Back to hospital nursing?

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Anyone go back to the floor after awhile away? Will I be like a new grad again? How much orientation will I need? Has anyone successfully gone back to hospital nursing? As a new grad I did 6 months acute care and bailed, I feel like I never gave it a fair shot and would like to try again. I have an interview next week.

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Specializes in ICU, Public Health.

Hey, I am in similar shoes, but gave it 1 1/2 years. How long have you been away? I have been away about 10 years. I am probably going to take a refresher course that includes lecture and clinicals. Good luck on your interview!

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Specializes in Nursing Admin.

Well..most likely you will be asked to explained why only 6 mos at the hospital...Best to tell the truth...what confronted you that u were unwilling to deal with...how have you grown since...and why u want to return to the bedside in a hospital

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Specializes in Periop, ER.

missladyrn- why did you leave floor nursing anyway?

I actually have been away fron floor nursing for over 10 years. I went into outpatient OR, and then management. I am going back to the floor myself. I imagine a 6 week orientation....

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missladyrn- why did you leave floor nursing anyway?

I actually have been away fron floor nursing for over 10 years. I went into outpatient OR, and then management. I am going back to the floor myself. I imagine a 6 week orientation....

The floor I worked on was having major staff retention issues due to a new Nurse Manager. She decided we could have up to 10 patients for 1 nurse, she cut the techs down to just 1 per 15 patients, and she decided we no longer needed a unit secretary. She eliminated the weekend option nurses (all of them), so that meant everyone had to work every weekend "until we can find more staff". People just kept quitting left and right and it was really hard to keep up. The staff levels were dangerous. The final kicker for me was when we were all put on rotating schedules to cover the weekend nights. We would work weekend overnight shift, then day shifts during the week. It was just a bad situation. We were told to just call out if we didnt like it, which many people did, leaving us short all the time. It was an unsafe situation.

Oh, she also cut all of our orientation, too. We were promised 12 weeks as new grads, the most anyone had was 6 weeks. We were thrown to the wolves. I do feel like I learned a lot it was trial by fire though.

I did find out that after I left, she was let go. The staffing issues on that floor however, continue to be BAD. They have a lot of agency nurses filling in, and one travel agency refuses to work with this hospital but I never got the details on what happened to cause that.

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Specializes in OR Hearts 10.

I did about 2 years on the floor before going to the OR. I just started back on the floor a week ago, I'm loving it!!

Good luck, you won't know unless you try.

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Specializes in family practice.

I believe you would be fine. I graduated four years ago and went straight to home health out of school. No hospital experience. I went back to floor nursing Aug of this year and its been a thrill. Things would come back to you easily than the new grad and it would be more like a review.

Although i had to move to get this job, it is still worth it and i love where i work (which i believe makes it easier to learn). My coworkers are not bad and they were willing to teach and make me do stuff (mostly to get my skills back). If you get a good place to work i dont think it should be any problems a all

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