Dismayed with first nursing job

[msteeleart]

I graduated nursing school in Dec 2012 and got my license in Feb 2013. I started a psych nursing job the beginning of May. I am a psych nurse who goes out in the community, assesses clients in their home, delivers their meds and gives them injections of antipsychotics if they are prescribed. I got 1 day of orientation to the company which was basically having us copy stuff from a summarized description to a paper with lines on it. I rode with another nurse 1 day and then on the 3rd day I was required to see a minimum of 4 patients that I made appointments with from a patient list that I had to make cold calls from. We are required to make our productivity during the first 90 days or we are thrown out on the sidewalk. I am depressed about this because I didn't make my productivity requirements during the first 30 days even though I busted my ass and sometimes went many hours without using the restroom or taking a lunch. I called and did everything I could but a lot of the clients on the list have disconnected phones, gov't phones, don't answer their phone or they just don't want to see a nurse. A lot of the clients also cancel on me or they don't answer their doors when I get there. I am now on weekly monitoring because I didn't make productivity during the first 30 days. I am not a salesperson type that is good at forcing others to do what they don't want. I am concerned I will be fired and will not be able to get another nursing job. I have already updated my résumé because I am really scared I will not be able to get 20 patients a week for the next 4 weeks. I wish I would have known what I know now and I wouldn't have taken this job. I never wanted to be a sales nurse and now I feel stuck and unsure what to do.

[Sun0408, ASN, RN]

Start sending out that updated resume and see what happens.

[Orca, ADN, ASN, RN]

Sounds like an awful company to work for. Nurses should be delivering care, not delivering sales pitches. They apparently don't want to spend money on marketing staff, so they are dumping this on their nurses and using the productivity requirements as a hammer to push them. Field nurses should not be making cold calls to prospective patients. This is a badly-run outfit who you would be better off away from.

Nurses are supposed to be patient advocates. Pressure sales tactics are at complete odds with this.

[Jooliaghoulia]

Wow, that sounds like a really unreasonable expectation, and a really poor care model. I agree that you should definitely start looking elsewhere.