Am I wrong?

[CCS-CCT]

Hello, I’m new here. I’ve been working in the field as a tech for 7 years and I am currently in nursing school. Right now I am in a tough spot with the field, and I am looking for opinions.

A little about my background as we get started, I began in a nursing home for 2 years and transitioned into a hospital as a float tech going to M/S, Prog/Care, ICU and ER. It was a tough transition however with the help of the staff we had I made it through. Fast forward to Covid and I was primarily working the Covid ICU.

in the time I worked the Covid ICU, I saw so much teamwork that I hadn’t before and it was refreshing to be quite honest, the willingness to teach that the nurses I had the privilege to work was also a turning point for me. As we started to gain more agency staff in the Covid unit I crossed paths with some of the best nurses I have ever worked with. 

As Covid started to slow down, I slowly transitioned back to my regular float routine and began to notice things in our regular units. One of the first things I noticed is I was taking the entire floor some nights or I was taking 16 heavy patients a lot of nights. Now this could work if I had help from my nurses, however 9 times out of 10 they were either working at ratios of 6:1 and sometimes more OR I would be very unlucky and get the ones that are at 3:1 on M/S and wouldn’t help. 

I mentioned earlier that I had met some great travel nurses, and when I would go back to the Covid unit they would be up there. A few were from another hospital in our city and they recommended I try to get in there, at first I politely declined, however I had one of those nights with the floor to my self, all total care patients and no help except for an agency nurse and it hit me that maybe it’s time to make a change.

I put in my application with this hospital and now I am in orientation there. I do however feel guilty for turning my back on my previous hospital, there are some great nurses there that I will miss however there are some toxic ones and the staffing is a big issue to me. This new hospital has better technology, they have ratios for the techs and I’ve been able to confirm they follow it and there logic for why they follow it is a pretty sound one. The pay is better, they do self scheduling, and my weekend rotation is better. I guess I just want to know if I have any reason for feeling like a jerk.

[CrunchRN, ADN, RN]

Absolutely not. Maybe more will follow you and the old hospital will be forced to make improvements.

[JKL33]

On 4/14/2022 at 4:27 AM, CCS-CCT said:

I do however feel guilty for turning my back on my previous hospital

Nope--the only problem you have is ^ this. ?

The hospital has options and they made their choices. If they don't desire to lose hard-working employees it is completely within their power to do something different. Their poor choices don't obligate you to anything!

Lose the guilt, fast. And put some energy into thinking about why it is not an appropriate feeling for the situation. I mean that kindly. ?? You will have a lot less angst in your life.

[kbrn2002, ADN, RN]

Why would you feel guilty for leaving your previous job for a better opportunity? Better pay, better working conditions, better work/life balance. Your previous employer failed to provide what your new employer offers. 

Your former co-workers might miss you, at least some of them but the hospital itself? They don't miss you, not in the least little bit. To them you were just a number, jut another cog in the wheel that keeps going around and around and around.  Maybe if enough employees decide to leave, like you correctly did and they fail to attract new employees because they can't match what their competition is offering your former employer might maybe just make the necessary changes to retain the employee's they still have and attract new employees.   

Your former employer's decision to not stay competitive is in no way your fault so try your darn best to not feel guilty about taking a better position. It's OK to miss some of you former co-worker's, heck if your new job is still hiring maybe tell some of the good one's that you miss to apply. 

 

[No Stars In My Eyes]

The other employees might do well to follow your lead and bail out of the bad situation you were smart enough to leave. Loyalty to co-workers shouldn't go so far as to remain in a place where you are putting yourself and your license on the line in unsafe in an working environment.

Ditch the guilt! Be glad you 'escaped' before anything horrible happened.