Bad experience with previous manager

smrfett76. . .if there is anything i have learned over my years of working as a nurse it is that as people come and go, the nursing team changes depending on what the new person has to add (or subtract!) from the team. unfortunately, with this new manager coming onto your old unit it's never going to be the same. and, even if she eventually leaves, which is likely, and you go back there in 3, 5, or even 10 years from now, it is never going to be the same place it was as when you worked there. this is life. all i can say is that you need to pick up your happy memories and move on. working at other places is a good thing anyway. you will meet new people, get different and new viewpoints on things, and see other ways of doing nursing stuff. this is how you will blossom. so, i say start your new internship at that job closer to home in june, have fun learning new things there, make new friends and thank goodness you didn't burn your bridge at the old hospital. maybe someday you can go back to the old place.

as far as this manager is concerned, i have a few things to say. jack nicholson said in a few good men, "you can't handle the truth!" and, this manager certainly couldn't. why she even asked to be told the truth is strange. maybe she thought it was the right thing to do. maybe her manager suggested she do it. but, for whatever reason, she certainly didn't handle the information very well. she's not a very honest person.

from my world experience i'm going to suggest that her problems are just starting. she got her manager job in february of 2006 which means she probably got her 6-month evaluation in august which means by september the defecation was hitting the ventilation which is when all this turmoil between you and her started. if she can't handle the truth, what else can't she handle? hopefully the director is asking the same question. it will be interesting to see how long she lasts as a manager on that unit, especially since i think, based on the timeline, that someone who is managing her has already pointed out her flaws. her way of dealing with it shows immaturity and her reaction to whatever you said to her was not only taken with anger, but she turned around and made it into a personal vendetta against you. that's not an indication of someone who is willing to change their behavior. i have a list of desired characteristics employers want to see in employees and three of them are (1) positive attitude (2) capacity to learn and (3) the desire to develop professionally. there are others that probably apply here as well, but these three kind of stick out at me as i'm looking at my list. her reaction to what you told her was negative, it seems like she didn't learn anything from it and she sure didn't develop her managerial skills from it by going around to the nurse recruiter and bad-mouthing you. she did that out of spite in a deliberate act of misusing what she thought was her authority and power to attempt to make sure the nurse recruiter never hired you. that was vicious and childish. she better watch herself because she can get into a whole lot of serious trouble if she does back-stabbing stuff like this to the wrong persons. that is an abuse of authority and power and i sincerely hope that the nurse recruiter told the director of nursing that she did this. my guess is she waited until after her yearly evaluation to rag on you to the recruiter because she's been in the job for a year now and things would have heated up for her a lot more by the one year evaluation if her manager thought she hadn't made some improvement. she's probably sneaky and good at hiding her faults. now, if you want to heat up your bridge a little. . .a letter or call to the director of nursing or hr who was investigating her. . .there's no way of knowing if it is going to make a difference. . .consider this, too. if the powers know she is like this and continue to leave her in this position, what can you say about them? in a case like that, you're best out of there.

good luck on your new job!