to your patient when you actually injected it in your own arm). Those are the things that cost licenses, not legitimate mistakes.

If you find another job, suck it up and stay long enough to become competent, even if it's not your dream job and even if you think you see patient safety issues.

Falsifying documentation was something I felt I was being asked to do there which is the biggest reason I quit. I was asked to sign off on holes in the MARs and TARs and I was sure if I missed them I didn't do them - both a couple days after and a couple weeks after the fact. I'm still at the point of pull, pass, sign. And even if I did do them there were so many meds there is no way I would no which ones I didn't give and which ones I didn't sign. I clearly missed something.

The first time when I told them I was orienting and shared a cart with my preceptor during that period and I had no way to know which things she forgot to sign off on and which things I did. I was told just go ahead and sign off on all of them.

I realize now that I probably blew that out of proportion, but in the future how do you deal with missed meds in nursing homes and holes in the MAR and TAR that are brought to your attention after the fact? In the hospital if meds were late the nurse would just chart "nursing judgement" for the reason it was late. Here I don't see how to chart missed meds (because clearly no nursing home nurse ever misses giving a med).

I have applied to everywhere. I have no "dream job". I know am mostly likely going back to another nursing home. I don't mind working in a nursing home. In fact I surprisingly liked the work. I did not like how poor the training was and how lousy my preceptor was. (She was the one that I grumbled about on another post that was charting +2 pedal pulses on amputees.) There was one nurse who was really good and had I trained with her the entire time I think I would have a different experience.

How do I address this in interviews? I've already screwed one interview trying to explain this mess and I really just need a job - even a sucky job.

tsm007

675 Posts

And even if I did do them there were so many meds there is no way I would know which ones I didn't give and which ones I didn't sign.

I hate when I spell things wrong. Wish you could edit those :)

Specializes in LTC, Med-surg.

Damn, this is making me scared. This is why I am holding off on my two job offers in nursing homes until I interview with the hospital interview I have in 8 days. It seems nursing homes really do you in as a nurse...

Specializes in HH, Peds, Rehab, Clinical.

Sigh. PLENTY of nurse LOVE working in skilled care/long term care facilities. I do a PRN type of position in an LTC and truly enjoy it. Until you've walked a mile, you can't go by "what you've heard".

Damn, this is making me scared. This is why I am holding off on my two job offers in nursing homes until I interview with the hospital interview I have in 8 days. It seems nursing homes really do you in as a nurse...

tsm007

675 Posts

However, your conscience seems extremely active, and I suspect you'll keep quitting if the quality of care falls below an Ivory Tower standard. If the next job is crappy, my advice is to suck it up for a year before moving on. Anything less might be career suicide.

Good luck to you.

I do not have Ivory Tower standards and I did not quit for quality of care. I just don't want to lie to do my job. I don't mind a sucky job. I don't mind sucky pay. I can even deal with delivering piss poor care because of inexperience and understaffing, but signing off on all the stuff I didn't do because I couldn't get everything done I was supposed to I am not comfortable with.

I realize I made a mistake. I should have just refused to sign things instead of quitting. I can't undo it. I just want to move forward and not make the same mistake again.

Stella_Blue

216 Posts

Specializes in Emergency Nursing.

If you dont get everything done you should pass along in report for the next shift. Then just intial and circle in the MAR, TAR, whatever so it is still sogned, but stating it did not get done.

tsm007

675 Posts

Woot! I applied to 5 places on Thursday afternoon. Already got an email back from someone who would like to set up an interview! Going to try my hardest not to blow this. Still could use some tips in what to say in an interview.

~Shrek~

347 Posts

I quit two jobs due to illegal and unsafe practices and now I work in a good (non acute care) environment with good treatment of their patients where they actually have safe practices (and pay). The people on this website were mostly and frightening and acted like I was some entitled spoiled person for not wanting to work somewhere with ridiculously unsafe practices. Nurse Beth makes a good post. Reformat your resume and follow her advice. You will get a job, but it could take 6-8 months. Take this time off to aggressively pursue a job that you know you will be content in.

~Shrek~

347 Posts

Disclaimer: I started my nursing career in the nursing home industry and remained there for six years before moving on.

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You are going to run into issues revolving around ethics, safety, moral distress, and imperfect care wherever you go. Your license is not at risk, either: nurses generally do not lose their licensure over patient deaths, med errors, or mistakes in care delivery. Statistically, the vast majority of licensure revocation is related to addiction issues such as theft, diversion, impaired practice, and failure to fulfill the terms of impaired nurse programs (IPNs).

The places most likely to hire someone with your spotty work history are other nursing homes and private duty companies. However, your conscience seems extremely active, and I suspect you'll keep quitting if the quality of care falls below an Ivory Tower standard. If the next job is crappy, my advice is to suck it up for a year before moving on. Anything less might be career suicide.

You are basically rebuking OP for sticking to her ethics. I remember I posted with a similar concern and faced similar accusations and I eventually got a GOOD RN JOB WHICH DIDN'T ABUSE THEIR PATIENTS AND WAS FAIR TO THEIR EMPLOYEES.

" I was truly worried about safety issues" is hardly an "Ivory tower". OP will get a job, but she has to be patient.

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