Already employed but what to start applying

[Nurselala8]

Hi nurses!,

I had a question. So I'm a fairly new nurse with 9 months of experience. Before I was a nurse, I was a CNA at nursing home/skill nursing facility for a year. Than when I got my RN license, they hired me right away as a nurse. That was great as a new nurse to have a job right away, but was awful there. (Overworked, understaffed, horrible management, etc, etc). So I started applying again and landed a job 3 months ago at a long-term acute care hospital. I was excited at first because of the term "hospital" but what I've come to find out is that it's basically a glorified nursing home. There are many pros to working there like way more experience than I got at the nursing home, but the problems I had in the previous facility remain (overworked, understaffed, management isn't as helpful as they state, barely any break out so I'm basically running around for 12 hours straight, getting low censused at least once a pay period, etc etc.)

I never quit my nursing home job so I'm there only as float (picking up 1 or 2 shifts a month), but I've been there for a total of 9 months.

At the long term hospital, I've been there for 3 months now.

My QUESTIONs: When I start applying, do I include both job on my resume? Will interviewers give me a hard time about "job hopping"? How do I answer questions about why I'm applying again?

Please help! Thank you!

PS. I have an associates in nursing, making it way harder to land a good job. I'm working on my bachelors though, I should have my degree in less than a year.

[meanmaryjean, DNP, RN]

I honestly would stay put for a while longer. The problems you're encountering are everywhere it seems, and you do kind of look like a job-hopper. Can you drop the ECF job and stick out a full year at the LTAC? THAT would make you a much more attractive candidate, esp. if you've finished the BSN by then.

[TU RN, DNP, CRNA]

The consensus of the nursing community's problems remain to be shortstaffing, overworking, and underpaying. I've been in the unfortunate position to miss my break (over the course of my 12-13 hour shift) so many times that I've now adjusted my expectations to manage without one.

I like the my managers and get along pretty well with my coworkers so I've held up for over a year now, but after experiencing these issues (as well as some others in the work place), asking around other nursing areas within my hospital, and reading the experiences of others on the internet I feel like I can safely conclude that my best course of action is to get a new job.