Dialysis

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Hey folks. Long time lurker, first time poster. Looking for advice or just some moral support. I spent the first 8 years of my career in a busy emergency room. I decided to leave and try something else (was mildly burnt out and just sick of the rat race). Anywho, I made my way to dialysis. The training was 9 weeks long. It was also paid, which means I have to pay the hospital back about 4-6 months of work. I'm just in my first week of work and part of me feels like I absolutely hate it. It's chronic care in the worst form. I have a sinking feeling in my gut and 6 months seems like a prison term now. It's maybe just new job jitters, but maybe it's not. If I leave the job early, they will dock my pay for the next few months to repay the education they paid for me to have. Anyway. Enough whining. Hope you all have a great weekend

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Specializes in Emergency Dept. Trauma. Pediatrics.

I am stuck on the part that you had to pay for training. :| That said I don't think 1 week is enough time to decide to leave yet. I think you should stick it out the 6 months min.

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Specializes in Specializes in L/D, newborn, GYN, LTC, Dialysis.

I, too, made a change from acute care to outpatient dialysis and hated it for about 6 months. I felt everyday, like I made a huge mistake and wanted to quit. It takes time to learn the ins and outs and to develop an organized system of working.

But then, it grew on me as did the patients. I love it now, nearly 6 years later. The teamwork is great, the patients like family. Give it time; you may really warm up to it. Or not. But this is way too soon to judge a specialty that is not just outpatient, but also has options for many other areas like inpatient acute dialysis, home dialysis nursing or even transplant nursing.

And it's far easier on my body to work 9 or 10 hour shifts in an area where MOST patients are at least somewhat ambulatory.

Give it time. Don't be rash.

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Appreciate the replies. I think I had some

peak stress last evening and it motivated me to post on here. I agree, it's too early to decide if I like it or not. Stress and fear can definitely have a big influence on you:s

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Specializes in Critical Care and ED.

I used to work in dialysis for a few years, and I came from a critical care background. I worked in acute dialysis though and I'm wondering if that might be more suitable for you. I absolutely loved it and in the end got my dialysis certification. I was the clinical coordinator for an acute team across 5 facilities and I have great fond memories of working there. I'm not sure which company you're with but if it's the biggest one that begins with D then there are many opportunities to move around. I never worked in chronic dialysis and I never would but acute care is awesome. For the most part it's 1:1 and the hours were incredibly flexible. You could come in whenever you wanted (within reason) as long as the patients got done. Never worked Sunday, most holidays off unless you're on call and the call pay was good. I ran an acute room of 4 beds with a tech and it ran smoothly and I loved working there. See if you can't transfer to acutes. The only down side of it is that you can never guarantee when you're going home, but that's only if you're on call. We'd otherwise do two patients each a day. That's about an 8-10 hour day and we worked 4 days a week. Good luck.

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Specializes in Medical and general practice now LTC.

Moved to the Dialysis / Renal / Urology forum

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Specializes in Nephrology, Cardiology, ER, ICU.

My nursing background is high acuity level one ED and ICUs.

I've been in nephrology 11 years and really am just fried!

I personally don't care for the chronic population - I wanna treat'em and street'em.....

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For what it's worth I'm right there w/you..I was offered a chronic position and accepted it a few weeks ago though my "gut" told me otherwise. It was mistake. Dialysis is definitely a "love it or hate it" area of nursing..while I don't hate it, I know 1000% I will not do this long term..maybe it's just the company/clinic I went with..on a side note, unless you signed a contract I don't understand how your training would have to be paid back.

Good luck.

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I hear your plight and I became a dialysis nurse in 9/2015 working for one of the big companies. I've been an RN since 2011 and had my first job offer with a local rehab facility but turned it down due to not being able to work nights. I am passionate about children and became a home health pediatric nurse and was that for the first 3 years of my nursing career in hopes of one day being able to work for a children's hospital. I became pregnant in 2014 and stayed home until 2015. I was looking for a career change and had known people working in dialysis. I applied for a position with one of the big dialysis companies as the pay was decent and the chronic facility was looking to train as they were desperate. Well, what a mistake initially, but turned out to be a blessing in disguise. The clinic had such a high turnover rate with RN's and the Facility Admin had only been there for 3 years at the time. She was so burnt out from working the floor when short staffed. To make a long story short, I stayed there for a total of 8 months which included my training at the clinic directlynext door. I learned a lot there, enough to feel able to move on. So I applied for a position with the other big dialysis company,but would be in acute setting. they were offering a huge sign-on bonus if committing to 2years. So accepted the position almost a year ago this June and the pay is higher plus I get a few more dollars per hour for it being inpatient dialysis setting in hospital. I've learned so much more here but now it is time for me to sever ties with the hospital setting due to the hours being long and I've gotten tired of being on-call. I have a 2 yr old and 11 yr old. The 2 yr old stays home with daddy for now. I am trying to go back to chronic setting with the same company and in a float pool where I can clinic hop and schedule will be more flexible hopefully. Closer to home and day hours again with no on-call obligations. I do like the acute setting and will hopefully return to it one day as a travel nurse. There is so much opportunity in dialysis and the pay is good. Just be patient because I've only been working in dialysis for 19 months and it has grown on me!

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I'm not a Nurse but I am a Dialysis Tech. I work in the chronic setting. I was told at my interview 6 years ago it is a love or hate it type specialty. I couldn't agree more. However I am one that loves it! The patients become family to you. You laugh and cry with them. The absolute hardest part is when a patient passes away. At the facility I am at currently the turn over rate is extremely high due to people not liking it. My advice is give it time and see if your mind changes. If not you can at least know you gave it a chance. Good Luck!!

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