to any/all fellow nurses--please help! :)

Nurses General Nursing

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Okay, so I need important advice from any/all fellow nurses please:)--

I am a new graduate. After interviewing for a job with a surgery center, I was hired on the spot for a position that originally had requirements of a nurse with five years operating room experience. I was given the responsibilities of full time nurse and nurse manager of the practice.

I have a very positive attitude, and was thrilled to not only accept the position, but to perservere in giving everything 110%. However, it is week four of my new job and things seem to be slowly digressing--

My first week on the job, I noticed that everything at this center is INCREDIBLY disorganized. When it comes to a duty that must be done, there is no designating protocol as to who "specifically" is responsible for doing things. So when I got started in my job, not only was I not given a real orientation, but I was automatically expected to know how to do everything, and to do everything the way the center expects. I am overwhelmed in paperwork, ordering all supplies for the OR and center, front desk duties, pre-op care, post-op care, lab work, front desk work-------you name it! Every day when I'm in the middle of doing something, I have five other people coming and asking me to do something else. It is literally not possible to get everything done, but it is expected. Anytime a problem comes up, I automatically am the one who is blamed. I have the practice administrator fussing me out, doctors fussing me out, and am constantly being questioned. And I have been told a million times that I am not to have overtime hours-----which makes things even more impossible.

Not only this, but the situations that continue to come up seem absolutely ridiculous. Today, I was asked to start an iv on a sick surgeon who insists on seeing patients. I started the IV only to be brought into the practice administrator's office shortly after and told that "they could not believe I did things the way I did things, they couldn't believe I wasn't competent, and they'd be watching me super closely from now on, etc etc." And in the meantime, the surgeon (against my advice), INSISTS on leaving her room while the IV is running, wheeling it along beside her, AND reporting to everyone how incompetent I am.

I am responsible for everything. PERIOD. Like even tasks that seem completely unrelated those of a nurse---like replacing 50 pound oxygen gas tanks.

And to make matters WORSE, I am constantly criticized. Everything is automatically my blame.

Where should I go from here? Any and all suggestions are GREATLY appreciated!

Sincerely,

A Hopless Nurse

Specializes in Developmental Disabilites,.

Whoa, this is an unsafe situtation. This may sound harsh but there is no possible way that you are capable of doing this job as a new grad. I just graduated last may and my first year on a very supportive surgical floor has been hard enough, I can not even imagine doing your job. You need to protect the patients and your licesnse. Get out now before someone is seriously hurt. I really hope you have your own .

I'm also afraid that this job will make you run away from nursing forever.

Snap girl do you work in my facility? No joke, your description of your job is so familiar. I don't work in a surgical facility or anything but from what you are saying, it is MORE THAN EVIDENT the facility you are working in is clearly a sh*t hole.

The reason they hired you, a new grad, to fill this position, is CLEARLY because they are desperate for staff. They can't be choosy. No one wants that job, bb. This is what my facility does... they grab any old anybody to fill the seats because they know good nurses, real nurses, experienced nurses, would smell the stank a mile a way and run for the hills (and they do and they have bolted). They are blaming you because you are the only person to blame. You are doing everything.

Get out of here. Stat. Work on that like a code, out stat.

Odds are your facility has a blackball name in the field and won't be good experience for your resume. Try to get hooked up with a hospital or a subacute (I know, I know, its hard to find jobs now in many areas of the country)... demand a real orientation and take a simple floor nurse position under a preceptor. You are totally in a quagmire right now, plz get out. I feel so bad for the new grads who come to my facility. I started as a new grad at my facility but my DON at the time was sane and I at least had a month orientation in subacute/rehab (back when I was scoutig jobs hospitals were simply not hiring, and to this day they aren't hiring). HOwever, our new administration is hiring new grads totally naive out of school and putting them on per diem schedules giving them like 5 days of orientation, it's f*cking ridiculous. Hiring new grads and dumbasses as managers and supervisors.

Get out, stat.

Good luck.

Don't listen to the advice to "demand an orientation".

Just get out. Resign. Now.

It's clearly evident this facility is a crapstore, meaning to say there is NOTHING THEY CAN OFFER YOU which would be worth your time.

It's sorta like if you go on a blind date and the guy turns out to be a complete creeper. There's nothing you can do other than to get through it and get out of it.

It was no accident they offered this job to you. It's clear no one here knows what they're doing, there's no structure, no organization, and they are just hiring ANYONE they can to do the work that no one else knows how to do so they can blame that person for everything while paying them not nearly enough (because they would actually have to pay multiple people to do these jobs, and pay them much more of a starting salary for each individual person as it would require some experience). Cheap and ******.

Leave right now...

You know OP, I just cannot see you as being real.

Believe it, BB.

At my facility before things improved somewhat we had nurses on our subacute staying overtime till like 2-4 in the morning (shifts run 3-11). The reason this was so is one nurse was taking care of 30 subacute, with all manner of unstable (i.e. acute care) situations doing multiple admissions per night with zero support in terms of a desk nurse or secretary. And the other nurses in the facility who were assigned to LTC were lazy and/or stupid and didn't pitch in at all. And the DON/ADON/administrator were incompetent morons. Literally 1 or 2 staff nurses alternated per night running the facility doing everything.

Given the history of my workplace I can TOTALLY see , picture in my mind, the sort of environment the OP is in, and you just need to walk out stat because it's ridiculous. Even if you never get another job in nursing (which is unlikely, you will get another job) it's better than going insane in this hellhole.

Okay, so I need important advice from any/all fellow nurses please:)--

My first week on the job, I noticed that everything at this center is INCREDIBLY disorganized. When it comes to a duty that must be done, there is no designating protocol as to who "specifically" is responsible for doing things. So when I got started in my job, not only was I not given a real orientation, but I was automatically expected to know how to do everything, and to do everything the way the center expects.

And to make matters WORSE, I am constantly criticized. Everything is automatically my blame.

Where should I go from here? Any and all suggestions are GREATLY appreciated!

Sincerely,

A Hopless Nurse

I am so sorry to hear that you are in this dilema. You are in over your head, as any new grad would be.

They are looking for a scapegoat, and they found You. It is a bad sign when no one is "specifically responsible for doing things" Also disorganized = not good. I am surprised to hear just how many new grads are not getting adequate orientation, that is just wrong. If an employer isn't willing to invest time and money in you as a new grad, I would be looking elsewhere and quick. Not investing time and money in you, not only sucks for your future working in this facility, but unfortunately, also for the patients there. I think you should really examine if you really need this job, and if you decide to stay, what it may cost you. (quite possibly, your license)

If they ask you why you are resigning tell them you tired of hearing how incompetent you are so you decided to do what any competent employee would do under the same circumstances. Try to find another job first, but don't prolong the agony. You might wait one day too long.

Specializes in Med-Surg Nursing.

I would resign ASAP before anything happens to your license. This is no position for a new grad. Heck, I've got 15yrs experience and I wouldn't feel comfortable in that job!

Specializes in Med/Surg, DSU, Ortho, Onc, Psych.

Wow did they see you coming! No wonder they were so keen to offer you the position! You have been dumped in the deep end by the sounds of it.

First of all don't sign yourself as a hopeless nurse. You are only confirming in your own mind what they think of you. Sounds like the practice manager or the Drs have not had any time, or couldn't be bothered, to organise anything, so they decided it was your job.

Jobs and responsibilities anywhere have to be delegated to the proper staff member. You need to tell them you were not properly orientated and not told all these 'extra' things would be your responsibility. Did they give you a job description at all? I think you need to schedule a meeting with everyone after hours and delegate more jobs to someone else. Why can't the practice manager order O2 tanks and do more? Ask for someone else to help you out.

Perhaps you should resign if nothing improves and look for a job more suitable to a new graduate, before you get crazy AND disillusioned with nursing.

You shouldn't have been put in this situation in the first place. I would be very angry and telling them exactly what I think of them and their shambled and disorganised work place!

Specializes in ER, ICU, Education.

If you were working fast food, showed up and on your first day were invited to be the store manager, I would hope this would set off warning bells. A supervisory nursing position needs excellent, developed supervisory AND nursing skills. Some administrators are not smart enough to know this. Part of being safe is knowing what you can and can't do; passing NCLEX means a nurse has met minimal competency, it does not equal expertise and experience. This is developed over time. I hope you will immediately remove yourself from an unsafe situation. You deserve better. The patients' safety must come first, but protecting your license ranks high up there!

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