so I regrettably signed a contract that is binding me to a one year employment with a plastic surgery office as an OR RN nurse .thinking that I had thirty days to back out of it. Unfortunately it turned out that the contractual period started on the first day of employment. Meaning if I leave now I will be penalized $10,000.
Then 7 days later I received a call from an agency (Prime staffing agency in NYC) that they were starting w pilot program for nurses with no hospital experience..it starts at $15/hr but it is possible to get into L&D directly with a reputable facility - Jersey city medical center.
after three months you will make new grad rates for nine months then go up another bump afterward.
L&D has always been something I wanted to do . And now I'm losing it because I feel like I did something so stupid and careless by signing the contract. I had no idea that it was even possible for me to get an offer like this one because I don't have the best GPA nor do i have any acute experience.
i want to try to renegotiate the contract to working per diem perhaps but im honestly worried that I will end up with nothing. What would you do if you were in my situation?
I made 33,000 as a grad nurse in 1984. This job is only offering 31k. You are worth more than that especially in NYC. Remember we are working on our word. Looking for a way to back out of a contact isn't a good way to begin your career. Your words are your bond.
Stick with the contract. The position you currently hold will be beneficial for L & D, there are a lot of emergency C-Sections that occur in L & D and if the OR Nurses can't get there in time L & D Nurses at times have to scrub in. Any skills acquired can only benefit your future a year will be completed before you know it. And $15.00 and hour .
Look at that, another one of those "only one post" accounts pops up even there to defend the company from specific complaints with vague praise months after that thread was posted.
It's almost like they spend more effort combating reports of their shady practices online than just not being shady in the first place.
Anyway, original advice holds- you have a valuable skill set and professional license, don't sell them as cheap as this agency is offering. That's just not a good offer.
Possibly get a more experienced nursing friend to look over your offers in future before you sign anything or make any commitments, because a good BS detector will go a long way towards keeping you happy and reasonably well-paid, and a contact you didn't mean to sign and a desire to take a $15/hr job with a sketchball agency suggest yours isn't fully developed yet.
So the positive side of being binded with your contract is that it's stopping you from taking a crappy job with a shady agency for essentially minimum wage.
It is hard to get into a hospital after working outpatient. I worked in primary care and it was really tough to get into bedside nursing. However, I also have friends with hospital experience who have trouble finding jobs when they relocate. In nursing it seems like it is always hard to find the perfect fit at the perfect job.
I don't think you missing out on this opportunity is the be all end all of your career. If you really want to work in labor and delivery, you will find a way to make it happen some day. You also may find that your career goals and interests change.
Stick with the contract. The position you currently hold will be beneficial for L & D, there are a lot of emergency C-Sections that occur in L & D and if the OR Nurses can't get there in time L & D Nurses at times have to scrub in. Any skills acquired can only benefit your future a year will be completed before you know it. And $15.00 and hour .
Our L&D nurses ARE the OR nurses! If a patient needs a c-section, their L&D nurse goes to the OR with them, along with a surg tech. There'e never a time when the OR sends nurses to help with c-sections.
You didn't say much about your role there...just a few thoughts.
Are you getting OR time? This will be great experience for you for L & D...think c-sections.
Wound care. Post op care/complications.
If you decide to stay where you are, just try to get the best relatable experiences you can while there. Even handling surgical instruments and knowing their names is helpful. I imagine there may be many things you can learn in this setting that could be adding to making you desirable in the next position. If you are not currently doing these particular things, then see how you can be...ask for the experiences, but DO NOT tell them you want it so you can move onto L&D. Hee hee....that wouldn't be good.
Oh, one more thing...A common issue for new grads in this time of difficulty finding first jobs is to think that a particular opening for you is the ONLY one and there will never be a better one down the road. Women will be having babies forever...That specialty will be around for you in a year...I promise!
Although it may normally be challenging to move from outpt to acute care, I don't believe it is as difficult to move from outpt Surgery to inpt Surgery.... I've seen it happen quite a bit. So, if OP is going to train in OR, it may be an easier transition.
On another note.... PP's reference to SOUTH TEXAS is not quite accurate. The Rio Grande Valley (RGV) continues to be desperate for nurses, (see many, many threads about RGV here on AN) but other metro areas such as Corpus Christi seem to have shifted into a more deliberative mode - they're no longer hiring new grads into specialty areas.
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masulliv
9 Posts
I made 33,000 as a grad nurse in 1984. This job is only offering 31k. You are worth more than that especially in NYC. Remember we are working on our word. Looking for a way to back out of a contact isn't a good way to begin your career. Your words are your bond.