I moved out of state and took a job in Ambulatory care. I worked there for a year, but wanted to get back into more critical care so when a job opened I went back to PACU. It's been a tough transition. I was initially told my orientation would be 3 days. I said that needed more than that. This PACU happens to be more acute cases and patients than I was used to. I was brought into the manager's office on my second week and asked if my experience on my resume was "even true". I was crushed. I tried to explain that my experience in icu/PACU was different than here and that I wasn't getting the best orientation. I was kind of getting a "sink or swim" approach and it was making me even more flustered. I was told that I had 2 more weeks. Mind you I have been a nurse for 14 years and I feel like a new nurse all over again.
At our last meeting I was asked if I wanted to go back to the icu for a few weeks to get a refresher since it's been awhile since I was in icu/PACU. Of course I said sure, but in the same meeting I was told I was too slow, keeping patients too long, and only taking one patient at a time which isn't true (I'm almost ready to track my day to show my manager that I'm not as bad as they make me out to be). At this point I feel defeated and anxious to go to work. I will be on the unit tomorrow and then go to icu two days at the end of the week. I am really trying, but maybe I just won't be cut out for this area, especially when I feel like an outcast as it is.
I decided to put some job applications out there because I'm not sure how this job will go. I'm also having a hard time respecting my manager when I was asked if my experience was even real. I'm just so disheartened. I did get a call today about a job working in a pre/post Cath procedures area and I'm thinking about talking to that manager because it would be a hospital much closer to home.
Thank you for letting me vent. This whole ordeal has been causing me so much stress.
canoehead, BSN, RN
6,909 Posts
I'd leave. I'd get another job and bail. You don't deserve to be treated like that.